New Article Released: Dice Games: It's Time to Roll the Dice

It is in The Dragon Reborn, after his rebirth in the Tower that we finally get a POV from Mat Cauthon. Shorn of the Shadar Logoth evil, Mat begins his journey to adulthood.

There are two articles in the Reference Library about aspects of Mat's experiences in The Dragon Reborn, the Fool and Joker essay already published which looks at the development of his character and skills, and an article on the Dice games I originally wrote for Wotmania and is now republished here. It was the dice games that revealed to Mat and the readers the extent of his extraordinary luck and what it would mean for his life.

There is also an essay on the different real world influences used to create the complex Cauthon personality in preparation that will be posted here soon.

The Dragon Reborn Read-through #6: Perrin Out of the Woods

Moiraine and Perrin Out of the Woods

by Dominic

In The Dragon Reborn, the focus shifted from Rand to Perrin and Mat. Similarly, the symbolism surrounding the Inns turned to Perrin and Mat, who visited them, while Rand and the girls roamed the 'wilderness', so to speak.

I will make a survey of a few of the Inns featured in the book while looking at Perrin's story arc, and at Mat's in a future post.

While his character doesn't shine as much in The Dragon Reborn as he will in book four, an highlight of The Dragon Reborn for me is the temporary shift of perspective from Rand to Perrin, and the return of Moiraine again as an ambiguous half protagonist and half antagonist, which is perhaps most effective and balanced when Jordan showed it through the eyes of Egwene and Perrin, both extremely critical of her, but without the excesses about her (bordering delusions and bad faith) of Rand and most of all Mat and Nynaeve.

The juxtaposition of Perrin, who strives to hang to his humanity, and Moiraine, who gives to the world and her entourage the image of a cool and heartless manipulator, who rarely allow herself to show she cares about anything other than her cause (ironically, as she strives to save humanity but rarely allow herself to show her own humanity to anyone) and can still see people as human beings and have feelings for them, is very interesting.

I love the character of Moiraine, don't get me wrong. She is in my opinion one of Jordan's best drawn characters, or she becomes so in this book and even more in TSR and TFOH, after being in TEOTW introduced as the classic mentor figure (à la Gandalf in LOTR), with a massive twist: her 'charges' gradually turn against her, and she only gradually shifts from trying to control them to helping them to find their own way, the way a real mentor does.

As much as I like the character, however, I was never able to like the woman much - admirable in many ways, she's quite the hero, but she's in no way for me a very likeable figure. One of the facets of the character I enjoy most is that her story arc is one of being forced to release her grip, eventually surrendering her notions to pull the strings and keep the characters on a leash, her sudden urgency when she realises in Rhuidean her time is running up and she has failed to properly prepare Rand, failed to teach him what she could and instead kept him too much from secrets she feared him to learn (about Prophecies etc.) and tried to manipulate and lead him too much, struggled too much against the Wheel pulling Rand where he must really go, not where she, who isn't the ta'veren, thought he must and mustn't go. The Wheel doesn't wait on Moiraine's wishes, as she gradually came to understand and accept. Moiraine is the first character who must face (and accept, which she eventually does) that big plans for a smooth path to the Last Battle as she conceived of with Siuan Sanche won't work, that for all her years preparation the coming of the Dragon Reborn won't be much as foreseen, the ripples he sends out far worse than expected, and the efforts to control him pointless, as the Wheel pushes and pulls its ta'veren. And one of the most admirable thing about Moiraine is that in the end she understands and accept this with humility - accept, which may even be worse for her that her time near Rand is soon over, that she won't be at his side for much of what's ahead, that being at the Dragon's side in the years leading to Tarmon Gai'don - the cause she devoted her life to - isn't for her. She needed to go on another path (seemingly to return to him for the Last Battle itself) and she did.
And she prepared her exit with as much fortitude and dedication as she took her mission, when she imagined herself as the guide and mentor to the Dragon. In Rhuidean, Moiraine would truly gain Wisdom to complete her knowledge, and afterward finally she finds the way to play the role of teacher, with much humiliation for her, a consequence of the antagonism between her and Rand she largely was responsible for sparking: not easy to trust or like a woman who seems obsessed with making sure you die according to prophecy, and not only that but seems intent on bringing you to the slaughterhouse blindfolded, keeping from you as much as she knows of your fate in fear you bolt. Not an easy woman to have around. In TSR after Rhuidean she would also finally do what she probably should have done long before, warming up to Egwene and Rand on a personal basis. Part of it is still a touch manipulative - she 'remembers how to control saidar' she tells Egwene (though this may be in part a way for Moiraine to save face, to make Egwene believe she wasn't just accepting what must be but actually was still the puppet master), ie: controlling it by surrendering to it first, but most, the core of it is a genuine surrender, a genuine recognition of her real role in events, of her real place as a guide and teacher. With Egwene she will even attempt t the end to amend what she did in Tear by scheming succesfully to separate Rand from all his personal friends and scant trustable allies like Thom. It came a bit late, however, when Egwene and Rand have put great distance between them, him associating her to a schemer/puppet master like Moiraine, Egwene seing already more the Dragon than Rand al'Thor.

