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1.3.2: The True Power
[Paul Raj Khangure, Pam Korda]
What do we know about the "True Power"?
- It is the power of the Dark One. [ACOS: 25, Mindtrap, 412]
- The ability to use it is granted specifically by the DO [ACOS: 25,
Mindtrap, 419]. It may be that one must get permission each time one
uses it ("The True Power was denied her [Moggy], of course--that could
be drawn only with the Great Lord's blessing" [ACOS: 25, Mindtrap,
416]).
- At the moment, the only one with the DO's permission to use the TP
is Moridin: "[Demandred] himself had never touched the True Power
except at need. Great need. Of course, only Moridin had that privilege
now, since his...anointing" [WH: 13, Wonderful News, 317]. We can
assume that the "anointing" refers to Moridin's being named Nae'blis,
but we're not clear on when exactly that occurred.
- "What can be done with the True Power is very similar to what can
be done with the One Power." [RJ, aol.com Q and A session, 27 June,
1996]
- One sign of extensive TP use is the black dots in the eyes, which
Moggy calls "saa." The dots are visible from both the outside [ACOS:
25, Mindtrap, 418] and from the inside [ACOS: 20, Patterns Within
Patterns, 356]. We do not know whether the frequency at which an
outside observer sees them is the same as that at which the user sees
them. It seems likely that they come more frequently when one is
actually using the TP, since the Watcher's dots come faster just before
he uses it to "Travel": "The black flecks filled his eyes, a horizontal
blizzard....To his ears, the world screamed as he used the TP to rip a
small hole and step outside the Pattern." [ACOS: 20, Patterns Within
Patterns, 358]
- The TP is much more addictive than the OP. "In the long run, the TP
was far more addictive than the OP; a strong will could hold down the
desire to draw more saidar or saidin, but she [Moggy] did not believe
the will existed strong enough to resist the TP, once the saa appear"
[ACOS: 25, Mindtrap, 418]. "It was a drug more addictive than saidin,
more deadly than poison" [WH: 13, Wonderful News, 317].
- The TP is very dangerous, and has a high price. "The final price
[for using the TP] was different, but no less terrible." [ACOS: 25,
Mindtrap, 419] "There was a price, to be sure, one that grew with each
use, but he [the Watcher] had always been willing to pay the price when
it was necessary." [ACOS: 20, Patterns Within Patterns, 356] We don't
know what this "price" is.
- As far as Moggy knows, only 30 or 31 people have ever been granted
the use of the TP. ("Only twenty-nine others have ever been granted..."
[ACOS: 25, Mindtrap, 419]. I dunno if Moggy is counting herself in the
29 (i.e. only 29 others besides Moridin), or not (only 29 others
besides the people in the room).
- The Forsaken have the ability to use the TP. "Among the living,
only the Chosen knew how to tap the TP..." [ACOS: 25, Mindtrap, 412]
- Even among the Forsaken, "few are foolish enough to [use the TP]
except in case of dire need" [ACOS: 25, Mindtrap, 412]
- The TP can not "be detected except by who wielded it." [ACOS: 20,
Patterns Within Patterns, 356] This is worded vaguely, but RJ has
clarified it: "No one can tell if you're using the True Power except
the Dark One, of course." [RJ, Amer. Online chat, 27-6-96]
- If Moggy's knowledge of the TP is reliable, then only people who
can channel the OP can use the TP. We know this from the fact that as
soon as Moggy realizes Moridin is a user of the TP, she immediately
assumes that he can channel: "This Moridin had tapped into the TP, and
more than once. Much more. She knew that some men who could channel
survived in this time aside from al'Thor...but she had not expected the
Great Lord to allow one that particular honor." [ACOS: 25, Mindtrap,
418]
Where have we seen the True Power used, before ACOS?
The TP is not new in ACOS. We've seen it and heard of it before, always in
the hands of Ishamael. In [TEOTW: Prologue, Dragonmount, xi] Ish uses it to
"heal" LTT of his madness. '"I was never very skilled at Healing, and I
follow a different power now....I fear Shai'tan's healing is different from
the sort you know...." He extended his hands and the light dimmed as if a
shadow had been laid across the sun.' Another hint of the TP's existence in
TEOTW is Ishy's remark that LTT "called down his precious One Power..."
[TEOTW: 14, The Stag and Lion, 205]. The only reason Ishy would have for
referring to the OP in this dismissive way is if he had access to another
type of Power altogether. In Rand's fight with Ish in [TDR: 55, What is
Written in Prophecy, 570], Ishy does something at the end which, in
retrospect, is almost certainly a use of the TP: '"I cannot be defeated!
Aid me!" Some of the darkness shrouding him drifted into his hands, formed
into a ball so black it seemed to soak up even the light of Callandor.
Sudden triumph blazed in the flames of his eyes.'
In general, a lot of the weird stuff Ishy did can probably be attributed to
the TP. Whenever he was seen, he always had a "seething blackness"
surrounding him, which "boiled up" when he was about to do something nasty
to Rand (example: the fight at the end of TGH when Ish gives Rand his first
unHealable wound). Ish was certainly one of the "fools" who used the TP in
cases other than dire need. His lack of humanity is probably part of the
"price" one pays for using the TP. His glowing eyes and mouth might be some
advanced version of the saa.
In [TSR: 26, The Dedicated, 306], it is mentioned that Lanfear/Mierin had
said she "had found a new source for the One Power," usable by both men and
women. Considering that her "new source" turned out to be the DO, it is
possible that this is a reference to the TP. Whether Lanfear knew that this
was the DO or not is a different argument...
Wild Speculation
- The taint on saidin is due to the TP being mixed into saidin by the
DO.
- The black cords seen on some of the male Forsaken are not
taint-protection, but a connection to the TP. The problems with this
idea are: 1) The female Forsaken have the ability to use the TP, but
nobody has ever seen the cords on a woman; 2) Asmodean is one of the
people the cords were seen on, [TSR: 58, The Traps of
Rhuidean, 671] and of all the Forsaken, the cowardly Asmodean is, IMO,
the least likely to use the TP, given its dangers, especially for
something (Skimming) that could be accomplished via the
much-less-dangerous OP; and 3) From [ACOS book signing, Dunwoody,
Georgia; 9 October, 1996, report by Erica Sadun], "Access to the TP is
a matter of wanting it and the dark one letting you. NOT black cords."
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