History WMG / TheWheelOfTime

At one point, Rand and Hegrid Fel have a conversation about the Bore, that, when the wheel of time turns and the Bore is drilled again, the Bore must not exist, which is different from simply sealing the bore. So, it seems like if the bore is going be undone, somehow the bore must be prevented from happening in the first place. It seems like balefire may be the only way to do this.
* Alternatively, especially if The Wheel really does go on forever, the Dark One has to get free at some point, and then eventually be resealed.

Nothing says that Rand, as TheChosenOne, is the ''only'' one who can/will fight the Dark One, simply that he has to be there for humanity to have any chance. Rand has certainly shown, for various reasons, that he needs help in his endeavors, and has even accepted it on certain occasions. Once she surrendered to him, he always trusted Moiraine; after thinking he caused her death, to see her back again would not only undo a lot of the angst and restore his confidence in himself, he'd immediately accept her as his advisor again in Cadsuane's place. And Min had those visions saying he would fail without her. Why would that be?

Well, aside from whatever she might have learned/bargained from the Finn, there's the fact that Rand is going to attempt to somehow actually destroy the Dark One. Failing that, he needs to destroy the seals and then completely reseal the Bore. Lews Therin failed at this task. Why? ''Because he only used saidin''. ''Saidin'' and ''saidar'' are '''both''' necessary. We've already seen the two were needed to cleanse the taint; both were used by the Bowl of the Winds; both may well be a part of the makeup of Callandor; and the Guide and glossaries explicitly state (the books might too) that the greatest feats of the Age of Legends were always performed by men and women working together.

In Aviendha's [[NightmareFuel incredibly-disturbing]] [[BadFuture flash-forwards]], there's a brief line about someone being from one of the ''three'' branches of the Dragon's descendants. The most obvious interpretation of that is from Rand's children by Elayne, Aviendha, and Min. Elayne is currently pregnant, and through Min and Rhuidean we've seen Aviendha's children, but nothing about Min's. Going off of overdosed-on-TVT-and-thus-not-that-reliable memory and conjecture, I don't believe there's going to be enough time after ''Towers of Midnight'' and before Tarmon Gai'don for Rand and Min to be together, so if she is to have at least one child by him, either she needs to be already pregnant, or he needs to survive long enough to impregnate her.

** Okay, thanks.

* Except that the visions explicitly follow her genetic line - the same Ages are similar, but not so much that they would both have an Aviendha who had four children by the Dragon Reborn.

What no one has mentioned is once the Last Battle is fought, what is going to be done about The Blight? Will it disappear and go back to the way it was? Will the Aes Sedai and Asha'man be required to fix everything? I think in Towers of Midnight some effort will be put into pushing The Blight back far enough and it will turn out that Malkier is back. Lan will then be crowned and Malkier will be used as the staging ground for The Last Battle. Or maybe he'll be crowned afterwards.

* Well, while such a thing could still happen in A Memory of Light, it hasn't so far. Still, Lan did at least verbally reclaim his crown. There is also the viewing Min had of him with the seven towers and a sword in a cradle. WordOfGod says viewings are all of the future, not the past. Problem is, the viewing could have two interpretations: the seven towers could mean Malkier is re-established, or just what has happened already, Lan gathering the Malkieri and riding to Tarwin's Gap while calling himself king again. And the sword in the cradle could represent his child being given his sword because he's the next ruler...or because the responsibility of fighting in honor of fallen Malkier against the Shadow will be passed to him, as it was to Lan.

[[folder: Asmodean]]

So, either one of two things happened. Either he was outright allied with, and a part of, [[spoiler:Graendal's]] coterie until Lanfear absconded with him (likely via the World of Dreams) to make him Rand's teacher, or he had simply ferreted out where she was hiding. The latter sounds rather out-of-character, both in terms of his abilities (Asmo was not a spy or sneak, nor very good at either) and his personality (a weaselly coward who wouldn't take the risk of being discovered). But either way, [[spoiler:Graendal]] knew (or figured out) he knew where she was. Note that ''no other Forsaken'', aside from [[spoiler:Sammael]], knew where she was hiding, at most only suspecting. Yet Asmodean did know.

