fourth age channeling

[PrinceOfRavens]

i dont post here alot, just read all the good theories out there but one thing struck me as odd.

 

Alot of people think that channeling will be gone in the fourth age, why would that happend. Would Rj have gone trough all the trouble of new talents(or old) to be introduced just to have them lost again soon after. What would be the use of the discovery of making ter'angreal or the discovery of all the stashes? It would be plain useless then, something that strike me as pretty weird as they have just been introduced.

 

Then there is elaida's foretelling, of the tower being STRONGER THEN EVER when its reunited. Would it be as strong with the power gone, for some odd reason :P i dont think so.

 

Then the black tower, what is the use of all those channeling guys if they just get thrown away after the last battle. Alot of things would then just simply be useless plot filling of the books. And in my book these things dont count as silk or appearances as they ARE filling...

 

Can someone give me any reason that channeling will be gone in the fourth age and i dont mean hopes or opinions. Fact's would be cool :P

 

My 2 cents guys, looking forward for the reactions, especially from luckers and Raw

[Theandrin]

I personally believe that the fourth age will have both channeling and industry.

 

This is how I see it. The first age(our age) relies completely on industry to fuel and power everything around us. The second age(age of legends) used channeling has the fuel source and power. We have seen this from the jo-cars and jo-planes. The third age, due to the DO, was unable to do either of those. So I see the fourth age as using both channeling and industry together.

 

I first started thinking this when Rand opened the school and the scholars started creating things that ran without using the power. Then looking at the dragon eggs. I think of them as bombs and they are not being blow up using the power. I believe that during the last battle, both channeling and weak form of industry will come together, and that will last throughout the fourth age.

 

I don't believe that channeling will disappear until either the fifth or sixth age. It just doesn't make sense to me that all of this knowledge is coming back, just to be lost at the end of this age.

[DemandredFO]

I agree with PrinceOfRavens, there are three ages left before the wheel turns and as Prince said I'm pretty sure RJ wouldn't give us all the channeling info and discoveries just to toss it at the beginning of the fourth age.  My opinion on some of the weaves not working is part the Foresaken and part Shaitan touching the world

[RobertAlexWillis]

Would Rj have gone trough all the trouble of new talents(or old) to be introduced just to have them lost again soon after. What would be the use of the discovery of making ter'angreal or the discovery of all the stashes? It would be plain useless then, something that strike me as pretty weird as they have just been introduced.

 

Well, all these re-discoveries are helping the Light have a chance against the Shadow at Tarmon Gai'don ... so I don't think they're totally useless, even if channeling dissapears fairly early in the Fourth Age.

 

Then there is elaida's foretelling, of the tower being STRONGER THEN EVER when its reunited.

 

It doesn't say that the Tower will stay "stronger than ever" forever, or even for 10 years.  Channeling can dissapear early in the Fourth Age and still fulfill that requirement.  I don't think that it will -poof- dissapear overnight.

 

Then the black tower, what is the use of all those channeling guys if they just get thrown away after the last battle.

 

They help win the Battle.  You know, save the whole Pattern from destruction?  Thats pretty useful.

 

Can someone give me any reason that channeling will be gone in the fourth age and i dont mean hopes or opinions. Fact's would be cool

 

Because Jordan says that one of the signs of Ages changing is that new abilities appearing (Like Min's ability, Hurin's sniffing, and the reappearance of Wolfbrothers).  The corrollary is that old abilities dissapear, and we can see that too (he has confirmed that the percentage of channelers in the population has decreased from 3 to 1 percent).  As new ones come in, old ones go out.  Just as those new abilities are appearing gradually, so channeling will dissapear gradually.

 

The re-discovery of channeling abilities does not indicate an increase in the ability to channel, just in the knowledge of how to use that ability.

 

We don't have proof that channeling will dissapear, by any means, but the idea seems to fit the pattern of Ages changing.

[dyring]

While I don´t think that channeling will disapere for another age or two more, when it does, it surely won´t say "poof, no more channelers being born", more likely, it will take almost an entire age, where it jsut gets fewer and fewer, until at the end of the age its stories, that most don´t belive(I mean, come on? channeling? telekinesis? magic? Your going nuts on me m8? you can´t belive in that sort of superstition right?

 

//dyring

[Angel of Death]

Do you believe it was possible at on time? No. See its already happened here. Damm. Why can't the Aol come back, we must be close by now.

[Luckers]

Frankly i dont see channeling disapearing so quickly. I think in large part the issue of the decline of the channeling gene has been over-exagerated by the decline of the Aes Sedai, which is not a relative perception. In reality we have four ages before channeling must be unknown, and I find it unlikely--especially given the fact that interbreeding between male and female channelers will undoubtedly reapear(which must singularily be the only cause for the decline in channelers since the majority of both female and male channelers have remained in the gene pool).

 

 

[cloglord]

I think that the future of channeling will be heavily influenced by the cultures that form after TG.  We have unresolved questions about the structure of the WT and the BT post TG, how the SEanchan will cope with the suldame/damane issue, what will happen to the island of madmen, when it becomes the island of sanemen, etc.  If in a post TG world most of the population mistrusts channelers, I can see a steady decline, as they become more and more insulated and outcast.  Those with the ability would be driven underground or into secret societies, and invariably some of the knowledge and some of the abilities would be lost.  As time progressed channeling would be something left to groups of secretive shamans and druids, then atributed to isolated cases of witchcraft, and finally relegated to the realm of superstition.  We know that some knowledge can survive through as many as 5 ages, Shaitan/Satan, Arthur Pendragon/Al Thor Dragon, etc.  By the time the first age comes again, superstition about witches etc. could simply be isolated cases of sparkers who survived to become wilders.

