my problem with SRD's time paradox

[wayfriend]

Our timeline has been diverted!

dlbpharmd - a.k.a. the Threadomach.

[Fist and Faith]

[Ur Dead]

Has anybody made a list of inconsistancies between these last two books where Linden has traveled back in time (just twice for now) and what was explained in the first two chronicles?

Like if the Staff wasn't yanked what would have happened to the holders of the staff?
Any history about what happened to Rivenrock and Melenkurion Skyweir?

Has some of the mystical legend been damaged about Berek? Or has Berek been defined about his beginnings.

[Nav]

One thing I couldn't wrap my head around was whether Linden even did the right thing by bringing the Staff back with her in the first place. The way I see it, the only reason Anele even lost the Staff was because Linden effectively stole it from him. If she found him in the past and gave it back to him (and kicked his ass for leaving it on its own), she would change the future, but surely for the better?

I should mention that it's been three years since I read Runes so I might've forgotten some of the details.

[Fist and Faith]

You certainly might be right, nav.

[I'm Murrin]

Anele lost the staff because he was carried 3000 years into his future, and in that time the Waynhim had taken it (to keep it safe now that Anele wasn't around to do so) and then all died out themselves. When Linden went back, it was to a time after Anele had been lost in the caesure, and after the Staff had been moved by the Waynhim.
When in Runes Anele talks about going back to the cave and finding the Staff gone, he failed to realise that he had time-travelled, so couldn't understand what had happened.

[Fist and Faith]

Ah, yes, it's all coming back to me now.

[MsMary]

One thing I couldn't wrap my head around was whether Linden even did the right thing by bringing the Staff back with her in the first place. The way I see it, the only reason Anele even lost the Staff was because Linden effectively stole it from him. If she found him in the past and gave it back to him (and kicked his ass for leaving it on its own), she would change the future, but surely for the better?

I should mention that it's been three years since I read Runes so I might've forgotten some of the details.

The problem I have with that is that it would have definitely been tampering with the past. What she did didn't really tamper with the past, because the Waynhim just kept the Staff in a safe place and it was not used until Linden came and took it back to the "present" in which the book is set.

[Ur Dead]

I think there was a discussion in the Runes section all about that. Whatever happened to that thread I don't know.

[wayfriend]

The thing that we sort of got from Runes, and that was made very palpable in FR, is that close counts.

Time is like a river. A small paradox is like a rock splashing in the river. The ripples spread, but are sweaped away, and downstream you can't tell that it ever happened. A big paradox is like a boulder that drops down and diverts the river into a new course. Those are the ones that can destroy. Because anyone downstream, no matter how far, ends up high and dry.

So ... the fact that there was one timeline that the Staff stayed lost in a cave for 3,500 years, and then Linden changed it to a timeline where the Staff hopped over those years, creates a little ripple problem. It has no effect on those 3,500 years.

So it's not that she didn't tamper with the past. It's that she did, but it was a change that the Arch of Time was able to easily heal over and deal with.

[MsMary]

That makes sense, WF.

[Seppi2112]

I think of it like an individual vs aggregate situation... changing history for one person/object is not a huge deal to the crux of time, but doing BIG things (killing Berek for instance) would affect lots of people/things and would be destructive to time.

[Nav]

Ah yes, I'd forgotten Anele went through a caesure as well. I got it into my head that Anele just went out for a walk one day, Linden stole the staff while he was gone and he spent the next 2800 years looking for it!

[Ur Dead]

Well Nav, that is totally understandable..

Damm that Linden!! Linden Staffstealer!
And poor old Anele.. I would go crazy too if I had to wait 2800+ years waiting for my staff to come back!

[Relayer]

Actually, that would be Waynhim Staffstealer

[earthbrah]

All this talk about potential future paradoxes being created by time traveling into the past makes me think that this is a reason why the author won't use TC as a POV character for the remainder of the series.

SRD has stated that TC knows too much (possibly of the future and its potential paradoxes caused by the caesures and their innate power to erode the Arch...), and as such would not work as the POV. The internal consistency of the story (and its timeline) would get even more convoluted (screwed up?) than it already is.

It also makes me wonder how much of the Land's future TC is aware of, and what implications that could have for his being reincarnated. Might give a deeper meaning to his "What have you done?" statement.

Maybe that's the point of his dismay at Linden's actions. As Timewarden, he was in a more direct position to fulfill the Theomach's agenda of keeping paradoxes (such as you're discussing) from crushing and destroying the Arch. And now...he's mortal again, can't "see" what the actions/implications of power use (even in a present when no time traveling is taking place) are, and thus can't "do" anything about it.

"SRD, what have you done???"

[Seppi2112]

I kind of wonder sometimes if by re-incorporating TC, Linden just CREATED the Theomach... I still think he's TC, or at least connected to him somehow.

[amanibhavam]

Well Nav, that is totally understandable..

Damm that Linden!! Linden Staffstealer!
And poor old Anele.. I would go crazy too if I had to wait 2800+ years waiting for my staff to come back!

or until someone invents Viagra

[ninjaboy]

I don't believe that in this book 'the future isn't set'. If it was set in Berek's time that Linden would see KA's victory at the One tree thousands of years later, surely stuff has been set thousands of years ahead of Stave's time?

[MsMary]

If we were seeing the story from Berek's point of view, I don't believe the future would be shown as set. We are seeing it from Linden's point of view, when she went into the past. Her future is still unknown and can be determined by her actions and by the actions of others.

My two cents' worth.