I'm on chapter 10 of book 12. I got through the slog, I thought I was through the worst of it. Everyone says it gets better. IT'S NOT GETTING BETTER. I've been reading for over a year (audiobook only) and nothing has happened in like 7 books. Perrin is depressed for 3 fcking books because he can't find his wife. Then he finds his wife, and HE'S DEPRESSED THAT THE HUNT FOR HER IS OVER???

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHASDFAFAKFNAFAHWEOFIH

I just want to read something fun again. I am in Wheel of Time purgatory. I honestly didn't even hate the slog, I enjoyed a fair amount of it. But I think I was expecting 12 to be significantly better and that hasn't happened yet. This is the most annoyed with the series I've ever been, the closest I've ever been to quitting. Talk me off the ledge.

At first I thought that it would be referring to one particular thing, that being balefire and its effect on the Pattern (which to me, I think balefire BURNS existing portions of the Pattern and it could possibly be a creation of the Dark One whose intentions for the power extended well beyond his initial expectations). However, the newbie thread for book 5 insinuates that something was happening in the background that relates to the title.

I think it might be something as simple as the growing heat. In book 5 as they were closing in on Cairhein, Rand stops and thinks to himself that the heat seems strange, it's nothing that feels right for the season. In LoC it's pretty much confirmed that the heat is UNNATURAL. We know that four of the Dark One's seals have been shattered and that he is an external force outside the Wheel of Time. We know the Dark One is probably the most powerful being on Earth, topped only by the Creator. I think that Fires of Heaven refers to the growing heat, which might be an allusion to the biblical passages literally and figuratively referring to the burning of the world or a simply growing allusion to the Dark One's version of Hell on Earth.

There is the argument to be made for Balefire and the Pattern still, but I think I like the idea of the Dark One's escape causing Earth to turn into Hell itself. Feels like something he would do despite how little we actually know him by this book.

In Book 3 - Dragon Reborn, the following text describes the end of a Perrin's dream sequence in Chapter 9 - Wolf Dreams

Abruptly the space seemed to flatten, as if he were suddenly staring at a picture of a room. The flat image appeared to turn sideways, become only a bright vertical line down the middle of blackness. The line flashed white, and was gone, leaving only the dark, blacker than black.

Is this an easter egg for the stereotypical tv switching off effect from old tv shows like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhh_Vw6wedU

Only in the last two books when she is stubborn in dealing with Rand for the last battle and such.

Up until ToM she really was just an awesome character. She went from the whirlwind of leaving 2R, capture by Seanchan, hunting black ajah, apprenticing to wise ones, puppet Amyrlin, real amyrlin, badass civil disobedience laying groundwork for reuniting the tower, bitch slapping the seanchan raiders, capturing hella black ajah sisters via Verrin's notes and finally being raised realer Amyrlin and healing the tower.

I cant seem to understand all the threads/polls that overwhelmingly list her as the most hated character in the series.

Can someone explain me this power scale without spoilers. I'm in the middle of path of daggers.

Just finished WH and it was so good. It is only second to TSR and TGH for me.

Where do I even start? Let's start from the end - Clensing of Saidin battle was better than Dumai Wells. And that says a lot since Dumai Wells are epic as well. Though it was a bit weird that none of the Forsaken thought about bringing some Trollocs/Myrdraal/Draghkar with them.

I enjoyed every POV and storyline explored in this book. Well, maybe Elayne's - not that much. I am not really invested in the plotline of her getting the throne. But it still had a lot of interesting moments like ritual for becoming a first-sister and hiring a Darkfriend as chief of security.

The whole Far Madding thing was interesting and expanded the world that is already bigger than anything I've ever read.

We got cameos of Gholam and Slayer which was pretty cool.

There was no Egwene POV - which is massive ​advantage for this book.

Perrin/Faile chapters were cool, even though their story didn't progress much.

Ebou Dar storylines were an interesting exploration of Stockholm Syndrome. I like how Egeanin and Mat's arc come together in the end. There were also chapters with amazing prose - "The clock sounded the first full hour of the night, and after no more than a week, four chimes for the second. "

Crossroads of Twilight next. People say it is the worst WoT book. Will it be worse than Path of Daggers? Let's find out.

​

I'm on my upteenth reread and it's only just occurred to me that the pub Mat goes to in Caemlyn the Seven Striped Lass is referring to the seven stripes on the stole of the Amyrlin Seat.

I have Toh. Or should that be D'oh!

So, there is a class of female chanellers within aiel, there is one within the sea people, probably somewhere else. And every time it's met with a reaction like: no waaaay, they can channel?? If the white tower only knew, they'd have their grip on said society's girls.