 

On a sorta related point, I think that the 4th age is shaping up to be a fantastic age for the wheel.  The healing of the bore, will present a pretty big sense of optimism for Randland.  However, we know that the 1st age didn't start with railroads and gunpowder and steel.  So what happens in the 7th age to start everything back at zero, what's the story behind that breaking? 

[DemandredFO]

That's one thing I'd like to know.

[RobertAlexWillis]

But I have all stories, mind you now, of Ages that were and will be.  Ages when man ruled the heavens and the stars, and Ages when man roamed as brother to the animals.  Ages of wonder, and Ages of horror.  Ages ended by fire raining from the skies, and Ages doomed by snow and ice covering  land and sea.

 

Thom being humble, TEoTW ch 4.

 

Massive meteor strikes would work well for a total reset.  An Ice Age, not quite as well, but it could  be.

[Ealdur Tinuviel]

The corrollary is that old abilities dissapear

 

But that isn't necessary. Just like when some abilites are lost, not all are.

 

In the AoL many abilities were lost, including Dreaming. But the ability to channel was not lost.

 

Besides that, recall the Lord of Chaos quote/chant thing that comes from a place called Great Arvalon (Tar Valon, anyone?).

 

And then there is the fact that Elaida's palace is just a perfect set-up for the relocation of the Asha'man.

 

And then there is the quote "The battle done, but the world not done with the battle. The guardians [Asha'man] balance the servants [Aes Sedai]. I hardly think that would be very important if the ability to channel was lost any time soon.

 

BTW, I really would imagine that our age ends/ended in Nuclear warfare between Merc [America] and Mosk [Moscow, Russia] and our lances of fire.

 

And I think that would have created the thinness in the Pattern taht was recognized by Lanfear.

 

Also, I'd imagine that was the 7th age, and not the first, because the Portal Stones were created in the First Age.

[RobertAlexWillis]

But that isn't necessary. Just like when some abilites are lost, not all are.

 

I know that is a possibility.  But your example ...

 

In the AoL many abilities were lost, including Dreaming. But the ability to channel was not lost.

 

... is a bad one.  Dreaming was lost as a skill, by part of the population of the world, not as an ability, in all humans everywhere.  There were always Dreamers among the Aiel, and the Tower only lost it completely for a few hundred years.  The ability was never actually lost.

 

Besides that, recall the Lord of Chaos quote/chant thing that comes from a place called Great Arvalon (Tar Valon, anyone?).

 

Why is the name of a place proof that channeling stays?  Sure, Great Aravalon is probably related in some way to Tar Valon ... but that doesn't mean the people there have to be able to channel.  Its not like if the ability to channel dissapears the inhabitants of that place will all say "Oops ... guess we all have to move now."

 

The battle done, but the world not done with the battle. The guardians [Asha'man] balance the servants [Aes Sedai].  I hardly think that would be very important if the ability to channel was lost any time soon.

 

I disagree completely.  You guys did read the part where channeling doesn't -poof- disappear instantly, right?  I doubt seriously that the current channelers will lose the ability ... just that people will stop being born with it.  That means the Aes Sedai and the Asha'man will be quite relevant ... even crucial ... to establishing a post Tarmon Gai'don peace, even if the ability to channel is slowly disappearing from the overall population.

 

And I think that would have created the thinness in the Pattern taht was recognized by Lanfear.

 

What ... nuclear war caused the thinness in the Pattern?  That no one noticed until Mierin thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years later?  I doubt that very much ... how is a nuclear explosion going to alter the fabric of reality?

 

because the Portal Stones were created in the First Age.

 

No, they were created in "an Age before the Age of Legends" ... which might well be the Second Age ... or any other Age for that matter.

 

Hehehe.

[Luckers]

Stop putting in your propaganda Robert. The Age of Legends was not the first part of the Third Age. We know this because... well, I say so. And I'm pretty, so there!

 

Not that i disagree. We don't know for sure that the Portal stones were created in the First Age (our age). Concider the Breaking... it lasted nearly 400 years, during which any number of big things happened including device innovation such as the male a'dam and Caddy/Nynaeve's toys, and yet whilst it is of a time before the third age, it is not of the second age.

 

Myself, i have a theory about that. Hehehe.

[Ealdur Tinuviel]

Care to elaborate?

 

I have all day.

[Wayhey]

It always says at the beginning of the books that the the current Age is "called the Third Age by some"——meaning that it could even be the Seventh Age.  All we know for sure is that it isn't the First and probably not the Second.  I would say, however, that the Age of Legends and the Third Age are definitely Two distinct Ages——and not halves of the same age——simply because they are so colossally different.

[Nelal Hurcran]

Where was it stated that we are living in the Fisrt Age? Or is this just an all-but-povren theory?

[Luckers]

Care to elaborate?

 

I have all day.

 

I did in the Transition thread i had just created, hence the 'hehehe'.

 

 

[Ealdur Tinuviel]

Yeah, I saw that, but was too lazy too edit my post.