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What exactly IS Spirit, and what do you use it for?

Elgee
Elgee
in Legacy Saga Archive

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What exactly IS Spirit, and what do you use it for?

 

This is the element that confuses me the most. I’ve done a search of WoT Encyclopaedia and Wotmania, and these were the types of Weaves I found that uses Spirit. I’ve divided them into categories that seem linked. The only one that seems out of place to me, is the Bowl of Winds (weather).

 

Many of the weaves we use at the WT makes use of Spirit, mostly incorrectly, I think – but as I said, Spirit confuses me :P

 

What do you think?

 

 

List compiled from online sources:

 

Healing / Hurting :

NS,Ch2 – When Gitara collapses, Tamra Delves her with Air, Water and Spirit.

TDR,Ch15 - Healing uses Spirit, Air and Water.

TFoH,Ch35 - Nynaeve tries to Heal Birgitte with a complex weave of Spirit, Water, Air, Earth and Fire.

LoC,Ch6 - Semirhage strips her victim's clothes with Fire and Air and pulverizes them with Fire and Earth. She then uses Spirit and Fire to stimulate the pain centers.

ACoS,Ch41 - Dashiva gets angry at the Wise Ones and Aes Sedai and prepares complex weaves of Fire and Spirit for pain.

LoC,Ch29 - Nynaeve probes Logain with all five Powers, then Heals him with Fire and Spirit.

CoT,Ch14 – Monaelle teaches Sumeko Caressing the Child, weaving Spirit, Fire and Earth.

 

Emotions / the Mind:

NS,Ch23 – Moiraine uses a secret Blue Ajah weave of Spirit to induce fear in an attacker.

TFoH,Prologue - Rahvin Compels his servants with weaves of Spirit.

TPoD,Prologue - Verin's Compulsion is predominantly Spirit but has Wind and Water, Fire and Earth as well.

NS,Epilogue - Moiraine bonds Lan as her Warder with an intricate weave of Spirit.

LoC,Ch52 - Myrelle uses Spirit on her bond to Lan to make him come to her.

ACoS,Ch40 - The binder (oath rod) is activated by channeling Spirit into the number at the end.

 

 

Wards / Barriers / Shielding / Intricate weaves that can “think”:

NS,Ch19 - Moiraine weaves a ward of Spirit around Lan, Ryne and Bukama so she will know if they move during the night.

TFoH,Ch3 - Rand weaves a shield of Spirit and Fire to prevent Asmodean from leaving the room.

KoD,Ch16 – Elayne weaves Spirit to lay a Finder on Samwil Hark.

TDR,Ch27 - The barrier around Callandor is half saidin, half saidar. The saidar part is made of Air, Fire and Spirit.

TDR,Ch54 - Egwene shields Joiya the True Source with a weave of Spirit.

TFoH,Ch52 - Rand cuts Lanfear's weave with Spirit woven with Fire and Earth.

LoC,Ch55 - Rand breaks the shield on him, crushing the connections to the three Aes Sedai with Spirit. The three Aes Sedai are stilled.

KoD,Ch23 – Nacelle uses a complex weave of all five Powers to detect Narishma channeling.

oD,Ch20 - Spirit is the safest Power for testing unknown ter'angreal.

 

 

LoC,Ch49 - Rand weaves Spirit, Fire and Earth and breaks through the Aes Sedai's Illusion.

LoC,Ch52 - Elayne disguises herself with a complicated weave of Air and Fire, then masked her ability to channel with an even more complex weave of Spirit.

 

TSR,Ch10 - Rand destroys all the Shadowspawn in the Stone of Tear with a complex weave of Air, Fire and Spirit.

TEotW,Ch18 - Moiraine uses Air, Earth and Spirit to lay a false trail that fools the Trollocs and Fades.

 

 

Dreaming / Traveling:

TDR,Ch6 - Those particularly strong in Spirit can force their dreams on others as Rand does.

