The Dark One as a construct

[avernite]

Ok, so the title points to just how I think the series just might end:

 

What if the Age of Legends (or the age before it) was ushered in by some great project sealing off ALL evil in man, or at least most of it, so that men could be good and kind to eachother? Creepy, bad for individual freedom, but imagine the utopia... basically, what the AoL was.

 

There is some precedence, in the sense that Mordeth is basically a personification of a lot of human evil, coupled with Mashadar. And the Eye of the World was essentially cleansed of evil. So what would happen if you focused human evil even more with some great project using the newly discovered one power?

 

And, if the Dark One is a construct, the obvious way to fix things: stick Callandor into the bore and let it all out, but in dispersed form. Let evil return to its very human shape, and existence itself won't be threatened by an over-focusing of evil.

 

That would make this age somewhat special, and offer a real nice 'balance' theme: humanity, in its hubris, thought to cleanse the world of evil, but in so doing created a grave threat.

 

 

Now, there are obvious objections:

 

1) The Dark One talks. Maybe some person had to be the channel for the evil? Or otherwise, maybe it's Beidomon who got sucked in or so and got crazy from being immersed in the 'true power'?

2) The Dark One fooled Ishy. That one seems tougher: Ishamael was a genius, if a bit loony. It would take a smart person to keep him unaware that this Dark One was just created an age (or two?) ago rather than being a true deity. However, Fain seems to have powers over the human mind too, and the Dark One is vastly more powerful. Maybe that's the way he did it.

3) Noone even came up with it. That's indeed an issue. One book left, so if this is the solution it's going to be hard to make it sound plausible.

 

 

Of course, there's some more points in favour:

 

1) Vacuoles. Maybe you could fill one with all human evil?

2) The Bore. It seems a bit surprising that a bunch of silly humans could punch a hole that a deity could not harm. A staple of fantasy sometimes, needing someone to invite evil in, but... If instead the Dark One is a human construct, it's not so surprising men could seal it in, and men could also break that sealing.

3) As said, Fain seems to have quite some powers too, derived purely from overly focused paranoia. On the other hand, he's supposedly something special, and that would be weird if every age a personification of pure evil is created and becomes a source of power.

 

 

I'm not saying it is this way, but I think it would be interesting if it is.

[Mrs. Cindy Gill]

really reminds me of this star trek TNG episode, skin of evil

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_of_Evil

[OptimusPrime]

Whether or not it is the case, I love the theory.

[Nightstrike]

And, if the Dark One is a construct, the obvious way to fix things: stick Callandor into the bore and let it all out, but in dispersed form. Let evil return to its very human shape, and existence itself won't be threatened by an over-focusing of evil.

The DO isn't a construct. He's outside the Wheel, not affected by the Pattern, and the dark counterpart to the Creator. He can consciously act through the Bore ("reaching" through to affect people at Shayol Ghul).

[avernite]

And, if the Dark One is a construct, the obvious way to fix things: stick Callandor into the bore and let it all out, but in dispersed form. Let evil return to its very human shape, and existence itself won't be threatened by an over-focusing of evil.

The DO isn't a construct. He's outside the Wheel, not affected by the Pattern, and the dark counterpart to the Creator. He can consciously act through the Bore ("reaching" through to affect people at Shayol Ghul).

 

That is the traditional view of Randland's people, and as a result ours. However, even though he's outside the Wheel, so are vacuoles.

His being a dark counterpart to the Creator seems to be mostly conjecture based on Randland philosophy. It may be true, but he seems to be rather a lot weaker than the Creator (he got boxed in, after all).

That he can conciously act through the Bore is irrelevant to the theory: if he's just a construct, why, he could only act through the Bore too, that was the point of the sealing in the first place (barring the Bore, which was created later).

[Nightstrike]

Those were things that RJ himself told us (in interviews). The Creator created the Wheel. Meaning, the Creator existed first. The DO is the dark counterpart to the Creator.

 

And since the DO is outside, and not affected by the Pattern, then he can't be a construct.

 

Who says that vacuoles are outside the Wheel? Are they correct, if someone has indeed said so? (I couldn't find it in Theoryland's database or in Ideal Seek.) Can you give a quote?

[Durinax]

Those were things that RJ himself told us (in interviews). The Creator created the Wheel. Meaning, the Creator existed first. The DO is the dark counterpart to the Creator.

 

And since the DO is outside, and not affected by the Pattern, then he can't be a construct.

 

Who says that vacuoles are outside the Wheel? Are they correct, if someone has indeed said so? (I couldn't find it in Theoryland's database or in Ideal Seek.) Can you give a quote?

uhm it is said during moghs imprisonment in them, she remarks that sometimes they break off from the pattern and dissappear

[Nightstrike]

uhm it is said during moghs imprisonment in them, she remarks that sometimes they break off from the pattern and dissappear

Break off from the Pattern, and not "outside of the Wheel".

 

This is what Moggy thinks about it:

Even Mesaana could not say what happened - except that anything in them was lost forever.

 

From the BWB:

The Pattern that is woven of men's lives is only one reality, part of a greater Pattern woven of each and every possible reality. But between the weave of this Great Pattern are spaces, and it is there that the ancients believed Tel'aran'rhiod exists.

--->One Pattern is part of another Pattern. The vacuole wouldn't have to exit the Wheel in order to leave "the Pattern".

 

Either way, I'd say that the DO is no construct.