Cyndane

[Ekho 52]

So I'm assuming everyone agrees that cyndane=Lanfear reincarnated (especially after her POV in WH).

 

The question then is why Cyndane is weaker now. After reading this theory about Lanfear's attributes being artificially enhanced I realised how people seem to be missing the obvious.

 

Its constantly mentioned through the books that female channelers do not reach their full potential in the OP until after (at least) a few years channeling. Why wouldn't this be the same if one of the forsaken were reborn.

 

I couldn't remember if I'd mentioned this theory here before, but I wanted to know what everyone thinks (or point out any glaring problems with it) before I started to write a serious theory about it.

[Tosh 8]

Details of the books become increasingly elusive, but aren't three of the stongest female channelers still rather new at conciously manipulating the forces available to them? I'm thinking primarily of Nynaeve, the seafolk girl and the old woman who became a novice.

Would RJ widen the already substantial difference in power that exists between the vanilla Aes Sedai and the engines of destruction of the new, or rather the old age reborn? Are the Forsaken in risk of being left in the dust?

 

I don't know, as I said I don't remember the specifics of the situation with the sea folk girl, if she'd been trained beforehand, nor the old woman novice.

[Olivia 26]

Its constantly mentioned through the books that female channelers do not reach their full potential in the OP until after (at least) a few years channeling. Why wouldn't this be the same if one of the forsaken were reborn.

 

It's mentioned that male channelers also take some time to reach their full OP potential (although they do it in fits and spurts rather than a woman's steady climb). But there has been no mention of Aran'gar or Osan'gar being weaker now that they are reborn, either from their own PoVs or other people talking about them.

 

I think in WoT a person's ability with the OP is a condition of the soul and not of the body (from Aran'gar still being able to touch saidin even though his soul now inhabits a female body), so even if a soul is put into a body that has little or no experience with the OP (or maybe can't touch the OP at all) the soul will still retain its previous skill level and Talents.

 

That said, I agree that Cyndane = Lanfear, but I'm not sure if she was reborn the same way Aginor and Balthamael were. Did Lanfear escape the Finn on her own or did the DO "extract" her from their dimension and put her back into Randland? Did her original body die fighting Moiraine, or at the hands of the Finn, or did she kill herself to escape? Or maybe her Lanfear body (now soul-less) is still stuck in the Finn dimension and the DO was only allowed to extract her soul (since it belongs to him) from there and then put it into a Randland body. Is the weaker OP a punishment for getting caught or is it a side-effect of whatever happened during the reincarnation or during the time the Finn "held" her?

 

Too many questions. =/ Hopefully RJ left something in his notes that Sanderson will put in that will answer our questions and maybe prove your theory, Ekho.

 

Edit: Or Lanfear could just be one of the latest in RJ's string of "powerful women becoming weaker for no good reason" and he just wanted to confuse us.

[Asmodean82 0]

I think it was a punishment, having her powers somewhat weakened. My reasoning is that her new name means "last chance".

[Kaitlin 22]

When Rand, Mat, and Mo went into the other doorway they never saw each other. What if the nature of Finnland and the doorway is such that two people would show up in two different places or times even if they both entered at the same time? If Moiraine and Lanfear were both drawing Saidar through the angreal when they went through the ter'angreal doorway could Moiraine have accidentally ripped away some of Lanfear's connection when they came out the other side by being the one who ended up with the angreal?

 

That's really stretching it but I can't think of why else Lanfear would be diminished unless it was a DO punishment. It doesn't seem like enough of a loss to be from Stilling but maybe that was it? Punishing Lanfear that way seems like shooting yourself in the foot if you're the DO, but then again maybe he just doesn't give a crap in the typical bad guy way.