"Robert Jordan - The Shaping of a World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jordan Robert)

The Shaping of a World
The World of the Wheel of Time
By Robert Jordan




Imagine that time is a vast wheel, with ages that come and go, only to come again as the wheel
turns endlessly. Look far enough into the future along the wheel and you can see the past. Look
far enough into the past and you can see the future. The world of The Wheel of Time -- the Age of
The Wheel of Time -- exists in that distant past that is also the distant future. We are the source
of many of that AgeтАЩs myths and legends, and they are the source of many of ours. But our
legends do not record the actual facts of that Age. What really happened has been altered over
time. Events have become twisted by the years. What one person did has been split among
many. What many people did has been compressed and given to one. Almost everything that
could be changed has been changed. But a core remains. You are about to delve into that core
and beyond -- to the truth. You are about to experience the world that gave birth to Arthur and
Thor and Coyote and a hundred more.

Imagine that you were born in that world. You do not know that you live in the breeding ground of
legends. Very likely, you do not know how your world came to be as it is, and, if you know a little
of it, almost certainly what you "know" is untrue -- a fable spun by the years. The truth...? Yes, the
truth. Well.

Three thousand years ago and more, civilization covered the Earth. Technology and science
based on tapping into the power that drove the universe and turned the Wheel of Time, the One
Power, had conquered disease and poverty. Ordinary people could expect to live as much as
three hundred years. They traveled in vehicles driven by the One Power and sailed the seas and
perhaps even to other planets in vessels driven by the Power. Men and women who could tap
directly into the Power and use it -- channel it -- by their will and ability created that very science
and technology. These men and women are called Aes Sedai. In the Old Tongue, that means
Servants of All, or Those Who Serve All. You call this time the Age of Legends when you think of
it at all. It was a time of great wonders or marvels. Unless you are a scholar, you may not really
believe in it all. There are stories that are meant only for children, after all.

The One Power had, and has, two parts, saidin, the male half, and saidar, the female half. By a
complex process called Linking, men or women working together could channel either saidin and
saidar, or both, but without the link of a Circle, only men could touch saidin, and only women
could touch saidar. Some dreamed of finding a source of power that men and women alike could
use, but in the attempt they drilled into the prison that held ShaiтАЩtan, the embodiment of evil. The
Creator shaped this prison at the moment of Creation to seal ShaiтАЩtan away from the world of
humankind. The opening was only a small hole, but it allowed ShaiтАЩtan to touch the world with a
finger -- a finger of evil that touched everything, everywhere. Humanity quickly learned to call
ShaiтАЩtan by other names, such as the Dark One or the Lord of the Grave or others, for to name
him was to call his attention. Those who gained the Dark OneтАЩs attention often prayed for death.
With evil caressing the world and seeping into every crack and crevice, civilization began to break
down. Order shattered into chaos. Streets that had been safe to walk became havens of crime
and violence. A world where only scholars knew a word for war discovered war. The War of the
Power. The War of the Shadow. A war that covered the entire world and that was fought with
weapons of immense destruction. A war that saw the creation of Trollocs, which are monstrous,