Enter the Waygate and roam the Ways of the
Wheel of Time archives


Elder Hage will be with you, and will translate the directions on the guideposts into URLs. There are several paths to choose from, yet the major path leads down to the archived data plundered from lurkers and dreamers in Tel'aran'rhiod, called Usenet by some infidels.

Hage whispers to you: If you haven't been there yet, look at the Dreamer's Guide to Tel'aran'rhiod and the Short Introduction to Technical Aspects of Dreaming. Most of all, be careful where you tread, for the World-Wide Ways are haunted by Machin Shin.

Meanwhile, Hage has found the Guidepost to this entry, and offers the following choices to you:

Guidepost

  • Dreamer's Guide to Tel'aran'rhiod
  • Humor
  • General Information
  • Lyrics
  • Surveys & Contests
  • Jordanites
  • Other useful WWW sites

  • The FAQ

    So, you want to be a Dreamer. As with anything, this need some learning. Dreamwalking veterans have set up some information on it, under supervision by FAQueen Pam Korda. This is a must for anyone trying to enter discussion on T'A'R.

    Read The New and Improved HTML'ized FAQ! (post-CoS)
    Read The pre-CoS FAQ (non-HTML) here.

    Note that this document brings you right in the middle of all Dreaming techniques as shown in the sixth Book Of Jordan, Lord of Chaos. If you haven't been introduced to the mysteries of it, you should be aware that reading the FAQ might lead to spoiling the Sixth Book of the Creator for you. Proceed on own risk!
    If you aren't initiated to Lord of Chaos yet, you can try the older guide, which is based on the Fifth Book of The Creator, The Fires of Heaven. It's not bad, but has been proven to be obsolete in some aspects by the more advanced Sixth Book.
    Even earlier guides have vanished into history, and can be found only by using antique access methods and comparing with the date of revelation of The Fifth Book (October 1993).
    As always, there are some people who want to rush in (not very safe, btw): Be assured that horrible things (like getting called a newbie) might happen, if you didn't read any of the guides. The Short Introduction to technical aspects of Dreaming will provide some clues how to avoid ugly situations in T'A'R. If you violate the rules, you might get bitten by Hopper or some other member of the pack to prevent further damage. Remember, T'A'R can be very dangerous!

    Sometimes, things get too complicated to include them in the FAQ in their entirety. Aaron Bergman put together a list of some of these things.


    Humor

    Sometimes, humor finds its way to T'A'R. Since dreamers often refer to these things, here's a collection: To find your way into the Dark, read the concise thesis on topics any Darkfriend (or wannabe) should be aquainted with: The Dark One's Dictionary has been prepared by Joe "Uno" Shaw and Bill Garrett.
    Bill Garrett has dedicated a page on his WWW site to Humor. Look there for some bon mots from T'A'R. Some answers to many questions you never(?) would have asked can be found in the Foolishly Asked Questions List (FAQE) by Michael Thompson.
    T'A'R hasn't always been as it is today. In the elder days, when all was worse and we were but few dreamers here, Don Harlow had some prophetic insights on the development of T'A'R.

    General Information

    Facts, everybody wants facts. Here are some, collected and researched by several people:
    There's a quite thorough compendium of the
    Old Tongue, a (though still fragmentary) Aiel Guide, and a list of known people from the Two Rivers.
    Lately, so many Darkfriends could be found that they dared to make their application form available for both Dreamers and Lurkers.
    However, not all information sprung out by the Dreamers is true; much should be taken cum grano salis. As both encouraging and warning example, the Great Hoax is listed here.

    There has been quite a discussion on military issues in The Fires of Heaven. You can read a list of armies that are known to be in Randland, and a list of military movements in the forefield of Lord of Chaos.

    To show you what advanced Dreamers are capable of (and perhaps make you rethink your decision to join us), take a look at our loony pet theories compiled by Courtenay Footman.

    Furthermore, there is a Glossary of terms from The Wheel of Time. This will be coming soon in HTML to a WWW server near you.


    Lyrics

    When passing the honorable task of maintaining the most sacred of Net.Jordanites' documents, the FAQ Dowager, Erica, dedicated this poem to the new FAQueen Pam. Ruchira Datta's trivia contest provoked Don Harlow to dedicate a song to Mistress Madwen. The Gleewoman in our midst, Erica, recordered Jak'o Shadows for us to hear.

    You can find more lyrics in the FAQ, and in the Dark One's Dictionary.

    Here you can find some Filk songs inspired by The Wheel of Time.


    Surveys & Contests

    The Surveys

    There have been three surveys of the Jordan readers on rec.arts.sf.written. They have been conducted by Judy Ghirardelli and John Novak. You can read the results of the second one here, or obtain it from the archive via anonymous ftp. Coming soon to a waygate near you: the Ghirardelli-Novak III Survey.

    The Contests

    There are a lot of imaginative people on T'A'R who cannot wait for the sacred Books of Jordan, and have to do their own research on the Mysteries of Creation. Look at the results, wonder about the Insights, smirk about the mistakes, and take a laugh for the ingrained humor. There are tries on the Contents of The Fires of Heaven, on the events in the Two Rivers, and on the Plots of Chaos.


    Jordanites - Dreamers, Lurkers, and Froupies

    There is some information available on other Dreamers and Lurkers whom you may encounter in your ways through T'A'R. Some even have their own Guideposts in the World-Wide Ways. (This is just a Guidepost Hage set up to direct you to the right paths.)
    To increase the recognition value, there are pictures of some Dreamers (and of some collective Dreaming sessions, aka DarkFriend Socials). There are pictures of those times when the Creator made some miraculous appearances among the faithful (aka Signings), too.
    There are separate pages available (from other sites) for the DC/Baltimore Darkfriend Socials and the Texas Darkfriends. If you want to be known as Dreamer or Lurker, contact The Cabal {TINC}.


    Meanwhile, Hage managed to decrypt the links to other Guideposts. Some of these might bring you into other worlds, never seen here.

    Other interesting WWW pages for Jordanites

    There are many other interesting sites, but you can find most of them in the SF resource guide, so please look at it. Please tell The Cabal {TINC}, if you know of pointers to sites we should include here: We appreciate any kind of feedback.

    We hope you enjoy reading!


    Waygate was founded by Helmut Geyer, formerly at "Helmut.Geyer@IWR.Uni-Heidelberg.de" (but now unreachable). Helmut performed the initial HTML conversion, and maintained the site through 1995. It is now maintained by The Cabal {There Is No Cabal}, "wot@linuxmafia.com".