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A WHEEL OF TIME COMMUNITY

Is Randland Earth?? and if so, are you sure???


pjduffy

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How far can a channeler Travel with the One Power? I know they can Travel anywhere on the globe, and enter Tel'aran'rhiod through a slightly different weave, but is it possible to Travel to other planets, or even planets in other galaxies?"

 

Robert Jordan Answers: Travel to other planets within the solar system would require a circle of fairly strong channelers, though not necessarily as many as thirteen, depending on exactly how far out they wanted to go. Travel to a planet in another solar system would require a rather large circle (of the maximum possible size) of very strong channelers, and there would a limit on how far they could go in one jump. They could planet-hop, of course. Travel to another galaxy would be beyond them even if they began on the planet in this galaxy nearest the target galaxy.

 

 

I've always envisioned that this world was our Earth, just in some future/past. However, what if this world is not Earth, but a land that was populated by advanced channelers from Earth, or vice versa. Thoughts?

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I've always envisioned that this world was our Earth, just in some future/past. However, what if this world is not Earth, but a land that was populated by advanced channelers from Earth, or vice versa. Thoughts?

 

It is supposed to be our world as evidenced by "Mosk and Merk", "Anla the Wise Counselor", "Alsbet Queen of All", "Lenn How he flew to the moon in the belly of an eagle made of fire...Salya walking among the stars.", the Mercedes symbol in the museum etc.

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On that note, did RJ ever confirm that the landmasses described in the book consist of the whole of the planet? For a world that's supposed to be in the distant future/past, there's very little actual land. It would make a lot more sense if there was another continent somewhere.

 

That said, there have been phases in earth's history where the sea levels were much higher iirc, so it doesn't rule anything out. Or again, it's one of those things Jordan just didn't think about too much.

 

Or maybe he did think about it,

 

 

Is the Blight some sort of metaphor for global warming then?

 

Would actually make sense if the effect of the blight caused the ice caps to melt and increased the sea level, probably contributing to the Breaking.

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Oh by the way, if you look carefully at North America, you'll see that Yellowstone blew. The caldera is still visible. California fell into the ocean, as predicted. Actually, I should probably just save myself some time and link this thread. (Felix/Dida warning. For noobs, that means it's not just you.)

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...what set me off thinking Randland is future-Earth was the satellites in the prologue of TPoD in the Borderlands.

 

Aparently i missed something... "satellites in TP0D" ? Could you clearify that one?

 

Maybe was referring to this?

tPoD

 

A slender spire like a column of gleaming golden lace lay slanting and partly buried in the bare hillside, a good seventy paces of it showing above the treetops. Every child in the Black Hills old enough to run off leading strings knew of it, but there was not a village inside four days’ travel, nor would anyone come within ten miles willingly. The stories of this place spoke of mad visions, of the dead walking, and death at touching the spire.
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Ok, yeah I remember that description, but I never connected it with the remains of a current-day orbiting satelite. Many objects even in todays world have odd reputations (the Giza pyramids, Chicken Itza, Stonehendge, whatever) and there are so many remenants from not only the AoL but from the time before the AoL when the Portal Stones were created (which in no way could be our own Age, or at least far in our own future. Or possibly in the dim mists of the past in the AoL) that i just put it in the same category. There was another artifact that was mentioned by Bayle in TEotW, a large crator with a huge silver spike standing in the center that could also cause death if you touch it (but no one ever has) that I'd also like to know more about, if just for a "neat-o cool world-filling knowlege" thing.

 

Also? Birgitte's mountain of glass. Love to hear more about that.

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Roberet Jordan has confirmed that the 1st age, the one before the age of legends, and all of it's tales, such as the Brothers Merc and Mosk fighting with spears of fire, are based on out time. Merc and Mosk's battle is supposed to be the Cold War, where America and Russia threatened nuclear war.

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It would make more sense as an alternative future, imo, he's already touched on the concept of multiple dimensions and universes with the portal stones. Maybe Randland is our world several thousand years in the future, with the difference being that magic (the OP) actually exists there.

