The Seals - PROLOGUE SPOILERS ONLY

[Barid Bel Medar]

It was channeled a lot during the War of Power. I would presume LTT knew about it from fighting the forces of the Dark One for so long. It wasn't till the end of the WoP/Now that the True Power was focused on only a few people, according to the books.

 

Only 29 people were given access to the True Power in the AoL or current age.

[Cyf]

Is that it? I vaguely recall that quote, now that you mention it. Still, LTT fought them a lot, I would think he'd know. :) I just recall that more people channeled it in the past, more than just the Forsaken.

[mmurray821]

Boy, this thread has drifted well off topic.... back to the seals and what we know:

 

1) The seals, even though they are heartstone can be changed and broken by the Dark One.

• 
   
  
• They will change by the Dark One focusing on them. Whether this is by the TP or not is yet to be determined.
  
• Moiraine can scrape a flake off one, hence showing its changed state
  
• After a seal is broken, Lan tested one by stabbing it with a dagger. The dagger broke and Lan mentioned that it was the "Best steel from Tear" hinting that the Cuendillar was back to its original state after the seal was broken (the books don't say if the seals are Cuendillar again, but no one has dropped them in a stream of balefire either)
  

 

2) The seals were only the focus for the patch on the bore. Whether the patch is somehow weaved into the Pattern or not is yet to be seen.

 

3) Because the weaves to seal the bore had to touch the Dark One, either by his touch or a counter attack tainted Saidin and drove what was left of the hundred companions instantly insane and caused the rest of the male Aes Sedai to gradually go insane as well.

 

As to the bore since they are what the seals are covering:

 

1) The bore was enlarging during the age of legends, which is why Lews Therin believed the plan to "wall off" the areas under the shadow was folly.

2) For the Dragon to seal the Dark One back up into his prison, Min and the scholar believed they had to "clear the rubble". Min and Cadsuane thought that Herid Fel was referring to breaking the seals to clear the work Lews Therin did. (I believe he is also referring to clearing away the bore as well, since that is what allowed the Dark One access to the world in the first place).

3) Herid Fel believed the prison had to be made whole again for when the third age returned.

 

Sealing up the Dark One (theory):

 

1) Touching the Dark One with the power will unleash the backblast. The male Aes Sedai already suffered this during the age of legends, so using the females to help might be out of the question. Saidin was cleansed at the Eye of the World using both male and female Aes Sedai, but it killed them doing it. So I feel this is not a realistic option.

2) True Power. This has been suggested, but I feel this assumption is flawed. Using the Dark One to seal up the dark one would be like using acid to seal up acid in a flask. TP might be useful to Rand yet, but is wrought with danger.

3) Ta'veren. This is what I believe is what will work. Rand can already bend the pattern to his will. It has been stated that Mat and Perrin can change events by just being there and Min's viewings show the three of them together can hold the Dark One at bay. Rand's ability I think will be multiplied with both Mat and Perrin next to him and he can reweave the Pattern by his will. He can, in sense, reweave the Pattern so the Bore is no more and the prison is whole and complete. This is why (along with everything else Mat and Perrin do) that the "tripod" is so essential. Rand can use their Ta'veren ability to magnify his own and reweave reality.

 

Anyway, my theory on what will need to be done to reseal the prison.

[jdbond]

^^So all Rand has to do is to go to SG with Mat and Perrin and war is over? Hmmm....LTT, why didn't you think of that. You were standing in SG afterall.

 

 

I always thought that only wheel can actually weave something into pattern. Ta'veren afterall merely affect the outcome of an event and not the event itself.

[Patrick Buley]

Thinking about what everyone has said, using the TP to seal the DO makes since in a way, consider the AoL, AS were trying to tap into a new source of power, now if we consider the TP as the seal then things are kinda circular, the power of the seal comes from the DO and any force the DO uses only serves to strength the seal. When AS tap into this though it draws it away allowing the DO to break free.

[Dr. Love]

I've had the idea somewhere since around book 7 that the seal on the Dark One's prison is kind of like a shield put on a channeler. The cuendillar seals are like the hard "focal points" that Rand feels at the end of LoC when channelers tie off their shield weaves. These focal points give the Dark One something to work against. Initially, I had thought that the taint come from the Dark One being able to touch saidin through the "shield" on him, but that turned out not to be true. :)

 

In any event, going with the idea that the seals are hard points like one a channeler's shield, perhaps the seals are weakened and broken by the dark one interacting with them? While cuendillar gets stronger with any focus directed at it, would the DO be able to leech power away from them over time, weakening them?

[Rcurran]

It's easy to get confused, sometimes, between SG and the Gulf of Mexico... Thing is the dark one is quite different to the greatest ecological problem BP has ever had to say sorry for. The DO is not a thing you just touch like a puddle or a thimble of children's tears. The bore was not a drill hole. LTT fixed the problem of the moment with seals like stitches on a gash. The seals could be carried around as the bore was not really a hole and the seals don't really seal anything. LTT solved the problem like we solve our nuclear waste problem, by boxing it up and leaving it for folks in two to three thousand years to sort out.

 

LTT knew he was the Dragon and got a touch of the mañanas, leaving it till he'd had a nice rest for a couple of thousand years.

 

Anyway it's four am here and I think I can hear Illeana knocking at the door.. She's a great hostess you know?