Was the first age a one off?

[Scarloc99]

At the end of the series the dark lord is locked away, the one power is cleansed and peace has settled over the lands. It is presented as if this is the start of the new age, the 4th age, and Rand has worked out the dark lord will remain sealed until he is forgotten about. 
 

But, I have been trying to work out how this new turning happens. If you consider the 1st age was now, us living in 2022 and the age of legends started with the discovery of the one power. Then that would suggest humanity in the WOT will need to suffer a catastrophe far larger then the breaking to reset humanity to a “pre one power” civilization. 
 

initially I thought the idea that the number of channelers was falling would solve this, over millennia humanity just loses the ability out of the gene pool and forgets. Then rediscoveres it again anew, but, the source being cleansed and the change in rules for aes sedai means male and female channelers will continue having children and the gene will continue being passed. 
 

So, do we think the first age, the pre Channeling age was a one off never to be experienced again. Or do we think humanity has some great cataclysm still to come to ensure all knowledge of the one power, the dark lord and his prison and the dragon is wiped from existence? 

[SinisterDeath]

4 hours ago, Sir_Charrid said:

At the end of the series the dark lord is locked away, the one power is cleansed and peace has settled over the lands. It is presented as if this is the start of the new age, the 4th age, and Rand has worked out the dark lord will remain sealed until he is forgotten about. 
 

But, I have been trying to work out how this new turning happens. If you consider the 1st age was now, us living in 2022 and the age of legends started with the discovery of the one power. Then that would suggest humanity in the WOT will need to suffer a catastrophe far larger then the breaking to reset humanity to a “pre one power” civilization. 
 

initially I thought the idea that the number of channelers was falling would solve this, over millennia humanity just loses the ability out of the gene pool and forgets. Then rediscoveres it again anew, but, the source being cleansed and the change in rules for aes sedai means male and female channelers will continue having children and the gene will continue being passed. 
 

So, do we think the first age, the pre Channeling age was a one off never to be experienced again. Or do we think humanity has some great cataclysm still to come to ensure all knowledge of the one power, the dark lord and his prison and the dragon is wiped from existence? 

The timeline in WoT is an infinitely large spiral where the ends probably connect at some point in infinity. When viewed from the top, it looks like a circle divided into ages of varying lengths.

RJ described each age as a tapestry. So the 3rd age tapestry this go around, looks nearly identical to the tapestry from the last time, or even the next time. But when you get really close and look at the individual threads, and strands that make up that tapestry, there's tiny changes. Colors are just a bit off. Density of the fiber might change. Texture could be just a bit different.

All of this, also goes onto RJ stating that while the WoT Universe is "based" on our world, its' definitely not our universe.

His universe doesn't have entropy.
Sol, the star in the center of our solar system will never die in the WoT Universe. The universe will never expand to the point of heat death. (No Big Crunch/Big Bang repeating)
Even "Evolution" isn't really a thing in the WoT universe... as long as the wheel exists.

There was a pretty good thread talking about a lot of these concepts... but I can't find it right now.

[JyP]

22 hours ago, Sir_Charrid said:

So, do we think the first age, the pre Channeling age was a one off never to be experienced again. Or do we think humanity has some great cataclysm still to come to ensure all knowledge of the one power, the dark lord and his prison and the dragon is wiped from existence? 

 

We have seen glimpses of the way the One Power could disappear already : a big enough ritual with a big enough ter'angreal, and a reckless channeler untying the flows - like what has happened with the Bowl of the Winds. It could be the end of the Fourth Age.

 

Note that Aes Sedai don't know where the One Power comes from - and I guess it was the same during the Age of Legends, what with trying to gain access to an ultimate power source and opening the Bore instead.

 

So there's an Age where the One Power was either discovered or crafted - it could happen again in the future.

[Asthereal]

As far as I can tell, every Age will return and happen in roughly the same way as before. So the First Age as well. My personal take on this is that, if the First Age is named correctly (let's face it, it was probably named by humans and what do they know?), then The Creator made the world, the pattern and the Wheel at the start of the First Age.

But in order to have everything reset, and in order to allow for every artificial thing made in earlier Turnings of the Wheel to completely and utterly disappear, at least one of the later Ages must be long. Very long. Think in terms of hundreds of thousands of years at least. Potentially millions. Maybe an extra Breaking of the World must happen. For instance at the end oft the Fourth Age, another Breaking could happen that's much worse than the previous one. Humans could go extinct and we could get a Fifth Age with no humans that lasts for a couple hundred million years. Finally life gets itself back on track and humans finally start to arise again, and slowly evolve (yes, I would say evolution is possible in this world, it just needs a few tweaks) back towards First Age levels by the end of the Seventh Age.

But this is rather heavy theorycrafting. We don't see any traces from stuff from the previous time the Third Age happened, so there must be something in the cycle to erase it all. But the story doesn't give it to us. All we get is hints of stuff from the First Age, bits and pieces from the Second, large parts of the Third and of course its ending in full. Oh and some possibilities from the start of the Fourth. But that's it. Everything else is up to our imagination. Or you can scour every bit of info dropped by Jordan and Sanderson in interviews and panels and whatnot. I prefer my own interpretation, but that's just me. 🙂 

[KakitaOCU]

On 11/20/2022 at 8:50 AM, SinisterDeath said:

His universe doesn't have entropy.
Sol, the star in the center of our solar system will never die in the WoT Universe. The universe will never expand to the point of heat death. (No Big Crunch/Big Bang repeating)
Even "Evolution" isn't really a thing in the WoT universe... as long as the wheel exists.

Or... Here me out....

It does and the individual ages are so much greater than we think they are.

What if the last age in the cycle is the Crunch/Bang?  Age 1 is where we are, Age 2 is AoL, Age 3 is the repair, etc and then it keeps being longer and longer ages because of entropy and expansion?   O:-)

[SinisterDeath]

45 minutes ago, KakitaOCU said:

Or... Here me out....

It does and the individual ages are so much greater than we think they are.

What if the last age in the cycle is the Crunch/Bang?  Age 1 is where we are, Age 2 is AoL, Age 3 is the repair, etc and then it keeps being longer and longer ages because of entropy and expansion?   O:-)

RJ literally said the Sun in the Sol System will never wink out of existence in his universe.

[Asthereal]

4 hours ago, KakitaOCU said:

Or... Here me out....

It does and the individual ages are so much greater than we think they are.

What if the last age in the cycle is the Crunch/Bang?  Age 1 is where we are, Age 2 is AoL, Age 3 is the repair, etc and then it keeps being longer and longer ages because of entropy and expansion?   O:-)

 

That's even wilder than my headcanon. I love it! 🤣