Life is a Dream, and the DO will be dreamed away.

[fionwe1987]

I'm collecting here various bits of thoughts/evidence that I think link up Tel'aran'rhiod and Reality/Creation. I predict that a lot of this will be made clear in aMoL. Some of this I've already put into another theory here before, but I'm collecting all my thoughts now, and also trying to predict how the DO will be finally Sealed based on all this.

 

1) Reality will be revealed to be a fold of Tel'aran'rhiod. TAR being the third constant has deeper meaning than we now know. 

 

2) The Creator maintains the folding of TAR that is Reality, and all within this Reality are forced to follow his rules, which includes the complex mechanism of the Wheel. This the Creator has done so that life can continue on without his direct intervention. He cannot intervene because he is focussed on maintaining the reality of this fold, and all his energy that is not available to humanity is focussed on keeping this TAR fold of Reality stable.

 

3) The Creator and the DO are essentially the ultimate Dreamwalkers. However, TAR itself cannot exist without either of them. It is the amalgamation of the Powers of the Creator and the DO. Thus, humans who enter here can both create and destroy.

 

4) The TAR reflection of "Reality" that we see is but an effect of the thoughts and will of the various humans who slip in and out of it. It is a simulation based on their combined conscious and unconscious knowledge. Thus, what they know to be permanent remains so, whereas what they know to be temporary in reality appears to be transient in TAR too. As a result, what happens to objects in TAR doesn't enter Reality. But Dreamwalkers send a part of themselves there, and thus what happens to them there carries forward to "Reality" too.

 

5) The Wheel works by simulating all possibilities in the infinite space that is TAR. These are the Worlds of If/Parallel worlds. They're as "real" as Reality, but if there are any people in there, they're actually just like Dream versions of the Souls that occupy the actual Reality. 

 

6) Ta'veren work by manipulating the Worlds of If. If a Ta'veren is at point A (not a physical place, but in the Pattern), and the Wheel sees from the "predictions" it creates in the If Worlds that she/he needs to be at point B, it looks at all the radiating lines between A and B, which are the If worlds that are created between these two "Events". The Wheel then picks the pieces from these various "Ifs" that can connect A to B. Thus, the less likely events from the If worlds are suddenly incorporated into Reality. When this comes to people's actions and decisions, the effect is almost like how Dreamwalkers can force someone else to think a particular way, beding their thoughts to their will. The Wheel does that, but uses the Creators will/power.

 

7) Dreamers get visions that come from these Worlds of If. They're basically touch future simulations of the Wheel, and can sense how certain these events are. They only get vague Dreams since not every aspect of what they touch will come to be true.

 

8) Its due to their connection with the If Worlds that all three characters we know of who can track ta'veren are Dreamers. 

 

9) "True" TAR minus the effects of people's thoughts is like the Skimming space. Eternal darkness, but you can still see. Absolutely nothing there, but you can imagine anything you like. Thus, a Dream of a Dream. Thus, eerily familiar to Egwene.

 

10) The Ways are a special, permanent folding of TAR. The OP is used to fix a certain "reality". Waygates are like permanent Skimming gateways, and the bridges and islands are like a huge network of Skimming platforms. Similar mechanics are at play in Vacuoles. 

 

11) The Thinness in the Pattern is because at the outer edges of the multidimensional "Reality" the Creator maintains, his focus is weaker, as he's pushing the limits of what he can do. Its like when Rand tried to make a ginormous Skimming platform in tFoH. That was in 2D, and when he exceeded his abilities, the whole creation began to become insubstantial, and his feet begin to sink into the "ground". In the many dimensions of Reality, the outermost edges are just a little "thin" like this.

 

12) The Bore was "drilled" when human channelers consciously tried to access the True Power. I predict Beidomon was a Dreamwalker too, and the entire team tried to reach across the Thinness and touch the TP. When they did so, they were unknowingly directly pitting their will against the Creators', and this allowed just enough increase of the thinness for the DO to push through with his True Power.

 

13) The physical manifestation of the Bore is at Shayol Ghul, and around this place, Reality has frayed enough that the Dark One is able to corrupt its rules with Its own will.