ACoS,Ch10 - Aes Sedai shield their dreams with Spirit.

TFoH,Ch4 - Rand shields his dreams with a weave of Spirit.

TDR,Ch53 - The hedgehog ter'angreal uses pure Spirit.

TDR,Ch53 - The Talent of Dreaming is a thing of Spirit.

LoC,Ch34 - Egwene weaves Spirit to open a gateway

KoD,Ch21 – Rand weaves Spirit and Fire to open a gateway.

KoD,Ch19 – Lews Therin weaves Spirit, Fire and Earth for Deathgates.

ACoS,Ch20 - The call box is activated by channeling Fire. It automatically draws Earth, Air and Spirit.

 

 

 

TPoD,Ch5 - The Bowl of the Winds draws all five Powers.

 

 

 

Weaves used at DM White Tower:

 

 

[table][tr]

[td] Name                  [/td]

[td] Air                  [/td]

[td] Earth                  [/td]

[td] Fire                  [/td]

[td] Spirit                  [/td]

[td] Water                  [/td]

[td] Description                  [/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td] Rain Cloud      [/td]

[td] 1 [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] 3 [/td]

[td] 1 [/td]

[td] 3 [/td]

[td] Coalesces water in the air to form a moisture filled cloud. Fire is used to release the moisture in the form of rain. The greater the strength in Water the larger the cloud, the greater the amount of Fire the harder the downpour. [/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td] Whirlpool      [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] 2 [/td]

[td] 3 [/td]

[td] The channeller Weaves Water into a body of water in a circular pattern, this then causes it to pull in on itself. The size of the Whirlpool increases as the channeller's strength in Water increases [/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td] Summon Storm      [/td]

[td] 5 [/td]

[td] 5 [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] 2 [/td]

[td] 5 [/td]

[td] The size of the Storm depends on the channeller's strength in Air and Water [/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td] Absorb Heat      [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] 3 [/td]

[td] 3 [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] Extinguishes a fire by drawing the heat away from the target you have aimed at. The greater the strength in Fire the more heat that can be absorbed, eventually freezing the object solid.  [/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td] Flame Tempering      [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] 5 [/td]

[td] 3 [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] Fire woven into metal making it harder and stronger than normal [/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td] Explode      [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] 4 [/td]

[td] 4 [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] Causes the selected target to explode. The greater the strength in Fire, the bigger the explosion. The higher the skill, the bigger the object that can be affected. [/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td] Combust      [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] 4 [/td]

[td] 4 [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] Makes an object explode into flame. A thread of Spirit is woven into the object, followed by increasing weaves of Fire. [/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td] Drown (Internal)      [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] 4 [/td]

[td] 4 [/td]

[td] Creates amounts of water in the lungs, drowning the person.  [/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td] Drown (External)      [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] 3 [/td]

[td] The channeller Weaves a field of Water around their opponent’s head or body, completely encasing them, effectively cutting of their air. The target ultimately drowns. (Also Drowning, but no Spirit used) [/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td] Chain Lightning      [/td]

[td] 3 [/td]

[td] 2 [/td]

[td] 3 [/td]

[td] 4 [/td]

[td] 3 [/td]

[td] Lightning that strikes from one object to another [/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td] Dehydration      [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] - [/td]

[td] 5 [/td]

[td] 3 [/td]

[td] Decreases the amount of water in a person’s body using a Weave of Spirit [/td]

[/tr]

[tr]

[td]      [/td]

[td]  [/td]

[td]  [/td]

[td]  [/td]

[td]  [/td]

[td]  [/td]

[td] [/td]

[/tr]

[/table]

 

IMO, Spirit is the link to all life.  Healing requires spirit.  Spirit soul, whatever you want to call it, is a fifth element in the uninverse, with out it you would not have life.

 

At least that is my take on it.

