fun tidbit about the crystal throne: when Samael talks to Sevannah about the binder, she asks for one that can control a non-channeler. Samael then refers to a "binding chair" that serves that function, later in the same book and in later books multiple different Seanchan mention that when the empress speaks from the crystal throne, disobedience is impossible, and the Seanchan empire is built on the idea of hierarchy, obedience, and human property right down to its moral philosophy, which suggests to me that the Crystal Throne is a binding chair that is used to ensure complete obedience to the monarch. This also explains why Suroth breaks down into weeping and directly contradicts Semirhage when she offers Suroth the empire and only accepts after it's explained that the empire is basically destroyed, as she is probably oathbound to the empire
@@Cassiuswasright The Horn always struck me as an 'artifact', (in the DnD sense) that was not made by Aes Sedai, but is rather something unique and beyond a 'mere' Ter'angreal... I wonder if Callandor is simaler...? (A Sa'Angreal for the True power?!)
Couple minor corrections, since we're geeking out: 1. The Far Madding Guardian doesn't stop channeling, but hides the True Source. You can still channel from a Well. 2. You said the the Bowl of the Winds belonged to the Seafolk in the Age of Legends. They didn't exist then. They acquired it (i don't know how, maybe it isn't specified either) post Breaking. Loved this list. I love how methodic you are about criteria. Thanks so much!
I'm glad you added the Paralis Net, because I was like 'where is the well?', but you neglected one of Cadsuane's ornaments, which grants the ability to force another woman (or man) into a circle that the wearer controls, which is about as powerful as it comes.
I disagree with you on the fact the bowl cant be used in combat. Drop a dense fog around your enemy on a battle field, call storms (snow, lightning, rain, tornados)onto your enemies camp or supply lines Hell of a siege weapon. If the sea folk wanted to, they could surround sea seanchan controlled ebou dar and level it to the ground with a tsunami or hurricane.
Hell, if the sea folk wanted to, they could simply lock the entire seanchan continent into an unending drought. The Bowl is basically WoT's lowest power cost doomsday weapon. You just need a windfinder and a decently strong circle, and you can effect anything from one kingdom, to the entire world... You wouldn't even need the circle if you had access to one of the sa'angreal.
Dean Moxley I seem to recall as well that it was relatively cheap to use. If you can find 15 people that agree on an objective, it’s a weapon of real destructive capabilities. There are probably some limitations on what can be done with it, determined by its global scale, but in any environment there are weather effects that are debilitating. The most negative I can think about it, is the fact it’s not a precision instrument. Attacking a continent with it is easier than attacking an individual city state. You’ll have effects spilling over and touching other things by accident. In the books, it wouldn’t seem that useful, because the Dark One’s influence must constantly be combatted for the rest of the series.
@@jackr2287 It would be kind of tricky to use for precision attacks, yeah. At least assuming there are things around that city state you care about. But if anything, it's likely to work on the "small" scale better then the large. After all... That's what it was actually made for. It is only actually meant to cover about the same area as your average Windfinder. Windfinders are just a LOT more skilled at controlling the weather then the Aes Sedai in the Age of Legends were. The side effects of the Bowl use suggest it was straining a bit to effect the entire world... But at the same time, it was able to fight the Dark One's control at the Last Battle without either melting into a puddle, or even any apparent side effects like with it's first use, so perhaps the Windfinders just weren't as adapt at using the thing the first time as they'd like others to believe.
I would place the Guardian far higher, but it's because I disagree with your criteria. Rendering channelers within the city to mundane humans, regardless of their channeling ability, is extraordinarily powerful. Consider, it's similar in function (though not identical) to the Foxhead Medallion that you rank #3. It could be considered weaker because it is fixed in place and doesn't allow a "wearer" to still channel, but it protects a far larger number of people at the same time.
What if in the show the opening was some visualization of the Wheel and all of the threads, and after some animation or some fancy opening stuff it zooms into a specific thread and that thread is whoever the first scene shows at the beginning of each episode. But there could be small differences like a visualization of Rand, Perrin, or Mat being stronger threads or if the first scene is someone dying or being balefired or something that opening visualization of their thread could reflect what the first scene is depicting.
I'm sure it will look great (if nothing else). I've been watching a few Amazon shows the last weeks (Man in the high castle, Good omens, The boys, and American gods), and they all have great visuals and cinematography in common.
I question the logic of using Combat Ability as a qualifier. Seems to me that most ter'angreal are not meant to be used in combat, but rather as a tool (the librarian man, for example).
@@NaeBlis it is also undeniable that in the story we received, combat ability was a *critical* criterion for almost all of our characters that used them.
The dreamspike HAS an exception regarding traveling, if the user has the "key" to that specific dreamspike, he/she can travel into our out that area normally.
