Welcome back to my re-read, recap, and reaction to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. This post will only have spoilers through the current chapter.
You can find my previous chapter recaps HERE.
Chapter 20: From the Stedding
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Rand al’Thor
A servant arrives in the throne room to tell Rand that three Ogier have arrived. Rand asks to be led to where they are getting refreshments. The Ogier are Haman son of Dal son of Morel, Covril daughter of Ella daughter of Soong, and Erith daughter of Iva daughter of Alar. Covril is looking for her son, Loial, and plans to marry him right away to Erith to settle his wanderlust. He has been outside the stedding for five years and the Longing will soon overtake him and possible kill him. Rand admits that Loial is in the Two Rivers, a nice safe, quiet place. Rand asks Haman to identify all the locations of Waygates. He tried visiting Stedding Tsofu, but Elder Alar would not listen to a human.[1] Rand wants to have all the Waygates guarded because Shadowspawn are using the Ways. Rand wonders why the Forsaken don’t send Trollocs pouring through Gateways.[2]
Haman reluctantly agrees and Rand sends Sulin to bring him every map in the palace. As Elder Haman begins marking the maps, he is amazed that humans do not remember the vanished cities of Mafal Dadaranell, Ancohima, or Londaren Cor. Some of the older maps show vanished nations
- Hardan was north of Cairhien
- Maredo was between Tear and Illian
- Caralain was north of Andor
- Almoth was between Arad Doman and Tarabon
- Mosara and Irenvelle were nations that arose after the War of the Hundred Years and were later absorbed into other nations
Elder Haman begins by marking the occupied stedding where there are Waygates
- seven in the Borderlands
- thirteen in the Spine of the World, including
- one in Kinslayer’s Dagger[3]
- Stedding Shangtai in the south
- Stedding Qichen and Stedding Sanshen in the north, only a few miles apart from each other
- Stedding Cantoine is just above the River Iralell not far north of Haddon Mirk
- only four between the Dragonwall and the River Erinin, including Stedding Tsofu, which was only repopulated six hundred years ago
- six in the Mountains of Mist
- two in the Shadow Coast
- three in the Black Hills
- four in the forests above the River Ivo
- two in the mountains above the River Dhagon
Then Elder Haman marks stedding that are abandoned (because their Ogier populations dwindled) or that were never reclaimed (because they were too close to human habitations)
- at least one in the Spine of the World
- at least one in the Mountains of Mist
- at least one in the Shadow Coast
- one on Almoth Plain near the Paerish Swar
- one on the north coast of Toman Head
- Stedding Sherandu and Stedding Chandar inside the Blight
Rand reminds Elder Haman that there is also an empty stedding somewhere east of the River Arinelle and north of the road between Whitebridge and Caemlyn.[4]
Haman then lists Ogier-built cities with Waygates
- Existing cities
- Vanished cities
- Mafal Dadaranell
- Ancohima
- Londaren Cor
- Manetheren[5]
- Aren Mador
- Aridhol
- Shaemal
- Deranbar
- Braem
- Condaris
- Hai Ecorimon
- Iman
The name Aridhol tickles Rand’s memory until he remembers that it is now called Shadar Logoth. Rand asks the Ogier to show him the location of the Waygate in Shadar Logoth since that one needs to be dealt with urgently.
REACTION:
Far and away, my absolute favorite moment from this chapter is Rand yelling at Sulin to run.
“Run, Far Dareis Mai!” he snapped. She looked over her shoulder at him and ran.
Rand and Sulin is not a relationship that Jordan spends a lot of time on, but what we get is fantastic. It’s an older sister / younger brother relationship. It’s also a student / teacher relationship. It’s also a little bit of a boss / employee relationship. Through all of it, you feel how much Sulin (and all the Maidens) deeply care for Rand and are also frustrated by him. Rand’s confusion and reciprocity is really well written, too.
A close second for my favorite moment of the chapter is the Ogier realization that the humans do not know where the Stedding are located. Elder Haman is disbelieving and then all three Ogier are in deepest grief over it.
“Their memories are gone.” She made it sound the biggest loss imaginable.
History is obviously something that humans value. We spend a lot of time and energy recording events for posterity. But at a certain point, the stories and the people in the stories lose their sense of being *real.* I suppose that would be different, and that process would take MUCH longer, if humans lived for hundreds of years. Someone who was 500 years old would necessarily have a completely different perspective on the settlement of the Americas than someone who is now 50. Your sense of recency would be wildly different.
Let’s say your lifespan was about 500 years. And we’ll say a modern lifespan is roughly 80 years.
| 80 year life span | 500 year life span |
| 0-20 | 0-125 |
| 21-40 | 126-250 |
| 41-60 | 251-375 |
| 61-80 | 376-500 |
It probably would be sad beyond belief to live with memories of people and things that are no longer remembered at all. “I knew your great-great-great grandfather. He was special.” The descendent might not even care.
The chapter ends with the news that Shadar Logoth has a Waygate. Rand prioritizes closing that one immediately, but if the Shadow was going to ignore and refuse to use a Waygate, that’s the one they’d pick, right? Maybe Rand will explain why that’s a priority in the next chapter. Makes no sense to me, though.