The WoT world is...(possible spoilers!)

[kevindom]

Here's a crazy thought: It's our world!

Look at all the things comparable to our world, the things taken from existing cultures, the memories of Lews Therin about big buildings and planes, Sammael mentioning how sad he is not having something probably resembling a gun to arm his army with...

Has this idea already been mentioned? if so, please do tell.

[Guest Majsju]

Not only mentioned, RJ has confirmed he writes WOT as being our past and our future.

[kevindom]

Hmm, I do feel somewhat stupid now.

I'm pretty new here so...please excuse me for kicking in open doors :oops:

 

Where does he say that :?:

[Guest Majsju]

On several occasions.

For starters,

 

The characters in the books are the source of many of our myths and legends and we are the source of many of theirs. You can look two ways along a wheel. [RJ, America Online chat, 28 June, 1996]

 

Time is a wheel. If you look in one direction, you are looking at the past. If you just turn around and look in the other direction, you are looking at the future. The books are set in our future and in our past, depending on which way you look... [RJ, America Online conference, 20 October, 1994]

[kevindom]

And are these things mentioned on this site or did you find them just browsing the web?

[Guest Majsju]

These are from the FAQ, which is one of the most reliable sources when it comes to quotes.

http://www.darkfriends.net/wheel/3_sources/3.12_future-earth.html

 

There's probably something mentioned in the blog here as well.

[OzzieAlThor]

I would think alot of Fantasy writers use the same idea. They use the real world as a base, or if not a base a ..."marker" if you will, of which they build off of or touch base with.

 

Take in one of the first few books where they are by the remains of an Elephant. That kind of stuff is specifically there to say "Hey, it COULD be our world at some point".

 

It's cool and part of the reason I enjoy this kind of book series. It's what "could" be mixed with what/is.

 

The same principal in reverse is true. No matter how different a world is, people don't really change. We're all Human and will react the same way.

 

Unless were Ogier.... or Orcs.... or Green Men .... hmmmm... I seem to have a hole in my logic. Ah well. Who cares!

[TheDiceAgain...]

Just a few examples:

 

There was the Mercedes-Benz hood ornament in the museum in Tanchico:

 

"a stylized three-pointed triangle" - "reeking of greed and pride"

 

Some of the stories/legends that are well known in Randland are definite combinations/bastardizations of real events in our time:

 

Lenn who flew to the Moon in the belly of an Eagle of fire and his daughter Salya = John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth - Sally Ride, the first American woman in space - Eagle, the name of the LEM on Apollo 11, the first moon landing

 

Merc and Mosk - Giants who fought with spears of fire = USA(aMERiCa) and Russia/USSR (MOSCow), "spears of fire" references missiles; probalby nuclear ICBMs.

 

There are many others as well...

 

Alsbet, the Queen of All - Queen Elizabeth I of England who rulled an empire on which the Sun never set and whose children and grandchildren ruled most if not all of Europe early in the last century...

 

ect...

[RobertAlexWillis]

Materese the Healer, Mother of the Wondrous Ind

 

Mother Theresa spent her life in India as a healer.

[Guardsman Bass]

Tolkien is one of the guys who pioneered this; Middle Earth and the Third Age and before were supposed to be set in our "mythic past."

[Leopoled Boothe]

Just a few examples:

 

Merc and Mosk - Giants who fought with spears of fire = USA(aMERiCa) and Russia/USSR (MOSCow)' date=' "spears of fire" references missiles; probalby nuclear ICBMs.

ect...[/quote']

 

Yes, and if this theory is true then that means that we are currently living in the first age. In "The Shadow Rising" in the course of his conversation with Elayne aboard the Sea Folk ship Thom states that Mosk and Merk lived in "the age before the Age of Legends." As we know Rand and co live in the third age and that the third age is the age immediatly following the Age of Legends. So the time line goes our time (aka the first age), then The Age of Legends (aka the second age) then Randlands time (aka the third age).

[Guardsman Bass]

That actually sounds like it would work out well. Having our Age be the Age before the Age of Legends would be enough time for any real memory of our Age to fade by the Third Age, while the myths about certain events would remain.

 

Plus, you could have channelling appear in the wake of a catastrophe that would end "our" Age, and then have the people of the Second Age combine the remnants of our Age's technology with the uses of the Power to advance towards a Golden Age.

[Guest Majsju]

Plus, you could have channelling appear in the wake of a catastrophe that would end "our" Age, and then have the people of the Second Age combine the remnants of our Age's technology with the uses of the Power to advance towards a Golden Age.

 

The little bits of information we have got so far indicates that what ended the first age was the discovery of channeling, not a disaster. Which doesn't mean there were no disaster at all, there must have been at least some turmoil, since the first channelers started learning by trial and error.