Road to Tar Valon : The Wheel of Time Podcast

Today we are wrapping up our history of the Forsaken.  We start with Traci’s favorite among the Chosen, Lanfear, and wrap up with the Spider herself, Moghedien.  We also respond to a message from WishBrother from the Weaves of the Wheel community and discuss a question that piqued our interest on Twitter posted by Forsaken Bob asking what people thought WoT’s chances of doing as well as GoT.

Thanks so much for joining us on this stretch of the Road to Tar Valon!  We love making this show every week, and always look forward to hearing from our listeners.  Thank you everyone for showing your support!  We launch shows every Wednesday and hope that you will continue to join us.  Next week we return with our New Spring recap, and we will be covering 4 chapters,  We also had a nice little chat around the passing of Robert Jordan and were lucky enough to get to use a snippet of a video clip from our new friend Lauren at Unraveling the Pattern.  He makes some amazing videos and you should definitely check him out and subscribe to his Youtube channel if you haven’t already. Thank you so much, Lauren!

Let us know what you thought of our content, correct us, send us things we may have missed to our email: [email protected] You can find Amber on Twitter @Road to Tar Valon and Traci went through a Twitter rebirth!  You can now find her @MistressLaras, or Laras, Mistress of the Kitchens.  There’s a story there, but we’ll get to that another time.  We are on Instagram, roadtotarvalon.  We would love it if you would subscribe to us on Spotify, Anchor, Apple podcast or anywhere else you listen.  You can find more information on our webpage, anchor.fm/roadtotarvalon.  And if you have the anchor app, you can leave us a voice message that we can use in upcoming episodes.  Just let us know in the message if that’s something you are comfortable with or not.

So until next week,

Thanks for joining us!

Safe travels!

And walk in the light!

What do you think of the Forsaken, the Chosen Ones, the Shadowsouled? This week we go SPOILER FREE on a dig through the history of the Forsaken.  Because, let’s be honest, they play a huge role in the books but their back story, for the most part, has to be pieced together throughout the series.  While this has its own level of fun, sometimes it’s just downright confusing.  Traci and Amber have an irreverent romp through the ins and outs of who is who and how they became the main adversaries to be wary of in the series. 

But, holy wow, we were not expecting to take over three hours to record this episode!  There was just too much to talk about.  So we made the episode a two parter and hope you’ll come back next week when we start off with Traci’s favorite among the Forsaken, Lanfear. 

Part of the conversation we had was in regards to an unofficial theme song for Ba’alzamon that’s hanging out on YouTube.  The channel is Department of Unrepresented Silence.  We did slip a snippet of the song into our Ishamael/Ba’alzamon discussion, but for the full version, you’ll need to follow the link. 

If you have questions or comments for us, you can email us at [email protected] or reach us on Twitter; Amber is @RoadtoTarValon and Traci is @wannabeblue2.  We are also on instagram under Road to Tar Valon.

Ever wonder what happened before the adventure of the Wheel of Time took off in The Eye of the World?  How did Moiraine find her way to the Two Rivers?  What was she like as an accepted?  And what about Lan?  How was Moiraine able to bond a warrior like him as her warder? In this episode Amber and Traci dig into the first two chapters of New Spring, the prequel to the Wheel of Time series, and look to find answers to these questions and more.

The first half of the episode will be spoiler free, but the second half will be filled with observations and spoilers.  Included with these spoilers is a discussion around a particular ter’angreal mentioned last episode that a listener encouraged us to check out.  We did and it was not disappointing!  If you’re curious and have read through the path of daggers, check out the discussion on the Crimson Rod ter’angreal on Dragonmount.com.  We also discussed the new actresses announced to the Wheel of Time cast in the latter half of the episode, just to make sure we don’t unintentionally spoil anything for our listeners.  But, in case you’re wondering, we are in full support of the choices made for Min Farshaw (Kae Alexander), and Siuan Sanche (Sophie Okonedo) and can’t wait to see their portrayals of these characters.

We also want to apologize for the sound quality on this episode.  It’s not quite what we wanted it to be, but new equipment, new software, and the distance between us played against us this time.  We have since solved our sound issues and next episode will be in line with the quality we hope to move forward with.  We are new to this and learning as we go, so we really appreciate your patience and support as we take on these new technical challenges.

A quick correction as well!  When Amber is discussing the hammer and anvil tactic discussed in chapter one, she accidentally said the position she was talking about would be the hammer, but it is actually the anvil.  If you hear anything that we may have goofed on (especially pronunciations!) please get in touch with us and let us know!  We really want to make this a community oriented podcast and positive feedback is always welcomed and appreciated.

Hello friends!  We are thrilled you've chosen to join us on our journey down the Road to Tar Valon. This is a Wheel of Time podcast recapping the books, uncovering fan theories, discussing the upcoming TV show on Amazon prime, and unpacking the many intricacies of this incredible series. In this episode we focused on the magic system that runs central to the series along with the groups and individuals created around the magic system. We do this for fun and encourage you to join us in building an engaged community around this well loved series.   

In case you were wondering, Amber mentioned an app early in the episode that allows you to enter the book you are on that will give you information without including spoilers from future books. The app is called The Wheel of Time Compendium.  Definitely worth checking out. 

We will be back next week with a recap of chapters one and two of New Spring.  The first half of the episode will be spoiler free, the second half will not be.  Don't worry!  We will make sure to let you know when the spoilers start rolling.  We don't want to ruin the series for you! 

Until next time, stay safe and walk in the light. 

A brief introduction of your hosts, Traci and Amber, as well as a glimpse of the Wheel of Time content we cover.  Come join us on our journey!