What Balefire Actually Does To People In The Wheel Of Time

Warning: Spoilers for The Wheel of Time season 3, episode 8

Courtesy of the season 3 finale, the most powerful ability in The Wheel of Time’s universe has finally made its first appearance in live-action. And chances are, it’ll be the first of several times balefire will be put to use in Prime Video’s adaptation of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books. After its official introduction in book 3, The Dragon Reborn, balefire became a recurring weapon, albeit one that was typically reserved for the most dire of circumstances. After all, a tremendous risk comes with this particular weave.

Over the course of the series, the show has debuted a number of important abilities associated with the One Power in The Wheel of Time, such as Healing, Traveling, and shielding. More recently, it explored Dreamwalking and Compulsion, a favorite of Forsaken like Rahvin and Moghedien. Another major power from the books was added to the TV show’s take on the lore in The Wheel of Time season 3 finale when Elayne Trakand, Nynaeve al’Meara, Mat Cauthon, Min Farshaw, and Thom Merrilin had their highly anticipated face-off with Liandrin and her Black Ajah minions.

Balefire Erases People From Existence

Balefire Is A Fate Worse Than Death

Early in the episode, a ter’angreal rod was shown to be among the artifacts that the Black Ajah stole from the White Tower. According to Liandrin, it can create “balefire.” Exactly what it does wasn’t clarified within the show, but its capabilities were demonstrated onscreen when Elayne got her hands on it and used it to save Thom. The Black Ajah member struck by the rod’s Balefire attack was seemingly vaporized, killed in one single blast. But as the books have established, death is not the extent of what happens to the victim of balefire; what it really does is erase them from existence.

Balefire is a force more destructive than anything else in The Wheel of Time’s world, in that it removes their “thread” from the Pattern entirely. Not only are they dead, but they no longer have a place in the Pattern at all. Being erased doesn’t mean that everything they did to influence the Pattern no longer happened, though it can certainly have a direct impact on the timeline, albeit to a limited extent. Anything that a person has done sometime prior to being destroyed by balefire is erased from the Pattern as well, as if it never happened.

In other words, if a person were to kill someone and then be “balefired” in the span of a few moments, their victim could be restored to life, with no knowledge of their original fate in the Pattern. But depending on how far back it happened, it may not be undone, as events eventually become permanently into the Pattern.

How The TV Version Of Balefire Compares To The Wheel Of Time Books

Balefire Is Very Similar To The Ability From The Books

Based on its depiction in The Wheel of Time season 3 finale, the show’s interpretation of Balefire is indeed accurate to the source material, at least in terms of its functionality. The purple silhouette of the Black Ajah hit by Balefire illustrated her erasure from the Pattern. The show seeming to rewind her last weaves with the One Power was evidence of the series keeping the side-effect from the books where a balefire victim’s previous actions are undone.

One minor difference is its appearance, though that could be attributed to the unconventional way the series introduced it. The books describe Balefire as bright, white flames, whereas the show makes it look more like a laser beam. It does, however, retain its recognizable white color. It’s possible that future use of the weave will look more like actual fire, as it may be that the ter’angreal rod seen in the show just focuses the Balefire into thin, concentrated blasts, hence its laser-like aesthetic.

Only Certain Channelers Can Use Balefire

Both Rand & Moiraine Can Use Balefire

Considering what it can accomplish, it’s not surprising that balefire is the strongest known weave in Jordan’s world. Obviously, anything that powerful would also be incredibly complex. For that reason, balefire is not understood to be easy to use, and is a weave only a select few can create. That’s partially on account of the fact that balefire is an extremely old weave not taught formally by the Aes Sedai. In fact, teaching and using balefire is strictly forbidden by the White Tower due to the widespread damage it could cause to the Pattern. This attitude toward balefire is a status quo that has been in place for centuries.

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However, it doesn’t necessarily have to be learned to be used, as top-tier channelers can figure out how to create it and have sometimes even unleashed balefire accidentally. At least as far as the source material is concerned, both Rand and Nynaeve stand out as channelers capable of using balefire naturally. In separate instances, Rand and Nynaeve created it to defeat an enemy without fully understanding what it was.

Another character from The Wheel of Time cast who knows how to use Balefire is Moiraine. But as a channeler with much less potential than Rand and Nynaeve, it’s likely that she didn’t discover it incidentally. In the books, Moiraine’s comprehension and ability to use balefire is a subject of speculation, as it’s never explained exactly how Moiraine acquired knowledge of the inner-workings of a forgotten weave. The vast majority of her contemporaries, including Alanna Mosvani and Siuan Sanche, probably aren’t capable of using balefire, which is what makes Moiraine having access to it rather extraordinary.

Because it’s an old weave, balefire is also known to The Wheel of Time’s Forsaken. Demandred, a character the TV show has yet to confirm as a member of its Forsaken lineup, used Balefire in the books. Since any Forsaken could theoretically know the weave, it’s possible that it’ll be a part of the arsenal of Rahvin, Graendal, Lanfear, and Semirhage in future seasons of The Wheel of Time.