Dreamwalking
It’s kind of like sleepwalking except for being nothing like sleepwalking. Sleepwalkers remain in the current realm only they are only half-conscious about it, if that much. Dreamwalkers are capable of entering directly into the realm of the sleeping, that mystical places know to the real world as dreamworld and to the reader of this fantasy series as a strange place name separated by two unexpected punctuation marks:
“Formless, she floated deep within an ocean of stars, infinite points of light glimmering in an infinite sea of darkness, fireflies beyond counting flickering in an endless night. Those were dreams, the dreams of everyone sleeping anywhere in the world, maybe of everyone in all possible worlds, and this was the gap between reality and Tel'aran'rhiod, the space separating the waking world from the World of Dreams. Wherever she looked ten thousand fireflies vanished as people woke, and ten thousand new were born to replace them. A vast ever-changing array of sparkling beauty.”
Cool for Cats
One thing is for certain about the characters in this series, they are definitely cool for cats. The big question is why? That will take a much deeper dive to figure out than can provided at the moment. Whatever the deal, the imagery is clear: cats are very much on the minds of those living in his universe:
“He sounded like a bumblebee the size of a cat instead of a mastiff.”
“Men teach cats curiosity, but cats keep sense for themselves.” “I’m no bloody cat,” he muttered.
“No need to shriek like a cat,” Nynaeve growled"
Two Women
With such a large cast of characters, one can well imagine that physical description is of utmost importance. Over the course of the series, the cast of characters is almost two vast to possibly keep track of, especially when including all those who show up for a single scene or remain unidentified by name. As such, the author has to be quite precise with his descriptive imagery of characters:
“The two women confronting him could not have been more different. One was slender, with a fetching smile, in a green-and-gold dress that showed a hint of what he judged to be a fine bosom. Except for that ageless face, he might have thought to strike up a conversation. It was a pretty face, with eyes large enough for a man to sink into. A pity. The other had the agelessness too, but seeing it took him a moment. He thought she was scowling until he realized that must be her normal expression. Her dark, almost black, dress covered her to the wrists and chin, for which he was grateful. She looked scrawny as an old bramble. She looked as if she ate brambles for breakfast.”
Two More Women
Notice in the above example that the imagery so described is perceived through the eyes of the male gaze. This might possibly account for details like “fine bosom” being “scrawny.” In other words, physical features. Here are two more women described as perceived by the female gaze. The imagery to be differently focused, somehow, despite there also being rather obvious similarities:
“She thought she had seen strangeness. She thought she had known queasiness. Then she and her guard turned another corner and encountered two women. One was slender, short as any Cairhienin and darker than any Tairen, in a blue dress that stopped well short of her ankles; silver lightning forked across red panels on her breast and the sides of her wide, divided skirts. The other woman, in drab dark gray, stood taller than most men, with golden hair to her shoulders that had been brushed till it glistened and frightened green eyes. A silver leash connected a silver bracelet on the shorter woman's wrist to a necklace worn by the taller.”
