Hey all, first-time theorist here with something I don't think I've seen here before except mentioned in passing in a few comments. But there hasn't been any actual theory that I've seen. <br/><br/> At any rate, there's a lot of speculation about Rand's prophesised death and rebirth. I've seen suggestions of balefire, Nynaeve healing his death, Rand faking his death, and Logan's glory all tied into it. However, I've never read anything about anyone considering, possibly, that Rand's rebirth will come through the Horn of Valere. <br/><br/> <span style="font-size:20"><strong>Why It Can Be the Horn</strong></span> <br/><br/> In tGH, while it's not said outright, Hawkwing strongly implies that Rand/The Dragon is bound to the horn: <br/><br/> <blockquote>It takes more than bravery to bind a man to the Horn." Artur Hawkwing's voice was deep and carrying, a voice used to command. "Or a woman," Birgitte replied sharply. "Or a woman," Hawkwing agreed. "Only a few are bound to the Wheel, spun out again and again to work the will of the Wheel in the Pattern of Ages. You could tell him, Lews Therin, could you but remember when you wore flesh." He was looking at Rand. [The Grave is No Bar to My Call]</blockquote> <br/><br/> As we can see here, being bound to the Wheel (as the Dragon is) and being bound to the Horn seem to be the same thing, more or less, based on the words Hawkwing uses. <br/><br/> My next case for the Horn being used is purely speculative, but my thought is simply...the Horn hasn't been mentioned all that much. Of course because it's to be used only at TG, but it still has me wondering. Jordan put the Horn into hiding and out of our minds very early on in the series. Sure, it's been mentioned maybe once or twice (I remember Tuon asking Mat about the Horn, but nothing really came of it). And so we don't really consider the possible ramifications of it because we haven't had good reason to even think about it since the Shadow Rising. Yes, the Horn will call forth dead heroes to fight at TG, but I think it has to be much more than that. The Lightside army is going to have all sorts of immensely powerful channelers, not to mention soldiers and all sorts of machines and contraptions between Aludra's dragons and Rand's schools. Compared to that, a few dead heroes coming back to fight...I shouldn't say it's not impressive, but I don't see it swaying the tides of a battle as presumably massive as TG. Yes, the heroes held off the Seanchan, but just about any group of high-end channelers these days could do the same thing more or less. <br/><br/> So I think the Horn simply has to have something more to it. And Rand's rebirth is it. In order to be called back by the Horn (live again), he must die first. But more on that in the next section. <br/><br/> <span style="font-size:20"><strong>How will it Work?</strong></span> <br/><br/> Well, first of all, it should be noted that in The Shadow Rising, Rand goes into the twisted doorframe ter'angreal to get answers to three questions. Most importantly (at least for this theory) is the question of how to win the Last Battle and survive, to which the answer was, "To live, you must die." <br/><br/> Later, in tFoH, we have Birgitte, a dead hero(ine) bound to the Horn pulled OUT of the Wheel and forced to life by Moghedien. <br/><br/> The same could just as easily be done to Rand. Nynaeve has seen Moghedien do it. She knows it is possible, if not exactly how, but with all the other previously lost Talents floating around, I wouldn't be surprised if someone among Rand's entourage could puzzle it out. <br/><br/> Next, we have Egwene's dream of Rand on a boat surrounded by three women - most likely his girls. As we see with Birgitte, when a person is ripped out of the Wheel, they are completely comatose. So the three girls take Rand off of the battlefield, skimming to somewhere safe (they can't Travel because they need to learn the location, and I doubt there'd be time to learn a place like Shayol Ghul, especially during TG), so skimming is the solution and the boat is the platform. <br/><br/> So now we have Rand comatose and the three girls around him. And what saved Birgitte? Why, bonding her as a Warder. And who know's about this? Elayne! I'm sure death will undo the bonds, so Rand will need to be rebonded. So then Rand lives. <br/><br/> As for how the rest turns out, I can't really say, but I'm not quite done yet. <br/><br/> <span style="font-size:20"><strong>Why It Won't be Balefire</strong></span> <br/><br/> Again, speculation here, but we've seen restoring people to life with balefire done before in tFoH with Aviendha, Mat, and Asmodean. I don't think Jordan would use the same trick twice. Not to mention that in the Age of Legends, not even darkfriends and the Forsaken used balefire because of the ramifications on the Pattern. We've been told repeatedly that balefire is bad for the Pattern and so I don't think Jordan (or Sanderson) would write away Rand's death and rebirth with such a dangerous and frowned upon tool as the catalyst. Furthermore, I think the dangers of using balefire either specifically on Rand or the person or thing that kills him would be especially disruptive of the pattern because of Rand's immensely strong ta'veren-ness as well as him being the Dragon Reborn. If all of the threads that swirled around him were suddenly burned away or tampered with, it could very well lead to the collapse of the Pattern, or at least a very serious backlash. And that's just helping the Dark One. <br/><br/> So with this in mind, I REALLY don't think balefire will be the solution.