Wheel of Time: Setting? What equivalent era is it?

[cortezthekiller]

Hey fellow WOT fans.  LONG time lurker, first time poster.  I've been lurking here for years, but you guys covered just about everything I could think of, so I haven't had a reason to register and post.

 

Anyway, I vaguely remember an RJ quote from some time back where he addressed what time period the Series is set it compared to IRL time.  I remember the quote being something like, "it's basically set in a time similar to _____ but without cars".  That would place the setting similar to the late circa c19.  But that seems late.  I've always pictured it more like the middle ages.

 

Sorry if this has been posted, but a search turned up nothing for me.

 

Can anyone remember and locate this RJ quote?  Did I imagine it?  :-\

 

Thanks!

[JorlenCorbesan]

I actually do remember this quote vaguely, but like you, cannot find it.  I think the series is a technological equivalent of the late 1700s and early 1800s with some random advances because of the Power that didn't exist in our times.

[Duskfire]

Yeah its 1700's with a few differences mainly due to the One Power as well as the Illuminators jealousy guarding gunpowder.

[cortezthekiller]

I could see that.  Especially considering Rand's school, and the guy inventing the steam engine.

 

I'm glad somebody else remembers that quote, I was afraid I was imagining it!

 

Now let's hope someone can find it.

 

Regarding gunpowder: that's been around since the 1100's!

[Duskfire]

I could see that.  Especially considering Rand's school, and the guy inventing the steam engine.

 

I'm glad somebody else remembers that quote, I was afraid I was imagining it!

 

Now let's hope someone can find it.

 

Regarding gunpowder: that's been around since the 1100's!

 

Its been around as long in the WoT world as well (or close enough) its just the Illuminators haven't allowed it to spread beyond them using it. Thats part of the point of Mats ta`veren I suppose; fast tracking the use of gunpowder in war.

[Fains nose]

its seems to me more like 1200, and 1000 years ago the world was more technologicaly, militarily advanced(Roman empire/Hawkwing empire)

[cortezthekiller]

That's what I've often pictured Fains nose, but I really want to see that RJ quote, because I remember something in it like "_____ but without cars"

[Luckers]

RJ stated that the technological structure and social setting was the equivelent of the 17th century.

[cortezthekiller]

Thanks Luckers.

 

I still want to see the quote though!  ;D

[Luckers]

Q:  How big are the cities in The Wheel of Time?

 

RJ:  Tar Valon has 500,000 people and cities like Caemlyn and Tear are around 300,000 or so. I've envisioned a seventeenth century society and you've got to remember that for those times 300,000 would be huge. Some Asian cities of that period had populations near one million but nothing in Europe was even close. 

[algspkr]

RJ:  Some Asian cities of that period had populations near one million but nothing in Europe was even close. 

 

Is that accurate?  I know before the fall of Rome it had over a million, but I do not know how long it took to regain that kind of population density.

[Durinax]

personnally for me its much more confortable placing the time period in the early-mid medieval periods (especially in farming, and warfare structure)

[Majsju]

RJ:  Some Asian cities of that period had populations near one million but nothing in Europe was even close. 

 

Is that accurate?  I know before the fall of Rome it had over a million, but I do not know how long it took to regain that kind of population density.

 

Rome did not reach 1 million again until the interwar period. First European city to reach 1 million in (fairly) modern times was London, around 1800.

[Guest MarzoriuM]

I know this topic is 10 years old, but I think I found the quote. And I believe he didn’t say cars, but gunpowder:

 

ROBERT JORDAN

“I've known the last scene of the last 'Wheel' book since before I started writing the first book, and that's unchanged. I thought 'The Wheel of Time' was going to be five or six books. I didn't think they'd be this long. I was doing this like a historical novel, but I had more things to explain, things not readily apparent. In a normal historical novel, you can simply let some things go by because the reader of historical fiction knows these, or has the concept of them. But this is not the medieval period, not a fantasy with knights in shining armor. If you want to imagine what the period is, imagine it as the late 17th century without gunpowder. I had to do more explaining about cultural details, and that meant things got bigger than I had intended.”

 

Source: https://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=114&utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by MarzoriuM