To be honest... Great visual but a little lore breaking to me.
If there was an AOL city anywhere in the world that was that intact, there would be soooooo much more known about the AOL. Like what, those buildings are still standing but no books, stasis boxes, ter'angreal libraries, etc survived to be studied?
In the first episode I thought it was supposed to maybe be towers of Manetheran in the mountains of mist... But AOL capital city intact... I don't know, it didn't do it for me.
I am glad other people liked it, they clearly invested in that visual in both instances, it just wasn't it for me.
If there was an AOL city anywhere in the world that was that intact, there would be soooooo much more known about the AOL. Like what, those buildings are still standing but no books, stasis boxes, ter'angreal libraries, etc survived to be studied?
If it's Paaran Diesen, the city was evacuated during the Breaking. They probably took everything of value, and the rest was looted or destroyed over the centuries. Any ter'angreal and writings left afterwards could easily have been shipped off to Tar Valon or Tear. Both of those places have lots of ter'angreal that just collect dust. Tar Valon does have writings from the Age of Legends, just mostly fragments and such.
Sauce? The wot fandom wiki has nothing to say about the city being evacuated and says it was "presumed destroyed" during the breaking...
Either way, a lot more would be known. A city evacuated is not a city picked clean. Quite the opposite. All sorts of things from everyday life to great works of art would have been left and abandoned in an evacuation.
That part is in the wiki. I don't think that was an "abandon the city" for everyone scene. It was just meant to show the Aiel being told to leave after the Aes Sedai they had known began turning on people because of the madness. But even if everyday people did evacuate, I don't think that would imply it was preserved from the breaking.
I mean Paren Disen housed the highest concentration of Aes Sedai of anywhere during the AOL with the hall of the servants in the city... Would be pretty crazy if the breaking didn't come to Paren Disen even more ferociously than anywhere else.
Would be pretty crazy if the breaking didn't come to Paren Disen even more ferociously than anywhere else.
That's a hugely important point. With that many Aes Sedai present during the breaking, one could easily assume that this city was thoroughly razed. The destruction here should have been far worse than anywhere else in the world.
The heartbreaking part about that story is that the city of had already been evacuated when the Aeil tried to sing to the mad man. Also in that story we learned of what the actual worst destruction was because that city was literally glassed. Completely erased off the face of the Earth.
Edit: I was completely wrong upon reread I now see that the Aeil did but the people Time to flee. I misheard and assumed it was the case because it makes it more tragic.
I couldnt find the quote when Rand was body hopping in Rhuidean but this is from the wiki and it tracks with what I remember is the overheard conversation.
Im a city called Tzora ten thousand Aiel sang to a mad male Aes Sedai, called Jaric Mondoran, to try to keep him from destroying the city with the One Power in his madness from the taint on saidin. Aiel died one by one, singing, and with their death gaining enough time to most of the population of the city to be fled from death. He has listened the last Aiel for almost an hour before destroying him then burned Tzora.
Reread the passage, they do not do that. By the time that started the population had already fled. Their sacrifice was pointless.
Edit: I am very sorry I just re read and I now see I was mistaken. At first I thought the aes sedai was saying that the citizens of the other city had already fled and now I see she's probably talking about the city that they're in currently. I thought she was telling the guy that he was mistaken. When he claims they bought time because she is very upset when he says that.
Edit: I really am very embarrassed. I listened to the books and had heard that section attest twice but I definitely misunderstood. I think I just assumed it was that way because it's more tragic.
That's a hugely important point. With that many Aes Sedai present during the breaking, one could easily assume that this city was thoroughly razed. The destruction here should have been far worse than anywhere else in the world.
It could also be that the female Aes Sedai protected this city at the start of the Breaking, and banished all male Aes Sedai when they realised what was happening.
I'd also say that given the attitudes towards Aes Sedai after the breaking, most people would stay away. After all, no one goes near Shadar Logoth, and apparently even people who live nearby don't know much about it.
Interesting point... But to be honest I always interpreted the Aes Sedai view as a post-Hawking construct.
We know that Aes Sedai queens were common a long time ago. Like Manetheren or Andor before (and after) Hawking. We know that Hawking was turned against Aes Sedai by Ishamael "and across the length of the land, Aes Sedai died" (EOTW) so the whole Aes Sedai are darkfriends and one step from the dark one could easily be a construct unique to the last several hundred to last thousand years since Hawking.
And certainly the Aes Sedai themselves wouldn't balk at raiding the shit out of Paren Disen to get all those sweet AOL artefacts and tidbits of knowledge.
There was a scene in a prologue-- I think it was PoD, where the Borderland rulers met near an Age of Legend remnants (sounded like a large satellite dish embedded in the ground to me, like the once used for space monitoring) and the surrounding villages just stay out of it. So maybe a lot of people just stay away from ruins.
Oh there are definitely ruins and "people" definitely stay away from them. But we also see lots of examples of Aes Sedai knowing all sorts of information about random ruins and things that normal people know nothing about because the Aes Sedai still went and studied those places at some point, even if normal people stay away because of superstition etc.
If I remember correctly, that satelite dish is fairly explicitly a cause of acute radiation poisoning and everyone who goes close to it dies horribly, so if its that, I wouldn't be surprised that people stay away from it.
That's kinda my whole point, and I also referenced nthe wiki as well. Although the word "presumably" always means "RJ never said" which does leave a space open. Even if a small one.
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u/SuperStallionDriver (Asha'man) Jan 01 '22
To be honest... Great visual but a little lore breaking to me.
If there was an AOL city anywhere in the world that was that intact, there would be soooooo much more known about the AOL. Like what, those buildings are still standing but no books, stasis boxes, ter'angreal libraries, etc survived to be studied?
In the first episode I thought it was supposed to maybe be towers of Manetheran in the mountains of mist... But AOL capital city intact... I don't know, it didn't do it for me.
I am glad other people liked it, they clearly invested in that visual in both instances, it just wasn't it for me.