Status of the stedding during the Breaking of the World

[Tux Wonder-Dog]

I don't recall seeing anything on this in the FAQs, so ... here goes:

When we first meet an Ogier, Loial of Shangtai Stedding, we learn about the
Longing. It's connected to being forced off the steddings during the
Breaking of the World, and having to wander like everybody else, until they
found the steddings again.

The next thing we know, we are being whisked off to Fal Dara, the successor
city to Mafal Dadaranell, victim of the Trolloc Wars. We go via the Ways.
The Ways, as we learn, are the product of the male Aes Sedai who were
offered shelter in the steddings during the early Breaking of the World - a
gift to express their gratitude to the Ogier.

We also learn that the Ogier made much use of the Ways during the Breaking
of the World and after, because that way, they could get somewhere else
without facing people reduced to barbarism.

Now the question is, if the Ways were made during the early Breaking of the
World, and the steddings had this feature that the One Power could not
affect them, then whatever made the Ogier refugees in such numbers that the
Longing became fixed within them? Almost as if the ability to live without
the steddings, which would appear to be a feature of the Age of Legends,
had been bred out of them.

This bugs me. If it had been possible to move from one stedding to another
without ever leaving the surrounds of the stedding, then if one stedding
had been affected by the geological upheaval, it surely would have been an
easy job to arrive at a neighbouring one - applying the term "neighbour" to
those acting in a neighbourly manner - and just carry on life as usual.

Any ideas? Has Jordan said anything that might fix this problem?

Thanks

Wesley Parish

[Sean Fogarty]

Post by Tux Wonder-Dog
When we first meet an Ogier, Loial of Shangtai Stedding, we learn about the
Longing. It's connected to being forced off the steddings during the
Breaking of the World, and having to wander like everybody else, until they
found the steddings again.

I associate the Ogier with Tolkien's Ents, sort of ear, nose and throat
doctors for the trees with their long, convoluted language becoming the
magic that works it. But why are they hairy? This makes me think of them
as an association with the Biblical tribe of Benjamin -- "49:27. Benjamin a
ravenous wolf, in the morning shall eat the prey, and in the evening shall
divide the spoil. Beniamin lupus rapax mane comedet praedam et vespere
dividet spolia." They were reduced in the time of Judges or Jordan's
Breaking by 'discernment', and the incident of them having lost the Entwives
or ?Ogieresses who kept to the Shire or Stedding had a profound evolutionary
effect as in emperor penguins or migratory birds which seek the same mating
grounds each year. This makes Loial a sort of Saint Paul (Saul) who eskews
women and making children for adventure after seeing the light even using an
alias, and the other, seanchan Ogier those that follow a human inheritor of
their once king. Seanchan would be Judah, or ?Fanghorn.

Post by Tux Wonder-Dog
The next thing we know, we are being whisked off to Fal Dara, the successor
city to Mafal Dadaranell, victim of the Trolloc Wars. We go via the Ways.
The Ways, as we learn, are the product of the male Aes Sedai who were
offered shelter in the steddings during the early Breaking of the World - a
gift to express their gratitude to the Ogier.
We also learn that the Ogier made much use of the Ways during the Breaking
of the World and after, because that way, they could get somewhere else
without facing people reduced to barbarism.
Now the question is, if the Ways were made during the early Breaking of the
World, and the steddings had this feature that the One Power could not
affect them, then whatever made the Ogier refugees in such numbers that the
Longing became fixed within them? Almost as if the ability to live without
the steddings, which would appear to be a feature of the Age of Legends,
had been bred out of them.

They didn't have the Longing yet -- the yearning to never leave the
stedding! Those that had it never left and brought forth descendants with
the longing, but those who left, the refugees, were suchly evolutionary
dead-ends. Loial's interaction with "barbarism" (i.e. WoT humans) sure
seems to preclude his making offspring. . .

Post by Tux Wonder-Dog
This bugs me. If it had been possible to move from one stedding to another
without ever leaving the surrounds of the stedding, then if one stedding
had been affected by the geological upheaval, it surely would have been an
easy job to arrive at a neighbouring one - applying the term "neighbour" to
those acting in a neighbourly manner - and just carry on life as usual.

Yes, but the Longing has to do with Ogier being away from Stedding, and
using the Ways they don't have to leave them at all.

Post by Tux Wonder-Dog
Any ideas? Has Jordan said anything that might fix this problem?

The problem as I see it is why they didn't reclaim the other Stedding when
the Groves were destroyed. Can't they take seeds or saplings along on the
Ways? Do the females not travel from their homestead? What happens to
Machin Shin (Shin must be the character written kokoro as a sort of
consciousness, but from what language is Machin?) now that the Taint is
destroyed? How are we supposed to know with all the teleportation at Aes
Sedai's whim?

Post by Tux Wonder-Dog
Thanks
Wesley Parish

Sorry

Sean F.

[Tim Bruening]

Post by Tux Wonder-Dog
When we first meet an Ogier, Loial of Shangtai Stedding, we learn about the
Longing. It's connected to being forced off the steddings during the
Breaking of the World, and having to wander like everybody else, until they
found the steddings again.
The next thing we know, we are being whisked off to Fal Dara, the successor
city to Mafal Dadaranell, victim of the Trolloc Wars. We go via the Ways.
The Ways, as we learn, are the product of the male Aes Sedai who were
offered shelter in the steddings during the early Breaking of the World - a
gift to express their gratitude to the Ogier.
We also learn that the Ogier made much use of the Ways during the Breaking
of the World and after, because that way, they could get somewhere else
without facing people reduced to barbarism.
Now the question is, if the Ways were made during the early Breaking of the
World, and the steddings had this feature that the One Power could not
affect them, then whatever made the Ogier refugees in such numbers that the
Longing became fixed within them? Almost as if the ability to live without
the steddings, which would appear to be a feature of the Age of Legends,
had been bred out of them.
This bugs me. If it had been possible to move from one stedding to another
without ever leaving the surrounds of the stedding, then if one stedding
had been affected by the geological upheaval, it surely would have been an
easy job to arrive at a neighbouring one - applying the term "neighbour" to
those acting in a neighbourly manner - and just carry on life as usual.
Any ideas? Has Jordan said anything that might fix this problem?

Most of the Ogier got blocked off from steddings during the Breaking, but a few
Ogier managed to stay in steddings.

I wonder if the Ogier considered holding Male AS captive on the steddings to
keep them from going mad.