This thread is to discuss where in the wheel of time our era occurs.

I know other threads discussed this, but not as its own thread.

 

Whatever choice, please tell reason/reasons.

 

1st and 1st :D :D

Can we do anything other than just guess?

for some reason, i thought the wheel consisted of 5 spokes, one for each age...didnt verin draw the wheel with 5 spokes in tGH? if so where do the 6th and 7th ages come into play? sorry if this is a dumb comment, but i really thought there were 5 ages.

There are 7 ages, and it's pretty clear from Thom's story and the Panarch's museum that we are in the first age.

Or the seventh, and we were just well remembered. Or maybe those are an age similar to ours, and our age is the 5th. The point is, we don't know. We know that we show up at some point on the wheel, but not when. We're not the second or third age, and thats about it.

Our Age is a particularly long one. It started with the Big Bang. I'ld call that the First Age, if a simple Breaking of the World is enough to warrant an Age transition ;D

I imagined the AoL to be the 7th Age, and ours to be an equivalent of that. So I voted 7th Age

You can channel?

 

You never heard of wars?

 

That's the AoL (which is the second Age, not the seventh)

Turnings of the Wheel.

Little things can change. If there was any risk of that much changing, the Pattern would be spewing out ta'veren à volonté

The way I see it, the discovery of the one power would end our age. The question is what happened next? If the portal stones era lasted less then 200 years it could still be considered just a transitory era, and then our age would be the first age. although I kind of got the feeling that the portal stones were lost technology even in the AOL which mean that humanity probably blew itself back to the stone age and had to build itself a "new history" which would make our age the 7th age (that would also be a nice explanation as to why channelers are so accepted in the AOL, since they been around since the "dawn of humanity").

 

Of course if the portal stone era was a full fledge age then we might actually be the 6th...

 

Little things can change. If there was any risk of that much changing, the Pattern would be spewing out ta'veren à volonté

 

Well, fair enough. But I dont think that our Age is the one after AoL at all. If ours isnt an AoL equivalent, Id say maybe it'd be the one before. So with the discovery of the One Power civilization would change from just technology to both, and reach its true peak. As in, with technology and the One Power both in everyday life.

This is how I see it:

 

1st Age = us

2nd Age = AoL

3rd Age = Randland (for now)

4th Age = after Tarmon Gai'don

5th Age

6th Age

7th Age = Big Shrink

 

Portal stones could be something undiscovered, or something men will still make, or ...

This is how I see it:

 

1st Age = us

2nd Age = AoL

3rd Age = Randland (for now)

4th Age = after Tarmon Gai'don

5th Age

6th Age

7th Age = Big Shrink

 

Portal stones could be something undiscovered, or something men will still make, or ...

I think your thinking into the whole 14billion year old age we are in a little too seriously...

 

its more likely that post war (circa 1940) is the first age, and the seventh age ended with the world-wars?

 

but of course, you could take the 3rd age to be our dark-ages. so it wouldlook like this:

 

1st Age =

2nd Age = AoL

3rd Age = Randland (for now)

4th Age = Dark Ages

5th Age = Classical

6th Age = Industrial

7th Age = Digital (us)

 

or maybe:

 

1st Age = The nano/femto tech starts simulating the OnePower and the DO is a 'ghost in the machine'

2nd Age = AoL (damn hackers)

3rd Age = Dark Ages (sealing is deletion of DO, chain-reaction that starts shutting down the nano/femto tech)

4th Age = Classical

5th Age = Colonial/Industrial

6th Age = Digital (us)

7th Age = Space Faring that leaves earth with a agrarian culture. Ends with the spacemen all gone (or leaving earth alone) after the introduction of nano/femto tech.

 

 

This is how I see it:

 

1st Age = us

2nd Age = AoL

3rd Age = Randland (for now)

4th Age = after Tarmon Gai'don

5th Age

6th Age

7th Age = Big Shrink

 

Portal stones could be something undiscovered, or something men will still make, or ...

 

See thats the thing. I cant see Rands being the one after the Age of Legends. Just cant see it. Lews Therin and the male Aes Sedai were a reset button, civilization started from scratch again. Even though it was only 3000 years ago, Ages are not defined by an ammount of time but more events that shape the world. More than one Age could have passed in 3000 years and in this example I think that was the case. At least thats how I see it anyway.

 

Our Age, for example, to me feels like the Age of Technology. How long ago did it start? Well, I'd say steam engines would have been the first step towards, but civilization as we know it now, with modern technology in every single room of every single house more or less, do you see? Age of Technology if you ask me, even though its not even been like this for a few hundred years. The Age of Legends had that AND greater affiliations with the Power than Randland has. Thats why I think ours, if not an AoL equivalent (which I dont belive anymore) would be before AoL in any given cycle, not after.

 

This is a good thread! Really gets you looking at the bigger picture, the one with both Rand and Lews Therin in it.

I think your thinking into the whole 14billion year old age we are in a little too seriously...

 

its more likely that post war (circa 1940) is the first age, and the seventh age ended with the world-wars

 

I'm a scientist. I cannot do things like this unscientifically. Which means everything we know about time has to fit in. Which means the Big Bang has to fit in.

 

And at that point we come to a situation where we have to ask ourselves why the 1st Age is called the FIRST. Something drastic must have happened between the 7th and the 1st Age. A Big Bang sounds very good to me   ;).

 

Rand's Age is the one after the AoL. That has been discussed and proven adequately on these forums (imo - you may disagree).

