Most Recent Theory: How Will It End?

he Seals and the Prison

By ReDragon (Youngling) | Replies: 47

Okay heres my first full blown theory.

I haven't read all the theories, but in the relevant sections I haven't found this one, but if its there my apologies.

Basic principles;

The seals must all be broken

The prison holding the DO must be destroyed

A new prison must be constructed around the DO

Starting with the seals.

We know that the weakening seals are allowing the DO to touch the world more and more as more seals are broken. Witness the drought, ghosts, the thinning of the pattern allowing hallways to vanish like in the WT and Tear / Andor Caemlyn, the lessening of the ability of Saidar in keepings.

Title : Knife of Dream, Chapter : Honey in the Tea

"There was one thing she could do for them: comfort them. Impossible as it seemed at first, the interior of the Tower sometimes changed. People got lost trying to find rooms they had been to dozens of times. Women were seen walking out of walls, or into them, often in dresses of old-fashioned cut, sometimes in bizarre garb, dresses that seemed simply lengths of brightly colored cloth folded around the body, embroided ankle-length tabards worn over wide trousers, stranger things still. Egwene was able to discuss it with Siuan in Tel'aran'rhiod, so she knew that these things were signs of the approach of Tarmon Gai'don"

This also happened in Tear and Caemlyn. And also in the chapter before,

Title : Knife of Dreams, Chapter : Call to a Sitting

"It was as if Saidar was failing"

This is evidence of the DO touching the world with a freer hand as the 3 still whole seals are shaveable the last time we saw them, therefore their usefulness for their purpose must be erodeing.

The seals are a focus point for a "plug" if you like that LTT and the 113 companions sealed in the AoL. And the plug is weakening because 4 seals are broken and the rest are decaying as shown above.

Title: The strike at Shayol Ghul (Also in BWB)

"One of the plans for ending the war quickly, proposed by Lews Therin, centered around a direct attack on the Bore itself. Seven 'focus points' (there seems no better translation from the old tongue, although they are obviously the Seals of Legend) were constructed of cuendillar. A raiding force -- so they called it, though even in the light of recent past events it must still seem a large army to most people of this day -- a raiding force consisting of some twenty thousand soldiers to provide security and a circle of seven female Aes Sedai and six male (the minimum number believed necessary, and all the strongest who could be found) would Travel to Shayol Ghul , the one place on earth where what has been called 'a thinness in the Pattern" makes the Bore detectable, and there to implant seals held by the focus points which would close up the Bore and shut the Dark One from the world once more.

This plan was considered risky for a number of reasons. Even today it is known that the Dark One has a certain degree of effect on the world close around Shayol Ghul, and it was probable that any attempt to channel there would be instantly detected and the raiding party destroyed. Lews Therin himself, who intended to personally lead this huge raid, admitted that even with sucess, he expected few of the attackers to survive, perhaps none. Worse, several experts claimed that if the seals were not placed with exact precision, the resulting strain would, instead of sealing up the Bore, rip it open, freeing the Dark One completely.

So the sealing that was eventually put in place by LTT and the 113 male channerlers as a follows".

Title: The strike at Shayol Ghul (Also in BWB)

"Another plan at the time centered around two huge sa'angreal, one attuned to saidin and one to saidar, both so powerful that using them required special ter'angreal, like miniature versions of the great sa'angreal, constructed especially for the purpose of accessing the sa'angreal. This project had its detractors, too, for the sa'angreal were planned to be so powerful that either one might well provide enough of the One Power to destroy the world, while both together certainly would. Some doubted that so much of the One Power could be handled safely under the circumstances. Against that was the certainty, according to the plan's supporters, that used together they would provide sufficient Power to drive the Shadow's forces back, to defeat them completely and erect a barrier around Shayol Ghul until a safe method of dealing with the Bore was assured.

Detractors pointed out that the Bore had enlarged since it was first drilled, and behind the barricade erected by the sa'angreal it would continue to grow, so that eventually the Dark One might free himself within the barrier. The barrier might well contain the Dark One when all he could do was reach through the relatively small Bore, but could it hold back the Dark One let loose?

The hall of the Servants quickly divided into two camps, and those who favored one plan derided the other.

Support for the use of the great sa'angreal and opposition to attempting to implant the seals centered around a woman named Latra Posae Decume. Apparently a speaker of considerable force and persuasion, she gathered a large bloc around her, but what assured her victory was an agreement she reached with every female Aes Sedai of significant strength on the side of the Light. (In the manuscript, this agreement is called 'the Fateful Concord,' though it was doubtful that this was the name it was generally known.) Lews Therin's plan was too rash, too dangerous, and no woman who agreed to the Concord would take part in it. As precise placement of the seals was widely thought to require a circle, that apparently killed the plan, since men cannot create a circle, but can only be brought into one created by women. Work on the sa'angreal, in the form of two huge statues, was rushed forward."

There's more, but its common known history. Now, this means that the 'plug' plan was an act of desperation by the forces of the Light, and definitely not the best plan, which would involve resealing the prison perfectly. Or rebuilding the prison after it has been destroyed. Which brings us to the second part of the theory.

Title : Lord of Chaos, Chapter : Thorns

(A note from philosopher Herid Fel to Rand.)

