Will There be Channeling After The Last Battle

[capuga]

While it is a given that at some point channeling will be lost (and subsequently rediscovered), there are as yet no real indications that the loss of the Power is imminent. Personally, I think an ending where the Power disappears overnight runs the risk of being disappointing, and I hope it is not the route RJ planned on going down. On the subject of magic and technology, I do not see the existence of the Power as reason enough to let technology stagnate. The drives to improve will still be there, and the OP only does so much to offset that.

 

I've always been a little surprised at how badly technology has stagnated in the series since the Age of Legends. I don't know if that is a function of over-reliance on the OP or not but three thousands years is a long time to be no further along technologically than they are. I know they have periodic distruptions every thousands years or so (Trolloc Wars, etc.) but it amazes me that it has taken this long for someone to start some kind of think tank like Rand's universities.

[Kaznen]

Well when the breaking stopped humanity was in the early bronze age, with a few technological exceptions like the wheel and printing press they had to start over. Given the Bronze Age in real life started about 3000 B.C. and how the setting in Randland is 1700's without guns the technological advancements of the third age were staggering.

[waffle]

I hope the one power gets blocked off for an age or two for whatever reason. Why do i want this? Because Traveling seems too good to be true. Never liked (does that reason make sense? Nope). And Egwene. Rising to the top of the White Tower hierarchy. Going Aes Sedai, heart and soul. And then boom, no OP. Just a jumped up innkeepers daughter. I would love it.

[Mr Ares]

While it is a given that at some point channeling will be lost (and subsequently rediscovered)

 

Where is it said in the books that there was an age with no channeling? I've read the series many times and can't recall this.

 

It's not stated outright, but it's suggested that our own Age is one of the seven - and I dunno about you, but I can't channel..

And what the books merely imply, RJ confirms - our own Age is part of the Wheel (probably the First Age).

 

While it is a given that at some point channeling will be lost (and subsequently rediscovered), there are as yet no real indications that the loss of the Power is imminent. Personally, I think an ending where the Power disappears overnight runs the risk of being disappointing, and I hope it is not the route RJ planned on going down. On the subject of magic and technology, I do not see the existence of the Power as reason enough to let technology stagnate. The drives to improve will still be there, and the OP only does so much to offset that.

I've always been a little surprised at how badly technology has stagnated in the series since the Age of Legends. I don't know if that is a function of over-reliance on the OP or not but three thousands years is a long time to be no further along technologically than they are. I know they have periodic distruptions every thousands years or so (Trolloc Wars, etc.) but it amazes me that it has taken this long for someone to start some kind of think tank like Rand's universities.

Technology hasn't really stagnated, not that we've seen at least. RJ described the Third Age as essentially three one thousand year long climbs out of barbarism. Of course, there was never a time when everything was lost - printing presses, for example, were never lost, hence high levels of literacy - but the Breaking, the Trolloc Wars and the War of a Hundred Years all led to setbacks, in which much of what was achieved in the preceding period was lost.

[Moon Sedai]

While it is a given that at some point channeling will be lost (and subsequently rediscovered)

 

Where is it said in the books that there was an age with no channeling? I've read the series many times and can't recall this.

 

It's not stated outright, but it's suggested that our own Age is one of the seven - and I dunno about you, but I can't channel..

 

I can, every time the doors open for me at Kroger and Wal*mart!

[FarShainMael]

Oho!!!!!

 

[yoniy0]

I don't like this idea one bit. The WoT is cool the way it is. I don't want change, and I really don't want to be reminded of all that real-world business. If RJ meant for that to be the background, I can live with it, but I don't want it to become a bigger part of the story.

 

They've been pulling this one since the Garden of Eden.

I agree several stories have already done this. Final Fantasy 6, Secret of Mana, etc.

My goto example would be Dragonlance. Why do you think that is?

 

Well if channeling is suddenly eradicated one would think the long life-spans are too as they are linked to the usage of power. So given that, why would Moiraine and Nynaeve care any more than anyone else?

Nah, they can achieve roughly the same effect by consuming large amounts of mélange.

[Dagon Thyne]

There may be...but since the ages prior to the AoL has no channeling...it's also a good chance for channeling to be lost......

 

Perhaps all of the channelers will burn themselves out fighting the DO's army....

[Daekar]

I was considering the implications of Ishy's philosophy: that it is inevitable that the DO will win because time is cyclic. It means that he has infinite opportunities to destroy the world.. and it only takes one victory for it all to end. That strikes me as problematic. What if, as a solution, Rand&Co detach the Pattern from the Wheel? Time becomes linear, there are no more Ages, and since the OP is what drives the Wheel, it is no longer accessible.

 

Nitpick: This part of the 3rd age isn't like the 1700s... it's like the very early Renaissance... so more like 1450 or so. In the 1700s, Hobbes and Bacon had already moved the world solidly from the old Aristotlean framework to a new optimism of science. People no longer looked back at Greece and Rome convinced that they were the pinnacle of all possible human achievement. The WoT world seems to me to be planted on the early side of that transition line, where most people assume that which came before is far superior to anything that could ever be accomplished now. The discoveries of Elayne and Nynaeve, not to mention Aludra's Dragons, see to indicate that a period of expansion and growth will begin after the LB, a rebirth of channeling culture and parallel pseudoscientific development. It is impossible to overstate the impact of a clean Saidin on the use and public concept of the One Power. In other words, assuming nothing happens to cease the use of the Power and the Seanchean don't screw everything up, the WoTworld appears to be on the cusp of its own Renaissance.

[Mr Ares]

I would say one big problem with the idea of time becoming linear in the series is that it renders the climax of TGS rather pointless. Rand goes to Dragonmount, has an argument, and ends with an epiphany, the good thing about cyclical time is getting a second chance. To follow that up with him going "bugger second chances" strikes me as a little inconsistent. Of course, I wasn't a fan of that theory even before TGS.

