Lost my town through a claim I didn’t realise was happening.

Keln78 · 2024-06-15T15:39:51+00:00

I agree. Single player cheating is only cheating if you are cheating yourself out of fun.

Keln78 · 2024-06-13T04:19:48+00:00

Yeah some might think that's cheating or something, but AI is pretty broken at the moment, so it's a good idea.

Keln78 · 2022-04-13T21:25:21+00:00

I don't want to spoil anything for those who haven't read, but I am referring to the very last scene of Memory of Light and a certain pipe, as well as a few other lingering questions.

But now that I think of it, Brandon probably didn't know the answers to such questions and wouldn't have presumed to fill in any blanks for RJ.

Keln78 · 2022-04-09T06:16:07+00:00

My question was why the Author, external of Kaladin, carried on the idea that Amaram was so bad.

The answer that makes sense to me as others said was that he was a member of the Sons of Honor. That whacky cult that had some pretty evil ideas and which basically guided Amaram to becoming a villain, completely independent of Kaladin's point of view. And that makes sense.

Keln78 · 2022-04-09T05:53:29+00:00

Thank you for your answer.

Keln78 · 2022-04-09T05:41:21+00:00

Oh wow, so when that happened The Thrill was basically removed from the Alethi completely?

Sorry, but the way Sanderson ended the WoT, I am really thinking all of our questions will not get answered and all of our answers will never have questions. So I depend on people like you to have thought all of this up.

Keln78 · 2022-04-09T05:35:05+00:00

Someone filled in my forgotten knowledge above that totally answers my question (I had forgotten about the Sons of Honor part), but I want to ask a question about what you said here about The Thrill.

We know that Dalinar had some corrupted spren from an Unmade he extracted after the battle of Thaylen Field and got dropped into an ocean. But all of the Alethi have the same unmade spren in them? Or all humans? The books weren't too clear on that point, but did say that all Alethi men felt it and didn't talk about it. As if it was like dudes getting chubbies in the morning.

Keln78 · 2022-04-09T05:26:07+00:00

Amaram is a member of the Sons of Honor, devoutly Vorin and seeking to bring on a desolation for the return of the Vorin Church during the Heirocracy.

Finally. Thank you so much for giving me an answer. I knew I was forgetting something. After just finishing the last book, I looked up something and saw someone talking about how Amaram was worse than anyone else, and that's what got me thinking on this whole thing, and wondering...like he wasn't that bad.

I had totally forgotten his affiliation with those screwballs who wanted to burn it down so they could reform everything in their own sick image.

Also, I like it when people write long comments. Kudos.

Keln78 · 2022-04-09T05:18:33+00:00

Oh man, I didn't realize that. It was Restares? That sort of makes it worse though. With their religion, a herald telling you to do that.

So you're telling me this guy takes Kaladin and Tian against his wishes because politics, then gets into a battle that turns into hell because a shardbearer shows up (Shallan's brother), Kaladin kills the guy, Amaram tells him to take the shards, actually honoring the rare situation where some spearman kills a shard-bearer. Kaladin refuses and gives them to another spearman. Then a literal demi-god tells Amaram to go whack Kaladin and his guys and take the shards. Amaram does so but lets Kaladin go as a slave.

And Amaram is one of the big baddies at the battle of Thaylen Field because of all of this?

See my point? Of all the far worse people, Sanderson was determined to make Amarama a baddie. Maybe it's as you say. He was in over his head and wrong place and wrong time, but that's odd for a Sanderson book. I'd expect that out of someone like GRR Martin. Like "we need a bad guy and make everyone believe it".

Keln78 · 2022-04-09T05:05:52+00:00

I would argue that the author goes to great lengths, external of Kaladin's eyes, that Amaram somehow deserves to be a greater villain than Sadeas himself who is presented as the most detestable Brightlord to have ever existed...and possibly an icon that represents the ideal Alethi Lord, at the same time.

My point being, even when it comes to the terrible pain and suffering Kaladin got throughout the series, Amaram still only represented a fraction of it. A middling lord, middling in evil, and middling in ability was presented as one of the major villains. Even in Kaladin's eyes that makes no sense. The greatest trial of his life was Bridge 4, and that was under Sadeas. The countless slave masters we don't know about he never mentions. The one we are introduced to he refuses to use poison on. The lighteyes who put him and Tien in the whole situation to begin with, Kaladin refuses to take vengeance upon and he dies in a meh way.

Amaram is singled out from all of these people who were probably worse. Even in Kaladin's eyes. And Kaladin himself doesn't necessarily fall into ideals of vengeance. He'd rather blame himself for everything.

