The Quotes

1. tSR, ch 35, p. 569, pb.
"Studying the columns herself, Egwene shrugged uncomfortably. It did feel as if they were being watched."

2. http://wotmania.net/faqtopic.asp?ID=58
You cannot enter the Blight from Tel'aran'rhiod because it is apart from normal universe and cannot be touched.

3. LoC, prologue, p. 5, pb.
"EVEN I CANNOT STEP OUTSIDE OF TIME. For an instant terrible anger filled that awful voice, and-could it be frustration?"

4. LoC, prologue, p. 4, pb.
"Physically, this place [Shayol Ghul] was no closer to the Bore than any other in the world, but here there was a thinness in the Pattern that allowed it to be sensed."

5. http://wotmania.com/shaitan.asp
A research team looking for an alternative to the One Power, headed by Mierin Eronaile (Lanfear) and Beidomon, found a thin place in the Pattern that promised a new source of power. By drilling through this thin spot, they created a hole, known as the Bore, through which Shai'tan could touch the world.

6. http://wotmania.com/lanfear.asp
What they had actually discovered, though, was a section of the Pattern where the "wall" of the Dark One's prison had become dangerously thin. Although she believed that they were helping mankind with their work, Mierin led the group responsible for drilling the Bore, the hole in the Dark One's prison.

7. BWB p. 200
"Not found on any map, Tel'aran'rhiod is a place many visit, but in which none live. It is both of this world, and apart from it; it is the World of Dreams, also known as the Unseen World. The Pattern that is woven of men's lives is only one reality, part of a greater Pattern woven of each and every possible reality. But between the weave of this Great Pattern are spaces, and it is there that the ancients believed Tel'aran'rhiod exists."

8. TDR, ch 21, p. 239-40, pb.
"In all of these [Portal Stone] worlds, whatever their other variations, a few things are constant. One is that the Dark One is imprisoned in all of them…If he is freed from the prison the Creator made in one world, he is freed on all. So long as he is kept prisoner in one, he remains imprisoned on all…The point is that there is a third constant besides the Creator and the Dark One. There is a world that lies within each of these others, inside all of them at the same time. Or perhaps surrounding them. Writers in the Age of Legends called it Tel'aran'rhiod…Many people…sometimes glimpse Tel'aran'rhiod in their dreams, and even catch glimmers of these other worlds through it."

9. TSR, ch 52, p. 862, pb.
"Those of us who are bound to the Wheel are not dead as others are dead. Where better for us to wait until the Wheel weaves us out in new lives than in the World of Dreams?…I cannot touch the world of flesh unless the Horn calls me again. Or else the Wheel weaves me out…As for Falme, the Horn had called us; we were not there as you were, in the flesh. That is why the one Power could not touch us."

10. http://wotmania.com/warofpower.asp
When the War of Power, or the War of the Shadow, began the Dark One's followers tried to release him from his prison. This was further evidence that Shai'tan would need help from this world to break free from his imprisonment.

11. http://wotmania.com/shaitan.asp
Needing help from the inhabitants of the world, Shai'tan promised immortality and power beyond dreams for those who would help him break free of his prison completely…The attempt to free Shai'tan from his prison brought much change to the world. It began the War of the Shadow (War of Power)

Putting The Quotes Together

First, let me explain why I chose the quotes I did and show which ones go together in my mind.

Quotes #1 and #2 were among those that first led me to contemplate the relationship between Tel'aran'rhiod (T'A'R) and the Dark One (DO). Quote #1 isn't a strong piece of evidence, but it got me thinking. And Quote #2got me to think that there was some definite relationship, but it wasn't enough to make it clear to me. (There are other things that led me to relate the DO and T'A'R, but I won't go into them as they do not provide meaningful evidence).

Quote #3 was a significant quote for me to realize that the DO wasn't just "out there somewhere" in RJ's mind, but that there was a relationship between the DO and the Wheel of Time. The DO isn't in some unexplainable cage out in the middle of nothingness apart from Time, but in some way in constrained by it. Thus, there should be an explainable relationship to find and understand.

