Our Era in Relation to the Series

[Blackhoof]

Good idea, a nuclear apocalypse would be a great age-ender, like a high-tech Breaking.  :D

[Bobbity]

To be honest, I believe that this present age is the seventh. For one, I don't have any portal stones in my back yard, and yet they were around before the AoL.

Secondly, a new beginning to the cycle would have to be marked by something absolutely incredible. As a world-shattering apocolypse failed to meet that criteria (as will Tarmon Gai'don), you have to look beyond. What better way to mark a new cycle than with the rediscovery of the One Power, the source that drives the wheel of time?

 

This is just my opinion, and we'll probably never know, but I believe that I'm right. Then again, everyone else here believes that they're right too, so that's not saying much.

[Blackhoof]

How did a world-shattering apocolypse fail to meet the criteria?  ??? The breaking was the end of the AoL, if that is what you are refering to.

[mellojoe]

The lost civilization of the Egyptians was from another Age.  That I believe, if we look at time as circular and not linear.

 

In today's world, we mostly believe time as a straight line (there was a beginning, a middle, and there will be an end.  When we die, we die.)  Some faiths believe in a 2nd life, a rebirth, whether in Heaven or Hell, where we remain for the rest of eternity.  So not quite a straight line, but still... one life for each person, it just renews in a second place.

 

Randland is built upon time being circular, much like the old eastern cultures of Buddhism and Hinduism.  One soul reborn many times, maybe even infinite times.  Rebirth is a given (nearly).  The life you lead now could impact how and when you are Reborn, thus there are consquences and rewards for living a good life / bad life.

 

If we look at our world as built upon a circular timeline, the Age of Caveman, the Age of the Egyptians, and then everything from the European continent from about 500BC onward is the "current/modern" age, where we learn about the previous ages by fragments of what we find.  We don't KNOW anything, but we can speculate much.

 

Does this fit into Randland's 7 Ages?  I don't know.  I would say it is entirely possible that our current Age is the first Age.

 

Then the discovery of the One Power mixed with the Technology (lightbulbs, hover cars, laser guns, etc) of the previous Age combined to form this amazing time.  Feats only dreamed about.

 

Then, the Bore and the Breaking, brings about the 3rd age.  Who knows what the 4th Age might look like.  maybe the 5th Age brings us Dinosaurs and other fantastical beasts.

 

6th Age brings about man.  Space aliens come and...

7th Age is the lost civilizations of Atlantis and Egyptians.

 

[FarShainMael]

How might the ability to channel be lost, somewhere between ourselves and Randland?

 

[ErikTheBald]

I have seen a theory (with which I don't necessarily agree or disagree) that in Tarmon Gaidon at the end of the third age, the ability to channel is burned out of everyone, male and female, and will take the better part of a turning of the wheel to be rediscovered.

[mb]

The books seem to imply that just the memory of channeling would be lost during the First Age; not the ability to channel.

 

[Icedragon]

I am a strong beliver that we are in the first age, the ability to channel will trigger the second age (AoL) and all how legends and myths (such as atlantis) happened in the seventh age.

[birtikidis]

we are the first age.  breaking of the world was "big bang".  at the end of this age the dark one is sealed away for good.  technology reigns supreme "religion" fades away(or as Han would say "hokey religions and ancient weapons").  the 2nd age would still be full of war and until the 3rd age the dark one would still be common knowledge.  he would fade to legend by the 4th age, myth by the 5th age, totally forgotton by the 6th age adn rediscovered in the 7th which would lead to the destruction of the world in the breaking.

[bronnt]

It depends on whether you view Rand's age as the Third Age.  Assuming that it is, I would say this is the 5th or 6th Age.  A bit of corroboration.

 

1) We learn in KoD that the Ogier plan to leave this world, so that they can be forgotten before they return.  Presumably both they and the Nym are from an age before the Age of Legends, which would seemingly make that the First Age.  Remember, the numbers are arbitrary since the whole mess is a wheel anyway.

 

2) In our age, Ogier completely forgotten, this is almost certainly not the 4th age.  However, if you assume this is the same universe, some of our myths and legends are still pervasive from the 3rd Age.  King Arthur Pendragon would end up a corrupted version of Artur Paendrag.  Thom Merrilin somehow gets into the story as Merlin, and Gawyn becomes Gawain, Galad become Galahad.  (For this Age, I picture the Hawking soul was Alexander the Great). 

