The Seventh Age

[MikeRiley]

I might contradict myself a few times here, I'm thinking as I go. I'm not sure what I believe myself, but I figure it's one of those things we're not actually going to find out with the last book anyway.

 

I'd think technological advancement was what marked the beginning of the Age of Legends and the Breaking its end. I know there's a quote in the beginning of one of the books that comes from the 4th age, but is it also possible that there's only 3?

 

The age after Tarmon Gai'don would be the first. We would see more wolfbrothers in this time for a period when man's left wandering and is back into the hunter stage. It could be that the ability disappears over time due to a lack of need, as they take up farming. Nations would form up, there would still be wars. Maybe the power is discovered towards the end of it and is used in the fighting to cause the nations to fall. A major war could cause the end of an age, or something similar to the industrial revolution, but involving the power. The Tower of Genjai would be entered once people knew how - the story of Mat going in there has to be made known in his lifetime, or else the Snakes and Foxes game wouldn't exist so it seems the next age is where this fits in. He's going to do this very close to the Last Battle and the story wouldn't spread of it until after the chaos starts to settle - a matter of months maybe for the major stuff. If Farstrider is going in there, you know people are going to hear all about it. Or simply put, peace would come about and people would begin inventing new things and learning new weaves with the power.

 

The second age would be marked by sudden advancements in using the One Power. Lews Therin and Ishamael learned to kill with the tame sport fencing. The sport may have been called ancient even.. Either way, swordplay wasn't a killing tool in the Age of Legends until after the Dark One's prison was bored into and war broke out. So peace was made in a previous age but not so long ago that people forgot about the "sport". The bore is patched up and a Breaking follows, heralding the end of that age. As a note, the doorframe ter'angreal would be created here (so something might happen to the one in Tear?).

 

The third age is the current time period. Everything after the Breaking up to the Breaking Jr. Rand settles the old score in his new life and because of the Waygates spilling trollocs into less-defended areas (Rand's massing his armies in one place) the nations are destroyed. The few people left will then enter the fourth age as they would call it, but in reality, they'd have gone full turn back to the first.

 

The people need time to forget the power existed, to forget the Dark One, to forget war. A few thousand years could do it but there would still be myths for a while. It is possible that the first age is extremely long though. Perhaps all of our own ages from stone to modern lumped into one. You could say losing the power and finding it would mark the ends of that age, despite everything else that happens in those time periods. The Age of Power, an all-knowing being might call it.

 

A sudden loss of the power would fit with the title A Memory of Light. When channelers open to the source to draw on it it is often described as a light on the back of their shoulders that they could sense.

 

Edit: Reading back through, pretty much all I said was the prehistoric age mentioned is a part of the age before the Age of Legends. I'm also not getting where you all get the seven ages from. Did Robert Jordan say that's how many there were?

[ROB_88]

Edit: Reading back through, pretty much all I said was the prehistoric age mentioned is a part of the age before the Age of Legends. I'm also not getting where you all get the seven ages from. Did Robert Jordan say that's how many there were?

 

i'll admit i didn't actually read all of what you wrote, but hopefully that won't be an issue.

about there being seven ages we have the seven spokes on the Wheel of Time, ever spoke is an age etc.

that has been mentioned quite a bit throughout the books

[MikeRiley]

Where in the books does that say it? How would they know when they barely remember that there was an age before the Age of Legends?

[Nightstrike]

Where in the books does that say it? How would they know when they barely remember that there was an age before the Age of Legends?

I'm not sure if it says so in the series... It says so in the Big White Book, though. And that book is supposed to be compiled and written by people with the knowledge and prejudices of modern Aes Sedai. The way they could have known... Ogier seem to know some things about the turning of ages. They live a very long time. And they are interested in books and knowledge. The Heroes of the Horn seem to know some things. Dreamers and dreamwalkers and Foretellers know stuff quite inexplicably. Aelfinn/Eelfinn might know a thing or two. And who knows what any ter'angreal or Portal Stone could have revealed during the Age of Legends.

 

Edit: Reading back through, pretty much all I said was the prehistoric age mentioned is a part of the age before the Age of Legends. I'm also not getting where you all get the seven ages from. Did Robert Jordan say that's how many there were?

It says so in the Big White book. I'm not sure, but I think RJ might have said something about it also.

 

 

 

[CUBAREY]

 

I'm also not getting where you all get the seven ages from. Did Robert Jordan say that's how many there were?

 

An eight spoked wheel means 7 ages.

[benr]

As to the OP disappearing:  if the Wheel is the source of the OP, and it is severely damaged (or destroyed), then the OP could (or would) go away.  Those that could channel would lose that ability.  If the Wheel was only severely damaged, not destroyed, then it would slowly build back up to having a significant number of channelers.  What of the True Power, though?

