Choedan Kal

In Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time fantasy series, the Choedan Kal are the two most powerful sa'angreal ever made.

They are huge statues, one of a woman and one of a man. They were built during the Age of Legends, as one of two possible answers to the The War of Power. Linked together, a man and a woman channeling through these "sa'angreal" would be able to draw enough of the One Power to destroy the entire world, and some believed that only one of the statues would enable an individual to do so alone.

The female statue is buried on the Sea Folk island of Tremalking, and the male statue is buried near the village of Tremonsien in Cairhien. The statue in Cairhien is partly uncovered, dug up by an excavation, while only the woman's hand holding an orb is visible on Tremalking. They are both hundreds of feet tall, making portability something of an issue; however, they were designed to function from a stationary position, with the wielder controlling them through "ter'angreal" "access keys", which themselves are (highly) miniaturized versions of the statues. These access keys allow the wielder to access the Choedan Kal from anywhere in the world. They provide a secondary safety function: each statue provides so much of the Power that anyone trying to channel through them directly would destroy themselves—and probably a large amount of the surrounding landscape—on the instant. Even the Forsaken consider "any" use of the Choedan Kal to be extremely dangerous, due to the unimaginable amounts of the One Power they are capable of handling. Thus, the access keys, which (through an unspecified process) allows the wielder to use the Choedan Kal safely.

The Choedan Kal were intended to build a secondary containment barrier around the Bore in the Dark One's prison. The competing answer, Lews Therin Telamon's [http://www.tor.com/shayol.html Strike at Shayol Ghul] , was eventually implemented when the facility making the access keys was lost to the Shadow. (Thankfully, the Forsaken never found out what they'd seized.) Attempts to smuggle out the access keys were unsuccessful, and in the meanwhile the Light was pushed to the brink of defeat; Lews Therin, recognizing that he must end the war now or lose, led his fateful strike.

The Choedan Kal have appeared in the main series as follows:

In book 2, "The Great Hunt", Rand first encounters the full-size male figure while en route to Cairhien; though he is barely in control of his channeling, he still senses the immense power of the Choedan Kal and attempts to channel through it. Lanfear, who was with him at the time in disguise, panics and berates Rand about his ignorance.

In book 4, The Shadow Rising, Rand discovers Asmodean was in Rhuidean attempting to find an access key he thought (correctly) was there. Rand battles Asmodean for control of the male access key and eventually overpowers him with the aid of an (unrelated) "angreal". From this point on, Rand has two access keys, one for each gender; Lanfear later informs him that a man and woman using the Choedan Kal together could challenge the Dark One, and maybe even the Creator.

In book 5, The Fires of Heaven, Asmodean discreetly refers to the "sa'angreal" as the only chance Rand has of winning the Last Battle. Rand lies that he has destroyed the access keys. It is about this time that Rand begins to toy with the astounding idea of using both the "sa'angreal" to cleanse the taint on saidin. Originally, he had planned to use Callandor for the deed, but after Cadsuane informs him that Callandor is flawed in "The Path of Daggers", he realizes the Choedan Kal are his last hope. It terrifies him.

Nynaeve and Rand link at the end of book nine, Winter's Heart, and tap the Choedan Kal through the keys; Rand is successful in cleansing the taint from "saidin". In the attempt, the female key is destroyed. The male "ter'angreal" is currently still in Rand's possession, and the male Choedan Kal was apparently undamaged. The statues glowed brightly during their use, and the people of the island of Tremalking saw the glowing female statue's orb as a herald to the end of the "Time of Illusion." In book 11, "Knife of Dreams", the island's inhabitants are found to have committed mass suicide. This was done by slipping an extremely fast-acting poison into the drinks of the children, which the parents did willingly. When they ran out of this poison, the adults took a slower acting poison and few were alive when another Sea Folk comes from the large party of Windfinders and Mistresses of Ships in Tear. None were saved, and this was a crushing defeat to the rest of the Sea Folk who lived.

It is unknown how many of the access key "ter'angreal" were made. A broken statue matching the description of a female access key was found in Tanchico, raising the question of whether there are still others in existence. Another statue that could have been an access key was destroyed in Rhuidean. If there are others, their whereabouts are unknown.