 

There's some other pervasive elements like Grendal(Graendal), Odin(Mat), Ba'alzamon(Baelzebub), Paradise(Paaren Disen), Sammael(Sammael), Finns(Sidhe-Celtic Mythology), Rand(Fisher King).  There's tons more.  All together, I think they paint a picture that we're not that far removed from the Third Age.

 

3) The third Age is a probably a very long time after ours-there's very few lasting references.  Lenn who flew to the moon (John Glenn? in a LEM?), the Giants Merk(America) and Mosk(Moscow) battling, Anla the Wise Councilor (Ann Landers?).  Of course, there's that weird Mercades logo in Tanchico's museum.

 

4) We're in a non-channeling Age.  This may or may not jive with how WoT ends-maybe when the DO is sealed away, channelers lose their ability-but I don't expect we'll see that.  I suspect it will fade over time, so that it's lost sometime during the 4th Age, so this can't be the 4th Age.  It's long enough to go that no one remembers the details, but legends and stories of magical beings still persist.

 

I went with 5.  I think Rand time is more recent than not, despite the fact that we don't have Portal Stones, or a Tower of Ghenjei.

[Cillian]

It depends on whether you view Rand's age as the Third Age.  Assuming that it is, I would say this is the 5th or 6th Age.  A bit of corroboration.

 

1) We learn in KoD that the Ogier plan to leave this world, so that they can be forgotten before they return.  Presumably both they and the Nym are from an age before the Age of Legends,

 

Nym are One Power Constructs.

[tube_ee]

We can't be the 1st age of this turning of the Wheel, since the Portal Stones are from an Age older than the Age of legends, and they require the One Power to work.

 

This, of course, rests on the following two assumptions:

 

1. That the numbering of the Age of the books as the Third Age is correct. And there's some slight evidence that it isn't... it's called the Third Age by some, implying that they could be wrong.

 

2. That a time where humans cannot channel the One Power and a time where they can cannot belong to the same Age.

 

I think we're the Seventh Age, the final Age of a Turning in which humanity could not channel the One Power. That leaves enough time for the things that we know both pre-date the Age of Legends and require the use of the One Power.

 

--Shannon

[Som1else]

i had this great theory all writen out but when i read it over somthing clicked  in my head, so imagine its the first age and channeling will be discoverd before the age of ledgends why no chanlers durring 1st age? didnt it say in one of the books that channeling was discovered at the end of the first age? this leads me to believe that channeling was artificially engineered in late first age and certain people were given the ability to channel otherwise channeling would have been discoverd right near the start of the forst age with wilders, why are there no examples of wilders i in the story from first age?

[Beer Rot]

7th

 

 

7th - Present time, ends with the birth of channelers.

1st - Channeling is found, wars break out for supremacy, first breaking (though not a total rearrange), ends with AS/world peace

2nd - Age of Legends, ends with the Breaking

3rd - Randland

 

[Spilt-pea Soup]

The way I see it, the discovery of the one power would end our age. The question is what happened next? If the portal stones era lasted less then 200 years it could still be considered just a transitory era, and then our age would be the first age. although I kind of got the feeling that the portal stones were lost technology even in the AOL which mean that humanity probably blew itself back to the stone age and had to build itself a "new history" which would make our age the 7th age (that would also be a nice explanation as to why channelers are so accepted in the AOL, since they been around since the "dawn of humanity").

 

Of course if the portal stone era was a full fledge age then we might actually be the 6th...

 

 

This is the First Age.  It is known.

 

At some point in this Age, the Creator will give us the means to Channel (or we'll discover we've had it this whole time) and portal stones will be created.  The Age isn't over yet.  There will be a breaking that ends with the Utopian AoL (which may not be/have been as Utopian as it is portrayed in the series, considering how myth usually projects peace back onto a long-ago time when it wasn't actually peaceful in truth). 

 

The Mercedes logo and the dinosaur bones in Tanchico are from our age, the First Age. 

[beaverensis]

this might be a touch of topic, but . . .

 

everyone is talking about the AoL as a utopia, which i sort of remember.

what i don't remember regards some basic tech from the AoL. were sho-wings, jo-cars and shocklances all invented right around the breaking? it seems like there are at least some weapons/elements of war lying around.