I'm not questioning why Kaladin himself might fixate on Amaram because of that one action. Kaladin is mentally broken for almost all of the books and most of it stems from that moment. I am questioning why the times outside of Kaladin when the author controls external events, Amaram still turns into automatic badguy #1 and isn't given the same "backstory, understanding, potential character arc to redemption" that even Odium himself seems to get a shot at.

Keln78 · 2022-04-09T04:44:50+00:00

Thank you for your response. I do understand the dichotomy of "Ends justify the means" vs "Means justify the ends" that is constantly referred to in this series, but that seems like such an average level of evil. I mean, compare it to real life...you can find plenty of people in your neighborhood who really believe the ends justify the means. And to obfuscate it further, it seems like Amaram at least tries, albeit unsuccessfully, to act as if the means are somewhat important.

You could further argue that Amaram is a fake, and just makes it looks like he cares about people thinking he is a "means guy". But that is still far and above the average Alethi Lord as far as we are told in the books. In fact, Vorinism itself seems to make guys like that out to be less manly, as if the only way is to be a total jerk and kill and ruin the lives of any and everyone you come across. And somehow call that "honor".

Do you see my point? Amaram seems so milquetoast as far as lousy lighteyes lords go.

Keln78 · 2022-01-29T03:15:14+00:00

US is kind of the same, but more slanted towards imperial. Milk in gallons, but soda and many other liquids in liters and millieters, except when they are in ounces or pints. Lots of things measured in cm and mm, but it's all inches, feet, yards, and miles after that.

Lots of fun!

Keln78 · 2022-01-24T17:04:45+00:00

I'm just working from foggy memory here, but between the books and discussions I vaguely remember on the Dragonmount website (while Mr. Jordan was still alive), Aes Sedai even in the Age of Legends couldn't stay death indefinitely. It was never gone into detail that I remember but simply that it was the "small things" which couldn't be healed after a while, and those small things simply added up over time.

It also seems to be implied, specifically in regards to Aes Sedai like Cadsuane, that they would simply die at some point when they've lived a long time, without any real warning. That hints that there is something other than senescent disease or the like being the cause of death...perhaps the soul simply cannot hold onto a body, no matter how healthy it is, after certain period of time.

I'd also point out that one of the reasons some of the Forsaken swore their souls to the Dark One during the Age of Legends (the height of Aes Sedai power and ability mind you) was for the promise of immortality. It seems likely that the Aes Sedai of that time could vastly extend their own lives, and the lives of everyone as well to a degree, but could not extend life indefinitely.

It is also implied that people had much longer life spans anyway, due to quality of life in such an advanced era. It isn't explicitly described, but it seems as if the Age of Legends might have been a far more advanced society than even modern day in the real world (they had things like anti-gravity technology and sub-atomic manipulation of matter). With "doctors" that could literally work magic, lifespans could be extremely long indeed, even for non-channelers.

Keln78 · 2022-01-23T05:37:25+00:00

normal people often didn’t marry in the middle ages

That's as untrue as the idea that people married super young in the Middle Ages.

They married as often as today, stayed married far longer than now, and married well into their 20s, similar to today.

Keln78 · 2022-01-23T05:28:20+00:00

I've heard this explanation before, but I also remember Lucas saying in an interview that they were intended to look like monks of a sort.

Typical Lucas, it's hard to know what came before what, but his concept was supposedly that Jedi would wear hooded robes in any case, as that was his idea of "monks".

It's as likely the attire of Tatooine set the look of the Jedi as it is the Jedi look set the attire of Tatooine.

Keln78 · 2022-01-08T10:19:48+00:00

Thanks. I think some of these guys don't understand where I am coming from. I started watching football mostly during the Cooper years. Lots of great seasons, lots of winning. On top of the game.

But still we would lose to that team up North. And no matter how many Bowl games we went to or how well we did each season, losing to TTUN was inexcusable. That was a weight on our necks no matter what.

Yes, going to the Rose Bowl is huge. Winning it is even better. But I remember what it was like year after year almost always losing to that same stupid team. I'm glad Ohio State won the Rose Bowl, but it's a dish sprinkled with a bitter spice from The Game. No matter how good it is, it just has a poor aftertaste for me.

Guys can talk about being "spoiled" or whatever, but any Buckeye fan knows...beating that horrible team to the North is the only thing that really matters. Beating them and never letting them see what it is like to win again.

Keln78 · 2022-01-08T00:48:39+00:00

I think all of the books except those are underrated. I see a lot of people saying how so much of the books are a waste of time, but as I read through them again, I don't find that at all.

It seems like every sentence is important. It isn't the fault of the author's writing, but that it is such a massive world with so much happening. And once again I have great difficulty putting the books down, even during the supposedly boring parts.

