A thought occurred to me while rereading Mat's battle with the gholam in aCoS about this formidable Shadowspawn's weakness. I do not believe that it was the power of Mat's Foxhead necklace to "melt" flows of saidar that injured the Gholam but the fact that it is silver. As Elayne said Saidar would not touch the Gholam but melted away much like Mats medallion, so why would an object with similar properties hurt it? I instead believe that the Gholam has a weakness to silver much like werewolves.
I quote:
"The man screamed. Smoke rose around the edges of the foxhead, and a sizzle like bacon frying...gingerly, Mat fingered the medallion. It was cool. Not the cool of someone channeling nearby--maybe they were still at it down below, but that was too far off--just the cool of silver"
"The fellows smile faded. Watching the flashing foxhead warily, he backed away on his toes. The same light that glittered on the whirling silver...."
aCoS, Six Stories, pp 770-771
After all, we know that there is no weave keeping the Gholam alive, or animated, as it was found in a stasis box and there was no one to keep up such a weave for the 3000+ years since the breaking, another point against the Ter'angreal property harming it.
Burr says: You make a good point with the two references to silver in that point. On the other hand, you seem to assume that the foxhead must use the power in order to have been given special properties by it. Would ordinary silver stop channeling? Maybe, but I doubt it. Of course, the foxhead doesn't need to be "ordinary" for a more ordinary aspect of it to have harmed the gholam. The foxhead may some special qualities without those qualities much to do with that particular effect. Maybe it was the "silver" that did the trick.
Comments
This theory could explain how Birgitte could become known in the world as Birgitte silverbow. They will somehow find out about the gholam's silver weakness and Birgitte will get some silver arrowheads and bust a move. Her name of Birgitte Silverbow will be fufilled.
...maybe the medallion has been somehow "blessed", like religious relics are. It was obviously made by and for those with strength in the one power.
In the gholam's thoughts, he said it was the first time he had felt pain. Do you really think that in all thise years it had killing people no one ever tried to kill it will a sword that had silver engravings and touched it? I'm sure it must have come into contact with silver at one point, a lady's necklace, whatever.
It’s likely the Gholam has NOT been killing people for a great many years. It seems (no conclusive evidence available) that it/he was asleep inside a Statis Box for the past 3000+ years and had only recently "awakened" when he met Mat with that cool Foxhead Medallion.
That battle could very well have been the FIRST time the Shapeshifter ever came in contact with anything silver. But I think it's doubtful that MERE silver could hurt the Gholam, and even more so that MERE silver could stop or disrupt the Power.
I'm of the theory that the necklace was in some way "blessed", "charmed", or otherwise imbued with those special properties and just happened to be silver beforehand. Perhaps the medallion had to be silver for the process to work, but we can't start suggesting that anyone with a silver earring, or nose ring, or hair clip or whatever is safe from the Blood Drinker or the Bitch Ajah. Um... I meant Black Ajah. Really, I did!
The Kahn
Blessings? Charms? In a world where there is almost none of the religious practices of our own world?
Where actual "magic" and "gods" are proven to exist and affect people every day?
This seems to contradict the entire literary fabric of the world RJ has created.
So far, there are only two things in RJ's world that are "immune" to the Power: stedding and Mat's medallion.
Now, the gholams might be Shadowspawn that have portable steddings on their persons/built into them....but it seems more likely that they avoid the OP just like Mat's medallion does.
And why CAN'T these two similar things NOT harm each other?
In the film 'Terminator 2', the most obvious example, the only thing that kills the 'liquid-metal' guy is....liquid metal.
And "children of the 80's" like myself might also remember my movie quote, where the only thing that the aforementioned 'streams' can't touch is each other.
Why didn't touching the gholam harm the medallion?
| 
Only so evil.
Mat`s medalion is a Ter`angeal that stops weaves from saidin or saidar from toutching the wearer.