 

Also: Ages vary in duration. Ages can not only be shorter than 3000 years. They can also be longer. Okay, 13.7 billion years is really very much, but this is the only scheme that I see working in reality. Which it is not, or course :o It's as real as the bible :o :o :o

1st Age = The nano/femto tech starts simulating the OnePower and the DO is a 'ghost in the machine'

2nd Age = AoL (damn hackers)

3rd Age = Dark Ages (sealing is deletion of DO, chain-reaction that starts shutting down the nano/femto tech)

4th Age = Classical

5th Age = Colonial/Industrial

6th Age = Digital (us)

7th Age = Space Faring that leaves earth with a agrarian culture. Ends with the spacemen all gone (or leaving earth alone) after the introduction of nano/femto tech.

 

And every Age on a different planet? Could be interesting... The main problem is we don't come from Martians (or Venusians or anything). We come from monkeys.

Aha, yes! I just thought it... the rotations arent always the same and dont even have to be remotely similar....so the next/previous 3rd age doesnt have to have a dragon...

 

Naw, that doesnt work, isnt cyclical.

 

Anyway, no, we are all still on earth, but the Space Fare-ers leave earth, and earth returns to an agrarian culture. (after mas-teraforming).

 

Another idea is that a post-us civilisation creates/finds a different space-time that is cyclical...

 

What your saying about the big-bang does work, maybe if you shift the point of the bust→bang transition to maybe the 5th→6th age, you have to remember that the names of the ages are purely randomly assigned (probably being that a religion is created at the start of the first age, and kickstarts technological advance upto the second age plateau, with the 7th age being Evolution-of-man upto 1AD for example.

Aha, yes! I just thought it... the rotations arent always the same and dont even have to be remotely similar....so the next/previous 3rd age doesnt have to have a dragon...

 

Naw, that doesnt work, isnt cyclical.

 

Anyway, no, we are all still on earth, but the Space Fare-ers leave earth, and earth returns to an agrarian culture. (after mas-teraforming).

 

Also, your ages are too short. The last Age it the age of Legends, the Age before that is the age of Myth, and everything before that is forgotten. Read the start of whatever book. Don't have them with me now :(. The Middle Ages (3 Ages ago in your scheme) are still very well remembered. Though the rest could work till the Egyptians (pyramids = E.T., of course  :P). Just asuming the ancient Romans were as technologically advanced as we are. Too bad Charles Darwin was born :( :( :( :( :(.

 

Another idea is that a post-us civilisation creates/finds a different space-time that is cyclical...

 

Ours is. Einstein proved that.

 

What your saying about the big-bang does work, maybe if you shift the point of the bust→bang transition to maybe the 5th→6th age, you have to remember that the names of the ages are purely randomly assigned (probably being that a religion is created at the start of the first age, and kickstarts technological advance upto the second age plateau, with the 7th age being Evolution-of-man upto 1AD for example.

 

So, the re-introduction of religion would be more important than the Big Bang? Or than the re-introduction of channeling? Or than a century of continual natural disasters all over the world? Damn, how disappointed I'll be when Tarmon Gaidon turns out only being a big war :(

its not less/more important, its just labled in favour of religion...maybe you could take the whole of human (homo-erectus (?) ) existence as the first age. And I was thinking cyclical in slightly less deadly, over a shorter time span and with continuation of human existence always.

To some degree, I am undecided.

Though which age is ours could depend on which cycle it is; and/or possibly be any age, be at some transition of ages, or be part of some age.

 

This is how I see it:

 

1st Age = us

2nd Age = AoL

3rd Age = Randland (for now)

4th Age = after Tarmon Gai'don

5th Age

6th Age

7th Age = Big Shrink

 

 

 

This is the correct, except for the Big Shrink.

There can not be a Big Bang/Big Shrink inside the Wheel, as there can be neither beginnings nor endings.

 

The theory I have had for a long time about where the Big Bang, as well as a good part of evolution fits in here, is that the world was not initially created with time as a Wheel, but with linear time. Somewhere along the timeline the creator decides to set time in a loop. Perhaps he noticed the devastating presence we now know as the DO, and shifting time from linear to circular was necessary in order to imprison the DO.

The way i see it,

 

1st Age = Creation?

2nd Age = AoL (us, except instead of electricity, we use the power.)

3rd Age = Randland (for now)

4th Age = after Tarmon Gai'don

5th Age = ?

6th Age = ?

7th Age = ?

 

I dont believe that the source was 'discovered' like electricity, and that humans have always been able to channel. Of course, they weren't organised, and there would be many deaths and accidents, but eventually they organised and became the Aes Sedai.

 

You guys are forgetting that this is a  fantasy world, so the big bang didn't happen; the Creator created us. He probably made heaps of world, it was implied.

 

The DO was imprisoned, and stayed imprisoned until Lanfear accidently bored a hole into his prison. He wasn't freed; its like you put a murderer in prison, but he has a gun, and when some idiot drilled a small hole in the prison wall, he could shoot out and influence events. When LTT sealed it, it wasn't resealed flawlessly, it was like putting iron bars on the hole, the murderer can still shoot things, but to a more limited degree, and when those bars (seals) start breaking....

so, another try :D :

 

1st Age = Us. Starting in creation, ending in nuclear apocalypse (Merk and Musk aka Cold war)

2nd Age = AoL

3rd Age = Randland (for now)

4th Age = after Tarmon Gai'don

5th Age =

6th Age =

7th Age =

 

or

 

1st Age = Nuclear winter followed by 'Creation'

2nd Age = AoL

3rd Age = Randland (for now)

4th Age = after Tarmon Gai'don

5th Age =

6th Age =

7th Age = Us. Ending in nuclear apocalypse (Merk and Mosk aka Cold war)