 

14) Rand is now almost like a Dreamwalker in Reality. Whether conscious or not, he exists in a place that is an amalgamation of TAR and Reality. This usually only used to happen to him before accidentally, like some instances in tGH and tDR which we have conformation for, and the time in ToM when Perrin sees him. 

 

15) This power associated with Rand is the same mechanism used by the Horn of Valere. It meshes TAR and Reality, allowing the Heroes to come through, and impose their will on Reality.

 

16) The Green Man's place was also one such place. Within it, the Green Man's will kept away the Blight. As it was an aspect of TAR, it could be called to by... Need! 

 

17) Within the TAR-Reality merge created by the Horn, Dreamwalkers can make or unmake what they wish, just as they can when they dream themselves into TAR. However, they'll be stronger since they're in the Flesh, and their actions can affect the parts of Reality in touch with TAR.

 

18) The thing tying the Horn and the Ways is sound. Waygates open to Song. The Song of the Horn ties TAR to Reality, and even the grave is no bar to it. When Ogier Sing, they can change the shape of wood, mould it to their thought, almost like... Dreamwalkers. When the Da'shain sang, they could mold the One Power, the fabric of Creation, to protect plants.

 

Implications for the Endgame:

 

I think all these discrete ideas on TAR and Creation neatly converge towards a very plausible endgame. Essentially, what needs to happen is a reversal of what Mierin and Beidomon achieved. At the thinness in the Pattern, a combined push needs to reinforce the Creator's will. However, this won't be as easy for the Lightsiders to achieve since any such effort near Shayol Ghul will be actively contested by the DO, something Mierin's team did not face at all. The core of this effort is obviously the Dragon Reborn. He can actively resist the DO's will, and is able to tie TAR into Reality to achieve this. But this will need to be reinforced. We will have the Horn of Valere blown, and the Reality-TAR pocket that is created will allow the Dragon greater ability to push against the DO. Aiding him will be the Dreamwalkers, who can exert their fullest abilities here. The wolves will also help, both live and "dead", as will the Heroes. Aiel and Ogier will Sing, maintaining the stability of the pocket. 

 

What follows is a regular old battle of wills. As we saw between Egwene and Mesaana, but on a much, much grander scale. In his entire strength, no one can face the DO. But the DO can only exert a small amount of his will through the Bore, since the Creator is still maintaining the rest of Reality. This "small" amount can be faced, by the combination I outlined above. The presence of all three ta'veren will also help, allowing the Pattern to stabilize itself around them. I also think it likely that Nynaeve will use her ability to reverse-engineer the taint to remove the tentacles of the TP the DO has placed in reality. The moment the DO is pushed back, the moment the Bore is sealed again, she will destroy them as she did the taint-compulsion. With no DO to refuel, the effects will be gone. Reality will once again be free of the TP, and the Thinness would have temporarily become, well "thicker". It will take some millennia for the effects to wear out, and the DO's constant pushing to make it detectable to humans again.

 

Thoughts?

[Aredeis]

I agree with some of that, and it fits with my personal long held belief that sealing the bore won't be done with the Power(any of them) but will instead be a function of the three taveren reweaving the pattern for lack of a better phrase. 

[fionwe1987]

I agree with some of that, and it fits with my personal long held belief that sealing the bore won't be done with the Power(any of them) but will instead be a function of the three taveren reweaving the pattern for lack of a better phrase. 

While the presence of the three ta'veren may be important, I don't think its as simple as them re-weaving the Pattern back. I'm still divided on whether Mat will be there in SG, or leading the armies attacking the valley of Tharkandar/protecting Tarwin's Gap.

[SylvanFox]

This sounds pretty cool. It really goes along with the Aiel "we all wake from the dream" thing.

[Rootbeer]

I don't get half of what I just read, but still, my mind feels... blown. How weird.

[KrisAnton]

It does make sense. In TSR, Perrin tries to enter a waygate while in T'a'R and finds the doorway to resemble glass, he cannot pass through it.