Linking Information

Author: Arthaine Dasin

Linking is a process used by channelers to create a flow of the One Power which is stronger than that which can be managed by a single channeler, without sacrificing the focus of the flow. A number of channelers link together to form a "circle", which can channel more strongly than any of the members can alone.

Composition

There are limits on the composition of the circle. There must be a certain number of women in the circle, and for larger circles there must also be a certain number of men. Men cannot form a circle without women, but up to thirteen women can link without any men. After that, with at least one man, an additional thirteen women can join the circle for a total of twenty-seven in the circle (twenty-six women, one man). Another man enables the total to go to thirty-six (thirty-four women, two men), a third man can bring the total to forty-five (forty-two women, three men), and so on, each man enabling an additional eight women to join the link, until the circle reaches seventy-two. Seventy-two is the maximum circle size, no matter how many more men are added. This is only a minimum number of men, however, and other combinations are possible, as long as there are enough women to maintain the link. The constraint is that there must always be at least one more woman than there are men, with three exceptions: one man linked with one woman, two men linked with one woman, and two men linked with two women.

Strength

The channeling strength of the circle is not as strong as the strengths of all of the members put together. It does, however, depend on the members. Stronger channelers obviously contribute more strength to the circle, as does anyone who is channeling through an angreal or sa'angreal. As well, larger circles, with more members, are stronger than smaller circles. Finally, the greatest possible balance of male and female channelers makes the strongest circle. In other words, potentially the strongest combination is a circle of seventy-two, with thirty-five men and thirty-seven women (maximum number of members, and greatest possible balance).

Leadership

The main advantage of a linked circle is not in its strength, however, since the strength of all the members combined is much greater. Unfortunately, without linking individual channelers cannot focus all their flows into a single, carefully directed weave. This makes linking an important method for precisely directing very strong flows. The direction for the flows is provided by one of the members of the circle, and is called leading, focusing, or guiding. When the circle contains seventy-two members, or when it only contains one man and one woman, or for most circles of up to thirteen that have more than one man, the leader must be one of the men. Except for these combinations, one of the women must lead when there is a minimum number of men.

Aside from these situations, the leader of the circle may be either a man or a woman. The woman (only women can initiate the link) who initiates and forms the link does not have to remain the leader, since she can pass the leadership on to any other member who is acceptable as a leader. In a group of thirteen women, it is possible for one member to take the leadership without having it passed to her, at least if the previous leader has not had much experience and/or is weaker in the Power.

Linking in the Age of Legends

During the Age of Legends, linking was used far more often than it is now, and so channelers then probably had a much greater understanding of how best to utilize this technique than we do now. Size and composition of the circle varied for each task. Some tasks might require smaller circles, some required larger. Each purpose also seems to have required different combinations of men and women. The members themselves would be chosen for specific strengths in the Five Powers, and the leader would most likely be chosen for skill in weaving flows.

List of all Possible Circles

Men	Women	Total	Leader
0	2-13	2-13	Woman
1	1	2	Man
1	2-12	3-13	Either
1	13-26	14-27	Woman
2	1-11	3-13	Usually Man
2	12-26	14-28	Either
2	27-34	29-36	Woman
3	4-10	7-13	Usually Man
3	11-34	14-37	Either
3	35-42	38-45	Woman
4	5-9	9-13	Usually Man
4	10-42	14-46	Either
4	43-50	47-54	Woman
5	6-8	11-13	Usually Man
5	9-50	14-55	Either
5	51-58	56-63	Woman
6	7	13	Usually Man
6	8-58	14-64	Either
6	59-65	65-71	Woman
6	66	72	Man
7	8-64	15-71	Either
7	65	72	Man
8	9-63	17-71	Either
8	64	72	Man
9	10-62	19-71	Either
9	63	72	Man
10	11-61	21-71	Either
10	62	72	Man
11	12-60	23-71	Either
11	61	72	Man
12	13-59	25-71	Either
12	60	72	Man
13	14-58	27-71	Either
13	59	72	Man
14	15-57	29-71	Either
14	58	72	Man
15	16-56	31-71	Either
15	57	72	Man
16	17-55	33-71	Either
16	56	72	Man
17	18-54	35-71	Either
17	55	72	Man
18	19-53	37-71	Either
18	54	72	Man
19	20-52	39-71	Either
19	53	72	Man
20	21-51	41-71	Either
20	52	72	Man
21	22-50	43-71	Either
21	51	72	Man
22	23-49	45-71	Either
22	50	72	Man
23	24-48	47-71	Either
23	49	72	Man
24	25-47	49-71	Either
24	48	72	Man
25	26-46	51-71	Either
25	47	72	Man
26	27-45	53-71	Either
26	46	72	Man
27	28-44	55-71	Either
27	45	72	Man
28	29-43	57-71	Either
28	44	72	Man
29	30-42	59-71	Either
29	43	72	Man
30	31-41	61-71	Either
30	42	72	Man
31	32-40	63-71	Either
31	41	72	Man
32	33-39	65-71	Either
32	40	72	Man
33	34-38	67-71	Either
33	39	72	Man
34	35-37	69-71	Either
34	38	72	Man
35	36	71	Either
35	37	72	Man

Linking Theories

Link Structure

In the process of linking, the fundamental difference between men and women is that women can link (to a point) without men, while men cannot link without a woman involved. Why is that?

It seems that the act of linking is to build a structure out of the channelers' abilities. Women apparently provide the adhesive capability, since they can link (up to a circle of thirteen) without the presence of a man. This also fits with the fact that women are usually more dexterous with the Power than men. On the other hand, the addition of men to a circle provides a large boost of power, so much so that a circle of men and women together could create the great works of the Age of Legends. Men also enable a circle to be expanded beyond the basic thirteen. For these reasons, men could be considered to be the "building blocks" of the linking structure, which fits with the fact that men are usually stronger with the Power than women.