Moiraine appears, which isn't always the truth or the full truth, to dispose of people as she sees fits, as she decides the Pattern must be woven, and ironically she often achieves the real will of the Wheel through 'unintended consequences' of her actions: driving Rand away from the mountains, sending the girls and Thom away to their real destinies in an attempt to send remove them from Rand's entourage, leading Rand to puzzle out, crucially, important prophecies by her own refusal to share her knowledge of them with him openly, to bring him to share in the decisions affecting not only the Pattern, but also his own life.

On the one hand, we see her save Lan's life by arranging to pass his bond to Nynaeve. On the other hand, for all her good intentions, it's an extremely hard and cold decision, taken without even consulting the man who has given him his loyalty for nearly 20 years, nor Nynaeve for that matter. Moiraine played the matchmaker for both and made the decision for both. In The Great Hunt, we even saw betraying his trust and his loyalty, by hiding from him that Isam Mandragoran could possibly be alive. Again, two faces to the coin: by doing this she prevented Lan leaving her cause (and Nynaeve) and going back to his private war to avenge Malkier, which would most likely have killed him (which was probably the intent of this verse of 'dark prophecy', a bait for Moraine's warder that wasn't taken). On the other hand, this Oath is for Lan as meaningful and strong as his Oath to Moiraine, and hiding the mention of Isam from Lan was a poor way to repay his service and his trust, especially when the decision to pass the bond only at her death and to keep Isam a secret was a lot motivated by Moiraine's wish to keep Lan at her side. This would be mirror with stark contrast later by Nynaeve, who out of feelings she has for Lan, true selfless love, will find a much better balance between doing something that might save him while still letting him go away from her to fulfill what he sees as his duty. Nynaeve achieved the balance between duty and dedication and humanity Moiraine in the early book was not capable of.

And yet, for all her grating and ambiguous sides, Moiraine is vital to the Light, and she played a major role in forming Rand and Egwene into future leaders, though very often she achieved that by trying to prevent them from going their own ways, forcing them to become stronger to stand up to her and make their own decisions... unintended consequences again, at least before Rhuidean made her see things a bit differently.

In the Dragon Reborn it was most interesting to see Perrin start to challenge Moiraine and her methods. While he sometimes misses or fails to see the whole and fairer picture about Moiraine, if not as often as Rand, Mat and Nynaeve do, he often hits bullseye in his criticism (notably of her distanciation from her humanity), a role Egwene will pick up in The Shadow Rising. Moiraine in The Dragon Reborn teached a lot, by her own example, about dedication and duty and the hard sacrifices that may lie ahead for the boys. But for Perrin it's by mirroring that she achieves the most, unintentionally: Perrin hangs to his humanity in this book a lot in reaction to Moiraine's own distanciation from personal feelings she may very feel but refuse to show.

The story have him come out of the 'wild life' of the Mountains. As the book begins, he isn't quite an hermit like Elyas, yet lives somewhat like him in the woods, with the wolves around but kept at bay as he fears them too much and still refuses his nature as wolfbrother (and is confronted again with the Tinkers and the Way, a parallel again to The Eye of the World). Another interesting 'hidden layer' for Perrin in this book is that he starts his path to parallel Artur Hawkwing. Here, this is reflected by his 'hunting' of Rand, which mirrors almost exactly the path of Guaire Amalasan, who proclaimed himself the Dragon Reborn in what is now Almoth Plain, who advanced through what is now Ghealdan and Altara, Illian and finally Tear, where he failed to take the Stone, all the way pursued by Hawking. Berelain and Faile parallel Hawkwing's two wives, but with a funny twist: Perrin unlike Hawkwing has to deal with the two at once, and they fight it off.

As Perrin gets out of the wilderness, he returns gradually to human civilization. First, after the episode of the attack in the mountains were he almost became wolf, he is given a warning at Harilin's Leap in the form of Noam, the wolfbrother who became wolf completely: Noam's fate confirms to Perrin his concerns about being a wolfbrother and losing his humanity are real. The Inn sign show a man jumping on one foot, his arms up in the air. It probably refers to a local legend, which isn't very important. The symbolism of the picture here is what counts - it is a leap to freedom for Noam, and it is also a reference to Hopper, the leaping wolf who dreams of freedom and soaring like the eagle.

