Nah,... - Edit 1
Before modification by DomA at 11/06/2010 11:41:47 AM
There's no confusion. This was clarified years ago by RJ, incidentally.
Neither Maria nor RJ use the expression "parallel world" in the strict geometric sense like Verin did, she's just means these worlds aren't Mirrors but "real" universes just as real as the one humans inhabit.
Verin put these worlds perpendicularilly in her metaphor, to mean these worlds follow a course of their own and were not reflections of the human world. Her imagery was very human centric (and flawed - the way she puts it, the Ogier world would be a mirror of the Finn's and so on), and of course it was just an image. The realms aren't perpendicular or parallel for real. There are parallel realms like the Ogier's, the human's, the Finns. All these worlds are multi-dimensional (ie: mirrored infinitely), like the human one. The realms are all tied by tel'aran'rhiod.
The Bore is global, with a physical manifestation at SG (at the cosmic level, the Bore is a global weakening of the Pattern, within the Pattern itself, where there are rules of space/time and reality, this is manifested as the Pit, SG and has bled into the Blight etc.). The Bore is reflected in all the Mirror Worlds too, and they're affected by the global weakening like everything else in the Pattern. We don't know if the Realms other than the human one (ie: Finns, Ogier etc.) also have a physical manifestation too (different from SG), or if they are affected only by the global effect that weakens the Pattern.
I'm leaning toward option 2, if only because it may explain why Ogier have been translated into the human world, and why the Finns are interested in Mat. I think the two realms are affected by the DO, but they can't do anything to fix it up in their own worlds. The Ogier who've been translated are there to do their part to fight Shai'tan before they return to their realm. The Finns intend to use Mat to do their part, whatever they intend it to be. I think it's why they use Moiraine as bait to bring him back to them right before TG. It could be anything, from giving him powers or knowledge, to using their link to him to affect the himan world, to needing him to open the ToG when he leaves so they can come in the human world en masse to fight the LB too (if the ToG is a barrier, they may need Mat to agree to re open it for them in order to go back to their realm after TG, or something in this vein).
Neither Maria nor RJ use the expression "parallel world" in the strict geometric sense like Verin did, she's just means these worlds aren't Mirrors but "real" universes just as real as the one humans inhabit.
Verin put these worlds perpendicularilly in her metaphor, to mean these worlds follow a course of their own and were not reflections of the human world. Her imagery was very human centric (and flawed - the way she puts it, the Ogier world would be a mirror of the Finn's and so on), and of course it was just an image. The realms aren't perpendicular or parallel for real. There are parallel realms like the Ogier's, the human's, the Finns. All these worlds are multi-dimensional (ie: mirrored infinitely), like the human one. The realms are all tied by tel'aran'rhiod.
The Bore is global, with a physical manifestation at SG (at the cosmic level, the Bore is a global weakening of the Pattern, within the Pattern itself, where there are rules of space/time and reality, this is manifested as the Pit, SG and has bled into the Blight etc.). The Bore is reflected in all the Mirror Worlds too, and they're affected by the global weakening like everything else in the Pattern. We don't know if the Realms other than the human one (ie: Finns, Ogier etc.) also have a physical manifestation too (different from SG), or if they are affected only by the global effect that weakens the Pattern.
I'm leaning toward option 2, if only because it may explain why Ogier have been translated into the human world, and why the Finns are interested in Mat. I think the two realms are affected by the DO, but they can't do anything to fix it up in their own worlds. The Ogier who've been translated are there to do their part to fight Shai'tan before they return to their realm. The Finns intend to use Mat to do their part, whatever they intend it to be. I think it's why they use Moiraine as bait to bring him back to them right before TG. It could be anything, from giving him powers or knowledge, to using their link to him to affect the himan world, to needing him to open the ToG when he leaves so they can come in the human world en masse to fight the LB too (if the ToG is a barrier, they may need Mat to agree to re open it for them in order to go back to their realm after TG, or something in this vein).