“[…] The Breaking left a thousand wonders behind, and there been half a dozen empires or more since, some rivaling Artur Hawkwing’s, every one leaving things to see and find. Lightsticks and razorlace and heartstone. A crystal lattice covering an island, and it hums when the moon is up. A mountain hollowed into a bowl, and in its center, a silver spike a hundred spans high, and any who comes within a mile of it, dies. Rusted ruins, and broken bits, and things found on the bottom of the sea, things not even the oldest books know the meaning of I’ve gathered a few, myself. Things you never dreamed of, in more places than you can see in ten lifetimes. That be the strangeness that will draw you on.” “We used to dig up bones in the Sand Hills,” Rand said slowly. “Strange bones. There was part of a fish—I think it was a fish—as big as this boat, once. Some said it was bad luck, digging in the hills.” The captain eyed him shrewdly. “You thinking about home already, lad, and you just set out in the world? The world will put a hook in your mouth. You’ll set off chasing the sunset, you wait and see… and if you ever go back, your village’ll no be big enough to hold you.” “No!” He gave a start. How long had it been since he had thought of home, of Emond’s Field? And what of Tam? It had to be days. It felt like months. “I will go home, one day, when I can. I’ll raise sheep, like… like my father, and if I never leave again it will be too soon. Isn’t that right, Mat? As soon as we can we’re going home and forget all this even exists.””
The Eye of the World, chapter 24 “Flight Down the Arinelle”.
“You’ll set off chasing the sunset, you wait and see… and if you ever go back, your village’ll no be big enough to hold you.”
Domon has a point, and it’s something that is borne out by the series. All of the Emond’s Field gang grow and change, and build new lives for themselves that could not possibly be lived out in the Emond’s Field of their childhood.
Even Perrin, who tries to go home - only to discover that his home has gone, his village has changed and he has other responsibilities that prevent him from staying - has to eventually accept the change within himself.
But on the other hand, there’s Tam. Tam managed not only to return to his childhood village, but to give every indication of being at peace with doing so. He raised his son to be content with their rural lifestyle.
The difference is that Tam came home over 20 years later, after four wars and a successful military career, and he and his wife had an infant to raise. He was not looking to pick up the threads of an old life so much as to build a new life with his family.
At the end of AMOL, some of the Emond’s Field gang need to recuperate after the horror of war, and/or are interested in a career change, and/or now have spouses or infants to consider. Yet it’s impossible to imagine any of them immediately settling down on a farm in the middle of rural nowhere - partly because they still have on-going responsibilities and connections to the wider world, and partly because they’re all still so young.
Years down the track, it’s possible one of them will make a similar choice to Tam’s. (I’d argue it’s highly likely at least one will.) But none of them are at that point yet.
