Skip to content
Answering Your Questions About Reactor: Right here.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter. Everything in one handy email.
When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

Blog The Wheel of Time

What Is Your Favorite Useless Random Fact From The Wheel Of Time?

By

Published on July 15, 2021

Illustration by Todd Cameron Hamilton
White Tower Wheel of Time
Illustration by Todd Cameron Hamilton

Our favorite random, useless fact from The Wheel of Time–today at least, before the medication kicks in–is that the bad guys refuse to teach their underlings about elevators.

(Spoilers ahead for Book 10, we suppose!)

This has no bearing on the plot. At all. Nothing would change in the series. It never needed to be brought up. And yet there it is. Straight out of Crossroads of Twilight.

We were idly discussing science fiction and fantasy in our work Slack, like one does, and thought that perhaps we had dreamed this moment? But no, there it is, and it’s even better than we remembered. Not only does elevator technology come up (in regards to the highest tower in all of Randland, naturally) but here we see Our Favorite Black Ajah (at least until Book 12) Alviarin Sedai recounting how her Forsaken master specifically taunts her with that knowledge in order to make stair-climbing feel even worse.

And what’s even better is this is entirely within Mesaana’s characterization as the most evil teacher in the world!

And what’s even better BETTER is that Aes Sedai have giant mechanical chains across the harbors of Tar Valon, which would mean they already know how to create and use counterweights to lift things.

A big thank you goes out to Will Frank and friend for finding the specific passage this occurs in! We were going a bit mad without it.

And now we have to know…what’s your favorite random useless fact from the world of The Wheel of Time?

About the Author

About Author Mobile

Tor.com

Author

Learn More About Tor.com

See All Posts About

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
41 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments