OOC Disclaimer: This is an essay written in character but will have both IC and OOC aspects.It will have new weaves for the talent Earth Singing using the point system. Unless specified by a tower officer, these weaves are not “official”. But they do make sense and Derin, my character, has been using them for quite some time.A lot of what I write is deduction and theory based off what I read in RJ’s The Wheel of Time series.This is not to contest anyone’s own views on the talent nor is it written in the presumption that it is the only correct treaty on the talent.

Though scholarly pursuits are not mine, I sit down and submit this paper to better both Asha’man and Aes Sedai.With this paper, I am going to set out and define that which is known as the talent and art form of Earth Singing.At first glance, it is a talent that has vast practical applications, but little known battle-ready uses.The essay before you are going to show you the ethical, the philosophical, and the many uses, I have come to depend on.

To some,the things I will describe here will be fairy tale. To others, it will be viewed as merely a biased opinion. But this is from one who has worked with soil, granite and mineral for well over thirty years. There are as many facets to Earth Singing as there is to a refined diamond.

Let me begin by explaining what Earth Singing is. Again there are some misconceptions. Some view Earth Singing simply as a mean to find and retrieve minerals from the earth, therefore unworthy of their attentions. Some may view it as too destructive a power, only usable to create earthquakes on such a massive scale that one would think they are in a second breaking.

I see it as an art form.Earth Singing is the manipulation of the very ground under us. Not just soil or rock, in its many forms, but plants and trees as well.After all why is it called Earth Singing? Why such an artful name? I have visited an Ogier stedding once, much to my discomfort.I went to study the so-called fierceness of those gentle creatures.What I saw amazed me.A young Ogier, at least by their standards, started singing to a tree…. yes singing…. and the tree seemed to offer up itself and shape itself to whatever it was the Ogier desired.I knew then that the two were linked.

I later heard and read a tale that the Lord Dragon, during his visit to the Aiel waste, had a vision of his ancestors.Men and women singing, channeling flows into the ground, with the singing of Ogier and the power of men made of plants to help whole harvests grow.This cannot be coincidence.

But I stray from the subject at hand.I see Earth Singing as an art form. It could be a deadly art form, or a practical art form, either way it is only limited by the user’s imagination.

I have looked into the archives and I have seen the very limited uses recorded for the Talent Earth Singing (the weaves chart :P). I see how it shows how to delve the earth, create earthquakes, even to extract mineral from it, as the Seanchan (sp?) have been known to do.

I have done far more with the flows of earth, and it can only be described as Earth Singing.The first such weaves I have named simply Earth Singing…There are of course various degrees of this weave, depending on the material you have to work with, as well as the time/patience to carve from the material, and the strength to use the weave. The purpose of this weave is creation. Art.

Those who know me will scoff at even mentioning such a useless weave in battle. I am a weapon, nothing more. And I will later show you how I use such art to kill.Now this may be only due to my exposure to the tales of the Lord Dragon, and witnessing the Ogier Tree singing talent, but I can only use this weave if I use a musical focus. By playing a flute, humming a tune, or,Light forbid, singing. As I have discussed with fellow Asha’man and a few Aes Sedai, though in theory, weaves only require mental discipline and thought. But I have seen on many of occasions when whole classrooms of students can’t seem to do a weave unless they all focused on a rock, a jewel, or some other identical point.

But that is another discussion, the actual Earth Singing weave, at least in my case, requires a musical focus.The simpler the tune performed using a simple medium (i.e. humming), the simpler the creation.Say I wished to create a simple stool for me to sit on, in this case humming works. Now say I wish to truly create art, for example a detailed depiction of myself using soil that would require singing or playing an instrument.

Be warned, that this talent takes time to manifest itself. A stool does not just simply appear from the earth that I used in the earlier example.Instead, it might take 10 seconds up to a full minute, it all depends on how much of the one power you are using and how detailed the weaves and the finished product is.

(This is not impossible to imagine in RJ’s WoT world. I already pointed out Rand’s Chief of Chief’s trial where he saw his ancestor, other channelers, Ogier, and Nymn working together to grow whole harvests as they sang.Also it is important to note that Ogier, most likely creatures at first created by the one power as the Nymn were, can Tree sing.And Nymn [I believe that is what they are called] can manipulate anything to do with plants and are effect by the earth itself.

As far as the levels of each thread you have to incorporate into the weave. I have been thinking and even in the novels it shows plenty of instances where men’s weaves and women’s weaves are different.They tend work the same but sometimes the way they are done or the elemental threads used in them are totally different.Creating Gateways and Healing are just two examples on how the male and female have differed.I think our weaves table should reflect this.

Here is what I mean:

Men’s Earth Singing Weave

This reflects, men’s affinity to Earth, though spirit and water are needed to manipulate the earth it is not dependant on them to accomplish the weave. Now here is how a woman would Earth Sing.

I used water to go up progressively because that is where their strengths usually lie.And every odd lvl in earth it goes up because this IS an earth weave.Both allow one to create objects out of the Earth; just they do it differently with different philosophies.Men might tend to use Earth to move the earth.But women might think that with a little more water it will make the earth more malleable.Neither is wrong.

On one last note, there are no just 3 levels of Earth Singing but there are five. Each level is a classification on detail of your creation, the strength in Earth that you use, and the time it takes to make it. I.E. A lvl 5 Earth Singing weave that creates a small hovel made completely of dirt, or better yet a home made from the side of a hill, would take several days to make.)

Now one such as I, an Asha’man, had to think of a way to use this in battle. It is simple; you can make quick and simple spikes shoot out from the earth to impale opponents.Some speculate, as the Lord Dragon did in the Stone of Tear with his lightning that sought out every Shadowspawn, that you could send out a similar weave causing every Shadowspawn to be hunted down within a certain radius and be impaled with such spikes.I, myself, have never been able to get a hold of a Sa’angreal to prove such a theory.

The same weaves are needed, but oddly enough, I have never needed to have a musical focus for these. I have often speculated that this is in due part to the state of mind one is in when they are doing both weaves. In battle, your mind and body are set for the kill.Psychologically speaking, and I am by far no expert, one has committed ones mind and has cleared ones conscience for the kill, so therefore has no need for such a focus.

I have used a modification of this weave, and it is yet more evidence that one could create and army of such weaves to search out Shadowspawn as was theorized earlier. This modification is to thread a little more spirit into the weave, giving it an almost sentience to it. You must see your opponent when you weave it, and what it does is seeks that opponent out as a bloodhound does in the hunt. This is effective against prey that runs.I have always had to maintain the weave though and it will not be as effective if the prey gets too far out of range.

(I am setting the limits to this to say 100 yds / lvl of earth you have. Also it can’t be sent on someone you know or you can’t use someone's actual sent to send it after someone.   You have to see that person as you weave the weave, either through a gateway, or through one of the “telescopes” that seem to be becoming popular in Randland :P.)

The last weave I will discuss in THIS article will be what I like to call Aligning The Matrix. There have been plenty of examples of this used to perfect and degrade the quality of alloys and metals. It can be used to make a blade have a forever razor sharp edge, or it could be used to snap a lock in two like a toothpick.What it does is allows an Earth Singer to delve into a metal object and seek out any tiny nuances or flaws.ALL objects made of metal even one made by a master smith has small miniscule imperfections in the metal. The fewer there are the greater the smith.  Aligning the Matrix allows a person to manipulate these flaws and the molecules that make up such materials so that it can strengthen, weaken, make more durable, or even make metal lighter.

For some reason, again it may be only the state of mind one is in, or it may have begun in training or how I started to use such a weave.But it only seems to work on finished products, never on raw material. One can speculate that it doesn’t work on raw material because it does work, but when the smith works with the metal it again changes the “matrix” of the ore or alloy. Either it be a state of mind, or technique, one can only work such a weave on worked metal objects. How you use it is solely up to the imagination.

(Ok, this weave requires extensive delving of the object you are about to Align.   So obviously this cannot be done in battle unless one is intimate with the opponents specific weapon.In this case I think it would only with Earth. As your not using air to move anything that Earth can’t. Water is not needed, nor is fire, though some would object and say this would make the object more malleable to be shaped.This is not a shaping weave; it changes ONE property of a metal object.You can change two properties of a metal object if you use lvl 5 earth in the weave instead of lvl 3, which is all that is needed for the weave, with the exception of the knowledge of the exact weave itself.)

These are just three of many weaves one can use Earth Singing to their advantage.But if you take a closer look, you can see that each weave has a myriad of possibilities with each of them.They are simple yet versatile. Some claim I boast and what I have written here cannot be done.But I assure you, that it is very possible.One who can master Earth Singing can master the very ground you walk upon.