 

just a thought . . .

[Mardragon]

everyone is talking about the AoL as a utopia, which i sort of remember.

what i don't remember regards some basic tech from the AoL. were sho-wings, jo-cars and shocklances all invented right around the breaking? it seems like there are at least some weapons/elements of war lying around.

 

From what I remember, much of the AoL was pretty much a utopia, which isn't to say there probably weren't problems. They had to learn war after the bore into the dark one's prison, so I'd imagine they made shock lances after that. The latter part of the Aol up until the breaking was obviously very much a time of war.

 

That being said, I seem to remember some weapons being used in sport (swords maybe?) earlier, so you might be right about weapons hanging around.

 

As for the poll, I'd place our age as 6 or 7. I think it's too soon for us to be immediately before the Age of Legends partly for the One Power and portal stones things that have been mentioned and also for the type of technology used in the AoL which is very different from ours.

[ravenfier]

I put oour time as the 7th age, with the end coming from two ways, one the advent of the "first" chanaller- "Tamyrlin" and possibly ww 3. because of the gentic manipulation that has gone on in the modern area and the mapping of the human genome, maybe we realy are looking at the real possiblity of some sort of hidden talent that some humans have comming to the for ground. In relation to the books the very first chanaller was named Tamyrlin- confirmed by RJ, so our time (which if you belive all the hype is comming to a close in a few years anyways) will see Tamyrlin. the portal stones would be created by using a mix of tec and OP to help get from place to place through a world that was torn by war and possiple nuke fallout.

 

Timeline as I see it:

 

1st age: world is recovering from ww3, the limmits of chanaling are discoverd. ends with world peace

2nd age: AoL

3rd age: curent Randland of books

4th age: world recovering from TLB, ablity of chanlling is slowly forgotten.

5th age: ablity to chanelle has been totaly forgoten ,

6th age: the start of this age come from ancient egypt ect.

7th age: our age ends in ww 3 and the re-discovory of chanlling

[Mr Ares]

The discovery of the OP marked the end of the Age before the Age of Legends/the beginning of the Age of Legends. If the Portal Stones were made with the OP, they were thus created at the end of the First Age or the beginning of the Second. Note: beginning of the Second Age. It seems the Age of Legends is commonly thought of solely in terms of the only part we know anything about, the end, the utopia that gave way to the Collapse and the War and the Breaking. It wasn't necessarily always that way - Ages can last milennia, so there is the possibility for huge change between the beginning of the Age and its end. Thus inserting further Ages between ourselves and the AoL isnn't necessary - our being the First Age has more going for it than any other Age, and nothing against. There is no need for us to be the Seventh or earlier.

[ravenfier]

but in the books it is stated several times that

Portal Stones are remnants from an age before the Age of Legends,

and those AS didn't know what they were trully for, the AoL AS studied them this study brought about the making of the ways. So that means that chanelling would have had to been re-discoverd and the Portal Stones made way long before the end of the 1st age, for chanellers to have forgotten the true use of them.

[Mr Ares]

but in the books it is stated several times that

Portal Stones are remnants from an age before the Age of Legends,

and those AS didn't know what they were trully for, the AoL AS studied them this study brought about the making of the ways. So that means that chanelling would have had to been re-discoverd and the Portal Stones made way long before the end of the 1st age, for chanellers to have forgotten the true use of them.

And RJ said that channeling was rediscovered in the Age before the AoL. So either they were created before channeling was rediscovered, or people in the books are wrong, or they were discovered at the changeover of Ages, the end of the ABtAoL and beginning of the AoL.

[ravenfier]

not saying your wrong but could i have that quote from rj?

[Shadow Rider]

I think WoT is in the 7th age because Tarmon Gaidan is the Last Battle, ending the cycle & that we are the 4th age.

I think they will lose the ability to channel in the Last Battle, beginning the cycle again....What once was will be again,Time without end.

[Mr Ares]

not saying your wrong but could i have that quote from rj?

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.

http://13depository.blogspot.com/2009/03/tor-questions-of-week.html

[Som1else]

where were the wilders then they must have disscovered channeling but we cant be first age because "magic aint real" so we would have to be an age where channeling was completelly eliminated