Women to Men Ratio

One of the rules (with three exceptions, which will be considered later) is that there must be at least one more woman than the number of men in a circle. Consider the following chain:

---Woman--- MAN ---Woman--- MAN ---Woman--- MAN ---Woman---

Note: The symbols beside "Woman" indicate the woman's connection ability, and the capital "Man" indicates the man's solidity and strength.

In that chain, there is one more woman than the number of men, which is the minimum of women for that number of men. This allows for a woman to connect each man together, and connect to something on each end. What are the ends connected to? There are a number of possibilities:

1) Without one of those "end" women, a full circle can be formed of alternating men and women. The last remaining woman is then free to connect to something else, and that "something else" could be the two halves of the Source, tapped through the abilities of all the members of the circle.

2) The "circle" could in fact be a line, with one end connected to the Source, and the other end grounding the circle in the earth. This explanation only makes any sense if the One Power is similar to electricity, in that it needs somewhere to flow out.

Either way, it makes sense that there would need to be more women than men.

Circle Power

The two things that contribute to a circle's power--the number of members and the ratio between men and women--also make sense. More members obviously make a circle stronger, since their additional abilities are tapped by the circle. At the same time, the optimal ratio between the men and women is approximately fifty-fifty. This is probably because the more men there are, the more strength and solidity is inherited by the circle, yet the number of men cannot exceed the number of women. Close to equal is the best that a circle can do.

Circle Geometry

Since the precise circle sizes and compositions can be determined (see chart), we can hypothesize quite a bit about the geometry of the circle. Linking seems to be very similar to covalent bonding, for those who know chemistry, but that won't be discussed in any depth here. Suffice to say that in covalent bonding, the numbers are fairly flexible within a certain framework, certain compositions are far more stable than others (these are "noble gases"), and when the chemical structure becomes too large it is unstable.

We know that a circle can have up to sevebty-two members, and that the composition is fairly flexible, once a certain number of men are involved. Why do there have to be men, if the women are the adhesion and can connect to each other? Too much glue, without a solid foundation somewhere, simply becomes "goop" and falls apart; we believe this applies equally to linking. Women alone are enough only to a point.

As a point of interest, consider the circles that can be formed by the minimum number of men. Without a man, the maximum circle is thirteen women. Add a man, and another thirteen women can be added, for a total of twenty-six women. A second man allows for the addition of eight women, to total thirty-four women. This pattern continues, with each additional man allowing for eight more women, until the circle reaches seventy-two members, when there are six men.

After the first two men, the maximum number of additional women for each man is eoght, as we've said. Eight is a good number, geometrically speaking. It is easily divisible (once by four, or three times by two), and it could coincide with the eight corners of a cube. (Picture the requisite man for those eight women in the centre of the cube, providing solidity to the structure, if this is helpful.) In fact, the numbers work out well, if the circle of siventy-two is divided into eight units of eight-women-and-one-man, each. The circle "geometry" could be a greater cube, composed of lesser cubes at each corner. This appears to be a stable arrangement for a circle.

But that's not the way a circle works. The first two numbers of women are both thirteen. Thirteen is a terrible number from a geometric point of view. It's a large prime number (it can't be divided by any other number), and any shapes with thirteen corners would be weak and warped looking. As well, this makes the overall structure inconsistent.

So why are the first couple of structures made up of thirteen women? Perhaps it wasn't always this way, and the "greater cube - lesser cube" idea was the original formation. A simple theory is that the structure of linking has been modified by the Dark One. We know that he has been known to make use of the circle of thirteen women before. As well, and it may be a coincidence, but under this system the maximum circle with the minimum number of men consists of six men and sixty-six women, or 666. Modifications of the circle structure may also explain the inconsistencies in the male/female ratio rule. The three exceptions to the rule (one man, one woman; two men, one woman; and two men, two women) could be side effects of these changes. All are small circles, where the most modification of the linking structure seems to have taken place. The unpleasant number thirteen, the structural instability, and the inconsistency are all reminiscent of something the Dark One would arrange.

Why would the Dark One do this, beyond the unpleasant numerology? Perhaps he knew he would need a circle of thirteen to turn channelers to the Shadow, in a time when trained male channelers would not be easily available, so he expanded the number of female channelers who could link without a man. Or, if circle structures are truly dependent on the composition, perhaps he is just trying to weaken the channeling structure. Age of Legends wisdom was that seventy-two was the largest possible circle, but perhaps in a past turning of the Wheel much larger circles were possible. Lanfear said that the Choedan Kal would be enough to challenge the Dark One, but maybe a circle of thousands could have done the same and been a threat to the Dark One. It could be that the present structure of channeling is a clue as to how close the Dark One is to disrupting the Wheel of Time entirely and claiming ultimate victory.

Link Structure

In the process of linking, the fundamental difference between men and women is that women can link (to a point) without men, while men cannot link without a woman involved. Why is that?

It seems that the act of linking is to build a structure out of the channelers' abilities. Women apparently provide the adhesive capability, since they can link (up to a circle of thirteen) without the presence of a man. This also fits with the fact that women are usually more dexterous with the Power than men. On the other hand, the addition of men to a circle provides a large boost of power, so much so that a circle of men and women together could create the great works of the Age of Legends. Men also enable a circle to be expanded beyond the basic thirteen. For these reasons, men could be considered to be the "building blocks" of the linking structure, which fits with the fact that men are usually stronger with the Power than women.