Destroying the one power

[mwayneknight]

Just a thought,

 

it seems to be that most of the problems that occur in Randland is because of the one power. The dark one was able to touch the world in the Age of Legends because they were looking for another source of power and drilled the hole. What if the way that Rand breaks the world this time is neccesarly a true breaking, but finds a way to not only seal the bore fully and then destroy the one power itself. That would kinda take care of being able to drill another hole(of course i guess u can always find another way), but I thought it would be a pretty cool ending. There would be no aes sedie would just be a normal world.

 

thoughts?

[Hagazussa]

The problem is that The One Power is not just, for a lack of a better term, mana, it is not just a magickal energy it is a vital part of the WoT world's cosmology, without The One Power the Wheel would no longer spin and the world would come to a standstill, it would be the same as if you destroyed the Force in Star Wars because force adepts cause so much problems, yes sure they do but that energy is sort of needed if you want to have a world, or if we are going to the real world, it is if you where a believer in Eastern mysticism and decided that getting rid of Chi was a great idea to prevent anyone using that energy for magick. In the WoT world The One Power is extremely vital for everyone as time itself is dependent on it.

 

That being said I would not like an ending where everything go back to "normal" I read fantasy to hear about fantastical world and ending where the world in the books are de magicked would be very disappointing to me, though I realize that it is a possible outcome though probably not through the destruction of The One Power as that would sort of mess up the world if not destroy it completely. Now if the first age is a fictional "our world", and it is pretty much confirmed that it is if I am not mistaken, then at some point over the next four ages after the third one people will forget how to use The One Power, well unless you count about every society in history having had an idea of magick and legends of it which means our boring old normal world might not be that normal after all. However I think this will happen allot later and it will more be people forgetting how to use The One Power efficiently after the end of the seventh age where about all life is destroyed and evolution start again, but that The One Power is still there driving the Wheel of Time along and that the various gifted people that societies up through the ages have believed in from tribal shamans to village cunning men to Renaissance alchemists and all the rest have touched a glimpse of it but the knowledge to wield it efficiently have been lost until someone late in the first age rediscovers how, this is just a theory off course but it is what I think have happened with channeling in the first age.

 

Now off course it could be that Rand destroys The One Power so that he with that can destroy the Wheel and time itself stopping the cycle of life, death and rebirth but it seams unlikely to me. I am not saying your theory is wrong but from how I understand the cosmology of the Wheel of Time world destroying time would sort of destroy everything.

[jsbrads]

They could cap that well and hid it from people (yes it would still run whee of time, but us channelers couldn't sense it)

But then one day we would build an LHC type project and drill a hole in the cap or DO's prison and then we drill a hole in the other and start a new age

[Hagazussa]

Perhaps but the difference between the One Power and the Dark One is that one is a part of the world, an important part of the world in fact while the other is a being sealed outside the world, it would be the same as putting a cap on gravity. But yes it is possible that the book will end with the One Power being inaccessible to channelers but I do not think it is likely. I do however think the LHC opening up for magick is a wonderful idea however. :D

[Suttree]

What if the way that Rand breaks the world this time is neccesarly a true breaking, but finds a way to not only seal the bore fully and then destroy the one power itself.

 

Brandon has already ruled that out.

 

Brandon Sanderson

 

I'm going to stick pretty close to things Mr. Jordan has said or implied regarding this. Things he has said have implied strongly that it is not going to be like Tolkien; though the Wheel will eventually turn to a point where the One Power is forgotten and the land becomes like our world, that is NOT the Fourth Age.

[jsbrads]

I never thought it was the fourth age, but maybe another.

 

capping the power isn't like stopping gravity, there are numerous methods, one already began by Aes Sedai, culling it from the population, though by now we can see how bad a job they did at collecting all the talent we can assume no relative progress has been reached

Another method would be to include a shield dna into all channelers (genetic therapy) so people born with the power also have a shield from the one power and since they don't know the power is there they don't try to breach it (which they may or may not be able to do

And Far Madding proves that it is possible to "lose the sun"

[Amandera]

In some Ages there are channelers, wolfbrothers, dreamers, Ogier etc while in others there are not. The ability to channel is attached to the soul but that doesn't mean every reincarnation of that soul would be a chaneller. In an age where there are no Wolfbrothers, Perrin would not be reborn as a Wolfbrother but in every 3rd Age he would. Similarly Rand's soul is always reborn as the Dragon Reborn in the 3rd Age. So there is nothing anybody needs to do to stop people from channeling when a certain Age comes. Alternatively in an Age where there are channelers, it's impossible to completely eradicate them from the world because the Wheel needs channelers in the Pattern of that Age. Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills.

[jsbrads]

there are clearly some thing which have to be in place come the 3rd age again, tho wolfbrother ain't one of them, if you recall wolf's memory of the talent, it hasn't happened for a long long time.

Also if LTT hadn't gone to SG with just men the backlash would not have occured, so somethings may happen at the beginning of every 3rd age, but ppl still have to contribute for the effect to be created.

[Agitel]

there are clearly some thing which have to be in place come the 3rd age again, tho wolfbrother ain't one of them, if you recall wolf's memory of the talent, it hasn't happened for a long long time.

Also if LTT hadn't gone to SG with just men the backlash would not have occured, so somethings may happen at the beginning of every 3rd age, but ppl still have to contribute for the effect to be created.

 

The last time the equivalent of the third age came around was at least quite a few tens of thousands of years prior, if not far longer. That is quite a long time. Also, while I agree things may have gone differently in a past Age at the sealing, it's confirmed that if the women had participated in LTT's plan then saidar would have been tainted as well as saidin.