(When Mat was killed by lightening, Rahvin didn`t bother to channel EACH lightning separately, just the storm clouds)
As the gholam is in fact the same type of ter`angreal inpersonated (it melts flows) they repell eachother much in the fashion of magnets.
It can`t be damaged by flows, but it`s one of Aginors creations, and of course made by the power.
So you have a thing that makes weaves unravel, and a powerwrought creature, I wonder what would happen to the creature if they toutched, eh?
Quite obviousely the Gholam didn`t fancy the results
I`ve got Dyslexia
Surely the reason for my spelling errers
Gholam + stedding = good laugh (and my prediction for how the gholam [gholams?] will die).
But we don't know that it was made
of the One Power. For certain, it can't be made completely of the One Power, else it wouldn't be visible to nonchannelers. And if it lacks one attribute of the One Power, then why shouldn't it lack most of its attributes?
But more than that "powerwrought" in the way RJ uses it, means only wrought
by power, not
of power, I believe, much like firewrought means wrought
by fire, not
of fire.
While the gholam may be made partially of the One Power, we have no more reason to believe that than we have to believe that the medallion was made partially of the One Power. And if the two were
both made partially of the One Power, then why didn't they unweave
each other (at least to the point where neither of their weaves worked)?
Therefore, Occam's razor suggests that they were
both made
by the Power, not
of it.
OTOH, it's never been proven that Occam's razor is right more often that it is wrong.
|
Only so evil.
Couldn't the medallion and the Gholam be made from the True Power.
This would give Rand and others to find out about its existence as it seems only the Forsaken know about it.
I can see it now. Mat chasing after the Gholam with some silverware he stole because he forgot to put on the medalion! In other words, i completly disagree with this theory.
It may be that RJ is having the medallion used against the gholam first to throw us off the fact that it (the gholam) has a weakness to silver.
Of course it may just be that the medallions properties were undoing the use of the power that created the gholam. If the medallion were put against a power wrought blade for a good while then that blade probably would soon be a normal blade.
It's not for certain if the medallion uses the power or not. Considering that it came from the Eelfinn it's plausible that they have their own magic. That would account for why the gholam doesn't cancel the medallion.
Sooner or later it all connects back to itself.
Remember the a'dam? They're made of silver, but Nynaeve could still channel at it and pop it open. The silver didn't absorb her flows.
When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout
"It's the owner of the flowerbed
She grew roses to hide her brother, dead
This is the proof that I must show
Watch this tape and you will know"
Remember that the chosen talked about how the gholem even frightened them and since it did Aginor left an "out" clause in it's making, something to protect them. Now if weaves can't hit it then that would leave two choices.
1. All the chosen had things like Mat's medallion, or
2. Silver was a defense against it.
The other possibility of course is that balefire can destroy it. I think that silver is a good guess though, very subtle yet consistant with the type of themes that RJ likes to weave into his story lines.
One of the above said that if the gholem was made by saidar and saidin that it couldn't be seen by non-channelers, but look at chora trees, and the nym, both are power constructs, living things created by the power, and you can obviously see them.
I believe that the gholem are power constructs and Mat's amulet hurts the things cause Theey're made of the power, (weave melting ect).
I believe that if Mat swung it at the greenman, it'd probably hurt him too. But then again, it could be two things of the pwer reacting strangely when they touch. Hense the ring ter'angreal and the accepted test arches.
I think silver would be better for killing
Perrin than the gholem.
Kidblondeel
I think you're partially right.
When we read about the TAR-ring and the accepted-ter'angreal, we also learned that two ter'angreals that does the same thing can't be used together, or even too close to one another.
I think the gholam is a living ter'angreal, much like the fades.
(13 dreadlords
channeling through 13 fades
turns a channeler to the DO, remember?)
That would explain why the gholam was hurt.
It also would explain why the medallion wasn't damaged.