Perrin's return to civilization progresses in Remen, which shows him the path to salvage his humanity with The Wayland's Forge Inn and its sign, a blacksmith with his hammer, that Perrin sees as 'a good omen'. The Wayland Forge is to Perrin what the Stag and the Lion was to Rand's character in The Eye of the World. For Rand, it was the encounter with prophecies and Min, for Perrin it is the first encounter with Faile and his destiny to pick up the Hammer again. At this inn, Perrin is surrounded by guests from wedding ceremonies. He also finds Gaul, and confronts more Whitecloaks, other important things on his path. Perrin has sought all his youth to tame his strength and impulsive side, fearing them. Tarmon Gai'don needed him to learn to find and unleash his physical strength and confront his capacity for extreme, murderous violence and - aspects he needs to fight the Shadow and become the Wolf-King. This is why he needed to pick the War Axe first and learn to use it, why he needed to become a wolfbrother and distance himself from his nature as a quiet, gentle boy. Blacksmithing gives him a taste of the end of this path, when he will have reached the point when his violence and wolf-ish nature become dangerous, when he will need to find balance again, and is ready to look back at what he once was and carry the blacsmith hammer, still a formidable weapon, but also a constant reminder of his true, complete self: half a builder and shaper of tools (also humans, as leader/ruler) as the Blacksmith, but a blacksmith who can use his hammer as a weapon to protect his people and destroy the Shadow. What begins at Wayland's Forge ends at The Star in Tear. A similar 'guiding star' in Shadar Logoth lead him to safety and toward his destiny of becoming a wolfbrother. The Star in Tear reveals to him his love of Faile, and standing between a smithy and a weaver's shop (two opposite images of the Pattern: the weaver relating to the Wheel weaving ta'veren tightly, the smithy representing a ta'veren like Perrin's ability to shape the pattern around him). At the Star, Perrin will save Faile's life for the first time, and give up the axe for the Hammer for the first time. Things come full circle to close the 'first act' of Perrin's story arc in a way that echoes strongly Rand getting his first sword at the beginning of EOTW and his second at the end of TDR; Perrin gets his axe from the hands of Harral Luhhan, and in Tear another blacksmith, Demrid Ajala, not only judges him ready to be a full blacksmith, but gives him the hammer that will one day become an hammer mentionned in prophecy, the Hammer of the Wolf-King. Both Faile and the Hammer are the keys for Perrin to retain his humanity, both Faiel and the Hammer are keys for him to play his role in the Last Battle, if Perrin manages to avoid the perils, manages to walk the fine line between hanging too much to his humanity, give in and not being ready to make the necessary sacrifices to save the world, and losing his humanity, not becoming the Wolf-King but a feral wolf, running with the pack in truth.

The Dragon Reborn Read-through #5 - A Little Something About the Wine: Perrin's Dreams

A Little Something About the Wine: Perrin's Dreams

by Linda

Perrin has a couple of dreams in The Dragon Reborn, Shadows Sleeping. They are not the predictive dreams he has later in the book, but they are crucial nonetheless, particularly since Jordan chose to show little of what the Forsaken are up to.


Dream the First:

Ishamael tries to lure Perrin into giving up the axe. Perrin says not yet.

Murmuring from wolves makes the room flicker, or details chaLnge. The wolves protect Perrin from the dangers of Tel’aran’rhiod, even Ishamael’s weavings to a degree. Only when Perrin forces them away does the dream, controlled by Ishamael, stabilise.

Ishamael wants Perrin to ‘go back to the hammer.‘ I don’t think this means that Ishamael knows that Perrin is the Wolf King and needs to take up the hammer in the Last Days. Ishamael seems to think it is an advantage for him if Perrin goes back to the hammer and what he is after is for Perrin to give up his ta’veren and Bannerman role and return to blacksmithing. Perrin has not got a hammer of his own yet; he will do so later in this book.

Perrin refuses because he is ta’veren and it is his duty to use the axe for a while. Perrin is sure that Ishamael knows he is ta’veren (Perrin doesn't know it, but Ishamael can find ta’veren in the Pattern and may well have the rare Talent of seeing ta’veren.) Ishamael grimaces and suggests Perrin could avoid his duty:

“There are ways to change things, boy. Ways to avoid even fate. Sit, and we will talk of them.”

Symbolically, Perrin takes “a step back, keeping well in the light.” This can be taken on many levels. Throughout this scene, shadows and light levels in the room symbolise the battle between evil (Ishamael) and good (Perrin). For example: "Darkness molded the man [Ishamael] like a caress.”

Ishamael then tries to get Perrin to accept his offer of a drink. With a toast (or vow) "to years past and years to come” and a promise to "see things more clearly after." The blood red wine in a silver cup is meant to seem like a kind of sacrament and is an allusion to the Black Mass. Things made in Tel’aran’rhiod to be ingested can do or taste like pretty much whatever the maker wants. It might have only made Perrin sleep for a hundred years, but it could have made him a tool or a slave or even a devotee of the Dark One. If they wanted to kill Perrin, either Ishamael or Lanfear could have, wolves or no wolves. Both Ishamael and Lanfear are masters of Tel'aran'rhiod. Most likely the wine was to bind Perrin to the Shadow, of his own volition, even if he didn’t know what the consequences of drinking would be. IE he was to freely take what was offered and ingest it. Those consequences being that some things done in Tel'arah'rhiod are stronger than in the real world. I think it's a very bad idea to freely take something the Shadow offers you in Tel'arah'rhiod. Especially something you ingest. It would seal the deal for signing up in Shaitan’s service. And no coercion.

The wine is meant to remind you of Communion wine; only you end up communing, shall we say, with the Shadow. It is thus the antithesis, and a mockery of, Communion wine and therefore similar to something out of the Black Mass. Moiraine tells us that Darkfriends perform rites that are disgusting and depraved, so the Black Mass parallels are there.

It's the symbolism of the act that counts. Drinking a toast with the Shadow is allying yourself with them. Moiraine described Fain as having performed rites in dreams that bound him ever more tightly to the Shadow. Since this was in a dream the deeds were not literally performed; they were symbolic. It was the effect that was real.

Ishamael tried this previously: he offered a cup of wine to the boys in their dreams back in Baerlonin The Eye of the World,. Had any of the boys freely taken what was offered to them by Ishamael (the drink) they would have been tied to the Shadow if not fully (and that's definitely possible, given the Black Mass type parallels), then at least enough to be followed/located easily by various Shadow henchmen or influenced by Ishamael or the Dark One. Ishmael didn't get disappointed for nothing. It was obvious that he hoped to gain something from them drinking.

Having failed with temptation, Ishamael resorts to threats.

Perrin feeling heat as he leaves reminds us of Ishamael’s flaming eyes and mouth, which are often described as furnace like, and of the Pit of Doom/Fires of Hell, etc


Dream the Second:

After Ishamael, Perrin is taken by Lanfear. Was she waiting in line?

The gilded lion helmet she offered him is similar to Macedonian armour in classical times and is a reference to Alexander the Great. There is the hint that Perrin was Alexander the Great in a former incarnation, and could have been led to be Alexander again. This would lead him astray from the Pattern of his life for this Age as Lanfear knew very well. Lanfear is luring him back along that path. And that would weaken Rand's cause and thus aid the Shadow. It didn't work, which is why we haven't seen it again. Lanfear wanted Perrin to go for glory. Wolves aid Perrin in rejecting glory and the helmet.

The axe is linked to Perrin, maybe from past lives, or maybe Lanfear is trying to prevent Perrin from taking up the hammer.

Lanfear puts an image in his mind :

The Horn rang out, and the wild charge began. Death rode at his shoulder, and yet she waited ahead, too. His lover. His destroyer.

Instead of openly trying to get Perrin to turn away from his fate, Lanfear tries to substitute the ‘wrong fate’ in Perrin’s mind:

”You must not listen to those who would try to turn you from your destiny. They would demean you, debase you. Destroy you. Fighting fate can only bring pain. Why choose pain, when you can have glory? When your name can be remembered alongside all the heroes of legend?”
“I am no hero.”
“You don’t know the half of what you are. Of what you can be. Come, share a cup with me, to destiny and glory.”

She too tries to get Perrin to drink, but the wolves aid Perrin again and the cup changes from silver to gold.

Lanfear’s threat is to haunt his dreams like a succubus:

“The night is always there, and dreams come to all men. Especially you, my wildling. And I will always be in your dreams.”

Each Forsaken wants people who serve only them. The more powerful or talented the person, the better. Someone whom the Wheel spun out to be crucial to the Light's cause? Better still. A Forsaken would gain great kudos from that, and also power to affect events to his or her own gain.

The Dragon Reborn Read-through #4 : Celtic Roots and the Stone of Tear

Tara and the Stone of Destiny

by Dominic


The culture of Tear has a distinct Hispanic flavour. But like the Crescents of Tear may be a nod to Spain's Muslim heritage, there are traces of Iberia's antique Celtic roots still to be found in Tear.

Some key Tairens characters have Celtic parallels. Siuan (pronunciation Swan, which gives us the key to her parallel as a Fairy/Swan Maiden), the 'Fairy Queen' of the Aes Sedai is one of them. The name itself is derived from the Aes Sidhe, ie: the Fairies of Celtic Folklore, who were derived from the ancient Irish deities, the Tuatha Dé Danaan or People of the Hills - Jordan transformed that name into his Tuatha'an and gave the translation to the people who are obviously Da'shain Aiel descendants in Seanchan: The Hill Tribes. The character of Juilin the thief-catcher has roots in the Fenian Cycle and becomes a companion of the 'Fenian hero' figure of the series, Mat.

In the topology, the river Erinin, which mouth is in the nation of Tear and that flows through Tar Valon, evokes one of the poetic names of Ireland : Erin. Tear itself could be a derivation from the Hill of Tara, on the west coast of Ireland, near the mouth of the Boyne river. Tara was the ancient seat of the High Kings of Ireland (High Lords of Tear here) and the site of a great citadel even in myth. The most ancient name for the area of Tear, the nation of Essenia, may be linked to the town of Essé, famous for its Roche aux Fées (Fairies' Stone or Rock), "the finest megalithic monument in any Celtic country [where] a low ceilinged corridor […] opens to a large, high compartmental room" [dcm]

The central point of interest for us is the Stone of Tear itself, built with the One Power shortly after the Breaking. The primary Celtic association is with the Arthurian legend of the Sword in the Stone but an older Irish parallel exists with the Lia Faìl, the Stone of sovereignty found at the heart of the fort at Tara that was part of the kings' ascension ritual and sang, shrieked or cried under the lawful ruler or the right candidate for kingship. Christianized legend had the Stone break according to prophecy at the moment of the birth of Christ (symbolizing that Christ was the King of Kings and ended the power of the pagan kings). In The Wheel of Time the Stone fell for the Dragon and the ground shook with a terrible noise when Rand drove Callandor back into the Heart of the Stone.