"Belief and order give strength. Have to clear rubble before you can build. Will explain when see you next. Do not bring girl. Too pretty."

This note tells Rand that the prison has to be destroyed / cleared away. As you can't lay a foundation for a building without clearing trees/rocks/what ever where you want to build etc.

Now consider this.

Title : Lord of Chaos, Chapter : A New Arrival

"Lews Therin's voice came up like thunder. Break it break them all must break them must break them and strike quickly must strike now break it break it".

We know LTT wants to break the seals, even though it was his plan in the AoL. Now LTT may be mad, but he has moments of rational thought with Rand, and in his age he was considered a great intellect, though the Sealing was as has been stated an act of desperation, hampered more by the fact that they had no female support to link with to make their weavings stronger. LTT has had a while now in the back of Rands head to be mad in, but sometimes he must be rational to himself and this prison plan has been formed.

The note from Fel tells Rand the basic principles he needs. It was delivered after a longer conversation that makes more sense read after reading the note.

Title : Lord of Chaos, Chapter : A taste of solitude pgs 427-428 (pb)

"What about the question I posed you last time? Herid? Herid?

The stout man's head jerked up. "Oh. Yes. Ah, question. Last time. Tarmon Gai'don. Well, I don't know what it will be like. Trollocs, I suppose? Dreadlords? Yes. Dreadlords. But I have been thinking. It can't be the Last Battle. I don't think it can. Maybe every Age has a Last Battle. Or most of them." Suddenly he frowned down his nose at the pipe in his teeth, and began rummaging across the table "I have a tinderbox here somewhere."

"What do you mean it can't be the Last Battle?" Rand tried to keep his voice smooth. Herid always came to the point; you just had to prod him towards it.

" What? Yes, exactly the point. It can't be the Last Battle. Even if the Dragon Reborn seals the Dark One's prision again as well as the Creator made it. Which I don't think he can do." He leaned forward and lowered his voice conspiratorially." He isn't the Creator, you know, whatever they say in the streets. Still, it has to be sealed up again by somebody. The Wheel, you see."

"I don't see..." Rand trailed off.

"Yes you do. You'd make a good student." Snatching his pipe out, Herid drew a circle in the air with the stem. "The Wheel of Time. Ages come and go and come again as the Wheel turns. All the catechism." Suddenly he stabbed a point on that imaginary wheel. "here the Dark One's prison is whole. Here, they drilled a hole in it, and sealed it up again. "He moved the bit of the pipe along the arc he had drawn. "œhere we are. The seals are weakening. But that doesn't matter, of course. "The pipestem completed the circle." When the Wheel turns back to here, back to where they drilled the hole in the first place, the Dark One's prison has to be whole again."

" Why? Maybe the next time they'll drill through the patch. Maybe that's how they could do it the last time "drill into what the Creator made, I mean " maybe they drilled the Bore through a patch and we just didn't know."

Herid shook his head. For a moment he stared at his pipe, once more realizing it was unlit, and Rand thought he might have to recall him again, but instead Herid blinked and went on." Someone had to make it sometime. For the first time, that is. Unless you think the Creator made the Dark One's prison with a hole and patch to begin." His eyebrows waggled at the suggestion. "no, it was whole in the beginning, and I think it will be whole again when the Third Age comes once more. Hmmm. I wonder if they called it the Third Age?" He hastily dipped a pen and scribbled a note in the margins of an open book. " Umph. No matter now. I'm not saying the Dragon Reborn will be the one to make it whole, not in this Age necessarily anyway, but it must be so before the Third Age comes again, and enough time passed since it was made whole "an Age, at least "that no one remembers the Dark One or his prison. No one remembers. Um. I wonder..."He peered at his notes and scratched his head, then seemed startled to find he used the hand holding the pen. There was a smudge of ink in his hair. "Any Age where the seals weaken must remember the Dark One eventually, because they will have to face him and wall him up again."

SO.

1. We know about the seals being a 'plug'

2. We know that the prison has to be whole again in the age when the bore is first drilled

3. We don't think that man can equal the creators work

4. We don't know how Meirin could have drilled into the Bore if it was the Creators work

But we can say that since Mierin could drill into the prison it was possible that a)The prison was actually built by man or b)That the Creators work can be drilled into.

Either way this indicates that if someone can drill into something the Creator made, or that a man made prison can hold the DO for a few Ages. Than someone powerful enough should be able to reuild a prison that will hold the DO thru the turnings of the Wheel until the Age when the Bore is drilled again.

This means that the prison holding the DO must be Rebuilt.

I believe that the forces of Light will reach Shayol Ghul with at least one seal still intact, then Rand with smash the last seal and prepare for the DO's attack, which will probably happen on the instant, but he will be prepared. I also believe that he will be linked in a circle, and directing the flows, as he has experience being trapped in a box as we know from LOC and WH, will reconstruct the DO's prison resealing him in a perfect prison, until the Wheel turns and the Bore is drilled once more.

The Circle will include: Rand / Jahar / Damer / Logain / Karldin / Sandomere and Nynaeve / Cadsuane / Egwene / Elayne / Aviendha / Moiraine / Alivia

Angreals, Sa'Angreals, Ter'Angreals, Callandor, and the access key will also be involved.

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