Eelfinn Doorway

General

The doorframe ter'angreal in Rhuidean is a gateway to the realms of the Eelfinn. Standing upright without support, it appears to be made out of dark, polished redstone and is twisted strangely so the eye cannot follow it around; the edges do not seem to join right. The tall hollow rectangle is carved with three rows of inverted triangles on each upright (TSR, Ch. 24), the pattern representing the race that lives in the world beyond.

Each individual may pass through only once. Trying again has no effect, one will just step from one side of the ter'angreal to the other, as is logical (TSR, Ch. 15). The use does not require a channeler (TSR, Ch. 6).

"It is not known where, when, or how the person entering is transported, but while the visitor is within their influence everything has the texture of reality" (TWoRJTWoT, Ch. 3). Apparently, time flows differently in the doorframe ter'angreal. When entering the one in Tear, Rand, Mat and Moiraine return the same day (TSR, Ch. 15), but when Mat and Rand return from Rhuidean, the Wise Ones tell them they have been gone for seven days (TSR, Ch. 34) and most of that time has been spent inside the ter'angreal (TSR, Ch. 26).

Another one like it exists in Tear, leading to the realm of the Aelfinn (TSR, Ch. 25).

Appearances and Uses

• The Aes Sedai give the doorframe ter'angreal to the Da'shain Aiel to take to a place of safety; it is one of the objects of the One Power that could be saved during the long wandering and endless raids (TSR, Ch. 26).

• In accordance with what the Aelfinn told him, Mat entered Rhuidean with Rand. While Rand uses the glass columns, Mat spots the doorframe ter'angreal and enters it, expecting to meet the snake people again and gain some more answers (TSR, Ch. 24).

• While Asmodean and Rand are both wrestling for control over the access key to the male Choedan Kal in Rhuidean, they bump against the redstone doorframe (TSR, Ch. 58).

• Moiraine has Kadere and his men load the ter'angreal found in Rhuidean onto wagons to be taken to the White Tower. Rand observes that the doorframe "stayed upright, turning freely but refusing to tip over however they manhandled it." One of the men trying to hoist it on a wagon slips and trips half through the doorframe to his waist; his upper body vanishes from sight until Lan pulls him back. The man is terrified, but soon recovers enough to continue loading the carts (TFoH, Ch. 2). Kadere notes the man has not been entirely right in the head after he was hauled back (TFoH, Ch. 52).

• Moiraine takes particular care to see the doorframe ter'angreal lashed firmly onto the wagon (TFoH, Ch. 3); a canvas is tied over it tightly to prevent anyone from falling through by accident (TFoH, Ch. 7).

• Moiraine has the canvas removed again on the docks of Cairhien. A day later, she pushes Lanfear through the ter'angreal and both vanish in a flash of white light (TFoH, Ch. 52), which "filled the subtly twisted redstone rectangle as though trying to flood through and striking some invisible barrier. Lightnings arched silver and blue around the ter'angreal, more and more violently; rasping buzzes crackled through the air." The wagon it stands upon catches fire, the doorframe starts to smoke, white and acrid, and melts like wax (TFoH, Ch. 53).