Author Topic: Ashfalls  (Read 21330 times)

Andrew the Great

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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #45 on: May 08, 2008, 12:23:36 AM »
Well, if we're going to get all technical about it, the oaths can't be broken until removed, which makes them no longer oaths. And the oaths really don't create a false sense of security, as they are so easily gotten around...

Also, this thread is about the ashmounts, remember? We moved from ash to plants to mist to aes sedai to elantris. I vote we move back a few steps.  Is it possible that plants aren't green due to ash blocking light spectrums from entering? Say there is LESS green light getting through....this would mean that there is less green light to reflect, and therefore they would be able to appear more br0wnish? The ones that get more green light are yellowish, so this kind of makes sense...
« Last Edit: May 08, 2008, 12:32:05 AM by Andrew the Great »
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Czanos

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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #46 on: May 08, 2008, 02:18:30 AM »
I always got the impression that the plants were all brownish or yellow or what have you because they were dying from lack of sunlight. As in the ash blocked enough sunlight to prevent chlorophyll from functioning, depriving plants of their green color. The most hardy of plants can still survive (with the aid of some evolution) in low sunlight conditions, but it would be like a perpetual winter/autumn, only instead of cold weather killing plants it's lack of sunlight. Plants who get enough sunlight can still grow the yellow and red pigments to gain food, which is why there are yellow and red plants, etc. . .
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darxbane

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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #47 on: May 08, 2008, 09:31:59 PM »
I definitely agree with the perpetual autumn part.  I still think TLR's steps to prevent Ruin's return caused part of the world to freeze, for lack of a better word.
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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #48 on: May 08, 2008, 11:28:39 PM »
That sounds about right. I think that makes the most sense of anything we've said so far....
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Vintage

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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #49 on: May 09, 2008, 12:41:31 AM »
I was rereading and find something that made me think ( yeah, that happens sometimes lol ). I was under the impression that the ashfalls were constant. Well, it's not the case.

Quote from: MB2, P.59-60
That was nice, for a light ashfall had begun, and occasional flakes of ash floated down from the sky.

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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #50 on: May 09, 2008, 05:47:18 PM »
Either way, there would be a ton of volcanic smog in the air. Which is great, because I came up with an explanation for why the sun is red. Apparently, smoke in the atmosphere will make the sun appear red. I confirmed this today as a lot of people were burning stuff, and the sun was red. My science teacher confirms that smoke makes the sun appear red.

Six Volcanoes (or however many Ashmounts there are) would provide plenty of smoke for that to work. Even if ash doesn't fall constantly, it happens very frequently.

So, this makes me believe the brown plants and the red sun are really just effects of the Ashmounts. The Lord Ruler certainly doesn't have magic powers which made the sun change colors. I don't think the Well of Ascension has enough power to affect celestial bodies thousands of miles away :P. But Ashmounts could be done.

Now, this brings up a very important question. Why Ashmounts? They have to be important somehow, beyond the mere fact that they are depressing. There is always another secret, so what is the secret with these volcanoes?
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Peter Ahlstrom

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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #51 on: May 09, 2008, 10:16:26 PM »
What else happens when you've got a lot of ash in the air?

(Actually this was discussed on the boards after MB1 came out and before most of you arrived.)
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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #52 on: May 09, 2008, 11:49:44 PM »
Brandon gave enough clues on this that I figured it out from reading the first book.  So it is possible to reason it out.
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Vintage

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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #53 on: May 10, 2008, 12:59:31 AM »
I was never good at science so...

hum... ash would raise the general temperature and burn out oxygene. A plant needs oxygen and it has less... Partial answer from my very partial knowledge. Don't tell me I have to go back to school ! I'll go when I retire promise. But poor things ! In the morning, the skaa would come and clear out the ash from the plant so it could not breath during the whole night ! Never mind the sun !

Moreover, I don't believe the Ashmounts are to be important only because there is a capital letter to the name. If you can find me a mountain that has no name whatsoever on earth, I'll show you a mountain that nobody ever saw. Mind you, I do think the Ashmounts are important. Mainly because those volcanoes are going to erupt in MB3  ;) and we're going to see lots of awful things.
« Last Edit: May 10, 2008, 01:02:06 AM by Vintage »

Pink Bunkadoo

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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #54 on: May 10, 2008, 05:48:37 PM »
What else happens when you've got a lot of ash in the air?

Lung cancer?
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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #55 on: May 10, 2008, 07:49:54 PM »
I'm pretty sure that ashfalls also occur throughout the empire, am I correct?  Just having ash and smoke in the sky would not turn plants brown, and all the ash on the ground should make the plants more healthy.  I could be wrong, but I was fairly sure that places around volcanoes are very fertile because of the ash they produce.

The lack of wind is another interesting thing, so far in the books, the most we have seen is a light breeze, no violent windstorms or the like, it also rains very rarely from what I have seen, but that could be just because the central dominance is very arid and dry (besides the mist).

What if the Lord Ruler somehow aged the world (and universe or solar system or whatever) when he recreated the  earth.  Maybe the sun turned red because it became so old.

What if the ashmounts and the mists are both vehicles of Ruin.  The only reason they are like Preservation is because of the constantscy.   I still hold my theory of opposites, Ruin and PResrvation using eachothers opposites to trap eachother: Ruin trapped Preservation in the ever changing mist (before the mists were constant, remember, the mist spirit was around before the mist at the time of the deepness, and was in Terris, where the deepness had not reached yet), and Presrvation trapped Ruin using hte power of creation held at the well of acsension.  Ruin created the afterward, to force someone to release him, and started al lthat prophecy stuff, and Preservation tried it's best to stop him.

I think the ashmounts are ruin's new vehicel for destruction, what's more destructive than a bunch of violent volcanoes and earthquakes?
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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #56 on: May 11, 2008, 03:42:26 AM »
I think that theory of yours, Comatose, makes a lot of sense. It combines these Ashfalls with also the spirits of Ruin and Preservation that fits in with this 1,000 year cycle which we have seen.
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darxbane

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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #57 on: May 12, 2008, 02:17:53 PM »
What else happens when you've got a lot of ash in the air?

The sun's heat gets blocked, causing the temperature to cool. When the the Krakatowa volcano erupted, the overall temperature of the earth cooled by approximately 2 degrees for about a year.   Mt. St. Helens had a similar affect, but on a smaller scale.  Also, acid rain occurs, which ruins plant life.  Finally, the air itself is toxic.  Mt Kilauha in Hawaii has had a new gas vent open, and it is causing a haze over much of the island, causing health problems amongst the natives there, as well as killing some plant life.

Does anyone in the story ever complain about the heat?  I can't remember.    I only remember them complaining about the cold.
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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #58 on: May 12, 2008, 02:41:48 PM »
I don't remember reading about weather complaints... I have to ask for my MB 1 back...

Czanos

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Re: Ashfalls
« Reply #59 on: May 12, 2008, 10:39:47 PM »
Not sure if it really fits in here, but I just thought I'd mention that life in this world is confined to the poles. It says so on page 570 of Well of Ascension, when Vin has the power of the well. I'm thinking maybe the Lord Ruler did as much as he could to make metals plentiful, basing his empire at magnetic strongpoints, creating giant volcanoes to spew up rock and metal, a few other things. It makes sense that he'd want lots of fuel for his empire.
I came because I heard stories, tales of a lengendary man.
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A man called Hope.