Quotes #4-6 show us something about the nature of the Bore. Not only can understanding the nature of the Bore be helpful in understanding how the DO is bound, but in fact any explanation should be able to account for the nature of the Bore.

Quotes #7-9 give us a broad understanding of Tel'aran'rhiod. To determine a possible relationship between the DO and T'A'R, it is necessary to understand the nature of T'A'R as much as that of the Bore and prison.

Quotes #10 and #11 help to explain some details that might otherwise be confusing. I will come back to these later.

Tel'aran'rhiod

First, let us understand Tel'aran'rhiod and its place in creation.

The Wheel of Time turns, blah blah blah, and it weaves the Great Pattern (#7). The Great Pattern is a weave of all the possible worlds, including the one commonly known as the "real" world. T'A'R exists in the spaces between the weaves.

So, as we know it, creation includes the real world, all Portal Stone worlds, and T'A'R. (There are also vacuoles, but we can ignore them on the basis of a quote from Moghedien: "The ONLY reason anyone would want to enter a vacuole was that time flowed differently there…" (emphasis mine) ACoS, ch 25, p. 533, pb.)

Time (the Wheel) is also a part of creation, but it is more of a system that drives the parts, drives the Great Pattern (which in turn is related to T'A'R). I would call this system fate with a twist. While people say "The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills" (very fatalistic), the fact that it has a will of some kind shows it to be a system with some sort of programming. The Pattern of an Age can be seen as the programming for that given Age. [This is what makes the "real" world real. The "real" world is the only one that conforms to the will of the Wheel. As all the Portal Stone worlds are infinite variations on the Pattern, they must deviate at some point or another from the will of the Wheel.]

Note, thought, that T'A'R is not a part of the Pattern. Rather, it is in the spaces between the weaves of the Pattern. But the important thing is that it is a constant for all possible worlds (#8 ). Listen again to Verin's explanation:

"There is a world that lies within each of these others, inside all of them at the same time. Or perhaps surrounding them. Writers in the Age of Legends called it Tel'aran'rhiod…Many people…sometimes glimpse Tel'aran'rhiod in their dreams, and even catch glimmers of these other worlds through it."

So T'A'R, is connected in some way to every possible world. Even more significant, it can be a bridge between the different possible worlds. Verin says that people may even catch glimmers of these other worlds through T'A'R. Perhaps this is how the Portal Stones work.

The Prison

Now let us consider "where" the DO's prison can be said to be located. From Quote #3, as I said above, the DO is constrained by Time in some way, constrained by the Wheel. We can say he is tied or bound to it in some way. But if this is the case, he need not be located in any "where" as far as creation is concerned. Instead, we need to look at the "how" of his tie to the Wheel, the "how" of his constraint. We are given little information as to this "how", but Quote #9 provides a possible analogy. Birgitte says that the Heroes are bound to the Wheel. If the DO is bound in a similar way, T'A'R needs to be looked. The Heroes bide their time in T'A'R while waiting to be born again. If the Heroes have access to T'A'R from their bond to the Wheel, does the DO? We will come back to this question later.

While we are given such scant information as to the "how" how of his bond, we can also find indirect discoveries from knowledge as to how it was overcome. Namely, the Bore.

The Bore

Look back at Quotes #4-6. First, the Bore has no sense of physical location "in this world", that is, the "real" world. Second, there is a thinness in the Pattern. These two seem to go against each other: the Bore has no physical location, but the thinness does. What this tells us is that this thinness in the Pattern is not the Bore. It may be how Mierin discovered the power of the DO, but it is not in and of itself the Bore. But there is a relationship between the Bore and the thinness, since Demandred says that the thinness allows the Bore to be sensed. This gives us a better understanding, but it does not answer the question as a whole.