Put that together with his later 'treachery', and [[spoiler:Graendal's]] further motivation for killing him becomes clear. On the one hand, Asmodean was the only one who could give away where she was hiding, both to Rand and the other Forsaken. Killing him would silence him, assuming he hadn't already blown the whistle on her. (He had, but she didn't know this.) At the same time, if he had not merely discovered where she was but had been allied with her for a time, the fact he seemingly defected might have cast suspicion on her loyalties too, particularly with their common bonds (a once good past). Kill him, and she looks like a loyal Chosen to the others as well as to the Dark One.

This explains why he would be terrified when he saw her: because he knew she was there to silence him and/or punish him for giving her away to Rand, as well as for turning traitor. Why did she destroy the body? Because leaving it to be found would make Rand wonder why he was killed, and thus he would lend more credence to any information Asmo had given him as being true. And telling the other Forsaken about it [[spoiler:would give away she was trying to curry favor so as to become Nae'blis]].

Hiding the fact she and Asmo had been allied, as well as that she was offing a traitor [[spoiler:not on the Dark One's orders, but so as to impress him and become Nae'blis]], is why this was kept secret. And the fact he knew she was [[spoiler:in Arad Doman]] when nobody else did, coupled with him having been "hiding in a hole" somewhere, should have made it obvious to the reader that she would be the one to kill him, to prevent him from telling Rand where she was.

As to why none of this was mentioned, for example, in any of the meetings between the Forsaken in Tel'aran'rhiod in book five this could be because a) it had already been discussed prior to Nynaeve listening in or us getting to witness the talks b) [[spoiler:Graendal]] didn't know Lanfear took Asmo, just that he vanished, so while she might guess what happened after Lanfear suddenly has knowledge of Asmo's treachery, she can't confront her and prove it, or c) as we knew from her thoughts and comments in ''Lord of Chaos'' and has now been confirmed in ''Towers of Midnight'', [[spoiler:Graendal]] does not like to share her plots with others. So she would never admit to allying with Asmo or killing him (let alone to Lanfear having snatched him away from her).

Lews Therin explains his theory that they were unable to seal the bore because they used ''saidin'' and it touched him so his counterstroke traveled back along it and tainted it. So, Rand should use a power that he won't mind touching the Dark One. Like power that comes from the Dark One himself. Rand has already channeled it once.

** That...is an absolutely brilliant idea. I hope it turns out to be true, since it would both make up somewhat for Rand having to endure the True Power and would be deliciously ironic and karmic for the Dark One. And indeed, we only have the Dark One's word that its will is required, and that information in turn comes from Moghedien and/or Moridin.

** Considering what happened to Rand at the end of book twelve, and what we now know about him from book thirteen, it seems unlikely he's able to use the True Power anymore. Whether his newfound PersonOfMassDestruction-hood will be enough to seal the Bore or even destroy the Dark One, who knows. Then again, his newfound power may make him strong enough to draw on the True Power without the Dark One's permission, ''or'' being corrupted by it. Sometimes it pays to be TheChosenOne.
*** Rand can still use the True Power, or at least he thinks he can. He threatened the Borderlander monarchs with it in Far Madding. He can use it as long as he's linked to Moridin. However, his current plan for sealing the Bore properly is using both ''saidin'' and ''saidar'', because last time LTT only used ''saidin''.

"The three shall be one" refers to ''saidin'', ''saidar'', and the True Power, not three actual humans. It would explain why Callandor in particular is necessary for the Final Battle, and it'd allow for the (rather obviously true) theory that the True Power will be used to seal the bore to have the right tool for the job on hand. This also explains why it has all the oddities in construction - it's a very one-off item, so it couldn't incorporate all the usual bells and whistles.

