Beonin's Gateway v. Egwene's v. Rand's - Edit 1
Before modification by darius_sedai at 06/10/2012 08:36:12 PM
Beonin:
Knife of Dreams
Chapter Two
The Dark One’s Touch
As soon as Tervail let the canvas fall, she embraced saidar and wove Spirit almost caressingly. This weave fascinated her. a rediscovery of something thought lost forever and surely the greatest of Egwene al’-Veres discoveries. Every time she wove it she felt a sense of wonder, so familiar as novice and even Accepted, that had not come to her since she attained the shawl. Something new and marvelous. The vertical silvery line appeared in front of her, right atop the scoring on the ground. and suddenly became a gap that widened, the view through appearing to rotate until she was faced by a square hole in the air, more than two paces by two, that showed snow-draped oaks with heavy spreading limbs.
for argument sake we can call this 6 feet by 6 feet (1 span = 3 feet)
Here is the largest one we've seen from Egwene:
A Crown of Swords
Chapter 12
A Morning Of Victory
Weaving a gateway where he had been practicing the sword, a good eight feet by eight, she stepped through onto what seemed to be a ferry, floating in darkness that stretched forever.
So Egwene creates a gateway approximately 75% larger than Beonin can ... that's nice until you realize that Beonin is no stronger than Melaine who is approximately half of Egwene's strength. Either Egwene should be able to create a gateway that is 12 feet x 12 feet (which is on par with Rand ... see quote) ... clearly we would have seen that by now if she could pull it off. Alternatively Beonin at her strength level should only be able to create a gate way about 4 feet x 4 feet if she was of "average" Talent.
I would also state it is highly unlikely that Egwene has a weak Traveling Talent since she discovered the weave for women and that seems highly unlikely if she did not possess a good strong talent for it.
Rand Quote
Chapter 54
To Caemlyn
The gateway appeared at the foot of the steps, first a bright line that seemed to turn, opening into a square hole into blackness four paces wide. Not a murmur came from the Aiel. Those beyond would be able to see him as through a smoked glass, a dusky shimmering in the air, but they could as well try walking through one of the palace walls. From the side, the gateway would be invisible except to the few close enough to see what might seem a long, fine hair drawn tight.
Four paces was as large as Rand could make it. There were limits for one man by himself, Asmodean claimed; it seemed there were always limits. The amount of saidin you drew did not matter. The One Power had little to do with gateways, really; only the making. Beyond, was something else. A dream of a dream, Asmodean called it.
I acknowledge that you can make at least a couple of arguments here ... Neither woman looks to have strained to create their gateways so we can even be sure these are as large as either woman can manage. But this is what we have to go on. I'm inclined to think Egwene could produce a somewhat larger gateway than she did in this scene. It was, after all, for only her and Lan ... a 9 feet x 9 feet would even things out on the Beonin front. But that's pure speculation on my part
and you could just as easily argue that Beonin showed no strain and only had 2 people to Travel with as well.
Knife of Dreams
Chapter Two
The Dark One’s Touch
As soon as Tervail let the canvas fall, she embraced saidar and wove Spirit almost caressingly. This weave fascinated her. a rediscovery of something thought lost forever and surely the greatest of Egwene al’-Veres discoveries. Every time she wove it she felt a sense of wonder, so familiar as novice and even Accepted, that had not come to her since she attained the shawl. Something new and marvelous. The vertical silvery line appeared in front of her, right atop the scoring on the ground. and suddenly became a gap that widened, the view through appearing to rotate until she was faced by a square hole in the air, more than two paces by two, that showed snow-draped oaks with heavy spreading limbs.
for argument sake we can call this 6 feet by 6 feet (1 span = 3 feet)
Here is the largest one we've seen from Egwene:
A Crown of Swords
Chapter 12
A Morning Of Victory
Weaving a gateway where he had been practicing the sword, a good eight feet by eight, she stepped through onto what seemed to be a ferry, floating in darkness that stretched forever.
So Egwene creates a gateway approximately 75% larger than Beonin can ... that's nice until you realize that Beonin is no stronger than Melaine who is approximately half of Egwene's strength. Either Egwene should be able to create a gateway that is 12 feet x 12 feet (which is on par with Rand ... see quote) ... clearly we would have seen that by now if she could pull it off. Alternatively Beonin at her strength level should only be able to create a gate way about 4 feet x 4 feet if she was of "average" Talent.
I would also state it is highly unlikely that Egwene has a weak Traveling Talent since she discovered the weave for women and that seems highly unlikely if she did not possess a good strong talent for it.
Rand Quote
Chapter 54
To Caemlyn
The gateway appeared at the foot of the steps, first a bright line that seemed to turn, opening into a square hole into blackness four paces wide. Not a murmur came from the Aiel. Those beyond would be able to see him as through a smoked glass, a dusky shimmering in the air, but they could as well try walking through one of the palace walls. From the side, the gateway would be invisible except to the few close enough to see what might seem a long, fine hair drawn tight.
Four paces was as large as Rand could make it. There were limits for one man by himself, Asmodean claimed; it seemed there were always limits. The amount of saidin you drew did not matter. The One Power had little to do with gateways, really; only the making. Beyond, was something else. A dream of a dream, Asmodean called it.
I acknowledge that you can make at least a couple of arguments here ... Neither woman looks to have strained to create their gateways so we can even be sure these are as large as either woman can manage. But this is what we have to go on. I'm inclined to think Egwene could produce a somewhat larger gateway than she did in this scene. It was, after all, for only her and Lan ... a 9 feet x 9 feet would even things out on the Beonin front. But that's pure speculation on my part
and you could just as easily argue that Beonin showed no strain and only had 2 people to Travel with as well.