The ancient Irish used Tara as a ritual meeting place and in myth and legends this is often where the heroes or gods assemble. In The Wheel of Time Tear was the last time (so far) our three ta'veren were reunited, and around them a unique meeting of all the main supporting players (with the exception of Min, no complete meeting of the full main cast has taken place in the series at this point, but in Tear we came closest) : Lan, Moiraine, Egwene, Nynaeve, Elayne, Aviendha, Thom Merrilin - even Lanfear and Ishamael, the main 'evil couple', showed up.

The Lia Faìl translates as "Stone of Destiny", a nickname that could fittingly be applied to the Stone of Tear as the events there in TDR and TSR were a crucial early turning point for so many characters. Rand, Mat, Moiraine, Egwene and Aviendha got a call from fate to go to the testing ground of the Waste Lands, for all of them it's a spiritual and personality changing quest with overtones in Arthurian Legend, specially the old and very spiritual version of Chrestien de Troyes, rooted in esoteric christian symbolism. We will return to this association of Rhuidean with the Castle of the Fisher-King during the read-through of The Shadow Rising.

Perrin got in Tear the Hammer of the Wolf-King that links him symbolically to two Celtic-inspired predecessors : Luthair the Hammer and Artur Hammer of the Light; there his two incarnations of his 'Sovereignty Goddess' clashed - Berelain the Hawk - a second connection to the Paendrags - and Faile the Falcon whose name may well derive from Faìl, "destiny" (Faile, second in line to the throne of Saldaea is also widely speculated to confer on Perrin political kingship eventually, the wolves likely conferring him a spiritual one as Wolf King).

For those unfamiliar with the goddesses of sovereignty, I will summarize it briefly. A more complete explanation of this concept will be found in an upcoming essay by our good friend Marcia (MJJ Sedai) exploring the Arthurian roots of the series: For the ancient Celts, the King was one with the Land and the people through a spiritual wedding to a goddess of the land that confers Sovereignty on him. These goddesses came in triads, studied by the French scholar of Indo-Europeanism George Dumézil, and associated to three aspects of the same woman: the Warrior-Maiden, The Queen and The Crone. This concept is central to Jordan in the creation of Rand's character (Aviendha the Warrior-Maiden, Elayne the Queen, Min the Seer/Crone), and carries in more subtle variations to Mat and Perrin. The concept is also reflected, of course, in the belief that 'The Dragon is One with the Land', in the Arthurian 'Three in a Boat' foretelling and its mentions of the warrior-maiden (The Dedicated Spear), the Queen (the Lion Sword) and the Crone (She who Sees Beyond) . The wedding of the King and the Goddesses (who are the Land, Mother Earth) gives birth to the People.

For the Celts, hawk and falcon were two solar birds linked to sovereignty - a symbolism more frequently assigned to the Eagle (following Imperial Rome) in other western cultures. Perrin has in fact the full triad of these sovereignty birds with the Red Eagle of Manetheren. As a wolfbrother (and shape shifter in the World of Dreams) capable of entering battle frenzy, Perrin is a kind berserker figure associated to important Celtic heroes, most of all Cuchùlain.

For the Celts, the fourth bird of sovereignty denotes the warrior, instead of ruling, aspect of kingship : it's the Raven or Crow of Battle that belongs with Mat and Tuon. The Stone of Tear was also a turning point for Mat's destiny. With his first 'companion' Thom in tow from Tar Valon, he met at the Stone future hero-companions in Juilin and some key figures of what would become the Band of the Red Hand; Mat accomplished his first "knightly" deed with the rescue of the girls and saw his first association with the solar power of explosives in a warfare context; Mat also had a crucial encounter in the Underworld of the Aelfinn to set him on his path toward his own sovereignty goddess : Tuon, who by marrying him would make him a Prince of the Ravens. The Band itself has very strong Celtic associations, not only to the Bloody Severed Hand of the O'Neils which inspired the banner (and probably its origin in Manetheren) but also to the similar Celtic bands of Heroes, like the Fianna Ered that ties Mat to the Celtic trickster and warrior Hero Fion MacCumhail (We will also return to this in a later book's read-through).

Most of all, Rand - more often associated to - or trapped with - lunar powers in the first two books of the series - got his first solar hero attribute with Callandor that to the world proclaimed him the rightful Dragon Reborn; he met Aviendha, a solar 'goddess of sovereignty' who came to Tear with the People of the Dragon and his second solar goddess, Elayne, declared her love to him with the blessing of his previous lunar consort Egwene. Mirroring Egwene's attitude, Lews Therin/Rand, associated to the naive but virtuous Welsh hero Llew Law Gyffes best known from the Mabinogion, met openly in Lanfear his malevolent mother Arianrhod, queen and moon-goddess of renown beauty (and the almost certain source for the name Tel'aran'rhiod, that Lanfear claims as her domain). Arianrhod had cursed her son Llew thrice. He was to have no wife of any race known on earth (with Lanfear, no consort but herself), he would have no name unless she gave it to him (Lanfear insists to use the name Lews Therin for Rand) and he would bear no arms unless she equips him (Lanfear's insistence that only she could provide Rand with a teacher so he could learn to defend himself from attacks from the other Forsaken, and who try to tempt him with using with her the combined Choedan Kal). The episode of the same Branch of the Mabinogi where Math and Gwydion make Blodeueed the magical flower-woman for Llew is even evocative, in the typical way Robert Jordan likes to twist details of the legends, of the failed attempt of Rand to make a "magical flower" of feathers and the One Power for his lover Elayne in Tear. Rand/Lews Therin also made a grand display of his magnified solar-sky god powers during the attack sent by Sammael.