It's repeatedly stated that even the other Forsaken use the True Power only rarely and that it leads to WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity, so that only the completely nutty Ishamael/Moridin would dare use it on a regular basis. But what if it's the other way around? We know that Ishy was a philosopher who came to a very bleak and nihilistic worldview that lead him to team up with the Dark One in the first place- what if he is deliberately ''trying'' to make himself go mad so he doesn't have to deal with it any longer? It's the equivalent of an ordinary person drowning their sorrows in alcohol, but since he's the GodOfEvil's [[TheDragon Dragon]], he gets DrunkOnTheDarkSide instead. As Ba'alzamon, he'd plainly succeeded, turning himself into a raving borderline-CardCarryingVillain; but as Moridin he seems a good deal more rational (not to mention he's got the ''saa'' now instead of the fire-eyes), albeit still as devoted to his "cause" as ever- the reincarnation probably caused some sort of snapback that cured the worst of what he'd done to himself. The question is- where does he go from here?

Let's look at Masema - an insane, poor, foreign soldier who manages to gather a huge force of fanatics in Ghealdan - and most people in the Westlands don't ''like'' the Dragon. This sounds entirely like Compulsion, which he learned unconsciously after his latent channeling ability was brought to the fore after witnessing the battle in the sky.

** He didn't know he could channel. That would be blasphemy, after all.

...though I doubt he ever will, certainly not before the Last Battle. But we know that at least two of his sisters can channel, and it would be such a perfect fit with the rest of his story arc: the four things he really hates and wants to avoid are destiny (turns out he's one of the three greatest ta'veren ever), battles (turns out he's a military genius), nobility (turns out his wife is an empress) and the One Power...

** Only half true. The Forsaken are the Dark One's most powerful servants, all granted immortality for that fact, but there used to be more of them and the ones that were sealed were the ones who were'nt already killed by Lews Therin Telamon or his allies. So guys like Asmodean are the weakest survivors of a much larger, much more elite group.

** Presumably, to further damage the Pattern, making it easier for him to break free.

* Doesn't explain how he knows the phrase "Let the Lord of Chaos Rule!", which so far as we know has only been said by the Dark One to the Forsaken, strongly suggesting Taim either is a Forsaken himself (probably Moridin, since Demandred's out) or at least has had contact with them- and his fondness for red and black decorating suggests, but doesn't confirm, a Moridin connection, since those are Moridin's colors. He's also clearly using a circle of Dreadlords and Myrddraal to turn Asha'man and Aes Sedai to the Shadow as of ''Towers of Midnight''. Even if he's not a card-carrying Darkfriend, he's plainly working with them at the very least.

Bel'al's InformedAbility is being [[TheChessmaster behind everything.]] He might have actually sent an impostor to grab Callandor and give him it. Something that somewhat supports this is that in ''Lord Of Chaos'', Shaidar Hain mentions Rahvin is lost to the flow of time, but not Bel'al. Taim has knowledge only Forsaken have, but since Taimandred was {{Jossed}} the only Forsaken it could be is Moridin. However, Taim was around before Moridin. Meanwhile, Bel'al was free to step in anywhere he wanted. Besides, the [[WeHardlyKnewYe poor guy deserves some screen time.]]

* Quite possibly. I'll take it one step farther: suppose the 13x13 trick requires both male and female dreadlords working in a circle. (This is never explicitly stated, but most great works involving the Power require channelers of both genders, so it stands to reason. This would also explain why it's so rarely done; it's tough to get enough channelers of both genders, all shadowsworn, into the same place at the same time.) Egwene purges the Black Ajah from both White Tower factions. Mesaana catches onto what Egwene is doing, too late to save the Black Ajah members close at hand, but quickly enough to send a message warning the Black sisters encamped at the Black Tower. (She can't go to their aid herself because her sudden disappearance from the White Tower would blow her cover.) These sisters do NOT scatter and run, as we've been led to believe, but go to Demandred or Moridin or whichever male Forsaken is in charge of the Ashaman darkfriends for protection. (Alternatively, Mesaana may have sent a message directly to Demandred or Moridin asking for help; she never revealed which sisters were Black before because she didn't want him taking charge of her servants, but better to let another Forsaken get ahold of them than let them get captured and executed by Egwene's faction.) Only after the Black sisters camped at the Black Tower had gone into hiding under the protection of a male Forsaken and his Black Ashaman were all the necessary pieces in place to start using the 13x13 trick.