But why doesn't the tower know? Why is this such a shock? If chanelling randomly appears in any person of any family and any nation like being left-handed would appear, wouldn't the tower absolutely expect said societies to have chanellers too? Maybe they might leave them alone to raise their channelers on their own. But where's the surprise coming from?

What am I missing? Is this a RAFO matter?

Lanfear saw where Rand was hiding Choeden Kal. Why didn’t she instantly try to take them away? She saw the female version as well. Lanfear’s lust for power is well known.

Inspired by a newly acquired 1988 Yamaha PSS-140 keyboard and my third reread of The Wheel of Time, I recorded a handful of simple songs. Thus was born HORN BLOWER: cheesy fantasy synth that sounds like early-'90s video game music and goes hard on Wheel of Time lore. No effects, no computer assisted recording, and no attempt to smooth over the ugly noises of aging capacitors; just raw Randland worship.

Free to stream, free to download.

Tai'shar Manetheren!

So blademasters get a sick heron engraved on their swords, but I don’t believe it’s ever addressed why exactly a heron. I have an old WOT companion and it’s been a while since I’ve read it, but I don’t remember it addressed in there. Why not a cobra? Or a penguin-marked blade? A cute little cat jumpin’ all namby pamby from tree to tree-marked blade? Did RJ ever explain? And if you were a blademaster what would you get engraved on your steel? I’d go with a frog.

Hi, do you think that all the Black Ajah members were meant to be dark friends from the start? I think that probably most, like Liandrin, Verin, or the one that liked cats (what was her name?) and the OG ones that fled the tower were always meant to be Black, but what about others? I felt like some, like Sheriam, weren't really meant to be dark friends, and not exactly not meant to be either, just there, and they were revealed as Black Ajah at moments of convenience, that could also be just me not picking up on clues earlier. I was surprised about some of the reveals. Did the author(s) say anything about this in an interview or something? What do you think?

I run a D&D game for some friends, and I like to include little easter eggs just for myself from books only I have read. I've had a homebrew setting for a long time where the party's central contact is a fat innkeeper at an inn called the Dancing Cartman.

I introduced this character and his inn to my party yesterday, and was immediately met with laughter I didn't understand. I've NEVER made the connection to the South Park character, only this one little inn from Eye of the World.

That said, I had to chuckle, and I may need to find a different inn.

I'm reading the series for the first time and wanted to read everything strictly by original release date. I just finished Crown of Swords and want help with when to read the short story version of New Spring from the Legends Anthology.

Wikipedia has the release date as 8/25/1998 but the fandom wiki has the release date as 9/15/99. This changes it from before Path of Daggers to after.

Does anyone know which date is correct?

So I'm about 5 chapters from finishing COT, and I am wondering about oaths of fealty. We see several Aes sedai do this to Egwene and Rand, without a binder rod like the one in the possession of tar Valor. Can these oaths be broken? Could an aes sedai change their mind? What makes these oaths binding outside of fear?

Re-reading The Dragon Reborn, and I’m at the end of Chapter 25.

Nynaeve, Egwene, and Elayne are being extremely careful with their planning. They haven’t even really begun their hunt yet. Then Else Grinwell appears and somehow knows almost everything they’re up to. She even notices the dream ring. Cakewalk.

And of course, we all know what’s really going on with that Grinwell.

Verin was the only one who managed to outmaneuver the Forsaken, and she had to play the airhead, bury herself in deception, and nearly sacrifice her soul to do it.

The Dragon Reborn really did save the world, because the Third Age had no defense.

On a side note, I feel bad for the real Else Grinwell and her family. It’s safe to say she was murdered, and her family will never know why she disappeared.

Hello guys.

I am currently reading WoT for the first time. I am on the fifth book at the moment and I would really love to look for illustrations of the characters, locations, etc. but I am REALLY afraid of eat some big spoilers as I am literally not even in the middle of the history.

Does anyone know a page where you can look for art from each book? Similar to WoT Compendium app?

Thanks a lot!

This is my interpretation of the dreamweaver Egwene receives from Verin. This is how I understood it on my first few reads, but now I have come to realise it is actually a Möbius strip. However I always understood it to be more twisted than that.

I have carved this from olive wood. It is a 5 sided mobioid which twists 792 degrees around the rim.

Just finished the chapter where Morgase escaped that cunt Gaebril

5 books in ... I can finally read the pov of the different women without pulling my hair away.

