All Seals are Broken -- theory

[Thorn]

 

 

Over the past few days I've been re-reading the high points of the books and puzzling over things I hadn't been able to figure out yet, anticipating the upcoming release.

 

The main thing I've been puzzling over are the "ripples" we see in Knife of Dreams. There are two scenes with the ripples, one from Perrins' and one from Faile's point of view; at the time, they're about a day's ride apart (forty miles at a guess?), and according to the timeline, they're about seven days apart (presuming the timeline is correct).

 

The common theory is that they're "bubbles of evil," but I don't think this makes sense. For one thing, we've never seen bubbles of evil that precisely replicated other bubbles -- they're random and chaotic. For another, the "ripple" effect isn't harmful. For a third, the description of the "ripples" is the chapter title in bothchapters -- "As If the World Were Fog," and "Something. . Strange. . . " which implies that the ripples are a very important event, not just a random bubble.

 

"Suddenly, everything seemed to ripple in Perrin's sight. He felt himselfripple. Breane gave a cry and dropped the pitcher. The world rippled again, and Berelain clutched his arm. Tylee's hand seemed frozen in that odd gesture, thumbe and forefinger forming a crescent. Everything rippled for a third time, and Perrin felt as if he were made of fog, as if the world were fog with a high wind coming."

KoD, pg 576 hardback

 

Faile's ripples are similarly dramatic:

 

She had just reached Therava's arrival with Galina when everything in front of her eyes rippled. She rippled! It was not imagination. Meira's blue eyes widened, as far as they could go; she had felt it, too. Again everything rippled, including herself, harder than before. In shock, Faile stood up straight and let go of her robe. A third time the world rippled, harder still, and as it passed through her, she felt as if she might blow away in a breeze, or simply dissipate in a mist.

 

A page or so later, Faile is conversing with Alliandre, and Alliandre asks her:

 

"Did anything . . . strange. . happen to you just now, my Lady?" she asked, fear strong in her unsteady voice.

 

"It did," Faile said, standing crouched under the ridgepole.

 

KoD, pg 173-174 hardback. Note the chapter is titled "Something Strange."

 

So that's two separate ripple events, both of which are the chapter-naming events in their chapter, approximately seven days apart.

 

I was at a loss to explain all this until I was rereading Shadow Rising and re-read the scene where Rand watches the Bore being drilled through his ancestor Charn's eyes. This line in particular:

"but before he could speak, the ground rippled under their feet. The air rippled, too, in spreading waves."

(TSR, pg. 306 hardback).

 

That's the first inkling that the Bore has been drilled, before the Sharom breaks or anything else.

 

 

So here's my theory: both Ripples in KoD are the same event; the ripples are travelling comparatively slowly across Randland ("in spreading waves"), so it took them a few days to travel from Faile to Perrin. The ripples are caused by the last three seals finally shattering (just like the Bore being drilled initially caused the world to "ripple"). The other major characters haven't run into this issue yet because they're farther away from wherever Rand last stashed the seals (or, possibly, they hit the "ripples" offscreen).

 

Thoughts? Apologies if this is an old theory, but I'd searched the board for explanations re: the ripples and hadn't found one beyond the simple bubbles-of-evil theory.

 

[Balefire to da face!]

Well, I haven't read it before, and it didn't occur to me when I was reading it, so it's new to me at least.

 

It sounds very plausible....though doesn't it seem early for the DO to be totally free, we still have a ways to go. Then again, I guess the War of Power only started when the DO broke free....so perhaps he'll need some time to "stretch his legs"?

 

Also, wasn't there foreshadowing that Rand would personally break the remaining seals when the time was right. So as to face the DO and so he could repair the Bore(Fel said clearing the rubble to rebuild the house...or something, right?).

[Luckers]

Elaida says that the dead walking are come from a thinness in reality that is caused by the Dark One gathering himself before Tarmon Gai'don. My opinion of the ripples has always been that they were simply him making a real effort.

[Thorn]

Well, I haven't read it before, and it didn't occur to me when I was reading it, so it's new to me at least.

