I imagine Shai'tan to look more abstract

[thevillagecouncil]

I found an artist on deviantart who had two paintings that matched exactly with how I imagined the DO to look like if you were to enter his prison and look at him with your own eyes. I never thought of him as having a physical body, but more just the sentient manifestation of pure chaos. Something about his nature just seems like he wouldn't be limited to a body. He's beyond such restrictions. If you've ever read the Wrinkle In Time books, there's a part where a character looks out into the sky and sees a pitch black cloud deep in space that absorbs all light and instills a mortal fear into any who gaze upon it. It's difficult to describe the concept of the DO because he's the epitome of paradoxes and breaker of logic. Anyway, I thought I'd share these pictures with the rest of the community since they made me think of it. :P

 

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2009/355/c/2/27_by_ChrisCold.jpg

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs45/i/2009/086/d/8/House_of_Disorder_WP_by_ChrisCold.jpg

 

 

Do they not make you think of the black fire that exploded the Sharom in the Ter'Angreal vision?

 

 

[edit]

I found this image. It looks exactly how I imagined it to look when Rand cleansed the source.

http://th07.deviantart.net/fs10/PRE/i/2006/116/c/8/Holy_by_Blinck.jpg

[Durinax]

those are pretty good, I just imagine him as a barrel of oil that is constantly swirling but you can only see the very top and the swirling of those little colours in what seems perfect chaos

[cortezthekiller]

Oh noes!  You spoke the name of the DO!  :o

 

/hides under desk*

 

Those are nice pictures, btw.

[thevillagecouncil]

interestingly, I imagine the creator to be the actual dragon creature. What better to create the universe than a celestial dragon? :)

 

Here's a picture of something akin to what I imagine.

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/146/0/a/Out_of_the_Ether_by_hibbary.jpg

[Owayn The Traveller]

I actually reckon he looks like the guy from time bandits.

 

'nipples for men. he's insane'

[Dakota]

You cannot grasp the true form of Giygas' Shai'tan's attack!

[Morsker]

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2009/355/c/2/27_by_ChrisCold.jpg

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs45/i/2009/086/d/8/House_of_Disorder_WP_by_ChrisCold.jpg

 

I like these. I also thought of the Dark One as huge and cloudlike, and not humanoid at all.

[TheDecline01]

Looks a bit like the eye of Sauron to me.

But anyway, the idea of the moving cloud sounds nice and close to the concept of the Dark One being... well, not a being.

 

To me, I like to think of him/her/it as one of those dark matter clouds that are supposedly shaping the universe, but invisible to any photon wavelength. Pure energy or mass but of a different kind a fundamental elements.

[OptimusPrime]

I imagine the Creators natural form to be a huge white globe of Light, and Shai'tan as a huge black ball of Darkness. The Wheel is a Construct much like what Rand made with Callandor-insert pebble/mountain comparison-and the Wheel spins out threads-which are like weaves-to create the world, which is a solid entity to which the Dark One-who has no solid form-was bound.

 

To get out, the Dark One has to be able to enter the Pattern. But he has no thread of his own, he needs to inhabit something of the Pattern. But to make something vulnerable to possession they must possess some not-of-the-Pattern qualities. So he gives access to the True Power, which blackens the users thread and, if used enough, results in the user being vulnerable to the Dark One possessing them.

 

So, sadly, I do think Rand is going to fight Shaidar, that is hs role at the Last Battle. But I think Shaidar Haran is not simply a super Myrdraal, I think that part of the Dark One could inhabit something else. Like Rand. I think Rand will instigate that possession by channeling the True Power at Shayol Ghul, and that moment where the Dark One/Shaidars consciousness travels through the True Power Rand is channeling, into Rand, and the internal struggle begins, that is where Alivia comes in and helps Rand die, because at that time part of the Dark One has the vulnerabilities of the human it is trying to inhabit. Alivia, in helping Rand die, would also defeat the Dark One. Rand cant do it alone, but he can hold the Dark One in place long enough to sheath the sword at the hands of one of his own followers. If Alivia channeled a new prison and touched Rand with the flows at that time, the Power she used could be tainted, but if she stabs Randzamon while the internal struggle is going on, with Callandor, there can be no backlash on the Power because the Power itself didnt touch Randzamon/Shai'tan, Callandor delivered the flows.