The gholam was of a softer material than the medallion, therefor the gholam was damaged instead of the medallion.
da'covale d'Rie Bolmdahl 
Deyeneiye, dyu ninte concion ca ye (no, tia Rie Bolmdahl)
I'm sleepy.
currently: away
He said that Mat's Medallion blocks saidin as well as saidar but when have we seen such evidence of this? Until we see a male channeler fail at trying to affect Mat with the power, I'm more than willing to bet that it doesn't stop men from channeling at him. Also, he may have said he wanted something to help him remain unaffected by the power, but I am willing to bet (don't have my books with me) that he said Aes Sedai or women who channel or some such thing, and therefore the Aelfinn gave him what he asked for, something to stop saidar, not saidin. That's my two cents.
Nimvin
I must agree that I find it very unlikely that in all the time that there were gholams killin' thangs (and Birgitte seems to remember them as though they were widely used in the past) that no one ever figured out that a silver spork off the dining room table could injure it. It is much more likely that, since gholams are clearly kept alive by the One Power (since they are magical constructs), that something that interferes with magic (like a Stedding or Mat's ter'angreal) would be able to damage it.
Also, I agree with nimvin. Until we see someone channel saidin at Mat and have it fizzle, I am willing to accept that it only works against saidar.
Here are some leads about the medallion that could help define the nature of it's "power":
what if the medallion did not simply melt weaves but defended against anything beyond "natural" or "normal" human abilities, channeling would be superhuman, a Gholam while humanoid is way over human. An ogier is natural so it has an effect on the wearer a powermade sword would affect him also since metal by which ever way extracted of forged is still metal so the power would have no affect but a blade is still a blade.
An other possibility is that the medalion is a spinoff of cuendillar, the metal absorb any force against it and transform it in additional strenght, the spinoff would do a similar thing with power related actions and turn it in a harmless force.
It's one thing to go after a gholam with a spork. It's quite another to survive the attack.
The gholam was incredibly quick, incredibly powerful. It simply shredded a skilled group of warriors -- including Warders, if I remember correctly. Matt is considered almost inhumanely quick, and he can barely stay alive against it.
Even if silver IS a vulnerability, having it's one thing, being able to use it is quite something else.
Look at the Myrrdahl (sp); They can be slain by normal weapons, even with one blow...it's just being able to stay alive against them long enough to get that shot in.
It'd be a lot tougher against a Gholam then it would a Fade. The silver thing MAY hold water, and Birgitte and her bow would be a logical counter -- especially considering that sooner or later the Gholam will want to kill Elayne (Daved or no Daved) and Birgitte is her natural guardian.
It was either in CoS or PoD when Mat was in Salidar that he felt the medallion go cold. When he looked up the only person looking at him was Halima and we all know that she uses the male half of the True Source, therefore we know that the medallion blocks both saidar and saidin.
Krane
Two thoughts: One, maybe opening a gsteway to the edge of Far Madding's sheild and driving a Gholam through would force it to come in contact with more "anti-Power" and kill it. Or opening a gate way above the city and dropping the Gholam ino it. Two, what would happen if a gateway closed on a Gholam? Mat has passed through gateways without the medallion disrupting the flows, (and the Forsaken would have needed some way to get the thing from one place to another; Gholam predate the Ways) so a Gholam could probably chase someone through, and then they slam it shut on him. Would it explode? Fizzle out? Or cut him in half?
Cannoli
"I'm German-Irish" - Tom Hagen
“There is no safety for honest men, except by believing all possible evil of evil men" - Edmund Burke
Inde muagdhe Aes Sedai misain ye!
Deus vult!
The medallion functions so well against the gholam for a couple of reasons. For one, they both resist the one power, and that is a very rare quality so far at least. Remember cuellandor does not exactly resist the one power, it is just able to absorb any force directed against it. Anyway, since they both resist, the meeting of these two things would be such a powerful opposite that something would have to give, and it was the organic living thing that took the pain. If the medallion was on the gholam long enough, it would probably kill him.
