Earth = Giant Stedding

[Mystica]

I don't know if this topic has come up before but it just occurred to me, having read several threads in which people offered suggestions about the WOTworld being our world and the Ages of the Wheel ending in 'our' age. Having that in the back of my mind and working on the Ogier Group for my RP Division (so re-reading stuff in the BWB and such). The combination made me consider the possibility of Earth being a giant Stedding.

 

How probable is it that this might have been the thought pattern of RJ? I admit, I haven't read all his interviews and such, so this may all be water under the bridge, but maybe there are others around like me that haven't been part of any previous conversations on the topic and who might have some opinion on the matter.

 

One thing that causes me to reject it is that supposedly people have long forgotten what happened to the previous Age of the one they're living in. Like if we were living in the 7th Age, we would have totally forgotten everything from the previous 7th Age. How likely is this really? On Earth we have indications of civilisations going back many thousands of years. How long should one Age last for this condition to work? A thousand years to an Age doesn't seem to cut it.

[Majsju]

The 3rd Age has lasted 3000 years, but nothing indicates that all Ages are the same, or even close to the same length. But even if all Ages were around 3000 years, we would get nearly 20000 years from the end of an Age to the beginning of the same Age next time it comes around.

 

 

[MikeRiley]

We are the ogier. The humans in Randland are really short, have very small noses and even smaller eyebrows. We just don't pick up on it because all descriptions of ogier so far have come from the viewpoint of humans so it seems abnormal in comparison. We found evidence of their race recently on an island. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/10/1027_041027_homo_floresiensis.html

 

There were even dragons.

 

 

In all seriousness though, it could be possible. There must be a way to create the stedding and we might find out more if we get to see The Great Stump and possible flight of the ogier back to their home world.

[Mystica]

lol if we're the decendents of the peace loving Ogier then I don't want to know what the humans were like.....

 

that's pretty freaky though.... that discovery. :o

[The_Dragon]

My Theory is a wee bit different. Ogier still exist today. Matter of fact some modern humans have actually seen one. However they call him Big Foot. Thankfully Trollocs have long been extinct.

[Elgee]

Ever seen a bunch of rugby players, Dragon?  :P

[The_Dragon]

no cant say as i have

[Mystica]

lol dragon.... that didn't even occur to me..... :o

 

Now, if we accept the possibility of the entire world becoming a Stedding (effectively nullifying the One Power and therefore making it non-existent for all intensive purposes). How would that be reversed then? Since, obviously at some point the Age turns again into the Ages where the Source is active again.

 

Might it be the accumulation of enough violence and negative energy to kill off the peaceful and nurturing energy known to a Stedding? A taint of some sort, but not linked to the One Power.

[Elgee]

People cutting down the Great Trees, ie deforestation? That should have an influence on the power of the Stedding, I think.

[Kathleen]

What makes everyone think that just because we are (in this theory) in a stedding that makes us Ogier? Maybe it was made by them and over time they abandoned it/moved/got kicked out and we moved in maybe not even knowing it was stedding. My thought would be that is this planet all of randland that just got turned into one big stedding somehow in a previous age or are we trying to argue that randland is a whole universe and is broken up across planets too? (in which case is this the planet Rand would have been on turned to a stedding or some other planet that was always a stedding are turned into one)

[MikeRiley]

My post seems like the only one that really links us to being ogiers and that was just goofing around.

 

It's possible to have the stedding properties without it being an actual stedding. Something like the device in Far Madding might have been created on a global scale. Maybe with the resulting One Power war between the Black and White towers and the Seanchan they'll agree to a truce in which their channeling ability is removed from the world. To discover the ability to channel again would simply require for that device to be destroyed or turned off. It could exist in this age in the form of something like the great pyramids or Stonehenge.

[OptimusPrime]

It could exist in this age in the form of something like the great pyramids or Stonehenge.

 

Owen Wilsons nose.

[Mystica]

Kathleen, the theory would be that Earth = WOTworld, so not different planets.

 

I think we knew you were goofing, Mike. Don't worry ;) 't was a funny idea so I played with it a bit.