[Nightstrike]

The Wheel isn't the source of the OP. The OP drives the Wheel. When the bore is unmade, there will be no TP for any people to reach. Just the OP.

 

From the BWB:

What is the Wheel of Time? Imagine a great cosmic loom in the shape of a seven-spoked wheel, slowly spinning through eternity, weaving the fabric of the universe. The Wheeel, put in place by the Crator, is time itself, ever turning and returning.

 

In this world there is no one beginning or one end, for each spoke of the great Wheel represents one of the seven Ages, reaceding into the past and returning in the future as the Wheel spins, the fabric of each age changing only its weave and pattern with each passing.

 

[benr]

The Wheel isn't the source of the OP. The OP drives the Wheel. When the bore is unmade, there will be no TP for any people to reach. Just the OP.

 

From the BWB:

What is the Wheel of Time? Imagine a great cosmic loom in the shape of a seven-spoked wheel, slowly spinning through eternity, weaving the fabric of the universe. The Wheeel, put in place by the Crator, is time itself, ever turning and returning.

 

In this world there is no one beginning or one end, for each spoke of the great Wheel represents one of the seven Ages, reaceding into the past and returning in the future as the Wheel spins, the fabric of each age changing only its weave and pattern with each passing.

 

Not to say that you aren't correct in your statement that the Wheel isn't the source, as I was going just on my thoughts of the moment, but the quotes you posted don't say anything as to whether the Wheel is the source of the OP, or vice versa.  And it is "if", not "when", the bore is unmade.

 

[Nightstrike]

Not to say that you aren't correct in your statement that the Wheel isn't the source, as I was going just on my thoughts of the moment, but the quotes you posted don't say anything as to whether the Wheel is the source of the OP, or vice versa.  And it is "if", not "when", the bore is unmade.

 

The Guide:

The Great Wheel is the very heart of all time. But even the Wheel requires energy to maintain itself and its pattern. This energy comes from the True Source, from which the One Power may be drawn.

 

"Thus Spake The Creator":

Q: Mr. Jordan, it's fairly common knowledge that the Dark One was bound by the creator outside of the pattern at the moment of creation. Would it then be safe to assume, after concepts brought to light in the new release, that the world before the opening of the prison never knew true evil? If so, then was each age before the opening of the Age of Legends different facets of some utopia? As well, without major conflict between good and evil, what caused ages to pass? Thanks.

A: Given that time is cyclic, you must assume that there is a time when the prison that holds the Dark One is whole and unbroken. There is a time when a hole is drilled into that prison and it is thus open to that degree. And there is a time when the opening has been patched in a makeshift manner. But following this line, the cyclic nature of time means that we have at some time in the future inevitably a whole and unbroken prison again. Unless, of course, the Dark One breaks free, in which case all bets are off -- kick over the table and run for the window.

 

Tor questions:

Week 18 Question: Who were the first channelers, and how did they learn? By trial and error? Are there any Ages where channeling does not exist?

 

Robert Jordan Answers: The first people to discover the ability to channel learned through trial and error, with fairly high casualty rates until they learned enough not to kill themselves accidentally. Their appearance marked the beginning of the previous Age to that of the books, or at least the end of the Age before that one.

Yes, as I have set things up, there are Ages when no one has any idea of how to channel or even that the One Power exists. Our own, for one. (The Wheel of Time turns.)

 

We know that there is no special thing about this turning (RJ said so). He even planned to write books about Mat & Tuon after Tar'mon Gaidon. Which mean that the Bore will be unmade after the last battle.

 

 

 

[benr]

Yes, that is very clear.  The possibility exists that damage to the Wheel would affect access to the OP, but given that description, damaging the Wheel would prove very difficult.  The pattern, on the other hand, can be damaged - not easily, but balefire can damage it, even destroy it.  Hopefully, balefire doesn't start flying around TG.

 

The question of the bore, at this turning, is not answered.  We don't know what will happen there.

 

A question for you, Nightstrike:  The OP comes from the True Source, as quoted.  What else comes from it?  Is it just the Wheel, or are there other manifestations?

[Nightstrike]

Yes, that is very clear.  The possibility exists that damage to the Wheel would affect access to the OP, but given that description, damaging the Wheel would prove very difficult.  The pattern, on the other hand, can be damaged - not easily, but balefire can damage it, even destroy it.  Hopefully, balefire doesn't start flying around TG.

 

A question for you, Nightstrike:  The OP comes from the True Source, as quoted.  What else comes from it?  Is it just the Wheel, or are there other manifestations?

I don't know why the Wheel would be damaged(?). Or what consequences that could have? I think a damaged Wheel would have dire consequences for all living things.

 

I don't know if it's just the Wheel. But the Wheel doesn't just weave "this" reality. It also weaves other worlds and other dimensions. Even T'a'r. You can read about it in the BWB ("The Wheel and the Pattern").