Ending Questions

[Vizier]

The thing that bugs me the most is that friggen pipe at the end. My theory is that he is somehow retaining the power of Tel'aran'rhiod in real life or something. No clue, but it hurts me to think about it.

I always assumed this was just souped up Ta'veren - if I recall correctly, Rand burned himself out saidin-wise sealing the Dark One, leaving only his (ridiculously powerful) reality warping.

Also, on the whole Taimandred theory, I would like to point out that Taim was around before Demandred had time to establish a powerbase - or even really get a feel for the Third Age... and learn the language.

Edited March 26, 2014 by Vizier

[Voscaia]

Vizier, can you give a quote about Rand burning himself out? I can't remember and always concluded the whole situation differently.

 

About Tuon in Aviendha's vision: It is still a possibility that she was not assassinated, but started Channeling one day and was collared. Remember, she was a der'sul'dam.

[Left]

I was always under the impression that Rand had reached deity level by the time he lit the pipe. I don't really get how else he switched bodies. The reality shifitng does make sense I guess, but I'm not buying into it completely.

 

I do seem to remember reading somewhere that the pipe was one of the ter-angreal that anyone can use.

 

I d worry about poor Min though. I mean that sucks to be drafted into one of the most powerful positions in the Seanchean Empire. It could mean that Tuon doesn't have to worry about assassination attempts so much though.

[AerionBFII]

Do you think it is possible to physically enter Dreamshards like it is to enter Tel'aran'rhiod?

[DefyTheOdds]

Vizier, can you give a quote about Rand burning himself out? I can't remember and always concluded the whole situation differently.

 

About Tuon in Aviendha's vision: It is still a possibility that she was not assassinated, but started Channeling one day and was collared. Remember, she was a der'sul'dam.

I don't remember the quote either but I do recall a thought at the end where he tries to reach both the true power and saidin and wasn't able to access either of them. 

 

I just kind of left it in my head that he was the creator's champion at the end so he essentially has a whole new power granted to him at the end

[AerionBFII]

I thought he just learned how to Weave reality, like he did when fighting the Dark One.

[happyman]

The best description I've heard of his new power is:  he can see the matrix now.

 

I haven't felt the need to take it any further than that.

[Nyali]

My theory on the pipe and on Nakomi is that Nakomi was the last "creator" before Rand, from the last revolution of the Wheel of Time. She's checking in on the most important event in a Wheel revolution and seeing how the next person does it. She appears in Aiel Wise One garb because she's been watching the world all this time and she's developed a fondness for the Aiel and how they do things. Maybe it reminds her of her strongest followers back when she was in Rand's position? After all, if Rand had been born a woman, instead of becoming an Aiel Clan Chief, he(/she) would have become an Aiel Wise One. (Sure, the story doesn't work with just that genderswap, but if you change a bunch of other things too, it could, and we know each Revolution of the Wheel is slightly different because of free will.)

 

So, my theory is that Rand has special powers now because he IS the Creator. Each Revolution of the Wheel, one human gains full control of the Pattern, sees the entirety of history by reading it, decides not to destroy the Dark One because taking the most fundamental choice away from humanity takes all choice away from humanity and ends the concept of free will, and reforges the Dark One's prison. Then, because he or she had touched the Pattern and shaped it, he or she can continue to reshape it however he or she wishes. Pattern weaving, so to speak.

 

 

The other really cool theory is that Rand, by touching the Pattern, realizes that the world really is just a dream of the Creator, like the Aiel keep saying. The world exists within a meta-tel'aran'rhiod, so he can shape it as if he's in tel'aran'rhiod. In other words, he's "seen the matrix."

 

 

As for the future, we actually know quite a lot about it from prophecies, visions, and viewings. We know that the Aiel are destroyed, leaving only a remnant of a remnant. In other words, the Aiel become something different (the enforcers of the Dragon's Peace), making them no longer Aiel, and the only remaining Aiel (the Shaido, who are a remnant (the relatively few who survived the massacre at Dumai's Wells and the Battle of Malden) of a remnant (the one remaining clan when once there were twelve)) are hunted to extinction the way Aviendha sees in her dream. The rest of the Aiel are spared by being "destroyed" and made into something new at her insistence.

 

Nikola's foretelling ("The lion sword, the dedicated spear, she who sees beyond. Three on the boat, and he who is dead yet lives. The great battle done, but the world not done with battle. The land divided by the Return, and the Guardians balance the Servants. The future teeters on the edge of a blade.") tells us that Rand does wind up getting a boat and sailing around like he mused about doing, and his lovers visit him there. We can infer that the Asha'man rise to power to rival the Aes Sedai, and the Seanchan continue to be a point of consternation for everyone. However, we also know from Aviendha's vision that the Seanchan do hold to the Dragon's Peace, and without the Aiel to provoke war, we can assume that the Peace continues to hold instead of being broken by Aviendha's granddaughter's lies.

 

We can trust some of Rand's projection of what the future might be like since he was weaving fairly accurate projections of the future using the entirety of the Pattern as a pattern. So, it's very likely that the Two Rivers is eventually ruled by Perrin and Faile's daughter, though we do know that they become the rulers of Saldea. It can be inferred that Tam al'Thor acts as steward at first, but since he doesn't have any heirs, one of Perrin and Faile's children becomes "next in line" for the throne, so to speak.

 

We know that, eventually, there are male Aes Sedai again, but only very far into the future, possibly after the Asha'man collapse for whatever reason. We know that the Asha'man do cease to exist eventually because there was nothing similar at the end of the last Age of Legends (and I think there's a WoB stating this too, along with the fact that they are not male Aes Sedai, but male Aes Sedai do become a thing again at some point in the distant future).