For the love of the Light, stop saying MAAAAAGIIIIIIC!!!!
Just because our old friend Aran'gar was the only person looking at him doesn't mean that she was the only one there who could have been channeling. The medallion makes weaves break apart, it did absolutely nothing when Rahvin fried him. And don't use the "he wasn't actively directing the bolts" thing...bolts of lightning in a clear cloudless sky are created with fire and air, they are active weaves.
And the book STATES the medallion doesn't work against Saidin. "Tendrils of smoke rose from the black haft of his spear, too, from his coat, even from the silver foxhead, hanging out of his shirt, that had not saved him from a man's channeling"
So, in closing, the medallion disrupts Saidar, NOT Saidin...leaving Mat
quite suseptable to the wilder half of the Power
-HG
Hi! I'm Mat! I'm just like Mat from the WoT...except I don't have that hat, medallion, sword-spear, and I can't speak the old tongue...although I did dance with one of the Forsaken once...
-Mat
That was merely Rand's thoughts on Mat's death.
As for Halima/Aran'gar, after someone channels at Mat, he turns to see her shocked, then she storms off. What else could she possibly be shocked about than the fact that her weave didn't work. If an Aes Sedai had directed the weave, more than one Aes Sedai would have been shocked by the outcome because remember they can all see each other's work with the One Power.
Didn't it say that the Forsaken only made 6, because even they were afraid of the gholam? If they could be killed by some silver, why would they be afraid? It does seem to be too easy. Just make sure you never bet all your silver at once.
I like the theory, though. Really interesting
Hmmm... and if it fizzles out, what would happen then? Would he be stuck midair in two places, unable to move? Not cut in half, really, but...divided. (Did that make sense?) Or would it just cease to exist? Would the person really have Traveled whom it may have chased through? Hmmm... And if it explodes, what happens on the original side? Didn't we only ever see the explosion on Elayne and Aviendha's side of the gateway when she lost the weaves? What happened on the other half?
Questions, questions, thoughts, thoughts, comprehension? What's that?
Catriona, Countess of Options
Still searching for that one great love...
Hunter
Eternal Wotmaniad Fangirl
But now you're cooler than Mr. T. - OA 
For Kory and Joe:
directly after the Big-Bang chapter there was a PoV with a seachan morat'raken. He was trown in the air by a big explosion and saw the marks of it.
So the explosion happens on both sides.
About the silver thing i can only say hmm...
uurgh the crazy viking
What's-his-name's post about dropping a Gholam into Far Madding:
Here's an interesting thought... what if one opened a horizontal gateway to the sky over Far Madding right under a Gholam's feet? RJ said in an interview that horizontal gateways were possible.
HMMMMMMmmmmm.......
i think i know why the medalion hurts the gholam without being "hurt" itself
it is this simple. which is harder flesh or silver?
silver of course meaning it would be more rugged while the poor flesh would give way easily. (the gholam is made of something akin to flesh since a knife fairly easily punctures it)
make a silver bat and smack it against someone's head which one will be smarting more? my bet is the person
I've said this before somewhere else, RJ has said that lightning, even when woven directly, is much like a thrown rock, as in it is an effect of the weave, not the weave itself. He has said that Mat's medallion will not stop Saidar lightning either. Hmmph!
"Four things cannot be hidden- love, smoke, a pillar of fire, and a man striding across the open bled."
-Fremen Saying
I BELIEVE that he asked for freedom from Aes Sedai, but remember: until a few thousand years ago, women AND men could be Aes Sedai. The Finn people aren't exactly up on current events (they still speak the Old Tongue; that's SOOO 1000 years ago!), so they probably don't realize that men can't be Aes Sedai anymore.
Here's an idea...
What if Mat medaillon works somehow like a well, just like the one Cadsuane and Nynaeve possessed? By now, because of his pleasant ride with aes sedai, Mat medaillon should be somewhat full of saidar...
