One Power Theory

[Petrodon]

Spoilers! 

 

So, I have just started to re-read the entire series from Book One, to see if I can spot clues that foreshadow events that occur in later books.  I did spot a number, one of the biggest of which is when Lan foreshadows his defeat of Demandred in the first chapter of Book Two, when he shows Rand the swordsman technique of winning a sword fight at the cost of your own life (Sheathing the Sword) which he uses to defeat Demandred.

 

But as I read I have begun to form a theory specifically about the One Power.  So, a lot of what we know about the One power comes from the mouths of modern practioners like Siuan and Moiraine.  It always goes the same way too, blah blah one power, blah limits, blah blah learned from Age of Legends, blah can't do that.

 

So what we know and the modern practioners know is that the One Power has limits, what those limits were and it was much more powerful (or the practitioners were more powerful) in the Age of Legends.  Also none of the Aes Sedai seem to experiment with the power either, they know what they can and cannot do and stick to that.

 

Now "Will of the Pattern" aside I have a theory that rather than being outside the pattern, the One Power itself is inside the pattern and as such it can change and evolve freely and that the "knowledge of the Age of Legends" becomes a detriment to the current channelers. 

 

Let's look at the facts. 

 

Some of the best/most powerful channelers of the Third Age were those that freely ignored the "established rules" of how the power should be used.  Like Nynaeve for example, how many times did we see her totally ignore those telling her she couldn't do something and then perform miracles that channelers in the Age of Legends could not.  She could heal stilling/gentling, she could rid male practitioners of the madness caused by the Taint, she assisted Rand in cleansing saidin and sealing the Bore. And how about Androl (I am aware he is a BS character and not a RJ character, but Nynaeve is!) and Pevara, he could create gateways without needing to be strong in the One Power, studying the environment, and expending a great deal of energy and when foscused enough he can make a gateway that an incredibly powerful ter'angreal is supposed to stop.  His double-bond with Pevara allowed them to share thoughts not just emotions like other bonds, and it allows Pevara access to his talent and to channel in a circle he led.  None of this was possible in the established rules.

 

One other thing, I noticed that whenever there was an Age of Legends channeler present they were powerful, but I think not as powerful as they should be.  One thing that was mentioned that Age of Legends channelers could fly.  In fact they suspended buildings in the sky just because they could, being able to create gateways or just freaking fly up there.  Why did none of the Forsaken ever fly?  It would have come in handy occasionally I'm sure, perhaps when Balthamel was being overpowered or when Moghedien was losing in her battle against Nynaeve in Tanchico.  My theory is that they couldn't do it, the One Power had evolved and lost that ability while gaining others.

 

Thoughts?

[Mr Ares]

There were some things that were unknown even in the AoL. Bonds, such as those used for Warders, were not something they ever developed. There doesn't seem to be any reason to believe it was impossible, they just never developed it. Certainly there's nothing to suggest that anything that was lost is impossible now - the Chosen never think of such, for example - it's simply the case that some things were forgotten. If someone knew how to do them, they could be done still. So the change is in knowledge of the OP, not in the OP itself. Flight as possible in the AoL in much the same way it is possible in the modern world - they had planes, powered by the OP. The Chosen couldn't fly in the series because they had no planes. Aginor couldn't create new Shadowspawn in the Third Age because he lacked the tools.

[Petrodon]

Hmm..  Well flying was mentioned as a talent, but I would think suffcient power would allow for that.  So maybe the lost powers aren't gone, but new powers are emerging, that much is apparant.  How did huge numbers of powerful channelers with hundreds of years to study and perfect the craft not find a way to cleanse the madness.  Nynaeve, from sheer force of will, a talent for healing and ability in the One Power found a way to do it and heal severing to boot.

[mb]

I recall from somewhere (do not remember where) that One Power flight was actually 2 weaves::  one weave to create some kind of platform then Air to move that platform (while they were on it).

couldn't fly seems inaccurate; chose to not fly or forgot how seems more accurate.

 

About foreshadowing, there is a thread for that in the Structured section of this forum.

[Sabio]

well one reason as we were told in the series and the Aes Sedai scolded Nyn about when she accidently healed Logain, and they asked her why she used certain weaves.  She said something about jut felt right,  Is experimenting with the power can be very dangerous and even burn you out.  Same reason why the white tower had so many objects of power that no one knew what they did.  Is it worth risking your life or burning yourself out over?  So I think many simply played it safe.

[Petrodon]

Ask Marie Curie or Galileo if pushing the limits of research is worth it, but in the end we are all better for it. I also think it had a lot to do with the Taint, with the knowledge of half of the One Power essentially cut off forward movement on research was not possible.