Ok, TO BE FAIR the paralysis net is a little OP on this list, since it's technically an amalgamation of many ter'angreal. I agree with it being #2 though-- I like these videos
I’ve been bingeing your list videos and find them all quite entertaining and unique. I especially like your point systems for evaluating specific components for scoring the overall power/impact/usefulness of whatever you are evaluating. Great list, I think Jordan’s creation of all of these families of tools of Power add so much depth in the WoT series. Thank you
Small Bent Rod given 5/5 for Ease of Use even though it requires the user to be able to channel (otherwise it is useless) but the Fluted Black Rod and Black Bent Rod are given a 3/5 for Ease of Use due to their requiring channeling to be able to use - seems like a big inconsistency there.
Regarding the foxhead medallion, isn't it pretty easy to circumvent? You can't directly attack the wearer, but what stops you from throwing all kinds of stuff at them with the power, or setting everything around them on fire? I haven't read the books for a long time, but from what I remember it doesn't actually drain away power from people, but only protects the wearer.
Love the rankings and top 10 videos. The only ranking I have trouble with is the 3/10 Usefulness score for the Fluted Black Rod. Being able to rip people out of the pattern is incredibly useful. The fact that some very few channelers already know the weave for balefire shouldn’t tank this score to this degree. But hey that’s why we comment, right? Just my opinion.
How about an episode on characters or objects and who or what they seem to based on, loosely or extremely obvious? Below are some examples of what I think and some of the reasons why. 1. Artur Hawkwing --> The legend of King Arthur 2. Callandor --> Excalibur 3. Matrim Cauthon --> Odin - Lost an eye to gain knowledge - Walks around in a cloak with a staff 4. Gareth Bryne - General Robert E. Lee - Leads a "rebel" army - His horse was named Traveller 5. Probably the most controversial on the list. Messima --> Compilation of John the Baptist and Muhammad - Called the Prophet - Conquers land
Perrin seems to be very Thor-like, even giving his hammer a similar name. And Rand could be Tyr, since he conquers half the world, brings war and strife, and also loses a hand.
The dream spike and the far madding guardian both have great defensive abilities. The dream spike can be used to protect a fort or small city from let's say having a Forsaken from traveling to attack, protecting someone in the real and the dream world. If the guardian gets a 5/10, i think the dream spike should as well.
I disagree with your ranking of The Bowl of the Winds. If used properly, it could have single handedly wiped out the Shanchan fleet before they even made landfall. Should have been top 5 IMO for the sheer navel advantages
But at what cost when you mess with weather like that it has a pretty good chance of making things worse for you as much as for your enemies and that statement is made in the books also
@@loveranime4389 The thing is though... You'd still have the Bowl, and thus would be able to fairly easily deal with whatever side effects came knocking at your own door. Mind, it ain't the most subtle of weapons when the other side has both channelers and Gateways, so you'd need to be sure you can actually defend the thing from a counter attack. Yet... It was able to stop the Dark One from just smashing the armies of the Light flat with wind alone. Which suggest that it is itself capable of such fine and quick manipulation of the weather, so... It might well be perfectly capable of guarding it's own self.
But wouldn't that be like taking a hammer to fix a flowerpot. Oh theres a hurricane coming in use the bowl. Oh there three cat 8 twisters coming in use the bowl. It will just get worse the more you use it. So no you cant fix it with a hammer... so no I dont personally think so
The application of the term "passive" in this case, simply means that it works without anyone having to channel or otherwise interact with it. Agreed on the point, that its targeting function should have been mentioned.
Awesome 👏 I was aware of only 10, and not 100% sure or ability, usage and power. This analysis helps to increase the depth, creativity of authors’s story telling skills and quality of story writing. Amazing 🤩
The guardian ter'angreal from far madding can't prevent channelers from channeling from a well from another ter'angreal set, the paralis-net. Channelers indeed can't touch the source but if they charge up a well from a paralis-net, they can channel to some extent through it, inside the guardian's influence area.
I thought the bent black rod was just a misplaced shocklance that the Aes Sedai thought was a Ter'Angreal because they didn't understand how it worked (or maybe the lances were all Ter'Angreal). I might have missed something, though. It's a lot of books...
Also, in TDR, Moiraine says she could be stilled for just knowing the balefire weave (or that the weave exists) and you can infer she picked it up in the extensive library of Adeleas and Vandene. So it would be an oddity that an Aes Sedai would even know it. Of course, the Forsaken might have taught it to their minions, and there's that time Nynaeve creates it in TDR without realizing what she was doing...
I feel the points system failed when it comes to the Bowl of the Winds; anything that can affect weather patterns over an entire continent (and quite likely the world, we have no idea if it broke the Dark Ones hold over in Seanchan, but seeing as weather systems affect eachother, its likely it did) is a very powerful ter'angreal indeed, especially if you look at the volume of atmosphere you need to move.