* It's next to impossible - but so far as we know, the DO has eternity to keep at it. He can afford the wait. It's ''also'' said that if he's ''freed'' in one timeline, he's freed in all of them.

Per the creation myth of the setting, the Dark One is the antithesis of the Creator and was bound by him at the beginning of Time. In the Second Age, he was partially freed by human channelers, and the Third Age has been building to an apocalyptic showdown with him. Now, having this end with the DO simply being re-bound and vowing to try again next time the Wheel rolls around to these particular Ages could easily be anticlimactic- perhaps at the Last Battle, the Dragon, champion of the Creator, will actually succeed (and has succeeded in previous turnings) in "killing" the DO, only for the DO's power to survive and latch onto a nearby human, resulting in that person being sucked into the Bore and becoming a new DO? In brief, the current Dark One is ''not'' the entity imprisoned by the Creator, but rather, his successor. After Rand kills ''him'', who'll take his place? Ishamael/Moridin(if he survives) and Padan Fain/Mordeth both seem like possibilities, particularly the latter...

* The same way Bayle Domon, Egeanin, Aludra, Valan Luca, and probably some others I'm forgetting each become very important in unrelated plotlines. [[strike: Robert Jordan]] the Pattern says so.

Olver appears after Birgitte notes Cain's disappearance from the Dreamworld, and is a very ugly boy. Also, being raised by Matt & Co. are setting him solidly on a path towards becoming a soldier and talented swordsman, not to mention gifting him with some chick-magnet powers.

Also, It's possible that he wasn't born, raised, and orphaned in the normal sense. The pattern anticipated Birgitte's being removed from the normal sequence of events, and so it brought Cain into the world in an abnormal fashion to heal the damage done to the Pattern with Birgitte was removed. Thus, even though Birgitte is older than Cain in a biological sense, he remains older than her in a chronological sense, preserving the pattern.

[[folder: Crossovers]]

[[WMG: Mat is actually a young [[{{Discworld}} Rincewind]]]]

It's not just that there are strong implications that the First Age was (is? will be?) our own, and that Third Impact was a suitably apocalyptic cataclysm in this time period that broke and remade the world. Nor is it simply the fact that Shinji, like any other incarnation of the Dragon, had to make a difficult and painful choice in order to keep the Pattern from collapsing. What seals the deal is that the only surviving female, from whom all future generations would descend, was... Asuka. Which explains a *lot* about women in Jordan's world.

Unfortunately, like the rest of his series, there'll still be a massive amount of questions left hanging, and we'll never actually find out the answers to any of them. Don't believe me? Read Elantris, Warbreaker, or the Mistborn Series. None of them had any meaningful resolution outside of the specific plot.

** The difference is RJ has mentioned that even when the main story ended he'd continue writting (IE, New Spring Dawning) and attempt to wrap up those plotlines. Sanderson, on the other hand, has no qualms about simply ending without any sort of meaningful resolution at all.

** two more trilogies actually, the Mistborn series is conceived as a "trilogy of trilogies" as he put it. There's also a novel coming out in Novwember that wasn't originally planned but just kind of happened (it was originally a short story).

Well, it's not like he doesn't use the 'Evil/good sealed at the beginning of the world trying to break free and destroying everything' trope in all his other books.

** Ah. I missed that. Still, you've gotta admit, the two cosmologies are similar.
** In the case of Ruin and the Dark One, the similarities are pretty superficial- the DO is explicitly a GodOfEvil, while Ruin is explicitly ''not'', being rather a natural force that got out of hand. Also, WordOfGod is that [[spoiler: Ruin was once human]], while the Dark One seems to have always been the Dark One.

* There are many series out there that are much longer. The Literature/{{Xanth}} series, for example, is now well past 30 books. If Jordan had ever even thought about this he would have been writing much shorter books, much faster.
** But the Xanth series are episodic works, related loosely. They aren't bound together in a serial trilogy, quintology, or dodecatology.