 

We know that the Sea Folk eventually appoint that one Sailmistress as the Mistress of the Ships. We know that Cadsuane becomes the new Amrylin. We can guess that, eventually, someone manages to convince Rodel Ituralde to become King of Arad Doman. We know that Birgitte is reborn and is the right age to fall in love with Gaidal Cain again. We know that Min becomes Fortuona's Truthspeaker and therefore joins the Mat and Tuon adventures in Seanchan (along with, one can assume Furyk Karede as her captain of the guard). We know that Perrin and Faile rule Saldea. We know that Gregorin goes back to ruling Illian. We know that Loial finishes and publishes his book, "The Dragon Reborn" (we get a quote from it at the start of aMoL). We know that fighting continues in Shara. We know that Lan and Nyneave recreate Malkier. We know that technology continues to advance toward the next Age of Legends.

 

We can take some things from Aviendha's vision that are likely unchanged by the Aiel's change in purpose. The "Pact of the Griffin" and the "Court of the Sun" are two different alliances and Andor is a member of both. From the names, we can try to figure out what these alliances are. A "griffin" is a creature that's part eagle, part lion, so the "Pact of the Griffin" has to be Andor, the Two Rivers, and the nations tied to the Two Rivers - Ghealdan, Saldea, and maybe Mayene. The "Court of the Sun" must include Cairhien of course, showing that Cairhien and Andor remain very close into the foreseeable future. I honestly have no idea what other nations are in the Court of the Sun - Aviendha's vision implies more than just Cairhien, but it might have just been Cairhien. However, King Darlin of Tear marries Caraline Damodred, giving Tear a tie to Cairhien, so maybe the Court of the Sun is Andor, Cairhien, and Tear.

 

The Dragon's Peace prevents nations from merging together, so the nations that become extremely close by the start of Tarmon Gaidon have to use alliances like these to formalize their closeness.

 

We know that the Seanchan do not stop using the damane, and when Artur Hawkwing spoke with Fortuona, he was like, "Captive Aes Sedai? Awesome! I wish I thought of that!" With Egwene dead, it's unlikely there's anyone strong enough to change that (Cadsuane wishes she was as strong as Egwene <.<), and Aviendha's vision showed that they were still a thing, but one can assume the rules Rand wrote into the Dragon's Peace stand (no damane taken from any land except Seanchan). The Seanchan do not topple the White Tower like they did in Aviendha's vision because that only happened because Aviendha's granddaughter broke the Dragon's Peace.

 

We know that the Aes Sedai, the Wise Ones (of the former Aiel enforcers, not the Shaido Aiel), and the Windfinders cross-train their apprentices, tying the three organizations together and making the future generations of each have the cunning and knowledge of the Aes Sedai, the strength and discipline of the Windfinders, and the determination and honor of the Wise Ones. We know that all channelers of any skill will be accepted into their collective ranks (the Windfinders and Wise Ones already took everyone of all skill levels, and Egwene changes the Aes Sedai to do so as well). We know that Aes Sedai will start retiring into the Kin where precedence is determined by age rather than strength. When they retire, they will remove the Three Oaths, which will remove the Binder's adverse affects on their longevity and double their natural lifespans. We know that the Red Ajah becomes the Ajah that works closely with the Asha'man, and we can guess that the new Red Sitters include Pevara and Rubinda. Pevara, obviously, will be marrying Androl and help tie the Asha'man and the Red Ajah together.

 

I have a theory that the Warders become the next Cycle's "Da'shain Aiel" once the world progresses to the point of the Age of Legends where there is no war and nearly no crime, but there's no proof of that. But, with the Warder "glass ceiling" broken by Birgitte, and with all those "Maidens of the Sword" from Cairhien and Tear, I think it's safe to assume that women start becoming Warders in the near future.

 

 

 

So, at first, I really found the ending unsatisfying with how little it said about the future of the world. I wanted Tarmon Gaidon to end early in Book 14, making the rest of the book into a story of what comes after the Dark One is dealt with and showing us how the future will unfold for all the characters. When that didn't happen, it made me really sad (almost as sad as I was that Bela died and did not get called back by the Horn of Valere. Hey, wolves can be Heroes of the Horn, why can't the best horse ever?? What makes the original Jeade'en so special that he comes back with Jain Farstrider, but Bela doesn't come back to kick Trolloc butt with her ghostly hooves and become Olver's steed as long as the Heroes are around? But I digress).

 

But, then I thought about all the information we've been given about the future from the various visions and such, and realized that we know nearly everything about how things will unfold. There are a bunch of specifics we don't know that I would love to have known, true, but we do get a ton of it, as shown above. I'd love soooo much though to have seen even just a single scene with the former Aiel in their new role as enforcers of the Dragon's Peace, with some cool new Old Tongue name to describe them in their new capacity. But, really, I feel like the ending is pretty solid as is. Not the best ending of a story ever, but after thinking about it for a while, there aren't THAT many unanswered questions that you can't at least think up a plausible theory for.

 

From what I recall of what Brandon Sanderson said about Robert Jordan's notes, Jordan didn't want to tell his fans exactly what the future held. He wanted his fans to decide for themselves how they feel the future would go, as far as details are concerned. He wanted to leave things fairly open post-Tarmon Gaidon. I don't like that at all. I feel like it's a cop-out to say "and then the audience can decide the rest of the story for themselves." But, it's what he wanted, and that's what Brandon wrote from his notes. His notes, by the way, specifically said not to explain anything at all about Nakomi or the lighting of the pipe, just include those scenes verbatim as he had already written them. He didn't want people to know for sure what the "true" answer was to either of those mysteries. So, we can theorize and guess, but the actual, true answer is that those things happened because Robert Jordan wanted his story to end with at least some specific unanswered questions that can never be answered.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Nyali