[Entretamis]

i personally thought the DO looks like my mother-in-law..../cring...crazy thought

[jemron]

Two words:  Smoke Monster.

 

(I loved L O S T)

[Vermillion]

I always pictures him as black as black can be.  Total absence of light, total combination of all color black. A humanoidish/beastish looking but a chaotic shifting formlessness to him at the same time.  I imagine him being total lack of radiation cold and his presences an overwhelming pleasure that destroys free will, just worship and control.

 

I always pictured the creator as being a bland humanoid looking pure white light figure to brilliant to really see and warmth feeling to emotion and touch that was gave total comfort and contempt.

[Owayn The Traveller]

Kinda like Bernard Black out of Black Books and his theme song would be 'Whats love got to with it'

[OptimusPrime]

Two words:  Smoke Monster.

 

(I loved L O S T)

 

Win. The Smoke Monster also reminded me of a lot of things from Wheel of Time, like the Dark One, the True Power, Ishamael... and to a lesser degree wierdly enough, Mashadar. I freakin love that Smoke Monster and everything that came with it, even the noises it makes fit it perfectly... you just dont come across that kind of awesome often enough.

[Thor]

i always just pictured him as a glob of glob of a glob.

[mossman87]

I always pictures him as black as black can be.  Total absence of light, total combination of all color black. A humanoidish/beastish looking but a chaotic shifting formlessness to him at the same time.  I imagine him being total lack of radiation cold and his presences an overwhelming pleasure that destroys free will, just worship and control.

 

 

Absolutely, a black hole, destroying all matter around it.

[talligan]

Alanis Morissette 

[Morsker]

Alanis Morissette 

 

With one hand in her pocket, the other one Shadar Haran?

[talligan]

Alanis Morissette 

 

With one hand in her pocket, the other one Shadar Haran?

 

With 13 forsaken when all she needs is a dragon.

[DaughterOfNight]

 

I also agree that the Dark One will be more abstract than human-like.  I may get flamed by saying this but I think that it is a limitation of our human minds to even picture God as a human.  To me, God is the energy or the spark in every thing living.  That little thing that makes a thing 'alive'.  Okay, I definitely do not want to stray from the topic here, so I will end this simply:  I think that persons such as Rand are thinking that they are going to be able to defeat the Dark One like one would another person.  It's going to take 'thinking outside of the box' to defeat him since he will possess no typical human characteristics -- aside from being able to voice commands to his people.

[FarShainMael]

C.S.Lewis (author of the Narnia books and the 'Silent Planet' trilogy) introduced the concept of the Miserific Vision, mentioned here:

 

http://cslewis.drzeus.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7340

 

'no child would have any difficulty in understanding that there might be a face the mere beholding of which was final calamity....'

 

 

[Charlz Guybon]

Nice, I really like the first one.

[lsm]

interestingly, I imagine the creator to be the actual dragon creature. What better to create the universe than a celestial dragon? :)

 

Here's a picture of something akin to what I imagine.

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/146/0/a/Out_of_the_Ether_by_hibbary.jpg

i really like the original two DO ones, very close to what I'd imagine.

 

as for the creator-dragon in the quoted link, not really imo. myself when i think dragons i always picture non snakelike dragon bodies

[Durinax]

hmmm I wonder why the mythical dragon is so central to the story yet we will not see a real one. Unless a worm evolves or something. I wonder how they chose to name LTT the dragon

[Demiandre]

hmmm I wonder why the mythical dragon is so central to the story yet we will not see a real one. Unless a worm evolves or something. I wonder how they chose to name LTT the dragon

 

And why name the color black "black"? Why name a group of person, or inhabitants of a country "people" and not "brjjzusvle" except the fact that it is unpronounceable?