Tarmon Gai'don

From A Wheel of Time Wiki

Tarmon Gai'don, or the "Last Battle", is an event both feared and anticipated. It will be the apocalyptic battle between the forces of the Shadow and the Light; if the Dark One wins, he plans to break the Wheel of Time itself to prevent another challenge. The exact specifics of the Last Battle are unknown - its location, the method of war, the tactics, the time even; many believe that it will consist of a second Trolloc War, where Shadowspawn will pour out of the Blight and submerge the land in darkness, breaking the seals on the Dark One's prison, thereby letting him free to rend the pattern as he wills.

Even if the Dragon Reborn prevails and the Dark One is thwarted, it is feared that the side-effects from this cataclysmic collision of the Shadow and the Light will be as bad as the Breaking of the World, if not worse. The Prophecies of the Dragon speak of the Last Battle, but their meaning is obscure - the Dragon could well die, or live through it (or even die and be resurrected!) depending on how one reads the relevant verses about the Dragon's "blood" being on the "rocks of Shayol Ghul".

As the event approaches, reality has begun to literally fall apart. Cities and villages that have not existed in hundreds, if not thousands, of years have begun to reappear and then disappear. People's insides turn to insects or perhaps they are eaten by them. "Bubbles of evil" have begun to float throughout the Pattern and are causing much grief to people. One of the most unsettling things though is the dead walking, ghosts or whatever you wish to call them. They have been sighted in many places by many different people. It is thought that since the Dark One is the opposite of the Creator it stands to reason that when he is freed reality will simply collapse.