{"id":1784,"date":"2025-08-30T21:38:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T01:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/?p=1784"},"modified":"2025-10-13T01:22:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T05:22:42","slug":"chapter-36-among-the-elders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/?p=1784","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 36: Among the Elders"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"tldr\"><p><em>Machin Shin<\/em> is also blocking the Waygate at Stedding Tsofu, so plan B is to use a Portal Stone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Look, I understand wanting to give the Ogier some dimension and backstory. I really do. But where the fuck is the urgency? We&#8217;ve established that whoever blows the Horn of Valere is <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><em>biometrically linked<\/em><\/span> to it for life. Considering this, if I were Rand, my tolerance for bullshit would be at an all-time low. But everyone seems perfectly content to scratch their balls and go wherever the Ogier elders want to lead them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/brainondrugs.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1789 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/brainondrugs.jpg?resize=300%2C225&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"A frame from the &quot;This is your brain on drugs&quot; PSA. \" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/brainondrugs.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/brainondrugs.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/brainondrugs.jpg?w=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Padan Fain could be putting on a rendition of <em>Yankee Doodle Dandy<\/em> right now&#8230; but yes please, elders, let&#8217;s have an intervention! They parade an Ogier out of the back rooms and introduce him as Trayal, the last of their number to have gone into the Ways. Trayal is a drooling husk of a man, and the elders apparently keep him around to serve as a warning. It&#8217;s almost as lame as the &#8220;This is your brain on drugs&#8221; campaign from the 1980s.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>THIS IS YOUR BRAIN.<\/p>\n<p>THIS IS YOUR BRAIN AFTER THE WAYS.<\/p>\n<p>ANY QUESTIONS?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Dude, we&#8217;ve already been in the Ways. We&#8217;ve already seen <em>Machin<\/em> fucking\u00a0<em>Shin.<\/em> If you guys really want to do something useful, I hear there&#8217;s a Waygate up by Fal Dara that <a href=\"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/?p=1095\">needs a new door<\/a>. Otherwise, are we done here?<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, by the time the group gets to the Waygate and opens it,\u00a0<em>Machin Shin<\/em> is waiting there as well. Then Hurin, ever the idea man, reminds everyone that when he, Loial, and Rand were in the mirror universe, they traveled a hundred leagues in just two days. Without any other option to reach Toman Head fast enough, they head to the nearby Portal Stone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Machin Shin is also blocking the Waygate at Stedding Tsofu, so plan B is to use a Portal Stone. Look, I understand wanting to give the Ogier some dimension and backstory. I really do. But where the fuck is the urgency? We&#8217;ve established that whoever blows the Horn of Valere is biometrically linked to it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-great-hunt","book-the-great-hunt"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1784"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2675,"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions\/2675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wot.jesse-carroll.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}