Also, it's mentioned that Sea Folk have greater control over the weather than anyone in the Age of Legends (they could do stuff without help that in the Age of Legends would require a ter'angreal), so maybe with their ability and also with the help of men who could channel and were trained in weather control, you could control weather worldwide with one bowl.
Cadsuane's paralis net can, supposedly (she never uses it) take control of another channeler, like an a'dam... That is a massive power and might (IMHO) put the at the most powerful ter'angreal...
5:34 Replace "weapon" with "key" that's what Matt got, it just looks like a polearm. 14:00 Usefulness is debatable here, the ter'angreal's strength in the power may be greater or lesser than the user since the ter'angreal is the one creating the balefire weave and not the channeler. The ter'angreal burning the pattern's time is never mentioned how far back or how strong it is in that area. 22:09 Wrong, it depends on the tear'angreal attached to the paralis net, Cadsuane's "swallow" turned on its own towards the location of channelers holding the power, so someone that cannot channel would benefit from using passive ter'angreals on the net itself. 23:53 I believe this is wrong, I do not recall anywhere on the books saying that one must be very strong to use the access keys, after all they link to a sa'angreal and they act as buffers to keep the user from burning itself out by drawing too much of the one power. While the choeadan'kal themselves were unbuffered to keep anyone from using them without the access keys.
A few items... The Fluted Black Rod is only accessible to users of Saidar. When you reference Ease of Use, you say "...you do need to be able to channel...", and here you should specify Saidar. Next, the Bowl of the Winds. Once again, it is activated and controlled through the use of Saidar (though there is no evidence one way or the other if it could be equally controlled by users of Saidin). However, once active, it draws upon ethereal sources of both Saidar and Saidin, and that point is worthy of mention.
Honestly, I'd redo this with Power Modulation rather than power amplification. In the years of the breaking, a device that could limit a channeler would be seen as far more 'Powerful' than something that just lets you make more booms.
Paralis Net may be designed for channelers, but they are literally a series of ter'angreal designed to be used in tandem and could be made for someone to kill channelers much like the seanchan rings. A fox head like ter'angreal, a mirror of mist, a locator, and a bent rod would be a channelers assassin's dream.
I apologize that I cannot find the reference interview, but this question was asked of RJ, and the Horn is not an object of the Power, and it would function even during an age without Saidar or Saidin.
well also horn is pretty useless for people it seems that they only fight against the shadow and even if you can call them without the dragon banner they only fight under it so like sure you can call the heroes to have a chat but they would probably refuse to tell you anything useful since all those rules for those bound to the horn
I just like how he's like full dagger gets a 1/10 for power amp due to it not amplifying anything, then goes to combat and talks about how it amplifies combat potential against shadow spawn
Like the list, but I would have excluded the access keys from consideration. You acknowledge they are a bit of a cheat, and I spent the whole video just wondering if they’d be number one. Then they were, haha.
No, it blocks Saidin as well. Mat was killed by the lightning, not directly by Rahvin's channeling. It's the same as Elayne hitting Mat with stuff thrown by Saidar.
1.) The Bowl is much more useful in combat than you surmise. Create a lightning storm, tornado or hurricane on your enemy's position, and it's over. 2.) Given the abilities- and even YOUR OWN DESCRIPTIONS of the first 3 criteria of the Paralis Net, there was NO reason to nerf them down to 9/10. Each one is a 10/10.
Since rand brought him back with some basic CPR, I don't think that counted. But when he was blasted with lightning by Rahvin and only came back after balefire was used...
@@davidcarter6659 Incorrect. Hawkwing specifically says to Mat in the Last Battle that it wasn't the Tree, that it was an event that Mat can't remember.
He died from Rahvin's lightning in Caemlyn. He was restored by Rahvin being balefired, but the death happened. This was answered by RJ in an interview in 1996.
I would have replaced the chair of remorse with the red door frames. Had you limited the red door frame found in Tear, that would have been more useful than the chair of remorse. But you included the other doorway whicj requires the person entering it to pay a price. If they do not negotiate the price, the price is often their death. I would have replaced the bloodknives rings with the Crystal Throne. As you noted, the rings will kill the user. Also, as they are a limited number of the rings, they need to be collected after the wearer's death. Otherwise, the other side gets to use them. This is why I think the Crystal Throne is better. Less negative. You did not take away points for negative implications
Although they are never referred to as ter'angreal, it seems likely that both the Horn of Valere and The Eye of the World are Ter'Angreal. While the Eye of the World could just be a reflection, like the ways or the worlds of If, the well of the one power within the Eye would have likely been some kind of ter'angreal. If so, I'd think that both would be somewhere in the top 10...
if the small bent rod makes any channeler not sense you, does this also apply from female to male channelers what with the male alert system to female channeling?