The main difference between the medaillon and a normal well could be that you cant draw the OP from it and it then becomes a 'weapon' full of unweaved power.
Now, if we suppose that the gholam is a man, at least he seems to be, he should or could be made with or by saidin, and that to control it you need you need saidin.
I think that of the 6 gholam, 3 looks likes 'men' and 3 looks like 'women'. So 'men gholam' would hunt women aes sedai and vice versa. I dont think we've seen a man chanelled at the gholam yet, so this might be true...or not.
As for why the gholam can be hurt by the medaillon, It might be because weaves of saidar cant touch him but an object filled with it can...
There is a lot of speculation in this and I dont believe half of it is true, but I dont believe half of it is false either. Make what you wish of all that and remember that only fools takes everithing for granted
I don't think the medallion is actual silver. It probably was silver, until made ter'angral. Like the ring wich makes it possible to enter tel'aran'rhiod: It was stone, but it being made ter'angreal made it something else.
So maybe, when Elayne gets the hang of making ter'angreal, she'll make a weapon of the same kind of metal, and it would be used to kill the gholam.
I don't think Mat's medallion is silver. It probably was silver, until it was made ter'angreal, now it is something else. Like the ring used to access tel'aran'rhiod, it was rock, but isn't now. Maybe Elayne, when she gets the hang of making ter'angreal, will make a weapon of some kind, and it will help kill the gholam.
Drgnbrn makes a very good point...Halima is actually channeling the male half of the source, and why else would she have been shocked. Certainly not at Mat for any other reason, she's just a big a fluzzy(sp) as Mat is in most respects. So the medallion blocks both sides of the power, now as for the question of why it hurts the gholam...Well, take your pick at the theories presented. I believe that RJ has a plan for our gholam and I'm content to wait and find out.
Perhaps RJ just wanted to introduce something that would make a previously unkillable shadowspawn at least hurt-able, at most, killable.
He doesn't seem like the type to go for invinciblity in any way shape or form, everyone has a weak point, even if it takes a while to discover.
Just some thoughts - I'm new to posting, but not to the site, so I'm not quite sure how off I could be...
~~Aolani
"Everybody's seen the things they've seen
We all have to live with what we've been"
~-~ Bruce Cockburn, Justice
It could be a weave, since the stasis box wouldnt require someone to hold it, because it does what its name suggets, makes a stasis. Once in the box, time is gone. It acts like it was only in there for how long it takes to come out.
Also for the fox med. hanging out of mats shirt, and it didnt save him, it didnt save him BECAUSE it was hanging out of his shirt, therefor not touching him. It doesnt work if its not touching him.
1. Why it COULD BE TRUE that silver harms a gholam:
The medallion has two significant characteristics.
-It's made of silver (not cuendillar)
-It protects the wearer against the One Power (see #2 below)
One of these things hurts gholam.
Someone said "Silver does not stop the One Power by itself." You're RIGHT! And yet so WRONG! Silver might well be the property that hurts the gholam. The OTHER characteristic of the medallion is the thing that melts flows. Check out this chart:
Characteristic: . . Function:
Made of silver --> Hurts gholam
Flowmelting ----> Melts flows
But we'll find out later when the gholam gets killed.
2. The medallion DOES protect its wearer against the DIRECT effects of the One Power - Saidin AND Saidar! BOTH!
"But lightning hurt Mat."
Lightning does not count as a direct effect. This is mentioned elsewhere on this site. That is how Mat was harmed by lightning while wearing the medallion. I suppose the Power creates a difference in electric charge above and below the target, and lightning happens on its own due to mundane physics, not the Power.
P.S.: Please notice I didn't say "stupid people said..." but "people said stupid stuff."
http://xkcd.com/386/
Death to all camels 
I've always been afraid of clowns. I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus and a clown killed my father. 
Have U guys read the books at all?
Or maybe...