Let us assume that Randland is a future/past incarnation of our current world. Various evidence points to this, such as a Mercedes-Benz star in the Panarch's collection [giving off an aura of greed and pride], the giants Merc and Mosk [America, Moscow] fighting with spears of fire that stretched across the sky [ICBMs], and other examples which can be found here &lt;html&gt;http://linuxmafia.com/jordan/3_sources/3.12_future-earth.html&lt;/html&gt;<br><br>This brings to mind the question "Why can't we use the one power now?" I mean we can't have just forgotten the use of it over time - something like that would not die out from neglect if only because of the usefulness of being able to manipulate matter in so many ways. <br><br>The circular nature of time in the WoT universe shows that even if our world is in no way related to the WoT there must have been a time when channeling was unknown. The new glossary in To The Blight (vol. 2 of the YA version of TEOTW) gives the following quote about Tamyrlin:<br><br>"Stories about the Ring of Tamyrlin include that it was an angreal or sa'angreal or ter'angreal of immense power. It supposedly was named after the first person to learn how to tap into the Source and channel the One Power, and in some tales, was actually made by that man or woman."<br><br>So if there was a first person to tap into the source, there must have been a time when the ability to sense the source was impossible. This would also give an explanation as to why in the AoL the Warder bond and Healing being severed was not remembered from the third age. Remember, there are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the wheel of time, so without this gap in the ability to channel there could be no "first" channeler. The answer definitely lies sometime after the Last Battle.<br><br>I can figure out five options for why there would be a gap in the ability:<br><br>1) the ability to channel died out of the human race over time, sometime in the fourth or fifth age probably and Tamyrlin was an X-Men style mutant. More followed after,<br><br>2) The whole world will become a giant stedding sometime after the Last Battle. In a stedding the source is absent as if it were never there, so people who could channel born after this would never know,<br><br>3) A giant ter'angreal like the one in Far Madding will be made which encompasses the whole world, giving the same effects as 2), and Tamyrlin will discover the source after it is destroyed,<br><br>4) The Dark One's counterstroke this time will be to sever everyone in the world so they are unprepared the next time he is freed,<br><br>5)An unforeseen side affect of mending the hole in the dark one's prison will destroy the ability to access the source.<br><br>Option 1 could happen as the amount of novices in the White Tower has been falling, and the strength of the initiates has also bee waning. This however could very easily be the lack of male channelers and what Verin describes as "culling the ability" out of the human race by gentling men who can channel.<br><br>Options 2 and 3 cannot explain why we cannot channel in space. We know that in the Age of Legends people walked among the stars, and it is hinted by various sources that at times before the age of legends this was also possible (Lenn flew to the moon in the belly of an eagle, legend fades to myth)<br><br>Option 4 does not account for the next generation. Maybe this generation will be severed, but that only applies to this generation, not channelers as yet unborn.<br><br>Option 5 is the option I personally hold to. I think that after the last battle the true source will no longer be accessible, maybe because the pattern will be mended entirely and just like with the True Power (Dark One's power), the True Source may also comes through a hole in the pattern from where it was frayed in a cataclysm or experiment sometime far in the past/future. A few hundred post-apocalyptic years after this cataclysm someone called Tamyrlin rediscovers the power, and it all goes round again, thus beginning the run up to the Age of Legends. As far as I know there are no prophesies made before the Dark One started changing the pattern about the time after the end of the Last Battle that specifically state that there would still be channelers or Aes Sedai in the Fourth Age. This would make Egwene the last Amyrlin, the Asha'man defunct, the Seanchan easily beaten without their damane, and every Aes Sedai, Asha'man, Windfinder, Wise One, Wilder, Damane and Sul'dam suicidal.<br><br>On a side note, this idea could give a theory for the "odd"ness of Aviendra's children - they may be the last 4 people able to channel in the world, through some strangeness or warping of the pattern at their birth able to channel when no-one else can. Then again, that could just be foolishness.<br><br>I'd appreciate your thoughts on this theory.