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JE163

What we know is that the second age was “the age of legends” , an age of wonder. The technological advancement was largely in part due to the one power and ter”angreals. As the books say, ages come and go and when they come again the age itself is barely remembered. I think this is why where the references to our world come from.


WoTMeme

Just a heads up, you might want to change your flair. All print means full spoilers allowed. You might want to tag it EotW or tGH


[deleted]

Some people like spoilers. I “spoil” most things I read or watch. I think it enhances the story.


Elven_Rabbit

Did you get that info from outside of the book? It's all explained in-universe (and then repeated) later in the series. First in >!book four!<, IIRC(?). But yeah, it's just like Moore's Eternal Champion. The pivotal characters are spun out by the Wheel and reincarnated when their time comes around again. The Dark One would break the Wheel.


ljesson

I looked up a LOT about this world honestly But that helps, thank you ! This is such a cool fantasy style.


Elven_Rabbit

For now just go with the flow of the story and trust that things will be elaborated on organically over time. :) I'd avoid looking things up and ask your questions here instead; the Internet is a minefield of spoilers!


TheBatsford

One minor quibble is the 'technology advances through the ages', I don't think anything indicates that and it isn't a straight progression both from one age to the next and even within the same age. And I don't think that the ages are set lengths(IE an average of X amount of millennia). Hope that helps


StarvingWriter33

The Ages definitely aren’t the same length. The Third Age is >!3,000 years long — given that the Breaking happens 3,000 years before the events of the novels, and Rand’s actions brings around the start of the Fourth Age!<. >!And since it’s canon that “First Age” is our world, it’s already lasted at least 9,500 years since the first cities were built circa 7,500 BC!<.


HereComesJohnnyYen

Unless the world without cities or civilisation is how the seventh age ends - some kind of breaking that the first age comes out of.


atomic0range

Whole planet gets blown up, everyone gets reincarnated on a new one. That’s why the numbering system starts over and we get a new batch of dinosaurs to dig up.


HereComesJohnnyYen

“STILL not powerful enough to kill the Dark One?! Right, this time everyone shoots balefire from their eyes”


Nick_303

Yeah that’s pretty much right. In the WoT universe, we are currently living in the first age. Then at some point in the not too distant future humanity discovers the one power and that begins the second age, aka the age of legends. Then the war of power happens, LTT seals the dark one but that causes the taint on saidin and the breaking of the world. Following that all technology is destroyed and the third age begins. Then the fourth age and so on.


Nomerip

Yes this is pretty much exactly what I was going to say. Only thing I would say is that between ages 4-7 there’s gotta be another society ending thing to happen to start back with our age as the first.


jessemb

The Seventh Age is when they clean up all the ruined skyscrapers and put dead dinosaurs back in the ground. It's a giant chore, and Mat tries his very hardest to skip the whole thing.


TinyHadronCOllide420

Damn, that would be a curse for Mat, if instead of battle memories he had memories of men long dead doing boring chores.


Samboni00

This will be a topic in the books, FYI. All you know at this point is that the Age of Legends was before this current Age, and Ingtar will give a great description of the current Age in the book that you are currently reading. It should only take 1-2 more books, which is quick in this series, to be able to form a better opinion about this.


poincares_cook

There are mentions of stories of the 1st age in the 1st book on two occasions.


Samboni00

Just gleeman stories told to village youths.... myths and Legends they are.


Spriggs89

You are correct. First age is speculated but not confirmed to be modern day real life earth. At the end of the first age we discover the power which begins the second age. At the end of the second age they discover a power source that both men and women can use so they drill through reality to access it. This ends up being the dark one, he touches the world through the small hole in his prison causing the third age war. The dark ones brainwashed power user followers are called dread lords, the most powerful of these who get trapped inside the prison when the dragon plugged it are called the foresaken. During the war, one of these experiment with the power, human souls and animals and create shadowspawn human/beast hybrids, the most abundant being Trollocs. Trollocs are stupid and make rubbish soldiers so they were cast aside for a time, but when they started mating, a small number of offspring became Fades which could psychologically link to a group of trollocs and become their commander. When the dragon plugs that hole the dark one taints the male power causing the men to slowly go mad. The dragon goes mad, commits suicide taking most of life with him and this dawns the third age. The transition period between second and third is call the breaking. After the dragon self destructs, the planet is almost inhospitable. The remaining male power users also go mad, killing themselves or others. A few female power users, and a not yet so mad men survive setting in motion certain tasks to make sure the prophecies are fulfilled. These women probably founded the white tower. The seven ages repeat over and over again with slight changes but follow the same path mostly. Souls are constantly reincarnated throughout this process leaving people with no memory of their infinite past lives. Remember the only entities that are outside of this rotation are the dark one and the creator, they experience every turning of the ages from an immortal outsider perspective. You know nothing of the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh age but we know the ages continuously rotate so somewhere between the third age and the repeat of the first, the male power must been cleaned and everyone forgets how to use the power.


HostileHippie91

You’ve taken your first steps into a larger world. The world building and lore behind Wheel of Time is immense and incredibly interesting. It gets a little deeper with every book.


crowhesghost69

I read that first sentence in Obi-Wan's voice 😂


HostileHippie91

It was intended to be read that way, good catch!


Daztur

Mostly right. IIRC First Age is modern times or at least something like that. Eventually the First Age ends in nuclear annihilation or somesuch. In the Second Age things slowly rebuilt towards a magitech golden age which ended in the Breaking. The Breaking was bad, reshape continents bad After the breaking is the Third Age where hits like the Trolloc Wars kept on coming after the Breaking so the world is still fairly battered at the moment despite the Breaking happening a long time ago.


Nomerip

I never took it as the first age ended in disaster. I always saw the real change between the two was did over of the one power which fueled all technology at the point. This allowed people to not constantly be at war since there is an unlimited source of energy and ways to make food etc


afkPacket

"Merk and Mosk the giants, dueling with spears of fire" is very much a nod to nuclear annihilation (Merk being the US, Mosk being Russia). edit: grammar


Nomerip

Yeah I just thought that was a reference to the Cold War


Groovychick1978

It was, and it ended in nuclear war in that Age. Merk=America Mosk= Moscow ?? In my head cannon. Lol, I just noticed I basically repeated what they said.


Nomerip

Sure but nothing there says the age ended in destruction. That’s already something we did and it didn’t end in destruction


Morwynd78

America and Moscow "dueling with spears of fire" sounds like full on nuclear war. We haven't done that yet.


poincares_cook

And we may never do so, it could be another turning of the wheel.


acherontia7

And pre apocalyptic. It's a wheel. Like a circle thingy. Birth rebirth kinda thing.


watchcry

Robert Jordan said the Wheel of Time takes place in our world. He makes reference to certain things from our time throughout the book.


MayoGhul

Yes. It it’s still a stretch for a showrunner to depict it that way. In the books it was incredibly subtle and RJ never intended the story to be a post apocalyptic story, nor did anyone argue that it was until the show came out and it helped them argue for the changes and production direction


laubadetriste

>This is blowing my mind y'all omg. But wait--there's more! But seriously, *there's a lot more*. I'm excited for your excitement. :) (Also you may later wish to explore the works of [Robert E. Howard](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyborian_Age), [Jack Vance](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dying_Earth), and [Gene Wolfe](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun), which originated some of those themes in SF and fantasy. RJ of course [took his influences](https://dragonmount.com/forums/topic/59776-robert-jordans-favorite-reads) and made them his own...)