Tel'aran'rhiod, the Unseen World.






Tel'aran'rhiod chapter icon

Entering Tel'aran'rhiodEdit


Characteristics of Tel'aran'rhiodEdit


The world is malleable; one can project thoughts to make creatures and buildings. Larger things that are made in this fashion are more difficult to maintain and control than smaller ones. A person with stray thoughts in the World of Dreams may have difficulty maintaining their personal appearance, which often causes their clothing to flicker and change. The key to mastering the World is to always remember it is a dream; if a person accepts something happening as reality that person may become trapped in the dream. Conversely, to keep her personal appearance solid and unchanging, a Dreamwalker must focus and think of herself as real. Individuals who are talented at manipulating the World of Dreams can also imagine themselves as being somewhere else, and they will instantly appear in that location. Additionally, such individuals can also affect constructs made by other individuals; someone with greater control of the World of Dreams could imagine something out of existence while a person with less control is actively attempting to prevent it. One can also affect one's own body while in the World of Dreams, to the extent of healing wounds if they are supremely skilled.

Within Tel'aran'rhiod light appears to be ambient, with no obvious source. One often experiences a constant feeling of unseen eyes watching from every direction while within it. Time is also difficult to measure within the World of Dreams and appears to pass at a completely different rate. A person may be asleep for only an hour in the waking world, but they may experience several hours in Tel'aran'rhiod. Or, a person may only spend fifteen minutes in Tel'aran'rhiod and wake up to find that they had been sleeping for several hours. While time is different between the World of Dreams and the waking world, it does not run backwards. A person who sleeps for fifteen minutes can not go back in time in the World of Dreams, just as a person who spends several hours in Tel'aran'rhiod cannot wake up earlier than the original time that they went to sleep. Wolfbrothers seem to have the greatest amount of control over the World of Dreams than all others, for they have both the intrinsic connection to it that the wolves do, but supplemented with human intelligence regarding how and what they wish to do. Perrin Aybara, for instance, mastered the World of Dreams so completely that he can enter and exit it in the flesh simply by willing it so, and manipulate virtually anything within it. The only other individual who has shown this sort of mastery of Tel'aran'rhiod is the dual-souled man known as Slayer. While not a wolfbrother, his master of the Dream World is surpassed only by Perrin due to his own wolfbrother nature.


Reflection of the Waking WorldEdit

The World of Dreams is a mirror of the waking world, except that it is a non-permanent one. Objects such as geographical formations, forests, and mountains exist. Buildings exist as long as they have been around the real world long enough to create an impression on Tel'aran'rhiod. An item such as a bowl of food or a letter may flicker in and out before the viewer's eyes. A door in the World of Dreams may appear open one second, and shut the next. Wild animals are also part of the World; however, domesticated animals are not. Some people believe this to be because of their relationship with humans―that their connection to nature has been severed. Wolves appear to have a particular connection with it, as they are able to enter it at will and exert some amount of control over it similar to what Dreamwalkers are capable of.


In between PlaceEdit




A dreamshard is a merging of an individual's dream and Tel'aran'rhiod, almost like an offshot of Tel'aran'rhiod itself. The person to whom it belongs has a high degree of control over the place, far more than in the normal world of dreams.

Cyndane at the end of ToM tried to entrap Rand into one of her dreamshards.

Moridin held a meeting with the remaining Chosen in one of his dreamshard during AMol, and it seems likely that other meetings have been held there previously.

Heroes of the WheelEdit







Real World ParalellsEdit

Tel'aran'rhiod is similar to the Australian aboriginal concept of the Dreamtime. The Dreamtime is inhabited by heroic, ancestral figures, just like Tel'aran'rhiod is inhabited by the Heroes of the Horn. The actual word in the Arandic language (alcheringa) means "the eternal place" or "the uncreated place" and is understood to be "everywhen" or "time out of time". The Dreamtime is also linked to totemic animals, just like Tel'aran'rhiod is also the Wolf-Dream (which would make wolves Perrin's totem).

Tel'aran'rhiod additionally seems to be named for the welsh mythological figure Arianrhod, a name that means Silver (arian) Wheel (rhod).