Hmm... Actually, Mat's view could explain how Deathgates work. They'd break down a person to Spirit aand 'rebuild' them at the other end. Given that Shadowspawn have no spirit (the True Power takes care of that, making them constructs effectively) there'd be nothing to break them down into and they'd die.

 

Just giving my two cents again... ^^;

To me, Spirit is the neutral, non-physical element. With many weaves, it stablizes(Like random weaves with traces of Spirit). With others, it delves into people and other ideas (Dream warding, healing, etc)

 

Just my take, might not make sense. :P

the name itself indicate what matalina has in view, though in a more broken down sence of that explanation...i always seen it as the binding glue

I see it as a non-elemental element.  I always thought Energy might be a better name, but it doesn't sound right.  Too powerful I guess. 

 

As far as it's use, I think that Spirit could be added to just about any weave to dampen or enhance the effect.  A buffer of a sort.

Jehaine- I had always thought that Death Gates were just regular Travelling Gateways that you could fling at enemies. The sharp edges of the gates cut people apart and/or sent them far, far away.

They are, but Shadowspawn can't go through them. She was just explaining a possible reason why. :D

i belive the only place death gates were used was on spawn..as it only was discovered in KoD

The deathgates sliced straight through them, cutting them all in half, thats what killed them. The funny thing was even if they had managed to somehow jump into the gateway in one piece, they'd be killed anyway since they can't survive the trip :P

 

Jehaine's idea sounds pretty good. Star-Trekky, but good  ;D

  • Author

Our friends at the Gen WoT Disc have some interesting things to say  :D

 

Here's the link, if you want to read it all: http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,37811.0.html

 

I'm copying some of the more pertinent bits here:

 

 

Luckers:

 

My point would be however that souls in this world are tangible--we see them being manipulated, being ripped, being destroyed. That makes them as physical is an electromagnetic wave--the power of Fire directly creates electromagnetic waves.

 

Creating some form of metaphysical distinction between the reality of the soul, and the world as we percieve it makes sense in our world. Solids, Liquids, Gases and Enery provide the four powers--and within our world there is no quantifiable method of judging the soul. Thus it could be drawn that the four are seperate from the one. But, within the World of the Wheel the Soul is a quantifiable reality--dreamers manipulate them constantly, Machin Shin consumes them, Mordeth survived as one, the Dark One recycles them--we've even seen ter'angreal trap them.

 

They are therefore quantifiable and in no way distinct from earth, air, fire or water.

 

Spirit--within the context of this story--is but one of the five powers--an aspect of the power that resonates with 'soul' related matter. Just as Earth resonates with solid molecular structers, and water with liquid, and fire with energy and air with gas.

 

I'd relate it to the fabric of the wheel--spirit seems to be the very essence of the Age Lace, shifting weather patterns would involve a dramatic resequencing of the flow of the pattern.

 

Of course that is guesswork--in the long run we don't have enough scientfic evidence to say how the 'spirit' element influences the world--which is significant, because once again we are not talking of the ephemeral 'soul' of our philosophical spectrum, we are speaking of an energy as viable and present as light. In our world spirit is philosophical, in the Wheel its physical (as in bound by the laws of physics). Perhaps metaphysical and physical would do better than philosophical and physical.

 

And we just don't understand enough about its physical existance.

 

 

SqueeEGA:

 

aside from traveling, and the deathgates...sort of i guess...all the other weaves mentioned in the books that include spirit that you listed above are done w/ respect to another individual.  healing or hurting, warding...they have this common thread to living things.  it could be fixing a broken leg or stopping the transmission of their sounds.  even traveling is intended to move an individual or a group from point A to point B. 

 

all of these weaves seem to have a 'living thing' commonality.

 

 

Hybrid:

 

That's a good point, assuming the trend is never contradicted in the books.  If you tie this into what Luckers was saying, any actions which attempts to specifically change a living being which has a soul must deal with both the physical body and the soul, so Spirit would be required for manipulating the soul.  At least, that's the theory I just came up with.

 

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