 

It sounds very plausible....though doesn't it seem early for the DO to be totally free, we still have a ways to go. Then again, I guess the War of Power only started when the DO broke free....so perhaps he'll need some time to "stretch his legs"?

 

Also, wasn't there foreshadowing that Rand would personally break the remaining seals when the time was right. So as to face the DO and so he could repair the Bore(Fel said clearing the rubble to rebuild the house...or something, right?).

 

I'm hoping it's new, it's hard to come up with theories that are both new and plausible. There are many theories, but this one is mine!

 

As to timing, Jordan did say he was only planning one more book (even though, of course, it's a three-book book). You're right about the foreshadowing though.  It's certainly a loose enough theory that if Sanderson wanted Rand to break the seals personally, he could still retcon the ripples as bubbles of evil/ the DO exerting himself, even if RJ had originally intended the ripples to be the seals breaking. But either way, it's an interesting parallel, and one I hadn't seen commented on anywhere, so I wanted to bring it up.

 

Looking at this map here: http://img156.imageshack.us/ifs/5647/img85/4/wotannotatedmap.jpg

 

That places Faile and Perrin coincidentally closest to Emond's Field.

[Hunter]

Wow, this is hilarious. I just read te Faile passage on my reread through KoD and I was surprised I hadn't noticed it before. This time it struck like lightning. I was like, "Oh crap, the last 3 Seals just broke, how did I not notice that before?!" I was wondering if anyone else had figured this out, and I was going to post it here, and lo and behold, a recent topic with the same idea. :p

[mb]

From the timeline, I would estimate 5 through 6 days; not 7 days.

 

I agree that the ripples are not miasma.

Yet it seems doubtful that the ripples caused the seals to break since the Dark One has not appeared.

 

The ripples seem to relate more to the Dark One's shifting of reality.

 

[Locke]

I think that these new effects are caused by the DO becoming closer and closer to freedom and now has a limited effect on the world. These ripples and dead men walking are the DO's effect on the Pattern.  The DO is sort of distorting the pattern slightly. Just a thought. 

[Blademaster Tayos]

The fact that there are three more books doesn't lend itself to the idea that the seals are broken either, as Rand is definitely not up to wrestling with a fully released dark one just yet.

[algspkr]

Perrin and Faile were much closer together than the seals were to each other, at least one was in Andor and at least one was in Cahrain, so if it took the effects six days to reach Faile from Perrin then there should have been months between the breaking of each seal and Perrin or Faile experiencing the effects.

[Tirade]

Was there a ripple the day the DO broke free back in the AoL?  We get a perspective of that day in Rhuidean.  I don't remember the details of that passage.

[Charlz Guybon]

From the timeline, I would estimate 5 through 6 days; not 7 days.

 

I agree that the ripples are not miasma.

Yet it seems doubtful that the ripples caused the seals to break since the Dark One has not appeared.

 

The ripples seem to relate more to the Dark One's shifting of reality.

 

The Seals breaking won't make the Dark One "free". If he was free, he would remake creation instantly. He'll just be as free as he was at the end of the War of Power. Which while bad, isn't the instant end of the world.

[Ahaz Flagg]

I do not beleive they are broken,  the ripple was simply the dark one flexing his muscle. 

[richnewton82]

.

[Thorn]

Wow, this is hilarious. I just read te Faile passage on my reread through KoD and I was surprised I hadn't noticed it before. This time it struck like lightning. I was like, "Oh crap, the last 3 Seals just broke, how did I not notice that before?!" I was wondering if anyone else had figured this out, and I was going to post it here, and lo and behold, a recent topic with the same idea. :p

 

We must both be right then! :P

 

Perrin and Faile were much closer together than the seals were to each other, at least one was in Andor and at least one was in Cahrain, so if it took the effects six days to reach Faile from Perrin then there should have been months between the breaking of each seal and Perrin or Faile experiencing the effects.