To get a more complete understanding, let's turn back to Verin's quote above (#8 ). She begins by talking about the DO and his prison. Note the details: he is imprisoned in all worlds, if he remains imprisoned in one, he remains imprisoned on all, and if he is freed in one he is freed on all. This appears to be a paradox, but is solved by our understanding of T'A'R. Remember that T'A'R can act as a bridge between the different possible worlds. It is constant for all. And if the DO's freedom and imprisonment are also constant for all, it then follows that T'A'R is the key to the DO's prison (not a literal key).

[Note: The only constants for all worlds, according to Verin, are the Creator, the DO, and T'A'R. So unless the Creator uses himself as the DO's prison, we can confidently continue our discussion using this key as our basis. If the Creator did use himself, people would have had to drill the Bore through him, a reasonable impossibility, considering the Creator is well thought to be omnipotent. And the DO sure ain't his own prison. *My head exploded just about here*]

Putting Things Together: My Explanation

Let me try and draw a picture of my idea.

The Creator, wanting to keep the DO away from his creation, did two things. He put a barrier between the DO and the Great Pattern, and he bound the DO to the Wheel so that he could not get around the barrier and find some other way to interfere with creation. This would give the DO reason to be angry and frustrated (#3). This barrier is T'A'R. It can also be thought of as a wall between the DO and all the possible worlds, as it "lies within each of these others, inside all of them at the same time. Or perhaps surrounding them" (#8 ).

But the Pattern grew a thin spot (#5 and #6. Who knows why or how.) As T'A'R is a reflection of the real world (quote?), the same thinness likely grew in T'A'R as well, though maybe not quite the same. Mierin discovered the DO by sensing him through this thin spot, and from there through T'A'R. The Bore was then drilled. In nature, it was not a hole made entirely in the Pattern, but rather in T'A'R. In order for the DO to touch the world, he had to breach through the "wall" on his prison, T'A'R. Once through that, he was able to touch all the possible worlds, including the real world where the story takes place.

Thus, the Bore is not located anywhere in the world, but rather at Shayol Ghul in T'A'R. The thin spot in the Pattern remains and is the place from which the DO can spread his influence. This explains Quote #2. The Bore disrupted normal universe in T'A'R, which is why you can't go to the Blight in T'A'R. The Bore is bigger than the thin spot, since the DO's followers tried to open up the Bore completely, which began the War of Power (#10 and #11). It may even be thought that the Forsaken were all found at Shayol Ghul at the time of the Dragon's strike to seal the Bore. Perhaps the Forsaken were all gathered to try to open up the Bore completely.

Possible Implications

It also might be that one aspect of the Bore was the creation of an intersection between the real world and T'A'R, helping the DO to get from T'A'R to the Pattern. (Read my theory The Green Man's Place to know more about intersections between the real world and T'A'R. ) If this was the case, then the failing of the seals on the DO's prison could possibly account for the appearance of ghosts in Crossroads of Twilight. If such an intersection was made, then the Hundred Companions would have had to seal that as well. As the seal fail, the intersection becomes more and more free.

Refer to Light in the Night's theory entitled The Parting of the Veil and The Last Hunt. In it, Light in the Night proposes that the barrier between the waking world and the world of the dead is breaking down, with the effect of ghosts appearing in various places. But if part of the Bore is an intersection as I mentioned, then perhaps the barrier that is failing is that between T'A'R and the real world. The effect of that would be a collapsing of sorts of all possible worlds. Remember that T'A'R can act as a bridge between all the possible worlds. If The barrier between T'A'R and the worlds failed, then perhaps the different worlds would collapse in on the spaces between each other, collapsing into the spaces where T'A'R exists.

If this is the case, the ghosts seen may be people from other possible worlds briefly touching the real world. Those people may be dead in the real world, but as time is inconsistent between worlds, they may not be dead in the other worlds. The dead seen from portal Stone worlds might appear to be ghosts, and other people seen from Portal Stone worlds would not be as remarkable to people.

This bit about failing barriers is all just speculation, though.

What I'm trying to say with this theory is that the DO is bound to the Wheel, and he is stuck in tar, I mean, is bound behind T'A'R.