Will access to the One Power survive the last battle?

[Durinax]

the true sourse driver the wheel of time. If Rand kills the DO, then there is no wheel since the age can not come again. Just like if the DO breaks free. so with the wheel broken there is no TS, with the DO dead there is no TP.

rand is going to break the axle that holds the wheel in place and the wheel will roll down the road that the pattern makes

 

besides what better way to forget the DO than believe he is dead

[OptimusPrime]

The thing is, that if the OP is not used up but is returned to Source, it can't itself be the energy that is used in things like Healing. That would drain the True Source like a car battery trying to start a seized engine.

 

I disagree with this. As RJ said, the True Source is finite but cannot be used up because the weave you form returns to the Source. So imagine... Rand draws Saidin, the Source is a fraction weaker. Holding that Saidin in him, he has the heightened senses and pain immunity until he weaves the flows. The flows are as close to a solid form as the Power gets, but those weaves are the Power you were drawing. The ammount of Power you held is put into those weaves, when the necessary Pattern is complete it has the desired affect at the strength depleted into the weaves... then, as soon as the effect is done (or stops being maintained or tied off) the Power of those weaves dissipates and returns to the Source. Yet, the True Source is finite and cannot be used up... well technically of course it could if there were enough Choeden Kals being used at the same time, but using up the Source would destroy the source of the Pattern, the Pattern being the world and everything in it, and the Wheel aint guna stand by and let you do that. Someone who might seem like a bad guy, who wanted the Access Keys for their own purposes, would come and stop you, or the Dragon Reborn Reborn would come and kick your ass.

 

Craaaaazy comparison.

 

Imagine that the Source is the Sea, which drives forward a particular wave that is in control of all of it. The Wave of Time, which controls everything in the Sea, everything that is natural to the Sea. The Sea powers the Wave, and the Wave dictates events so that time reoccurs in order to stop the Maelstrom from disturbing its waters again. Then a person comes along, a channeler, and channels by dipping their finger in the Sea. A handful of water lets them Travel. Could this use up the entire Sea? Of course it could, if the circumstances were right. There might be huge water tankers (Choeden Kal) lowering the water level. The world might have changed climate to be so hot that it evaporates faster than it rains (raining equating to water returning to the Sea/the Power to the True Source, its the way our own world works) but if enough things taking water from the Sea turned up, the Wave of Time would notice because it is all-sentient when it comes to its waters, and it would send in tidal waves, which would stop people from taking handfuls of water and the water would be replenished by evaporated water being blown oversea and raining again. Or it would create a Maelstrom of its own to stop the Water Tankers/Choeden Kal, which is represented in Wheel of Time by evil sometimes being as necessary as good.

 

[Thor]

Basically in our terms, using the One Power generates zero entropy, hence it can be reversibly restored.

 

Which is obviously not realistic hence this is a fantasy story.

[Barid Bel Medar]

Whoaa, while I find the scientific side of this interesting and a very enviable ability (to think at such a level)

 

Cant we just keep it at, it is a renewable energy source (High School science anyone?) which has its limits, but is recycled.

 

I think that its perhaps going into the scientific a tad too much (some of the posts, I am generalizing). As I said, it is excellent skill to have, and interesting, but i feel if we look too deeply into everything, it will kinda ruin the fantasty and mystery of the whole Wheel of Time world.

 

For myself, I would rather keep it as, the TS: A crazy renewable energy source that lets you blow s***t up!

 

Keep the Fantasy alive, it is not real.

[Vermillion]

Basically in our terms, using the One Power generates zero entropy, hence it can be reversibly restored.

 

Which is obviously not realistic hence this is a fantasy story.

 

Scientifically we can assume that the essencense of a divine being or the creation of a divine being defying natural law.  Isn't that the nature of "super"(above)natural?

[OptimusPrime]

I think that its perhaps going into the scientific a tad too much (some of the posts, I am generalizing). As I said, it is excellent skill to have, and interesting, but i feel if we look too deeply into everything, it will kinda ruin the fantasty and mystery of the whole Wheel of Time world.

 

For myself, I would rather keep it as, the TS: A crazy renewable energy source that lets you blow s***t up!

 

Keep the Fantasy alive, it is not real.

 

Thing is, RJ said he intended the One Power to be a science, not just a mysterious energy source. And some of us are writers in the process of creating their own magic systems. The over analysing comes from a desire to understand how something so fantasy orientated could be taken and made to feel realistically a genuine source for both technology AND "magic" without any downfalls or pieces that dont fit. It is truly a masterpiece.