Also, there’s another (non-FAQ-related) note concerning the pre-Bore Age of Legends…
RJ had mentioned (in response to another question) that what the characters believe does not make it so (Moiraine’s statements were used as an example), so I asked whether the pre-Bore Age of Legends was the Utopia that the characters believed it to be. His reply is paraphrased below:
Compared to their current world, it certainly would be a utopia. However, that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t perfect. Of course, outbreaks of diseases were kept to a minimum, but it and other disasters of that ilk still occurred. Evil still existed, as well.
The Forsaken, for example, weren’t exactly a stellar bunch to begin with. Semirhage, for example, was a sadist. (I’ll skip his description of what a sadist is.) She went into her profession (the equivalent of a surgeon) because it provided an outlet for her sadism. (He then cited some studies that showed that there were more people with sadist tendencies in the medical profession, and surgeons in particular, to support his point.) Aginor (whom he said after some prompting had several elements of the classic mad scientist type) was a biological scientist who never considered the consequences of his actions. Aginor would say, “I wonder what would happen if I took the ebola virus and altered it to be an airborne virus.” He’d go ahead and do just that, all without realizing he’d be creating a potentially unstoppable plague. All Aginor would reply to that was, “Hmm. Interesting.” (Jordan then mentioned Aginor’s creation of the Trollocs, their defects, “It was strong, big, tough to kill, and…… stupid,” and that it was the birth of the first Myrddraal that saved the Trollocs from being a complete failure.)
Even back in the Age of Legends, regular, ordinary folks could do some pretty nasty things. He then cited a study about a small town of ordinary Germans in WWII who did some pretty horrific things (I believe he was referring to the book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners”).
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