The Irish "Book of Invasions" offers two explanations for the origin of the Stone of Destiny, both of them relevant. One says that it was brought to Tara by the god-king Nuadu, along with his shining-sword of great power. Nuadu, who is a maimed-king and an analog of Rand (especially after the events of Knife of Dreams), the second explanation is that the Stone of Destiny was brought to Tara from Spain (thus Tear, twice) by the Gaels (We will explore this further during The Shadow Rising's Read-through).

In the Irish oral tradition, the phallic Stone of Destiny is also called "Fergus' penis", an allusion to the great virility of yet another Rand Celtic analog, the Ulster hero Fergus MacRoich who needed not three but seven lovers to satisfy him. Beside providing this name for the Stone at Tara, Fergus is known as the owner of the Lightning-Sword called Calandbog, a very likely source Callandor, like it's Welsh cognate Caledfwlch that belonged to Arthur in the Welsh tradition and, according to scholars, both are prototypes/predecessors to the better known Excalibur.

[DCM] James MacKillop, Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, Oxford University Press, 1998

The Dragon Reborn Read-through #3 - Masema, Perrin and the Way of the Leaf

Masema, Perrin and the Way of the Leaf

by Linda

Masema thinks Tinkers are useless cowards because they won't fight. Later, when he becomes a preacher, we see Masema’s followers – the Dragonsworn - and their extreme violence. The mob at its worst.

Following on from what Masema said, Perrin wonders that the Tinkers get involved in the War against the Shadow:

Finally he said, “I was surprised to see one of the Traveling People, believing as you do.”
“It is possible to oppose evil without doing violence.” Her voice held the simplicity of someone stating an obvious truth.
Perrin grunted sourly, then immediately muttered an apology. “Would it were as you say, Mistress Leya.”
“Violence harms the doer as much as the victim,” Leya said placidly. “That is why we flee those who harm us, to save them from harm to themselves as much for our own safety. If we do violence to oppose evil, soon we would be no different from what we struggle against. It is with the strength of our belief that we fight the Shadow.”
Perrin could not help snorting. “Mistress, I hope you never have to face Trollocs with the strength of your belief. The strength of their swords will cut you down where you stand.”
“It is better to die than to - “ she began, but anger made him speak right over her. Anger that she just would not see. Anger that she really would die rather than harm anyone, no matter how evil.
“If you run, they will hunt you, and kill you, and eat your corpse. Or they might not wait till it is a corpse. Either way, you are dead, and it’s evil that has won. And there are men just as cruel. Darkfriends and others. More others than I would have believed even a year ago. Let the Whitecloaks decide you Tinkers don’t walk in the Light and see how many of you the strength of your belief can keep alive.”
She gave him a penetrating look. “And yet you are not happy with your weapons.”
How did she know that? He shook his head irritably, shaggy hair swaying. “The Creator made the world,” he muttered, “not I. I must live the best I can in the world the way it is.”
“So sad for one so young,” she said softly. “Why so sad?”

- The Dragon Reborn, Waiting

Leya knows why Perrin is sad; she just wants him to admit it to himself in the hope that he will change.

Doing no violence also means Tinkers aim to not speak in anger and violence. And in fact Leya makes her points very effectively with her calm manner. Her point about the danger of doing violence in the name of good is well and truly borne out by Perrin, Mat and, above all, Rand. Some are going out of their way to see Rand step back from becoming very dark like the Shadar Logoth evil and regain the humanity he has lost.

The Tinkers are at one end of the violence spectrum, the Shadow, Mordeth and Masema's Dragonsworn extremists at the other, with Rand towards the Shadow end. RJ is saying there is a fine balance here between what is necessary to counteract evil and what is evil in itself. If all did nothing, those who were unscrupulously violent would take over the world. (In The Great Hunt we saw what the world would be like if the Trollocs won.) But if people felt that any violence or crime was justified against evil, the world would be like Ghealdan when Masema was there, or like Shadar Logoth. Balance, as usual, is the key.

The Dragon Reborn Read-Through #2 - Looking back on books 1-2-3 and at back and forth at Rand al'Thor

Looking back on books 1-2-3 and at back and forth at Rand al'Thor

by Dominic

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In The Dragon Reborn, a bit ironically considering the title of the book (perhaps the most generic of the series, as far as titles go), the focus of the action shifts a lot from the central protagonist of books 1 and 2, the Dragon Reborn, to the rest of the main cast. However, helping Rand, hunting Rand remain a major aspect of the book and this first post will focus on Rand in this book, after a look back on the initial 'trilogy'

The structure of the first three books works as acts 1, 2 and 3 of what was once planned as a single 'first book', before Jim Rigney realised it would need to be split then expanded as three full novels (reminds you of something?) has left strong marks on The Dragon Reborn.

