The Great Pattern

VIDEO COMING SOON!

This WOT 101 video will make more sense if you first view the video about the Wheel of Time. Spoilers for the second part of this video are moderate instead of very light because of the discussion of a topic that may have significance to the story later. No plot related details will be described, but the nature of these topics may be considered a bit more spoilery to some than past WOT 101 videos. The Spoiler meter will shift from very light to moderate at that point in the video.

If each spoke of the Wheel of Time represents an Age of time passing, the Great Pattern that is woven by the Wheel is the literal reality of those Ages. According to the The Eye of the World glossary “The Wheel of Time weaves the Patterns of the Ages into the Great Pattern, which is the whole of existence and reality, past, present and future. Also known as the Lace of Ages .”

Think of the Wheel of Time as a cosmic scale loom that weaves a universe-sized tapestry, following pre-programmed blueprints or a Pattern using trillions of individual threads. The threads in the Pattern are the lives of individuals 7,10, every object and creature in existence 7,10,11,33, and the events that transpire throughout the Ages.10,12 This Pattern that is spun out by the Wheel of Time is reality itself and is called The Great Pattern, the Age Lace, or the Lace of Ages.7,10,13

The Creator is said to have put the Wheel of Time in place. It is likely that the Creator also pre-determined the Pattern that the Wheel follows in order to make history repeat.

So long as the Wheel keeps turning, the Pattern continues to weave, the Ages repeat, and people continue to reincarnate and live and relive their lives throughout the Ages.

The Dark One is an entity that seeks to either destroy the Wheel of Time and all of reality, or, to rebuild the Pattern in its own image. If the Pattern were to unravel or if the Wheel of Time was destroyed, existence as we know it would cease.

The Pattern is neither Good nor Evil, but seeks to keep balance and to continue to exist.

You may be wondering, if the whole of existence is pre-determined by the Wheel of Time or possibly by the Creator, do people within the world have freedom to choose? Is there true free will and agency within the world of the Wheel of Time? The answer to this question is… it’s complicated.

The glossary also says: “The Pattern of an Age is slightly different each time an Age comes, and each time it is subject to greater change, but each time it is the same Age.”

This implies that within the mechanism of the Wheel and the Pattern, there is room for change and growth. When asked if the Pattern is exactly the same each time an Age rolls around, Robert Jordan said, “When seen from a distance, each Third Age (to make it easy to track) has exactly the same pattern as the previous Third Age. However, when seen up close, there are differences. Threads are different, different nations exist, geography is different, different personalities rise to prominence. These changes, while minute in the grand scale of the Pattern, affect the Pattern enough so that while two iterations of an Age are almost the same, the first “Third Age” may be wildly different from the hundredth “Third Age.”

So, the Pattern of an Age does account for variation and change, even allowing some free will and agency but not to an extreme amount. Because of this, sometimes things do not go according to plan and course correction is required. The Wheel of Time (or possibly the Creator) set up a corrective mechanism called ta’veren for this eventuality. If the Pattern is a tapestry that is veering off course, a great change may be needed to fix it. A new smaller Pattern or Web can be added to the Pattern of an Age to cause this change. This is referred to as the “Web of Destiny.”

The glossary says: “Web of Destiny: A great change in the Pattern of an Age, centered around one or more people who are ta'veren.”

The glossary also says this: “ta'veren (tah-VEER-ehn): A person around whom the Wheel of Time weaves all surrounding life-threads, perhaps all life-threads, to form a Web of Destiny.”

In other words, when the Pattern needs certain things to happen or change, special people called ta’veren are born. These ta’veren are like anchor point threads in the Pattern and have the ability to influence the world and the people around them. They can literally change and shape the Web of Destiny, which keeps the Pattern of an Age on course and keeps the Great Pattern of all of the Ages running smoothly. These ta’veren often have less freedom of choice, as they are tools of the Pattern.

Deus ex machina is a term for a common trope in stories that is, quote “an unexpected power or event saving a seemingly hopeless situation, especially as a contrived plot device in a play or novel.”

Ta’veren is a brilliantly creative in-world mechanism developed by Robert Jordan that helps to explain WHY things happen the way they do in the story to some of the characters. It’s essentially an explanation for deus ex machina within the Wheel of Time story, without making events feel contrived or coincidental.

For a much deeper but still spoiler-light look at several topics from this video, please watch my deep dive video all about the Wheel of Time and the Great Pattern, or my Wheel of Timelines series. And, as always for more information about this and other spoiler-free Wheel of Time topics, please consider subscribing and check out the related videos and topics here and in the description.