The Boring Bore

[Grimmauld]

I was thinking lately on a question someone posed about the Dark One's actual endgame in Randland - the poster posited that if Shaitan really wished for an end to the Pattern he could just encourage his minions to let loose a vast assault of balefire and burn the Pattern until it yielded. This set me on a path of wondering how the Dark One has remained eternally imprisoned - either partially or fully and led me to think that resealing the bore as it was before Mierin's experiment may actually be a pointless labour.

 

Consider - the person who drilled the bore is still alive. While previously she was actually a loose canon in terms of the Forsaken, she is now mindtrapped by the Shadow's Numero Uno. If I was the Dark One, I would be actively 'encouraging' Cyndane to pass on the knowledge of how the Bore was created throughout the ranks of the Forsaken and Dreadlords. Then, come the end of AMoL, when Rand has done his body swap/HotH trick, resealed the bore and wandered along his merry way, whichever of the Forsaken or Dreadlords is left could begin the search for another weakness in the DO's prison and rebore into it. While this will not guarantee the DO success in the next battle to free himself, it does create an opportunity.

 

I realise this ending would be dependent on many things - Cyndane being still mindtrapped, her being aware of how Beidomon aided the boring in the first instance, there being anyone left to side with the Dark after Tarmon Gaidon. However, I am not saying that this plan would be succesful, just a definite contingency thought to put in place in case TG goes wrong for the Shadow.

[Suttree]

Consider - the person who drilled the bore is still alive. While previously she was actually a loose canon in terms of the Forsaken, she is now mindtrapped by the Shadow's Numero Uno. If I was the Dark One, I would be actively 'encouraging' Cyndane to pass on the knowledge of how the Bore was created throughout the ranks of the Forsaken and Dreadlords. Then, come the end of AMoL, when Rand has done his body swap/HotH trick, resealed the bore and wandered along his merry way, whichever of the Forsaken or Dreadlords is left could begin the search for another weakness in the DO's prison and rebore into it. While this will not guarantee the DO success in the next battle to free himself, it does create an opportunity.

 

The biggest problem with this is they don't have the AoL technology any longer to carry out such a huge undertaking. RJ commented on this as it relates to Aginor and why his scientific knowledge is useless for the most part in this age.

[Mordaunt]

The DO is banking on an end to all things. He isn't preparing redunancies, he's fully committed to ending things this time. That's why he's had Demandred balefiring everything since LoC.

[Cybertrolloc]

We don't know that Mordaunt.

 

The main plan failed--Rand on Dragonmount. We don't have much on what plan b, c, etc...could be.

[Luckers]

Boring the bore is evidently more difficult then most people believe--for one thing, they did actually try to widen the bore. Lews Therin learnt of it, and stopped them, and it was this act which began the War of the Shadow, so it obviously took a great deal of effort which could be easily--or at least readily--countered.

 

In modern times, its likely a lack of technology.

[Grimmauld]

I haven't seen a lot of evidence of Demandred balefiring left, right and centre - then again, as we all know, we haven't seen much of Demandred!

 

As for a lack of technology, I agree that there is assuredly less technology, that creating the bore is difficult and I assume that Beidomon may have had certain Talents which are not easily replicated.

 

However, I disagree that the Dark One has no contingency plans. The DO has been trapped since the moment of creation, through 7 ages and, in all likelihood, many turnings of the wheel. How could he not have learned from Lanfear originally how she drilled into his prison and put in place plans to repeat this event?

 

As for LTT protecting the Bore from being widened, this naturally makes sense. That's why the DO should have attempted to widen it again before Rand became Rand Sedai. However, once Rand retires and the world's vigilence begins to ease, the chance will arise again. Do others agree that the DO is likely thinking long term?