At the end of The Gathering Storm, Rand notes how the people under the Seanchan rule seem much happier than his own, realising that even though they're conquering his home continent and enslaving men and women, forcing women who can channel to become weapons, they can bring some prosperity and peace, which he can't due to him having barely any clue as to running a nation and working with nobles who are out for themselves. Most likely in The Towers of Midnight we will see Rand giving up the crown of Illian, while requesting that his appointed steward (Can't remember the name) be left in charge.

This is based off [[{{Horngeek}} my]] own suspisions, confirmed and implied events in the books.

In each book, less and less time passes. In Towers of Midnight it was less than week. As we get closer and closer to the end of the series, the amount of time covered in each book will grow closer and closer to zero.
* Through Fridge Logic this Troper believes that the slowing of time is actually a kind of measuring rod to how much control the Dark One is possessing over the Pattern. The closer we get to the Last Battle, the more time will slow, to the point where it actually stands still during a total solar eclipse, fulfilling the prophecy of ''twice dawns the day''. When the good guys when, back to standard time zones.

Also consider they must have some kind of ability to read Randland's pattern, since they can read the future and past with perfect accuracy. And not only can they view these things, they're able to actually take ancient memories completely intact and put them in some poor soul's mind. This either speaks of a very... unusual Power or very high technology. But if there's more than one Wheel, does that mean there's more than one Dark One, since Randland's End Times don't seem to be bleeding over? How many Wheels are there, anyway? Would this explain why the Creator has helped Rand exactly once (in the first book), since he has so many other Wheels to watch? What are they for? Is he a weaver, and when he closes for the night all time stops?

* Also, why would you set a Final Battle in the Third Age of seven? You'd end up repeating the whole thing, and there'd be four whole Ages for things to go wrong. If it's really the Final Battle, wouldn't that make it the Sixth Age, making about one more Age of peace before things begin again?

This also explains why the Ways are so hostile to Trollocs and other Darkspawn; Shadar Logoth was no friend to the dark.

** This is fairly well debunked by WordOfGod, which explicitly refers to Machin Shin as a product of the Taint. Presumably, anyone can feel the corruption because it's so strong, and the Ways were such a complex and massive creation that it took awhile for the corruption to visibly set in. Apparently the effects of Machin Shin and Mashadar are similar enough for it to recognize Fain as "kin", though.

* But, you say, "He didn't 'take down' the Myrddraal." It decided he was NotWorthKilling. And whose word do we have for that? Just Thom's. Given how much Thom refuses to talk about himself, and throwing in what appears to be a Warder reticence, it makes perfect sense that he wouldn't tell them he could deal with a Myrddraal, especially when he's trying to both get rid of the ta'veren and get them to be careful.

What are the odds that she was born to be the best at all these things simultaneously? It seems more likely that she acquired these powers somehow. The logical way to do that would be by visiting the Eelfinn (foxes) and getting some wishes granted. Of course the foxes would demand too high a price so she had to cheat. "Courage to strengthen, fire to blind, music to dazzle, iron to bind." Fire and Iron seem easy, but Lanfear isn't known to be particularly musical. She would need help from a musician, for example Asmodean who was known as a famous composer and musician in the age of legends.

So she could have cheated the Eelfinn (foxes) out of three wishes. Perhaps she also cheated the Snakes out of true answers (remember that she was the only one who knew how to tap into the dark one's prison) but that isn't really necessary for the theory.

When Lanfear entered finn-land a second time she would certainly have been stripped of her ill-gotten wishes. It might be suguested that you cannot enter twice, but Jordan loves ExactWords and Moiraine said no one could "step through" the doorway twice. At the docks Lanfear was pushed through by Moiraine which may not count as stepping through. It is also possible that Lanfear originally entered through the Tower of Ghenjei.

* Q: Why is Cyndane less powerful than Lanfear was?
* A: Well she is less powerful because now she is at her natural power strength rather than her wish enhanced power strength.

* Q: If Asmodean was killed by Lanfear (as seems likely) how did he recognize his killer since Lanfear was in the new "Cyndane" body by that time?