[Xander234]

Nope. There won't be any. To defeat the Dark One Rand will create four ter'angreals which will respectively use all the available Earth, Air, Water and Fire parts of the One Power and one living construct, a perfect supreme being which will embody Spirit and will be capable of sealing the Dark One with a single strike. And she will be called Leloo

[capuga]

Nope. There won't be any. To defeat the Dark One Rand will create four ter'angreals which will respectively use all the available Earth, Air, Water and Fire parts of the One Power and one living construct, a perfect supreme being which will embody Spirit and will be capable of sealing the Dark One with a single strike. And she will be called Leloo

 

And she will be hot and scantily clad.

 

Also it wouldn't hurt to have Bruce Willis on the Light's side during the Last Battle.

[Jblaylock]

Well... isn't there a "Last Battle" during each age? Isn't that why there is a Dragon Reborn for each age? Or am I way off?

[jwillis7]

Well... isn't there a "Last Battle" during each age? Isn't that why there is a Dragon Reborn for each age? Or am I way off?

not like this, i think there is a quote somewhere from RJ saying in some ages channeling is lost and then is discovered in another age. The dragon is not "reborn" in that sense of the word in each age. Grandeal said that she had never heard of someone specific being respun by the wheel as Lews Therin is reborn as Rand. Lews Therin was not "something reborn" he just was the champion on the light. I'm not saying Rand's soul is not respun in each age it might be but i do not think Rand is respun in each age if that makes sense.

[Dagon Thyne]

Well... isn't there a "Last Battle" during each age? Isn't that why there is a Dragon Reborn for each age? Or am I way off?

not like this, i think there is a quote somewhere from RJ saying in some ages channeling is lost and then is discovered in another age. The dragon is not "reborn" in that sense of the word in each age. Grandeal said that she had never heard of someone specific being respun by the wheel as Lews Therin is reborn as Rand. Lews Therin was not "something reborn" he just was the champion on the light. I'm not saying Rand's soul is not respun in each age it might be but i do not think Rand is respun in each age if that makes sense.

 

 

 

There is a Chosen of Light in each turning of the wheel. Only LTT was known as the Dragon however...that was his personal nickname, not the title of the Chosen of Light...accordng to RJ, no living person, not even Brigette, who can remember anything that heppened during the third age of the last turning......the oldest stories that ate told are from the 1 age of the current one or maybe the last 6th and 7th of the last one.....

 

But yes...the is a last battle for every turning...however....according to RJ, this is the first time the DO has ever came close to actually being freed....in the past, neither side was powerful enough to win....even the few times when the Chosen of Light fell to the shadow and served the DO, they were not powerful enough......

 

 

I am convinced that the Horn of Valere is the secret....it was created some time between the 4th age of the last turning and the 1st age of the current one......it calls all of the Heros of all of the Ages who are between lives and the side that controls it will have an edge that neither side has had before..that is why I feel that the last battle of this turning is literally the last battle......The Dark One's prison is completely destroyed...when the seals break, there will be no stopping him short of killing him.

[PCL]

I think that channeling will not be lost until maybe the 6th or 7th age. A very small percentage of people can channel. So, as technology advances trough the ages it will slowly die out. Then some catastrophic event will take place at the end of the 7th age and the world will start over in the first age again.

[Jmw1999]

Nope. There won't be any. To defeat the Dark One Rand will create four ter'angreals which will respectively use all the available Earth, Air, Water and Fire parts of the One Power and one living construct, a perfect supreme being which will embody Spirit and will be capable of sealing the Dark One with a single strike. And she will be called Leloo

 

Thank you thank you thank you ROFL

 

My thoughts on the subject: By sealing the DO prison, both sides of the OP (and maybe the TP) will be used and in doing so, the powers will be lost/shut off. How/why? I haven't a clue. I just think it will go this way.

 

If the cycle of ages is approx 21k yrs (3k/age as given for the 3rd age as a constant, I know... how do we know all ages are 3k...we don't but it is a good estimate), it is def. probable that there are times when there is no use or knowledge of the OP/TP. I say this because the DO had been completely forgotten by the time of the 2nd age. I find this hard to fathom as one would think that knowledge of this eternal being would be forever passed on to children and linked to the use of the OP/TP. If the DO is defeated and locked back into that scab of a prison (as he was found in the 2nd age), then why would the OP continue to live on as it would not be needed for many thousands of years to defeat him again. Perhaps, to balance the equation, the pattern NEEDS time without the OP in order to provide it when needed? The pattern is about balance after all...And what better time to take a break than after his most recent imprisonment...?

 

enough rambling...

[Haran]

I've always thought that Rand will somehow combine Saidin, Saidar and the True Power into one new source of power and thus killing the Dark One because the Dark One is the True Power.

 

so yeah, there will be channelers.

[htarcan]

I don't think Dark One can be killed. It is the antithesis of the Creator. They both exist or not.

Still, it sounds logical that if Dark Ones makes all the misery with the powers, you can make him unable to do none by abolishing all the powers.

 

 

I must say I will be quite upset if this is the last cycle. Wheel "must" keep turning and ages "must" keep being forgotten to come again. Even if these books end, I must know somewhere the wheel keeps turning. >:(

 

By the way, don't shout at me but when I heard the servant of a forsaken speaking of elevators of the Age of Legends, I wanted so bad the same story telling our own age. A prequel series or sequel I dont know, but just THINK of it.

 

When the dust settles we can see the tractor, carrying a father and a son after a hard day on farm. The son thinks he saw a man riding a black motorbike with dark suits that never move by the wind.

Ok, nevermind... :))