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It would make more sense as an alternative future, imo, he's already touched on the concept of multiple dimensions and universes with the portal stones. Maybe Randland is our world several thousand years in the future, with the difference being that magic (the OP) actually exists there.

 

That is always how I pictured it as well!

And I believe in our of the earlier books in the series (#4 or #5) the Forsaken mention items like "glowbulbs" and other references to technologies very much like everyday items we use. There was also a paragraph on how wars changed the world completely and gahh I wish I remember where this was so I could quote it properly.

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Sammael had glow bulbs as well as the set of rooms when Semirhage interrogated the Aes Sedai in Arangar's backstory. Unclear whether they're like the glowsticks or not (i.e. not OP based, and glow sticks still might be though terangreal are pretty sturdy and what Bayle heard might be guy-in-the-pub-told-me too).

 

Anyway, due to science related questions, I doubt RJ intended it to be our world, just that some age or ages were similar to parts of our history or something along that line.

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What if there was an event between the First Age and the Second Age akin to the breaking, that would make an Earth > Randland timeline plausible while explaining some of the differences. Given that the end of the first age was apparently the discovery of the OP and the AoL's emphasis on peaceful life, it would make sense.

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RJ's confirmed on a few occasions that it is Earth and that our modern day world is just an Age on the Wheel. I personally think our Age would fit better as the 7th Age (with how the series numbers them) than the first. There's numerous references to stories and legends from our modern day and the Wheel of Time tells a story that is supposed to be the basis for the mythologies we know about today.

 

Glowbulbs are similar to lightbulbs, but they're not an invention we currently have. It's the same concept, but much more advanced, and they never die or go out. They're not glowsticks.

On that note, did RJ ever confirm that the landmasses described in the book consist of the whole of the planet? For a world that's supposed to be in the distant future/past, there's very little actual land. It would make a lot more sense if there was another continent somewhere.

 

That said, there have been phases in earth's history where the sea levels were much higher iirc, so it doesn't rule anything out. Or again, it's one of those things Jordan just didn't think about too much.

 

Or maybe he did think about it,

 

 

Is the Blight some sort of metaphor for global warming then?

 

Would actually make sense if the effect of the blight caused the ice caps to melt and increased the sea level, probably contributing to the Breaking.

 

The Westlands are twice the size of Europe. Seanchan is pretty much the size of north and south America. Pretty much all of Asia is still in tact. The Land of Madmen is a pretty sizeable continent as well. There's plenty of landmass in the Third Age.

 

My personal interpretation of the Blight is that it was created by the cleansing of saidin for the Eye of the World. The Aes Sedai who created had no where to place the taint so it would be neutralized.

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Agitel,

 

I saw your map on another thread and thought it was pure genious - I had thought the Land of Madmen was Australia location-wise, but considering plate tectonics and the like (of which the saidin channelers had probable control over) it could very well be Africa or a part of one of the prior supercontinents (Godwana, Pangaea, etc.). I like your interpretation of the Blight; the fact that Shayol Ghul used to be tropical, it would not make sense for it to be the Dark One's revenge on the world when he/she is trying to allure people to his/her cause. The location of the Eye of the World in the Blight is even more damning of evidence of such a thing.

 

And to clarify my satellite statement, I meant one of those big satellite dish things that NASA uses for receiving signals from far off galaxies - I believe this is not the only one that has been mentioned in the series (I think EoTW had something mentioned, but I will need to reread for it).

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My personal interpretation of the Blight is that it was created by the cleansing of saidin for the Eye of the World. The Aes Sedai who created had no where to place the taint so it would be neutralized.

 

It is a very good idea about the eye of the world, It sounds logical, and I have thought about it myself, but still I have no explanation why the blight border is like a straight line and not circular. The taint should spread in all directions uniformly. And yet, the location of the Eye is always different in the Blight. Usually it is beyond the Mountains of Dhoom. Maybe this mountains have stopped the taint, just like Balkan mountains stop the clouds and cold, so in my country climate is very different to the north and to the south of them.