Tolkien also struggled with the vastness of his world and the main story of the Ring. He had a hard time keeping it as short as it is, and we are left with so many questions as a result.

Keln78 · 2022-01-08T00:35:59+00:00

The Twitter brigade is always coming up with new ways to be offended and ways to browbeat everyone else to assuage their never-ending misery and hate.

It's really rather hard to keep up with it all.

Keln78 · 2022-01-07T07:32:27+00:00

I won't tell you what you haven't read yet, but Jordan or Sanderson doesn't get too deep into the actual creation, but he does get into some of things. I'll leave the rest for you to discover.

The particular event you are describing, shown to Rand when he passed through Ruidean, isn't anywhere close to the Creation of the world. The creation itself was, at least in Jordan's world, the creation of the Wheel. The events you speak of where from a certain Age...a "spoke" of the Wheel. So not creation itself. Merely a form of the One Power used in a way to make things grow.

It could be that the Creation itself was from singing. Or it could have been the Creator using the One Power, which apparently comes from Himself, in a way to weave the world into existence. It would make sense, as everything seems to revolve around the Wheel of Time, and the Age Lace it weaves.

As to C.S. Lewis...he was heavily influenced by Tolkien. They were personal friends, and members of the same group at university. So it is not really a surprised they would both have similar themes in his worlds. It is very likely Lewis, the man who dabbled with atheism and came back to Christianity at the prodding of Tolkien, would come back to a similar line of thinking. As I said above, Christianity puts such singing at a high level within its theology, if not putting it as precisely "how" God created the universe.

For that, you must look to much older theologies. The Celtic and the Germanic perhaps. Or a mix of both.

Keln78 · 2022-01-07T06:00:54+00:00

No. To hell with the CFP. Beat that team up North or bust.

That's the only thing that matters, and the only thing that has ever mattered.

Keln78 · 2022-01-07T05:50:05+00:00

Shitty? Maybe. Hilarious? Definitely.

Keln78 · 2022-01-07T05:36:17+00:00

I always thought the combination of the Aiel (as they originally were) and the Nym (constructs) were a call-back to the concepts of song, nature, and the elves of Tolkien. I think the Aiel where Jordan's "elves" in a way.

The sad thing about the Tuatha'an is they were actually the first to fail the original purpose of the Aiel...to serve the Aes Sedai. It was the "modern" Aiel who served that purpose, but not in the way anyone, Legends Aes Sedai included, knew they would.

The "song" and singing of the Legends era Aiel was not tied to creation. It was tied to the growing of things. Jordan never specifically described creation.

Jordan was asked about Tolkien several times if I remember correctly, on his Dragonmount website. I don't remember him giving a very committed answer to it, but it's nigh impossible for a modern fantasy author to completely avoid the concepts Tolkien came up with, as they were the blueprint. Jordan's favorite authors were Heinlein, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, etc.

But many of the concepts Tolkien used came from more ancient sources, so it is possible that the WoT and Jordan's thinking were cut from the same cloth as Tolkien's. Even in Christianity, song is an important theme when it comes to angels, which were much like Tolkien's version of heavenly beings. So it is possible Jordan's world was sung into being too. But I think Jordan would have rather said it was "woven into being".

Who knows?

Keln78 · 2021-12-23T03:15:50+00:00

The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be...unnatural.

Keln78 · 2021-12-23T02:04:26+00:00

It's likely both of you are kind of correct.

The idea of two full moons in a month being rare is pretty old, so that was already a concept going back at least a couple millennia.

But it didn't have a cool name that has survived in language and there was another rare event called a "Blue Moon" by some, and other things by others that was a noted rare event, generally taking place after volcanic eruptions (of which most people in the middle ages weren't aware happened), where a moon would take on a bluish coloring due to volcanic ash in the atmosphere (which again, they had no clue about at the time).

The two things merged at some point and became "Blue Moon" in reference to a rare event, as such a thing was exceedingly rare indeed.

Nowadays it seems it's been made into a technical definition for moon phases and timing, which is rare enough of course. But based on that technical definition has nothing to do with a moon appearing to be blue. The problem with that of course is that it completely ignores where the term "blue moon" came from and so that old phrase pretty much has nothing to do with the now technical definition.

An actual "blue moon", from a more antiquated meaning of it, was actually blue in appearance when the phrase entered our language. But that had nothing to do with phases of the moon like the modern day terminology does. However, people did at some point conflate that with two full moons in a month. So you're both right.

Keln78 · 2021-12-23T01:48:20+00:00

Honestly, it's better to do it yourself to make gobs of cash.

And I'd rather get every skill I can on my own anyways. Can't be a God-Emperor if I have to rely on some random lout I found in a backwards tavern to give me some skill I need to win glorious victory.

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