The Gaurdians Balance the Servants...

[mb]

I take just the memory of channeling would be lost, not the ability.

I seem to recall that there would be a partial union of both groups; before the end of the cycle.  do not remember the exact words nor where.

[Dagon Thyne]

I take just the memory of channeling would be lost, not the ability.

I seem to recall that there would be a partial union of both groups; before the end of the cycle.  do not remember the exact words nor where.

Something tells me that certain people would still channel.  Since the first age is supposed to be our time, I assume that people who use magic, and "divine power" like Jesus of Nazereth, and other who came before our times, meaning they would have existed in the 6th or 7th age of the last turning, would have been channelers. 

[Suttree]

There are ages in which channeling is entirely forgotten.

 

 

nterview: Jan 25th, 2005

TOR Questions of the Week Part II (Verbatim)

Week 18 Question

Who were the first channelers, and how did they learn? By trial and error? Are there any Ages where channeling does not exist?

Robert Jordan

The first people to discover the ability to channel learned through trial and error, with fairly high casualty rates until they learned enough not to kill themselves accidentally. Their appearance marked the beginning of the previous Age to that of the books, or at least the end of the Age before that one.

Yes, as I have set things up, there are Ages when no one has any idea of how to channel or even that the One Power exists. Our own, for one. (The Wheel of Time turns.)

Footnote

RJ hints in the glossary of the split version of The Eye of the World that Tamyrlin was the name of the person who discovered the One Power at the dawn of the Age of Legends.

[wotfan4472]

So that is the Tamrylin in that Age!! Facsinating. No wonder Lews Therin and his predecessors had so much influence. This figure was probably like a discoverer in our time.

[dexterryu]

Regarding the idea that the BT and Wt will join together, I'm not sure how that jibes with these facts: there were no Ashaman in the AOl (hence nn BT), all channelers were known as Aes Sedai and the White Tower didn't exist until some 200 years after the breaking. The fact that Mr. Jordan said that the Ashaman will not take the oath rod and that they aren't male Aes Sedai seems to fly in the face of his assertion that each age repeats. I know that the explanation for the many changes is that the big picture repeats , but not the small details (which to me seems a mighty convienent dodge to get out of some rather obvious problems with the entire concept)., but I don't see the existance of the BT, the WT, Ashaman or Aes Sedai as small details.

 

    The only explanation that I can up with that meets the  cyclical nature of the WOT would be that the ability to channel dies out completely in one of the subsequent ages, the WT and BT fail and then later the ability  to channel reappears (which might actually make sense if the Earth of WOT is supposed to our Earth and in one age the US and the old soviet union did exist and in that age channeling itself died out) in such a way that you have male and female aes sedai without either a WT or a BT.

 

Regarding the continuity that you mention about ages repeating themselves. The three oaths didn't exist in the Age of Legends. They didn't even exist for much of the third age. The Aes Sedai came up with them at some point in that age (I think right around Artur Hawkwing). So by the time that the Age of Legends returns the whole concept of Aes Sedai would need to be reborn by the people of that time when it comes around again.

[mb]

I recall somewhere telling that all 3 Oaths were in existance right after the Trolloc Wars.  Do not remember the exact words nor where.

the Guide tells that the second Oath was first adopted after the War of the Shadow.