[Sabio]

Some people like Nyn do feel its worth it, NYn wants to help people and refuses to believe that she can't find ways to do it.  But Nyn I also don't think fully understood the dangers, I don't think it would of stopped her.  But she might of ben a bit for cautious then simply tossing weaves when she was studying Logain and Siuan.  But many people play it safe and are content with what they know.  The Aes Sedai to me in many ways were like the middle ages where if you challenged the popular belief of the day you could get into trouble.  Its quite likely the Ae Seda would never of allowed Nyn to try many of the weave she did had they known, and she probably would of been severly punished had she been discovered doing it behind their backs.

 

The Asha'man on the other hands many have no idea what they are doing so they seem more likely to experiment and try new things, there really is no one telling them this can't be done or you can't do this.  Where many Aes Sedai are caught up in the that's impossible mindset.

[Mr Ares]

Hmm..  Well flying was mentioned as a talent, but I would think suffcient power would allow for that.  So maybe the lost powers aren't gone, but new powers are emerging, that much is apparant.  How did huge numbers of powerful channelers with hundreds of years to study and perfect the craft not find a way to cleanse the madness.  Nynaeve, from sheer force of will, a talent for healing and ability in the One Power found a way to do it and heal severing to boot.

Just because something is mentioned as a Talent doesn't mean it actually is. Information isn't always accurate, it changes over time. That's a theme of the series. Are new powers emerging? Well, yes and no - yes, we have the emergence (or re-emergence, given cyclical time) of things like Min's Viewings and Wolfbrothers, but no, we are not seeing changes to the OP, only people learning how to do new things with it. The channelers with hundreds of years of experience all died in the Breaking. The War of the Shadow didn't end with the Strike on Shayol Ghul, it continued for decades, until the Breaking forced hostilities to end by making simple survival the highest priority. So how much chance was there to carry out research under less than ideal circumstances? It's not that unreasonable that the AS wouldn't be able to figure out how to cleanse the madness under the circumstances - and post-Breaking they tended to avoid experimentation due to the high risk involved. As for severing, bear in mind that it was used as a punishment in the AoL - how much will would there have been to find a cure for it? That doesn't diminish Nynaeve's achievements, it merely acknowledges that there were circumstances that meant that others who might have been able to make these discoveries in the past never did, either through lack of desire or lack of opportunity. There's no reason to think the OP is somehow fundamentally different between the two time periods, and every reason to believe it isn't - all indications are that the only difference is knowledge.

[mb]

Min's ability; from what I skimmed, that ability occurred at least once before::  on the Seanchan continent.

Wolfbrothers; from the Green Man's comments to Perrin, the ability to communicate with wolves seemed to also occur in the Age of Legends.  And from what I recall, various wolves seemed to support that.

[Kesiera_Sedai]

 

Hmm.. Well flying was mentioned as a talent, but I would think suffcient power would allow for that. So maybe the lost powers aren't gone, but new powers are emerging, that much is apparant. How did huge numbers of powerful channelers with hundreds of years to study and perfect the craft not find a way to cleanse the madness. Nynaeve, from sheer force of will, a talent for healing and ability in the One Power found a way to do it and heal severing to boot.

Just because something is mentioned as a Talent doesn't mean it actually is. Information isn't always accurate, it changes over time. That's a theme of the series. Are new powers emerging? Well, yes and no - yes, we have the emergence (or re-emergence, given cyclical time) of things like Min's Viewings and Wolfbrothers, but no, we are not seeing changes to the OP, only people learning how to do new things with it. The channelers with hundreds of years of experience all died in the Breaking. The War of the Shadow didn't end with the Strike on Shayol Ghul, it continued for decades, until the Breaking forced hostilities to end by making simple survival the highest priority. So how much chance was there to carry out research under less than ideal circumstances? It's not that unreasonable that the AS wouldn't be able to figure out how to cleanse the madness under the circumstances - and post-Breaking they tended to avoid experimentation due to the high risk involved. As for severing, bear in mind that it was used as a punishment in the AoL - how much will would there have been to find a cure for it? That doesn't diminish Nynaeve's achievements, it merely acknowledges that there were circumstances that meant that others who might have been able to make these discoveries in the past never did, either through lack of desire or lack of opportunity. There's no reason to think the OP is somehow fundamentally different between the two time periods, and every reason to believe it isn't - all indications are that the only difference is knowledge.

[Kesiera_Sedai]

Flying can only be done with a ter'angreal, so u guess that'll be another discovery Elayne will make. But there were new discoveries. The AoL channelers couldn't undo their weaves, affect the weather over a whole continent, or make ter'angreal that would disrupt.