1400 out of how many millions they should find? If there are 10 million people in the wetlands, there should be at least 300,000 channelers. The Towers combined, along with the Kin and various rare wilders and the extrapolated numbers from their recruiting do not suggest nearly that amount. While you are right that they are not recruiting to their full potential, the numbers that should be occurring naturally are still too small. At one time, their passive approach to recruiting and restrictive age limits was sufficient to get the numbers they needed, but the channeling population has since declined, so the numbers and strength that wandered into their nets are no longer matching what they did in the past.
There's no point trying to understand the genetics, or evolution, of channeling. It doesn't make any sense. Even with a 75% fatality rate among untrained sparkers - 87.5% if you consider tainted saidin fatal - channelers should far and away out-compete non-channelers. They live centuries, and the Power makes you orders of magnitude more efficient at everything. They ought to be winning every fight, leading every tribe, and having far and away the most children. I have seen no convincing reason why channelers have not ended up ruling every society and nation they live in, except that they are too few, or too disorganised.
But lets be grateful that for some reason there really aren't three hundred thousand channelers in Randland. The place would be a blasted nuclear wasteland in half a century, with all the wars that keep being fought. Maybe that's why the Breaking of the World was so cataclysmic - after centuries and centuries of peace and much technological advancement, populations were much higher than they have ever been since, channelers included.
/ Theory - Decline in the number of chanellers
- 01/12/2010 02:24:23 PM
1257 Views
not that I disagree with you, but it is possible to breed out a recessive gene.
- 01/12/2010 08:38:02 PM
732 Views
Re: / Theory - Decline in the number of chanellers
- 01/12/2010 09:14:48 PM
1014 Views
Thank god for that
- 01/12/2010 09:35:22 PM
780 Views
Channeling could also be used in repair/reclamation projects. That stuff tends to even out.
- 02/12/2010 08:21:28 PM
798 Views
you'd think the Seanchan would have even lower numbers of channellers
- 02/12/2010 05:13:36 PM
749 Views
yes and no
- 04/12/2010 02:20:13 PM
711 Views
Re: yes and no
- 04/12/2010 03:06:10 PM
670 Views
Not so, common folk don't trust Wilders either...
- 04/12/2010 03:16:40 PM
823 Views
Re: Not so, common folk don't trust Wilders either...
- 05/12/2010 04:17:40 PM
658 Views
Don't mistake Wilders with women like Sharina
- 05/12/2010 04:27:45 PM
687 Views