Brain Bending Geography changes

[zerachiel76]

I've been reading that each age will come again and again as the wheel of time changes and I can't work out how the geography will get changed. By this I mean that it's well known that the geography in the Age of Legends was very different to that of current Randtime. During the breaking it all was changed by the mad Aes Sedai.

 

What I can't work out is how the geography will be changed back from Randtime back to the Age of Legends. Does this imply another breaking will occur between now and then which just happens to result in the original Age of Legends land masses or will the next Age of Legends have a different geography? The wheel of time setup implies it should be the same every time it comes around doesn't it?

[Nightstrike]

I would have thought geography does not have to be the same when the Age in question comes again.

[baalsmistress]

There could be a big crunch-big bang to effectively reset things.

 

But also, I don't see that the wheel of time needs to have the same geography each time. The souls will be reborn, though not with the same names, or the same faces. The ability of humanity to touch the source will wax and wane, the dark one will seek to free himself. The ages will come and pass. The major players on each side will remain the same. There will be a champion of the light, there will be dark friends. But individual acts may well be different. Names may change, there might be different wars. Perhaps Saidar will be tainted instead, or both, or neither.

 

The 7 ages will come and pass, but they will be the same only when viewed with a low resolution lens.

[zerachiel76]

Thanks, it's been boggling my brain trying to think about it :)

[Orderofolde]

The landmass just changes from what it was each breaking. It doesn't get reset. People are used to what it is, and then it changes. Cities are destroyed, mountains rise and fall, oceans shift.

[Alric]

I'm curious about the extent of the Breaking that is prophecies at the end of this age. I'm not sure if we've seen the exact phrasing, but it has been mentioned several times. I guess that will be hard to avoid. Maybe it will be a different kind of Breaking, not geographically but the kind of ravaging the world is going through right now. If mountains and oceans are turned upside down on top of the current problems, it will take centuries to rebuild.

[Suttree]

The wheel of time setup implies it should be the same every time it comes around doesn't it?

 

Not quite...

 

RJ's blog 4 October 2005 "ONE MORE TIME"

- I think of time in this world as fixed circular, but with a drifting variation. There are slight differences in the Pattern each time through so that if you thought of the Pattern as a tapestry and held up two successive weaves, you couldn’t see any differences from a distance, only close up, but the more time turnings between tapestries, the more changes are apparent. But the basic Pattern always remains the same.

[Agitel]

The wheel of time setup implies it should be the same every time it comes around doesn't it?

 

Not quite...

 

RJ's blog 4 October 2005 "ONE MORE TIME"

- I think of time in this world as fixed circular, but with a drifting variation. There are slight differences in the Pattern each time through so that if you thought of the Pattern as a tapestry and held up two successive weaves, you couldn’t see any differences from a distance, only close up, but the more time turnings between tapestries, the more changes are apparent. But the basic Pattern always remains the same.

 

He's also said that turning after turning after turning will lead to greater variation. So 1000 turns ago might look quite different in many respects from 10 turns ago, which itself may look pretty similar to the current turning (from a distance). Those numbers were my own addition, just to clarify the principle. I kind of imagine two paintings of the same thing done in increasingly different styles or something.

[Arkane101]

Theres also the matter of theres 5 more ages until the age of legends, or the equivalent of the age of legends for the next turning, who can say what will happen between the end of the 3rd age and the next 2nd age.

[kght22]

I've been reading that each age will come again and again as the wheel of time changes and I can't work out how the geography will get changed. By this I mean that it's well known that the geography in the Age of Legends was very different to that of current Randtime. During the breaking it all was changed by the mad Aes Sedai.

 

What I can't work out is how the geography will be changed back from Randtime back to the Age of Legends. Does this imply another breaking will occur between now and then which just happens to result in the original Age of Legends land masses or will the next Age of Legends have a different geography? The wheel of time setup implies it should be the same every time it comes around doesn't it?

 

the geography is just the landscape, it will be different in every age just as the dragon is different in every age

[kght22]

let me try to make this clear. the dragon is not the same in any age. if he were in the first age on one cycle, he would not be the same in the first age on the next. the geography is just the setting, it will be as different in its corresponding age as it would be in its neighbor. if there is one thing that you people have learned by reading this series it should be that similarity happens, but nothing really repeats.

 

additive edit: what the hell is rand fighting for if it all just happens again? what chance is there if it isn't different?

[Orderofolde]

Rand pops up in 2 of the ages. Once as the dragon to rail, then in the next as the Dragon Reborn to seal the DO's prison away until the next AOL comes around and another Lanfear taps a thinner spot, boring in and letting the DO loose. Coming up after our current arc will be Wolfbrothers, Pattern Readers, Portal Stones and the other worlds rediscovered, and eventually the AOl again. Fighting will go away, people will all lock arms and sing songs of growing, they will create Tree Brothers, and have a good time planting the fields because their blood is integrated at that point where you don't have to embrace the source, you live with it flowing through you like the force as Avienda saw in TOM going back into the portals with Rand's offspring.

[Suttree]

Rand pops up in 2 of the ages. Once as the dragon to rail, then in the next as the Dragon Reborn to seal the DO's prison away until the next AOL comes around and another Lanfear taps a thinner spot, boring in and letting the DO loose. g.

 

But Rand doesn't only pop up in those two ages. He can reborn in other ages just like any other soul.

 

The Path of Daggers book tour 22 October 1998, Los Angeles - Pam Basham reporting

 

 

Q: "Is [the Dragon] soul born in any other Age, or only at the advent and (theoretically, of course) the closing of the Third Age, as the Dragon/the Dragon Reborn?"

RJ: This soul is one of the Heroes, and bound to the Wheel, spun out as the Pattern wills. "It" is born in other Ages, but in a non-Dragon incarnation, to suit the pattern of that Age. In the course of this answer, he related this to why Hawkwing calls Rand "Lews Therin" at Falme--because Hawkwing recognizes this soul. This didn't really tell me why he specifically calls him "Lews Therin", but apparently they've been hangin' together in Tel'aran'rhiod and the etiquette there is to call each other by the name of your last incarnation.

[zerachiel76]

Thanks for all the replies guys, it had been boggling me for a while :)