Grasp and Release

Grasping and releasing the One Power is something a member of the Aes Sedai will do very often. In fact, it will be done so often as to become a very trivial part of one's channeling emotes.

In Robert Jordan's world, it could take weeks or even months for a girl to become competent and embracing the One Power, depending on her natural aptitude for it and whether or not she had sparked. For most people, roleplaying these weeks or months of trying to embrace, but failing, is boring to say the least. If someone actually wants to roleplay such things, that is her decision. For most, however, this will be part of their character's assumed history. If the play can demonstrate a competence with emoting this, it will be assumed that her character has spent the necessary time and practice. She may request to be tested on this whenever she feels ready. If she passes, she will have her grasp and release skills set to 70%.

In the books, many different relaxation and visualization techniques are described for getting into the proper state of mind to embrace Saidar. These can be useful if one is actually RPing the lesson. However, they will likley never be used outside this lesson. Since it is generally accepted that one should not put thoughts into one's emotes, there is little purpose to these techniques other than to give one background information and perhaps aid in the feel of Jordan's rich world. For the sake of brevity, only the rosebud technique will be discussed here.

The student should visualize herself as a tightly closed rosebud with Saidar as the sun. She should imagine turning towards the sun and slowly opening her petals to soak in the sunlight, allowing Saidar to flow into her. The important concept in this is the passivity of the student. Saidar should never be forced. One has to surrender herself to Saidar to control it. Women do not grasp the one power, they embrace it. They do not force it to their bidding, they gently guide it while allowing it to do their bidding. This is all useful background material, but difficult to use in an emote. An emote should only include those things which can be sensed by the audience. The Wheel of Time world does not have telepathy, so the audience cannot sense that the student is imagining herself as a rosebud. Her facial expressions and posture can be seen. Any noises she makes can be heard. Other female channelers can feel her channel and see a soft golden glow around her when she holds the power. The intensity of the glow will increase or decrease with the amount of Power she holds. These are things that can be included in the emote. An example:

Jane takes a deep breath. As she slowly releases it, her face takes on a serene expression, muscles relaxing and smoothing. For those women present who can channel, a soft, golden nimbus surrounds her as she is slowly filled with Saidar.

The previous example is not a bad emote for someone just learning to use the One Power. Embracing is still a task which requires time and concentration. As the student gains more practice, the Power will come more easily. Eventually the student will be able to embrace without thought, forming weaves almost instantly after embracing. The act of embracing will become a rather trivial part of the channeling emote. An example:

Jane is surrounded by a golden aura, visible to other women who can channel, which grows brighter as she draws more deeply upon Saidar.

Releasing the One Power is rather simple. One merely lets it go. The only difficulty is in wanting to let it go. That will be addressed more fully later when dangers of channeling are discussed. An example of releasing:

The golden aura around Jane dims and then goes out as she releases Saidar with a soft sigh and a slightly wistful expression on her face.

Channeling has some inherent dangers. Saidar is addictive. Holding the Power fills one with a sense of well-being and ecstasy. There is a sweetness to Saidar that causes one to want to draw more and more of it. There is a point where the pleasure starts to turn to pain. This is the limit of what one can safely hold. Drawing any more runs the risk of burning out, losing the ability to channel forever, or dying. This same sweetness that causes one to want to draw more deeply on Saidar also causes one to not want to part from it. If one does not gradually build up a tolerance, she could become addicted, wanting nothing but to hold Saidar. The extreme stages of this addiction lead to headaches, then comas, then death. This danger is one of the reasons that novices are not allowed to channel except under direct supervision during lessons.

Channeling while fatigued is dangerous, as well. If tired, a channeler can lose control of the Power with results from merely losing their grasp to burning out and dying. Channeling while tired is further complicated by the fact that channeling is in itself a tiring activity, a deceptively tiring one. The rush that one feels from holding the Power makes it difficult to notice how much it is fatiquing her.

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws