: One thing that occurres to me is that it seems every Knot
: we know of we have only seen go one place. The
: Cloudspine Knot only goes to Madrigal. The Covenant
: Knot only goes to Madrigal. So I would think that
: maybe Knots are permanant links between two and only
: two places - except that Madrigal seems to be part of
: a three-way link. Maybe Madrigal has two Knots?
I don't know that you can be sure of this. The game only shows the knots used relatively few times, and just because they happened to be in the directions they were doesn't mean that that's the only way they work. I'd say that given the flexibility demonstrated by the Rhia'non knot, and by the Cloudspine knot (Deceiver porting troops in from where?), that they could be used in many ways.
: The other thing that bothers me about all of this is the
: Rhi'anon Knot. Alric pulled people through to it - but
: from where? Can powerfull archmages use Knots to pull
: people from non-Knot locations?
Yep!
: But it seems Alric can
: teleport people without even using Knots - see Out Of
: The Barrier and The Last Battle. So why even bother
: with Knots?
Mb they just make things easier - he doesn't have to think as hard & fry his addled brain. Half the legion thinks he's crazy as it is ;)
: One possible explanation could be that an archmage like
: Alric doesn't need the intact machinery of a Knot to
: transport people, he just needs proximity to the
: Knot-nexus-place. Perhaps there was once a Knot on
: that hill in the Barrier, which he used to teleport
: everyone. But then, what about The Last Battle? He
: could have been close enough to the Rhi'anon Knot to
: use it maybe - but then why the "come closer,
: quickly!" in the Barrier?
He didn't want some stray myrmidons to come along for the journey. As happened when Soulblighter trapped the Legion inside the Tain ... half the dark army came in with them.
It seems Alric has to be close to the troops he's teleporting, either when he's sending them (Barrier, Last Battle), or bringing them in (Pools of Iron). Maybe in Pools he just wanted to make sure one of the myrmidon packs or Trow weren't around to chop up the light forces as they arrived, hence he went to the knot in person.
It seems commonly believed that the Smiths of Muirthemne built the Tain. How do you get in the Tain? By teleporting. How do knots work? The same way. Not a coincidence I think.
I personally doubt the Smiths were banished to the Tain. To teleport people somewhere you have to know who they are & where they are, and probably get them altogether in one place before an archmage can dispatch them. I find this improbable considering how secretive & elusive the Smiths were. Its more likely that life became too awkward for them in Muirthemne, so they just suspended their activities for a little while. Over time, they lost contact with each other, members died taking their knowledge with them, and the society basically fizzled out of its own accord. Mb. They could still be out there, somewhere...
*cheers*
-Iron