A lot of things come full circle in this book, mirroring themes/events from The Eye of the World, creating storyline 'patterns', a technique of story building Jordan seemed very fond of. The change from the original plan may have come at a price. Opinions among readers of The Wheel vary a lot on how succesful Jordan was with this, and the first three books in general. For many, these three more linear books were and are still the best. For others, the first three books aren't in some way the 'real' Wheel of Time yet, the really good stuff begins with The Shadow Rising, while books 1-2-3 feels a bit like a slightly overstretched prologue (I feel about the first three myself quite a bit like many feel about Crossroads of Twilight, curiously enough).

By expanding each act into a full book of its own, Jordan slowed down the main story development to the profit of 'adventuring'. Books 1-2-3 are certainly eventful and action-packed in an episodic kind of way, which many fans love (and many miss in the later books), but in other ways they merely set the stage, while character and theme developments advance at a fairly slow pace - Mat's 'journey' doesn't even really begin before book 3, for example. They are also a tad repetitive, as if (it is my theory on how Jordan expanded his original plan) RJ decided that since he had to split the original outline to make three full books, he would mirror in each the original ending, the confrontation and defeat of Ishamael at the Stone, by having two variations of the same as climax for books 1-2. Another repetive aspect, which might have come out more natural and flowing in a single three-acts novel, is that the basis of the three books revolve around a hunter and prey/chase story: the whole group is hunted in The Eye of the World, in The Great Hunt the tables are turned and the heroes hunt after the Shadow, and in The Dragon Reborn we get many variations of both.

For many readers, the excitement of events, the episodic nature of the first books, is a great strength of these books. To me, I'm afraid it became a bit tedious after a while, though it makes the masterpiece that is The Shadow Rising, the book with which I really fell in love with Jordan's series, shine in comparison. In all fairness, the quality of books 4 and up forcibly must owe a very great deal to the fact that with writing the beginning as a trilogy instead of a long single book, Jordan got the time and book space to really get into each of the main characters and their voice, got very good at handling each of them, before getting to the 'good stuff'. It may well be that the big 'explosion' of the series, with the numerous story lines and the multiplications of POVs that to many of us are the real Wheel of Time would not have been the success it has become had Jordan attempted it with TSR as his second book in 1991, not as book 4.

My personal opinion is that Jordan succeeded remarkably well at expanding his act one into what became The Eye of the World, with the exception of the weirdness of the Rand/Ishamael confrontation at the end. I didn't think that way on the few first reads. I hated book 1 and found it way to derivative of Tolkien at first - what Jordan intended, to give the readers something familiar before going elsewhere - actually put me off a lot. It's a little miracle I not only finished it after three failed attemps over a year but went on with book 2. But the book grew on me over time, and though I would hardly call it captivating even now, I see a different richness in it that wasn't apparent on the first complete re reads of the series I did.

I think Jordan did a fairly good job with The Dragon Reborn too, though the book feel stretched in places and it is, IMO, undermined a bit by the opacity of its 'mysteries', that RJ never returned later to solve. It worked well enough on first read, it created the impression of possibly competing schemes and a greater picture that we would only understand later, that not everything that went on could be understood. But this becomes an handicap for me on re reads, when the reader is fully aware the Forsaken are competing, and all too aware the mysteries aren't solved later on. Incomplete and/or corrupted information is a big theme of the story, but in my opinion it's only mid-series, with The Shadow Rising, that Jordan found his balance between keeping elements open ended/unresolved and satisfying the readers by giving enough clues or straight revelations.

I think the interest of the plot of The Dragon Reborn would have benefited a very great deal in the long run from having, for example, Lanfear explain what really went on in the first two books through reminescences in TFOH or TSR, when it was no longer a mystery the different Chosen were competing. As it turned out, what's been solved has been so in the books themselves (with rare exceptions, like Isam's solving part of the 'Grey Men in the Tower' mystery in Winter's Heart) but through Q&A, which I found most disappointing and a bit lazy on Jordan's part - certainly a flaw in his storytelling not to have planned better to give bits of resolution to the reader along the way, bits he didn't mind revealing in Q&A.

Of course, books 12-13-14 will reveal how many of these old loose threads he actually intended to tie up by the end, but with his revelations in Q&A and on his blog I fear it doesn't bode well for him having planned ways to resolve early stuff with no incidence on the plot anymore (and exception is of course the murder of Asmodean, which he didn't plan to resolve but decide to, because the mystery has become a phenomenon among the fans). One of my other gripes with The Dragon Reborn is the weakness of Be'lal as a character. After offering us a very good (if in placea unoriginal) twist on the satanic clichés with Ishamael, and a even better Moon Goddess/Lilith with Lanfear, Jordan fell way short of that in The Dragon Reborn with Be'lal, almost just sketched and underused not to spoil the opaque if fairly thin main plot. Be'lal, uncharacterically for Jordan, is barely characterized, barely present in a few scenes and is in the end but a sideshow to the plots of Ishamael and Lanfear, little more than a guard dog Rand needs to bypass to get Callandor, and as a 'Shadow's General, former companion of LTT' a thematic prelude to the far more interesting Sammael, and in a lesser measure to the elusive Demandred. Jordan would repeat this device by turning Moghedien into a prelude to Semirhage, very succesfully, but with Be'lal he largely failed. Even his mythological parallels are fairly boring and incidental (the most of all the Forsaken's), forcibly so because the character isn't developped enough for them to have much resonance.