[FarShainMael]

About the balefire, there are a couple of clues. First, there's this from the Dark One Itself:

 

THE CHOSEN DWINDLE, DEMANDRED. THE WEAK FALL AWAY. WHO BETRAYS ME SHALL DIE THE FINAL DEATH. ASMODEAN, TWISTED BY HIS WEAKNESS. RAHVIN DEAD IN HIS PRIDE. HE SERVED WELL, YET EVEN I CANNOT SAVE HIM FROM BALEFIRE. EVEN I CANNOT STEP OUTSIDE OF TIME. For an instant terrible anger filled that awful voice, and—could it be frustration? An instant only. DONE BY MY ANCIENT ENEMY, THE ONE CALLED DRAGON. WOULD YOU UNLEASH THE BALEFIRE IN MY SERVICE, DEMANDRED?

 

Later on, in KoD5, something very odd happens in the Shaido camp:

 

She had just reached Therava's arrival with Galina when everything in front of her eyes rippled. She rippled! It was not imagination.

 

Meira's blue eyes widened as far as they could go; she had felt it, too. Again everything rippled, including herself, harder than before.

 

In shock, Faile stood up straight and let go of her robe. A third time the world rippled, harder still, and as it passed through her, she felt as if she might blow away in a breeze, or simply dissipate in a mist.

 

Breathing hard, she waited for the fourth ripple, the one she knew would destroy her and everything else. When it did not come, she expelled every bit of air in her lungs from relief. “What just happened, Wise One? What was that?”

 

Meira touched her own arm and looked faintly surprised that her hand did not pass through flesh and bone. “I . . . do not know,” she said slowly. Giving herself a shake, she added, “Go on about your business, girl.” She gathered her skirts and strode past Faile at little short of a trot, splashing mud as she went.

 

Compare this with the 'balescream' in ToM Prologue.

[MasterAblar]

Boring the bore is evidently more difficult then most people believe--for one thing, they did actually try to widen the bore. Lews Therin learnt of it, and stopped them, and it was this act which began the War of the Shadow, so it obviously took a great deal of effort which could be easily--or at least readily--countered.

 

In modern times, its likely a lack of technology.

 

He did? When was that mentioned?

[Cybertrolloc]

FarShainMael, haven't seen anyone come up with anything likely about the pair of three ripples in KoD, though I have seen plausible :) This is probably not the place to rehash that, and certainly not without the Perrin bit and the other info from those chapters.

 

Master Ablar, Strike at Shayol Ghul or the Rhuidean sequence? I don't remember it either.

[Durinax]

actually I do not see the DO as wanting a complete end, as this would end himself. I see it more as a kid bored with his ant farm so he is trying to manipulate variables to make it more interesting.

[Suttree]

actually I do not see the DO as wanting a complete end, as this would end himself. I see it more as a kid bored with his ant farm so he is trying to manipulate variables to make it more interesting.

 

But the DO along with the Creator exists outside the pattern. Don't think destroying it would necessarily be the end of him.

[Agitel]

I haven't seen a lot of evidence of Demandred balefiring left, right and centre - then again, as we all know, we haven't seen much of Demandred!

 

As for a lack of technology, I agree that there is assuredly less technology, that creating the bore is difficult and I assume that Beidomon may have had certain Talents which are not easily replicated.

 

However, I disagree that the Dark One has no contingency plans. The DO has been trapped since the moment of creation, through 7 ages and, in all likelihood, many turnings of the wheel. How could he not have learned from Lanfear originally how she drilled into his prison and put in place plans to repeat this event?

 

As for LTT protecting the Bore from being widened, this naturally makes sense. That's why the DO should have attempted to widen it again before Rand became Rand Sedai. However, once Rand retires and the world's vigilence begins to ease, the chance will arise again. Do others agree that the DO is likely thinking long term?

 

The technology to widen the Bore no longer exists, and if the Bore is closed he loses his ability to influence people and the Pattern, and the world's technological level is at a stage where, even if he passes knowledge of how to create a bore on to the next generation, they and their children's great grand children's children will be long dead before the technology becomes available again. On top of that, the One Power will likely become unavailable to people in one of the coming Ages. I'm sure he's personally been working overtime to whittle down those pesky Seals, though.