If I was the DO....

[Mr Ares]

Look at where we were 1,000 years ago. Or 2, or 3. We've come a long way. Why couldn't they?

[Blackhoof]

Honestly, Ares, your like Beonin Sedai; you wouldn't believe the sun rises in the morning unless someone showed you, and then you would act like WE were the ones that denied the sun rising.  :P

 

No, i think that the Breaking was a very effective age-ender, Fel could have been wrong.

He could have been. What evidence do you have that it ended the Age?

 

In TSR Thom is talking to Elayne on the deck of the Sea Folk ship on the way to Tanchico and says: "come to think of it, that (the next age) may be no more than a year or two off. How is the end of an Age marked? It cannot always be a cataclysm on the order of the Breaking."

 

This proves that the AoL ended with the breaking.

 

knowledge only stretches back two ages

How do you know that?

 

Wow, and here i was thinking that you caught the "fades into legend, then fades into myth, then is forgotten" thing at the beggining of every book. Oh well.

[Mr Ares]

In TSR Thom is talking to Elayne on the deck of the Sea Folk ship on the way to Tanchico and says: "come to think of it, that (the next age) may be no more than a year or two off. How is the end of an Age marked? It cannot always be a cataclysm on the order of the Breaking."

 

This proves that the AoL ended with the breaking.

Yes, it proves it just as much as Fel's statements prove that it didn't. One says black, the other says white.

 

Wow, and here i was thinking that you caught the "fades into legend, then fades into myth, then is forgotten" thing at the beggining of every book. Oh well.

I did. But it doesn't say they only remember two Ages past. After all, they might still remember the First Age when the Fourth begins.

[Beren]

Well, we know Fel was getting way too close to some important truth. RJ stated that he was killed because he was getting too close to something important.

[Blackhoof]

Wow, and here i was thinking that you caught the "fades into legend, then fades into myth, then is forgotten" thing at the beggining of every book. Oh well.

I did. But it doesn't say they only remember two Ages past. After all, they might still remember the First Age when the Fourth begins.

 

Ok... the "then is forgotten" thing generally means that they forget it. Or is that not clear enough? Maybe people will recognise the ages and name them appropriately, but to human perceptian, they are always the third age, and eventually someone during the fourth age very well may come up to a person saying that this age is the 4th age and say, "Prove it". And they couldn't. Because to human memory, there would only be two ages beforehand, and unless there highly educated or have a good source, they will naturally assume that that is the third age.

 

Of course, i could be wrong, but this is just idle speculation, so i would appreciate it if people (i'm looking at you, Ares) didn't, you know, pick apart this post pointing out how wrong it is.  ;)

[Dunderdan]

If I was the DO, Id have unreliable assistants and never get exactly what Id send them to do. Id be furious but what could I do?

[Mr Ares]

Ok... the "then is forgotten" thing generally means that they forget it.

Eventually, yes. But there is no time frame beyond "before the Age that gave it birth comes around again." No 2 Age limit. Of course, another thing to bear in mind is that names can stick - New Braem is decidedly not new. So they may forget the Third Age when the Fifth rolls around, but to them, they are the Age after the Fourth, and thus they are the Fifth. Even if they don't remember Ages 1-3.

[Blackhoof]

Yes, I concede you that point. I am probably wrong, but it could happen, when no-one can remember something, they generally forget it, we are talking thousands of years in each age, and they might well forget their age number during some catastrophe like another breaking or some such. I'm probably wrong, but it might happen. You can't deny that it is possible. Well, you can, but you'd be wrong.  ;)

[Dunderdan]

I agree with Blackhoof. As long as the transition to a new age is smooth, its possible the next age will continue the age number count. But a major (disastrous) event could interrupt it. And its not only disaster who could "overturn" the count. An alterantive way would be that the community of the next age decides they are starting something new and enlightened, wanting to separate them from the darker earlier ages, calling their age something else but a numbered age, like for example "The Enlightened Age". And in the same spirit call all the older ages for "the Dark Age" dropping the age counting. Doing such a change would eventually lead to people forgetting the older age count, if not in the "enlightened age" itll happen in the following age or the age after that. Much like the Bronze Age was called something else at its own time.

 

Eventually, everything can be lost. Even the original topic of the thread - sorry for derailing  ;D

 

[Blackhoof]

See, someone agrees with me... cool.  ;D