 

Not sure if any device would suffice to cover an entire planet though. But I've read in some discussion threads the idea of there being a massive confrontation between the One Power (originating from the Creator) and the True Power (originating from the DO) resulting in both Powers canceling each other out. Which would result in a backlash that blocked or removed the link between the world and those two powers, which would result in a world without channeling.

[DocBean]

We are from the 1st Age, the Age before the Age of Legends.

 

We've seen lots of samples of stuff from our world.

Lenn, who flew to the moon in an eagle made of fire - Neil Armstrong,

and the discovery of an object which appears to be remarkably like a Mercedes Benz logo, made of silvered plastic and radiating an aura of greed.

 

there have been some other things too, I can't remember them all.

 

At some point for the Wheel to circle all the way around again, the ability to channel will need to be removed from mankind.

[Agitel]

Well, we're an Age on the Wheel in the WoTverse, I wouldn't necessarily say first. Maybe that or the one before.

 

Anyway, I always just saw the ability to channel die out. Most of the world can't channel anyway. Or perhaps the ability just disappeared in the turning of an Age, like other Talents that seem to come when they're needed and then disappear. But the idea of making the Earth a giant stedding is interesting. Perhaps whatever created the stedding effect faded over time, or was destroyed in some great conflict.

[Majsju]

The Stedding are rather something that came with the Ogier, since they are the ones tied to them, and they are the ones who came from another world. Their little piece of Home in our world.

[FarShainMael]

My post seems like the only one that really links us to being ogiers and that was just goofing around.

 

It's possible to have the stedding properties without it being an actual stedding. Something like the device in Far Madding might have been created on a global scale. Maybe with the resulting One Power war between the Black and White towers and the Seanchan they'll agree to a truce in which their channeling ability is removed from the world. To discover the ability to channel again would simply require for that device to be destroyed or turned off. It could exist in this age in the form of something like the great pyramids or Stonehenge.

 

I sphinx I know where it would be..

 

[MikeRiley]

My post seems like the only one that really links us to being ogiers and that was just goofing around.

 

It's possible to have the stedding properties without it being an actual stedding. Something like the device in Far Madding might have been created on a global scale. Maybe with the resulting One Power war between the Black and White towers and the Seanchan they'll agree to a truce in which their channeling ability is removed from the world. To discover the ability to channel again would simply require for that device to be destroyed or turned off. It could exist in this age in the form of something like the great pyramids or Stonehenge.

 

I sphinx I know where it would be..

 

 

According to Edgar Cayce, a prophet from the 1920s or so, there's a chamber under the Sphynx's right paw that holds tablets chronicling the events around the fall of Atlantis. Some time after he died they did find a chamber there, they just never went in!

[Tel Janin]

Lenn, who flew to the moon in an eagle made of fire - Neil Armstrong

 

I would hypothesize that Lenn is John Glenn.  Just sayin'.  ;D

[DocBean]

Lenn, who flew to the moon in an eagle made of fire - Neil Armstrong

 

I would hypothesize that Lenn is John Glenn.  Just sayin'.   ;D

 

haha, you're right.

I knew it wasn't Neil Armstrong when I wrote that; and that the name Lenn was more in line with someone from real life.

I just couldn't figure out who the Lenn was supposed to sound like. I thought maybe it was Neil backwards, but you're right John Glenn.

[Majsju]

Considering one of the major themes in WOT, 'Lenn' is most likely an amalgamation of Armstrong and Glenn. The theme obviously being that time distorts facts, for those who still have not picked that one up ;D

[Crael123]

well at least we can channel on the Moon.

[Hallow]

People cutting down the Great Trees, ie deforestation? That should have an influence on the power of the Stedding, I think.

 

Wait, wait, hold on.

 

You're saying that if we cut down trees... we gain the ability to use the one power?

 

..

 

Death to the trees!

 

*Picks up chainsaw and goes to work*

[MikeRiley]

Were there any trees in the stedding that Perrin enters in Eye of the World? The one Loial visits when he's near Caemlyn later in the series.

[Mr. Dragon]

People cutting down the Great Trees, ie deforestation? That should have an influence on the power of the Stedding, I think.

 

In the first book, Perrin, Egween and Elyas made camp in a stedding that contained no great trees, we can there for infer that removing great trees from stedding probably won't have an effect.