Ease of use for the Black Rod should be lower because it's "almost impossible to control" from the notes about it. The bent rod is something people seem to do on their own if they know the weaves, and can hide their ability. I'd say that Callandor should be on this list since it's pretty much necessary to defeat the DO... Technically thru a "flaw" but still...
The sleep weaver should have a 5/5 for ease of use (especially the ones that don't require channeling) it's not made to make u skilled in the world of dreams, it's just made to get you there. So deducting points because the world of dreams requires a lot of skill seems unfair. It's job is just to get u there, which it does very easily and very well.
The Dreamspike should be higher on your list. You could hoid onto it while setting the field to it's smallest setting and use it as a personal shield. You could still channel through it though physical attacks would be troubling, noone could physically attack you without crumpling to a heap halfway through the attack. 6/10 combat ability at least
I wonder if Matt’s fox head bling would work against channeling the true power? Also I wonder where did the Eelfinn get this? Did they make it? Did someone have it on them that they killed and kept it and then gave it to Matt kind of like how they gave Lanfears angreal to Moraine. Could you ask them for any kind of angreal, sa’angreal, and ter’angreal that someone asked them to?
The snakes and foxes are very meticulous in how they respond to questions/requests. Mat's wishes included a way to be free of the Aes Sedai and the One Power. The medallion works against Saidar and Saidin, but not the True Power. That it was effective against both halves of the One Power was answered by RJ in an interview in April 1996.
Was the Bowl of Winds originally intended to have a continental effect? I got the impression that it was only due to the windcallers' extreme skill with weather that they extended the power of the Bowl, and that in the Age of Legends they would have been far more common and used to control regional weather. I know there's a few comments from Forsaken about the skill of Aes Sedai with weather weaves.
Mat still got hit by rahvins lightning wearing it so idk if it works against male channelers. But hey man once again a really good list. I wouldn't have guessed your #1 because they basically access sa'angreal.
Are they the only way to access the sa'angreal or are they the only way to access them remotely?? If the second, it's kinda silly that none of the forsaken didn't just set up shop around them. You never need to leave, with that much power you could easily rule the world from either location
The medallion protects from weaves effecting the wearer. Not from the effects of weaves directed at the wearer. Mat could still have a boulder dropped on his head by a weave of air for example.
Walt a minute, you're right. It specifically said Matt's smoking boots were laying a distance away from him, how did he die there but it protected him from every other channeling attack every other time?
The lightning also only worked because Sammael didn't target Mat with it, if he had the weave would have fell apart, but he just created a huge random lightning storm that probably killed Mat with shrapnel rather than the lightning itself.
In my opinion, the access keys should not be listed here. They are elements of a Sa'angreal. Their only use at all is to gain use of the Sa'Angreal. As individual Ter'angreal, they have no power or use without the Sa'angreal. That should eliminate their eligibility. You did leave off the most powerful Ter'angreal of them all... the Bearded Man Ter'angreal. It is, in fact, a Ter'angreal version of Robert Jordan himself. You can't get much more powerful than the Creator, now can you? ;) Seriously, though, here are some Ter'Angreal that are more powerful than quite a few you list here, in my opinion. Each is more powerful than any of those in the bottom 5 of your list. The Helmet of Metal Feathers, gives everyone (but the wearer) within a certain distance a blinding headache with a simple weave of fire. Imagine doing that in the middle of combat when surrounded by enemies. 6-pointed Star/Golden Jeweled Bracelet/Red Stone Bracelet, provides unseen armor that dissipates the force of physical weapons. The Seed, can be used to create Angreals. As such, this might be truly the most powerful Ter'angreal. Perrin's Mah'alleinir can be considered a Ter'angreal, and it adds burning/fire properties to combat use... and is the only melee weapon ever known to be able to permanently kill a darkhound.
What's your point? A middling channeler could kill multiple blademasters without breaking a sweat, assuming they were aware of them. Usefulness against channelers is all important compared to "normal people". Also, it's the only known thing capable of harming the Gholam. While that is a very niche use, the Gholam are among the most powerful entities we encounter in the series. Marginalizing its use because of the rarity of Gholam is like marginalizing the use of kryptonite because of the rarity of kryptonians.
This is like saying body armor will stop a rifle around but not a punch. While true it's a pretty meaningless statement besides. Its nit as if Mat really needed protection from normies. The dudes a monster in a scrap.
Nothing special about the pipe. Brandon and Harriet both answered questions about the final scene, and both said that RJ did not give details about how Rand lit the pipe. This answer is given in many interviews in slightly different ways, but never with a suggestion or implication that the pipe was self-lighting, always with the idea that perhaps the entry into a new age brought new abilities. You can search "pipe" on Theoryland.com's WoT Search and find all available Q and A connected to it.
It's not confirmed but it seems pretty clear that at the end. Rand can treat the real world the same way Perrin treats the dream world. So he can just will things into existence if he wants to. That's how I read it.
