Today, we are going to discuss an important event known as the Drilling of the Bore
as well as a hundred year period referred to as the Collapse. First, let’s set it up
with some high-level definitions. The Wheel of Time is time itself,
and the Wheel has seven spokes which define the seven different ages. Each age has a Pattern.
The only known forces outside of the Wheel and the Pattern are the Creator, who shaped the Wheel, the
One Power that drives it, and the Dark One, who was imprisoned outside the pattern by the Creator
at the moment of creation. It is believed that if the Dark One escapes his prison, he has the
ability to remake the Wheel and all of creation in his own dark image. Thus each person, especially
each of those born ta’veren, must struggle to achieve his or her own best destiny to assure
the balance and continuation of the Great Pattern. So that’s the setup. Now let’s discuss the
Drilling of the Bore, which happened in the Second Age.
The current story takes place in the Third Age. The Third Age began around 3,000 years ago.
Before that was the Second Age. During the Second Age, men and women wielded the One Power
side by side with no fear of any taint on saidin. At this time there were no wars – even the word
for war was lost, known only to scholars. All manner of wonders were commonplace.
That is why the Second Age is now known as the Age of Legends. During the Age of Legends,
no one knew of the Dark One or felt his touch. Well, not until the end of the Age of Legends.
There was a great research college called Collam Daan, noted for its blue and silver
domes. It was the foremost center for research and development. A great white sphere named
the Sharom floated above the college. One of the scientists there was a man
named Beidomon. He was a genius. And one of his goals was to find a sustainable energy for all.
Another researcher there was a woman named Mierin Eronaile. Later, she took on the name
“Lanfear.” But we are getting ahead of ourselves. The One Power has limitations. Only men can use
saidin. And only women can use Saidar. So researchers such as
Beidomon and Mierin dreamed of a source of power that would bypass those limitations.
They and a team of researchers discovered a thin place in the Pattern that covered a power that was
different than the One Power. This new energy did not appear to follow the conventional restrictions
of the Power, in that it gave indications of being usably by men and women equally.
This discovery must have been very exciting for them. Unfortunately, they were not able
to access it by means used for the One Power. So instead, they used the One Power to bore a
small hole in the Pattern to tap into the new power. And that proved to be a big mistake.
An explosion shattered the floating Sharom at the research college and created ripples
in the fabric of reality as shock waves from the breach shook the Pattern. It was not an
indivisible source of the One Power that the team had discovered … it was the Dark One’s prison. So
the emanations that Mierin and the others had senses with such hope, were his dark energies.
The world was peaceful during the Age of Legends. As we said earlier, at this time there were no
wars – even the word for war was lost. But the Bore changed everything. That leads us into the
final section of this video. The Collapse. The bore was not large enough to allow the
Dark One to escape, but it was large enough to allow him to touch the world.
His touch subtly altered everything that came within its influence. Emotions such as envy,
greed, and anger. And activities such as thievery, assault, murder, and even war.
The world was not prepared to deal with these changes. And more importantly,
most people didn’t know why things were changing. Some people did begin to suspect why,
and eventually, they found out about the Bore. But unfortunately, most of the people
who came to know the truth decided to join the Dark One for promises of personal gain.
The Dark One offered favor and status above what these people could have otherwise achieved. Those
who served him were given promises of immortality if the Dark One was freed. So normal people joined
the Dark One. But even some Aes Sedai joined the Dark One. They are known as “Dreadlords.”
During this time, brutal sports came briefly into vogue. One example are duels that involved the
use of left-hand and right-hand daggers called osan’gar and aran’gar. And those daggers were
tipped with a slow poison. Fun fact, much later in the story, two of the Forsaken
were given the names Osan’gar and Aran’gar. They were figurative daggers of the Dark One.
The period of around one hundred years after the drilling of the Bore is known
as the Collapse. But the Collapse was not the end for there are neither beginnings nor endings to
the turning of the wheel of time. But it was a beginning. Much more to come in future videos.