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When Rand and Nynaeve cleansed Saidin, the female half of the saángreal was destroyed.

During the Battle near Shadar Logoth, Nynaeve al'Meara and Rand linked outside Shadar Logoth, and tapped the Choedan Kal through the access ter'angreal. Rand was successful in cleansing the taint from saidin, but in the attempt, the female access key was destroyed as well as the sa'angreal itself.

From my understanding, Rand being more powerful channeled way more one power as compared to Nynaeve. Shouldn't the male half thus be more susceptible to destruction? Why is it then that the female access key and saángreal were destroyed and not the male one?

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    i.sstatic.net/gWtwG.png
    – Mithical
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 8:34
  • I am sure Nynaeve was also calm... or as calm as she can be :p
    – Arcane
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 8:45
  • I think only the key was destroyed not the sa'angreal, although without the key the sa'angreal may be useless unless another key could be crafted somehow.
    – revenant
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 8:52
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    @revenant The wiki quote I blocked seems to indicate both were destroyed, but a reread may be in order. Have just finished my first read.
    – Arcane
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 8:53
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    @revenant I just finished this book last night, and the sa'angreal itself was destroyed as well. Afterwards the book cut to the scene on Tremalking where the one woman stopped to watch, and there was a line about an end to the Age of Illusion or some such.
    – Dave Johnson
    Commented Sep 20, 2016 at 20:51

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From the way certain people comment in the books how I understand it is something like an electrical circuit

the channelers using the keys are wires allowing current to flow the keys are capacitors and the giant statues are power stations

Rand being the stronger channeler allows more current to flow through him and the capacitor doesnt reach its limit and burn out

terminology may be flawed but what do you want with an analogy

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  • Being an Electronics Engineer I seem to get the analogy you seem to be going for. However, since Nynaeve is a smaller "capacitor" doesn't the one burning out would be Nynaeve herself rather than the rather large saángreal. I am assuming both Choeden Kal have the same capacity :)
    – Arcane
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 8:50
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    @Arcane the channelers are wires the keys are the capacitors each key probably does have the same capacity however Nynaeve is made of copper while Rand is made of gold (or whatever metal has a greater conductivity) Rand pushed both capacitors to their limit but since he could dissipate the charge faster the female key melted while the male key just got a little hot.
    – revenant
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 9:03
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    The books do imply that Nynaeve was only barely up to the task and that was related to the key's failure. I'm just not certain how well this metaphor works as an answer.
    – Radhil
    Commented Sep 19, 2016 at 18:41
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The key was destroyed because of how Rand was using saidar ...he formed a conduit with it and then pushed as much saidin through it as he could....he even said that the conduit couldn't be made of saidin or it would shatter.

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