Another problem is that the Blight continues in Seanchan, as well. And the straight border is present there, too. It really doesn't fit with the Eye saidin cleansing theory.

 

I'm sorry for the off-topic, but I feel the idea is intriguing and needs some discussion. Agitel, why don't you start a new topic about this?

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My personal interpretation of the Blight is that it was created by the cleansing of saidin for the Eye of the World. The Aes Sedai who created had no where to place the taint so it would be neutralized.

 

It is a very good idea about the eye of the world, It sounds logical, and I have thought about it myself, but still I have no explanation why the blight border is like a straight line and not circular. The taint should spread in all directions uniformly. And yet, the location of the Eye is always different in the Blight. Usually it is beyond the Mountains of Dhoom. Maybe this mountains have stopped the taint, just like Balkan mountains stop the clouds and cold, so in my country climate is very different to the north and to the south of them.

Another problem is that the Blight continues in Seanchan, as well. And the straight border is present there, too. It really doesn't fit with the Eye saidin cleansing theory.

 

I'm sorry for the off-topic, but I feel the idea is intriguing and needs some discussion. Agitel, why don't you start a new topic about this?

 

All descriptions of the taint speaks against this theory. The taint is described as an oily surface covering Saidin. Which means that Saidin itself was its usual clean self, you just could not access it without being exposed to the taint. So when they created the Eye, rather than removing a piece of the taint (something that should not have helped even if they had managed it), they would have found a way to extract some of Saidin into the Eye, where it then could be accessed without having to go through the taint.

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My personal interpretation of the Blight is that it was created by the cleansing of saidin for the Eye of the World. The Aes Sedai who created had no where to place the taint so it would be neutralized.

 

It is a very good idea about the eye of the world, It sounds logical, and I have thought about it myself, but still I have no explanation why the blight border is like a straight line and not circular.

 

All descriptions of the taint speaks against this theory. .

 

Here is RJ's explanation.

 

INTERVIEW: Apr, 2003

 

Budapest Q&A (Verbatim)

 

QUESTION

 

 

Was there any time when there was no Blight?

 

ROBERT JORDAN

 

 

Oh, yes. The Blight is an artifact of the War of the Shadow and the Breaking. There was no Blight before the Bore was created, and the drilling of the Bore did not immediately create the Blight, but the Blight came into being after that.

QUESTION

 

Was the Blight [mumble] from the Dark One, or one of the Forsaken?

ROBERT JORDAN

 

From the Dark One. It is land that has been corrupted by the Dark One.

 

Now, admittedly, there is room for interpretation, but it seems clear that it is not an effect of the taint. The DO corrupted the land before the taint was manifested in male channelers. (see bold part about it being an artefact of WOS.)

 

Of course, it can be explained, that the WOS comment meant that it was created at the end of the war of shadow when the taint was "created".

 

Also, it could be the same "essence" as the Taint, just in a different form.

 

However, looking at the quote, it seems that it was an effect of the DO's presence, like things grow when Rand is near now. The land is corrupted where the DO touches.

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is modern day earth the 1st or 7th age? does it matter? it is the wheel of time.

 

 

INTERVIEW: Jan, 1991

 

Starlog Interview (Verbatim)

WILLIAM B. THOMPSON

 

He doesn't see the world he elaborates as unreal. Far from it.

ROBERT JORDAN

 

"It exists in our past and our future. These were our legends, but because time is a wheel—according to Hindu legend—we are the seeds of their myths. Because it is a real world in my books, they have certain degrees of technology. The time in which the characters live is our future and our past. Part of what I'm exploring here is what the nature and source of our myths might be."

 

So, you are correct when you say it doesn't matter. No idea how the -past and future thing works exactly, but he confirms that, yes, it is the Earth we live on, and that our time is (somehow, due to the cyclical nature of the Wheel) both in past and future.

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