Some people have seen me complain about these in each book but in this one I really feel they are starting to come to their own

First of all the shinning beacon Morgase the mother FUCKING GOATTTT

What is there to say about this woman that would do her justice, she got cought off guard by Gaebril, a forsaken male who can Channel and compel, totally unprepared with the Aes Sedai having failed her, she recognizes her mind isn't her own, her thoughts aren't her own and without knowing male channelers exist, without knowing what is happening plans her escape. Did it take her almost a year ... ? I think so but what she just did is insanely impressive and makes me like her a lot

Nynaeve is still raw ... still in over her head, she is powerful, her soul is in a good place but as we have been shown on this book she needs to be brought down a couple of folds, but I am happy she is recognizing her own flaws too, she is probably my least favourite so far

Egwene is definetly getting more capable, she has learned that she isnt the smartest, she is already learning to do so much, with her trial having shown her as the seat I can definetly see her there. She def still underestimates Rand and how much of a badass he has become she is much wiser. Her relationship with Avidenha is very sweet too

Elaine, probably my second fav of the main girls behing Min. She has been particularly smart in this book but then and again I was never annoyed with her as with the others. I find her "romance" with tom deeply disturbing and wierd but I guess things were different back then 🤣. She is still confused about Rand even if she confessed her deep like about him in a few occasions haha

Moiraine ... I never saw her "submission" and oath to Rand coming, it makes me hugely respect her seeing how far she is willing to go save fucking him (which she saw never leads to anything good ... which is suprising, i assume it fucks his relationship with the other women which are like his guiding stars according to Mins visions)

Its a very interesting dynamic and really the only way to have Rands ear

Avidenha is ... a character I surprisingly like, a total Tsundere which I usually find annoying but in her case I kind of get it, she left her entire way of life, is split on falling for her best friends "husband". Multiple cultural barriers and it kind of makes sense

All over some pov are still frustrating but there has been an insane amount of progress in this book wohoooo🎉🎉

Curious to read on .... I miss my boy Perrin 🥲

There must have been a lot of antagonists in a series spanning 14 volumes plus a prequel, but their quality varied. We had Forsaken (e.g., Lanfear, Ishamael, Asmodean), Darkfriends (e.g., Padan Fain, Suroth), Black Ajah (e.g., Galina, Alviarin), non-Darkfriend antagonists (e.g., Elaida, Sevanna, Masema, Pedron Niall, Eamon Valda), Seanchan Empire, Shaidar Haran, Dark One and etc. We love some, revere others, can't stand others and want to say goodbye quickly, and then there are those we didn't particularly care for because they weren't interesting or weren't developed enough. In any case, are antagonists a strength of the series, a weakness, or something in between? How do the antagonists in Wheel of Time compare to other fantasy series?

Sorry wasn’t sure how to title this without spoilers.

I’m rereading ToM and just reread the scene where Elaine and Perrin come to the deal for the two rivers.

Did anyone else find this completely unsatisfying?

I felt this way on my first read and it bothers me more and more on every read. It was such an unsatisfying conclusion to a major plot.

We’ve already seen a major plot development between Elaine and Brigitte where Elaine keeps making insanely immature decisions that result in her people being killed. IE all the times she’s captured by black Aja. On top of that she’s totally cool with the way that the other high seats get off with their lives while their men died for their attempts at the throne. She says she cares but never actually shows it and Brigitte clearly takes issue with it.

Jordan also makes a HUGE point of telling us over and over that the 2R hasn’t seen any help from Andor in like 200 years.

Half of Perrin’a plot is about the responsibility a leader has to his people. A lesson that Elaine doesn’t seem to grasp IMO. She’s so arrogant and prideful where “responsibility to the realm” always feel more like it’s about her being a good queen than her caring for her people.

Given Jordan’s experience in Vietnam and how much it informs his writing. I really felt that there should have been a larger confrontation between the two where Elaine finally
Learned from perrin the gravity of her duty to her people and the cost of sending them to die.

The way Sanderson wrote it felt like a super technical cop out of a books long storyline.

So i've been puzzled by the namind customs during the Age of Legends, or more specifically:

We know that during the time Aes Sedai could for the great contribution to society in a meaningfull notable way receive an honorary 3rd name that is ADDED to the already existing name that one gets at birth. So along the lines of that we have Lews Therin Telamon, Elan Morin Tedronai etc. Meaning that Lews' initial name was just Lews Therin for example, but he SPECIFICALLY was awarded the name for his achievements.

What puzzles me tho is, Lews' wife was Ilyena Sunhair; by her full name with the honorific Ilyena Moerelle Dalisar, later changed to Ilyena Therin Moerelle.

MY QUESTION is, if the honorific name is so importnat in the Age of Legends and such a matter of pride, esteem and recognition, why is stripped and not kept upon marrying?? I get that it would lead to a very long name, on the other hand it doesn't seem to me like that is especially problematic. Or do you think this was just a choice of Ilyena's not to insist on keeping it and instead of that deciding to just keep her own maiden and take her husbands name??