 

Do we actually know where the Seals are at the moment? According to http://encyclopaedia-wot.org/items/seals.html,

 

1. Found broken at the Eye of the World. (TEotW,Ch52) Moiraine shows the pieces to Siuan. (TGH,Ch5) (BROKEN)

2. Bayle Domon had one, intact, that he got from a shopkeeper in Maradon. (TGH,Ch9) It was taken by Turak. (TGH,Ch29) Moiraine found it after the fight, and it was broken by then. (TGH,Ch49) (BROKEN)

3. Turak had one. Moiraine found it along with (2). Also broken. (TGH,Ch49) (BROKEN)

4. Moiraine found one in the Stone of Tear, intact. (TDR,Ch56) In TFoH,Ch52, when they go down to the docks, Rand spots two casks with the two seals (#4 and #5) in them packed in wool for protection. (INTACT)

5. Moiraine found another one in Rhuidean, and made a scratch. She put it back in her pouch. (TFoH,Ch2) In TFoH,Ch52, when they go down to the docks, Rand spots two casks with the two seals (#4 and #5) in them packed in wool for protection. (INTACT)

6. Nynaeve found one in the Panarch's Palace, (TSR,Ch54), broken on the way to Salidar. (TFoH,Ch50) (BROKEN)

7. Mazrim Taim gives Rand one when he comes to Rand. He found it in a "decaying little farm in Saldaea. I stopped for water, and the farmer gave it to me. He was old, with no children or grandchildren to pass it on to, and he thought I was the Dragon Reborn. He claimed his family had guarded it for more than two thousand years. Claimed they were kings and queens during the Trolloc Wars, and nobles under Artur Hawkwing." Rand (or is it Lews Therin?) tries to destroy it, but Davram Bashere stops him. (LoC,Ch2) (INTACT)

 

We do not know where Rand is keeping his seal or if it was one of the items he rescued after the attack on his rooms in TPoD,Ch29. According to the Tor Q&A, Rand has the whole wagon train of items from Rhuidean stored in a warded warehouse in Cairhien, but we do not know if he left seals #4 and #5 there.

 

So we don't really know where the seals are right now. We do know that Rand had stashed the two ter'angreal Choedan Kal access keys in a random spot in the wilderness, buried deep and only visible to him. If he did the same with the three Seals he had access to, burying them, say, somewhere near Emond's Field, then Faile and Perrin would've been closest to the their breaking.

 

On the other hand, we don't know that the "ripple" would emanate from the point where the Seals were -- it might come from somewhere else. (shayol ghul? some non-euclidean point since all Reality is "rippling"?)

 

 

[Blademaster Tayos]

This is all conjecture but I think that the seals were hidden when rand went to view Bashere's troops in LoC chapter 26.  A curious passage is

For an instant Rand seized saidin, and released it a heartbeat later.  With his vision enhanced, it had not been difficult to see the two white stones lying near the foot of the slope, right where Bashere had placed them personally last night, four paces apart.  With luck, no one had seen him.  With luck no one would ask too many questions about this morning.

Now I can only think of two things that would cause rand be this cautious and sneaky about hiding something

1. The seals

2. The Choedan Kal access keys

And as I am pretty sure that the access keys are hidden in Cairhien then that only leaves the seals.

[ROB_88]

This is all conjecture but I think that the seals were hidden when rand went to view Bashere's troops in LoC chapter 26.  A curious passage is

For an instant Rand seized saidin, and released it a heartbeat later.  With his vision enhanced, it had not been difficult to see the two white stones lying near the foot of the slope, right where Bashere had placed them personally last night, four paces apart.  With luck, no one had seen him.  With luck no one would ask too many questions about this morning.

Now I can only think of two things that would cause rand be this cautious and sneaky about hiding something

1. The seals

2. The Choedan Kal access keys

And as I am pretty sure that the access keys are hidden in Cairhien then that only leaves the seals.

 

no, the stones are there so they can practise on riding through a narrow space, this narrow space is the gateway that they will use to attack Illian later on

[Blademaster Tayos]

Hmm guess your right.  Though it does seem to be really sneaky for the purpose.

[ROB_88]

Hmm guess your right.  Though it does seem to be really sneaky for the purpose.

 

so? he doesn't want anyone to find out. if he had put up huge stone pillars for them to ride through someone would notice, tell Sammael and he would understand eventually, risking the whole operation