Let's take a look at the circumstances in which he entered his relationships.
* Elayne: Egwene had just dumped him, he was starting to realise the pressure of being the Dragon Reborn and here he had a girl confess her love for him. She was possibly a rebound and a way of coping with stress. Also, he had his first kiss with her, which his home town considers to be off limits unless you're engaged so through his eyes, he lost his virginity to her.
* Aveindha: Elayne sends Rand two contradicting letters, confusing him about her feelings. He then travels with a group of strangers and his friends are ignoring him because they're busy or, in Mat's case, afraid of him. Then there's this pretty girl who is constantly around him and the two converse about their own traditions and laws. They share a tent and she casually gets undressed in front of him without a thought. They then sleep together, so he loses his actual virginity to her. Plus, when he lead the attack on Caemlyn, she died and he only narrowly brought her back. Again, lust confusion with love and possibly some guilt.
* Min: Aveindha has just left, but because Rand sent her away so it's on better terms. Rand is starting to hear Lews Therin, the stresses of running three kingdoms, setting up the black tower and preparing to invade Illian are getting to him. Along comes Min and he uses her to cope with stress the same way he did with Elayne.

Rand is completely unaffected by the taint as of Towers of Midnight, and is shown to have some weird form of power protecting him from the taint when Nynaeve looks at him. Before Nynaeve figures out how to heal it, there's exactly one instance of someone being cured of it - Lews Therin being healed by Ishamael. Hey, look who's still got some hard-to-understand thing protecting him from the taint.

In the very first book. When Rand killed Narg, Lord of All Evil. All this stuff afterward is just the nightmare of a PostDramaticStressDisorder suffering FarmBoy.

* Actually, there is a reason- WordOfGod is that souls are normally tied to one gender (Aran'gar, the obvious exception, was the result of the Dark One screwing around, and even then she still channeled ''saidin''). However, there is also apparently a female ChosenOne soul that gets spun out by the pattern about half the time. So ''The Dragon'' is always male, but the ''Light's champion'' isn't.

* He didn't "take down" the Myrddraal. It decided he was NotWorthKilling. He finds his way back to the party because three of the party is ''ta'veren''. The letter was written after Moraine saw her own future, including him rescuing her from TheFairFolk. That definately warrants a "My Dearest", especially if she saw their relationship improving afterwards.

** One could TakeAThirdOption and say ''both'' are true- he ''does'' want to win and get out, but he ''doesn't'' rely on (most of) the Forsaken to help with that. They're just there to provide entertainment, since watching a bunch of lunatics run around screwing the world up is how a GodOfEvil gets his jollies, and are ultimately irrelevant in the grand scheme of things- except as a distraction for everyone else, while the ''real'' plans get carried out by Ishamael/Moridin and Shaidar Haran.

In Aviendha's [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel incredibly-disturbing]] [[BadFuture flash-forwards]], there's a brief line about someone being from one of the ''three'' branches of the Dragon's descendants. The most obvious interpretation of that is from Rand's children by Elayne, Aviendha, and Min. Elayne is currently pregnant, and through Min and Rhuidean we've seen Aviendha's children, but nothing about Min's. Going off of overdosed-on-TVT-and-thus-not-that-reliable memory and conjecture, I don't believe there's going to be enough time after ''Towers of Midnight'' and before Tarmon Gai'don for Rand and Min to be together, so if she is to have at least one child by him, either she needs to be already pregnant, or he needs to survive long enough to impregnate her.

<<|WildMassGuessing|>>

* It seems fairly likely that Rand and Moridin's connection and Rand's link to the True Power originated from when [[CrossingTheStreams their balefire crossed]] in Shadar Logoth killing Sammael. Rand's OP balefire and Moridin's TP balefire merged, linking them and giving Rand access to Moridin's TP. This also caused the waves of dizziness that Rand experiences since TPOD.

(This doesn't even seem like a particularly wild guess, but it's not here yet, so it might as well be added.) Rand has said he plans to truly kill the Dark One. Maybe that's just ego speaking, or maybe he really does have a plan. It seems implausible, but who knows? Even if he does, though, history is cyclical, and ''some''thing will become ''a'' BigBad. Well, there's Padan Fain. He's already incredibly evil and in every book he becomes more and more powerful.

[WMG: The Dark One is not the first Dark One]]