So why is it then, that RJ did not say that. He did not say that a hundred thousand people were killed in a single battle. Or a single offensive. Or during a single day. Those are NOT the words he used. What he said, is "one go", which to me suggests a momentary instant.

And yes, it does seem inconsistent to what we have seen so far, UNLESS there is a way to control balefires width so that you can make it wider than what we have seen, without using insane amounts of strength. Essentially making a wide beam large enough for even a city, that is still weak enough not to burn people back months and instantly destroy the pattern. Which is what I am arguing happened at Graendals palace, minimizing the damage since Rand did not yet want to destroy the pattern.

Moiraine and Rand might not have had the knowledge or the need to do this before. But Rand/LTT at Graendals palace did, so thats what he did.



How does the quote suggest that both sides were using balefire? All it says that several cities were balefired. Unless you have a different quote than the one I used?

I figure it was indeed used to wipe a single city in an instant, maybe the other side then retaliated on a different city using the same technique, at which point the pattern started groaning and people realised that maybe this is not such a good idea.



Minutes you say? How will you wipe out a hundred thousand people in minutes in a large city with people going everywhere and hiding and so on and so on. With the defenders fighting back, forcing you to proceed slowly, etc. I think it makes far more sense if the entire city was taken out in one go, with a big blast.

Lets use Rand as an example, his balefire stream was the thickness of a man it is said. Lets say 1 meter thick then.

Lets say you have, oh, 5000 channelers.

Now imagine those channelers in the city, going from house to house, room to room and balefiring people with balefire streams only 1 meter thick. And killing 100K people.

This is something that would not take minutes, it would take days. You don't sack and destroy an entire city in minutes without weapons of mass destruction.

And tell me this, even if it were possible, WHY would they have done this? If they wanted to destroy a city, why would they send in a large group of channelers to wave around their bars of balefire, killing people one by one, rather than just blowing the entire city up in a traditional way. Or even using nuclear weapons or the like.

Why use an inferor weapon like balefire, if you could just use a circle of 72 to annihilate the entire city in a fireball.

No, the only reason to use balefire is if it was even better than that. And having huge groups of channelers roaming the city would not be. The only logical explanation is that the AoLers could indeed use balefire to wipe out an entire city in an instant. That is why it was so feared.



I already have and you know it. RJ said so. You can disagree what he meant, in which case there is nothing to do but either agree to disagree, or try to ask BS if there is anything in the notes saying if the balefired cities were wiped out in an instant or if it took days.

My view is to believe that RJ was literal and his "one go" does mean exactly that. One go. One blast. 100K balefired in an instant. And that requires a balefire blast that is very wide. Suggesting that width can be controlled. Which is my argument.