Who were the first channelers, and how did they learn? By trial and error? Are there any Ages where channeling does not exist?
The first people to discover the ability to channel learned through trial and error, with fairly high casualty rates until they learned enough not to kill themselves accidentally. Their appearance marked the beginning of the previous Age to that of the books, or at least the end of the Age before that one.
Yes, as I have set things up, there are Ages when no one has any idea of how to channel or even that the One Power exists. Our own, for one. (The Wheel of Time turns.)
RJ hints in the glossary of the split version of The Eye of the World that Tamyrlin was the name of the person who discovered the One Power at the dawn of the Age of Legends.
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