The Great Hunt, the middle act (and the first WOT novel Jordan completed, before writing The Eye of the World), is the one I think most suffered from being expanded, and remains the only weaker book of the series for me. The plot, a long chase with episodes, is thin, and he didn't master the world building yet. In The Eye of the World, he had cleverly used the familiar, early modern England and America, with a solid dose of Charleston. In The Great Hunt he has introduced his first 'exotic mix' with Cairhien, a schizophrenic and often illogical wedding of the extravagance and grandeur of Louis XIV and XV's France and the Zen influenced Tokugawa Bakufu Japan, a very strange cocktail that resulted in the weakest culture of the series, despite some efforts to soften the rough edges and recenter it in The Fire of Heavens and Lord of Chaos.

The Dragon Reborn corrects this with the Tairen culture, a return for Jordan to the familiar, having strong overtones of Vietnam and South East Asia he knew well, with the Spain of the conquistadors and the Inquisition. And that time, he made sure to discard cultural elements that clashed - and it worked.

The expansion of the three acts into a trilogy, on the other hand, no doubt let Jordan set the stage with tons of preparatory details that made the greatest books of the series, like The Shadow Rising and The Fire of Heavens, possible.

And with this let's now return to The Dragon Reborn and the more positive stuff, to all the foreshadowing and 'repeating patterns' the expansion of books 1-2-3 allowed RJ to create, and in this second part of the post I will look at Rand with one example among a few present in the book:

In The Dragon Reborn, Rand is forced to go off the 'main road' alone, hunted by bad dreams, giving the reader the impression he's beginning to struggle with madness (an effect Robert Jordan sought to create intentionally, as he mentionned in a Q&A). He has a wound in his side that might kill him, he seeks a Sword, kept in The Heart of the Stone, with Lanfear still shadowing him and inducing him to come to the 'monster's lair' (here Ishamael in truth, Be'lal being a very secondary element - part guard dog, part spider in his web), her goal still to seduce him to the Shadow and her side. And there's still 'the stranger', the one whose real name isn't ever mentionned (a parallel to Shai'tan. Jordan frequently link Ishamael, Myrddraal and the Dark One, a triad that persists even now, with Moridin, Myrddraal and Shai'tan) hunting for him, who in this book is finally revealed as an unknown Forsaken.

All this story line go back to elements evoked first in the early chapters of The Eye of the World, with some symbolic parallels and some mirroring (inversion). In The Eye of the World, Rand doesn't escape from the Mountains of Mist, it's evil that comes from the Mountains (the Waygate near Manetheren). With Tam, he takes the Quarry Road (the road to the Quarry, to the stones) and he gets his first sword, which had been hidden for many years - since the death of Tam's wife, in a chest that Tam hides under his bed and that Rand mentions Tam has never touched in his memory. As Tam gets wounded, Rand is forced to pick this sword from him, and to kill the monster with it. In the end, Rand is given the sword by Tam, the sword that will 'set his path' and 'make him true'.

We have seen some elements resurface in The Great Hunt: the wound on Tam's side Rand gets from Ishamael, and it becomes his path to become The Fisher of Moridin's game of sha'rah, a parallel to Orpheus the Fisher, to Christ the Fisher and far more directly to the Arthurian Fisher-King and his unhealable wound. Rand lost his first sword (and got his wound) by driving it into the Heart of the Dark - literally the meaning of the name Ba'alzamon.

In the Dragon Reborn, we get the rest of the paralleling/mirroring: Dreams of the Sword set Rand's path from the mountains to Tear. Like he did in the Eye of the World avoiding the main road seeking to escape the Myddraal, in The Dragon Reborn he went cross-country, trying to avoid his pursuers. He doesn't have a rambling 'madman' at his side, rambling about sins, the horrors of war and his death wife (the delirious Tam in EOTW). Later on, this rambling madman will become Lews Therin's voice, but in The Dragon Reborn it is Rand struggling with himself, becoming paranoid, and fearing the Power will kill him. He discovers a new weapon, balefire, which risks destroying the pattern as surely as the Breaking did. It is notable that on this road, he not only kills the woman that will haunt him more and more and lead to the infamous 'list', but he also his haunted by fake/TAR-created women of his life that he has to kill (attempts by Ishamael), alluding to the Kinslaying, and he nearly kills Egwene in a bout of paranoia.

At the end, Rand has to take up the Sword. He doesn't pick it up from Lews Therin, as he did from Tam, but the symbolism is the same: he needs to pick the sword because he's the only one who can, and because it is his turn, neither Tam (who symbolized LTT) nor Lews Therin. The Sword is from Lews Therin's Age (we do not know if it was ever meant for him - probably, but we do not know), and had been put away, hidden after the War of Shadow - as Tam has put the away the sword after returning to the Two Rivers.

Callandor that is to mark Rand as the true Dragon to the world after going for it set his path to Tear (completing the symbolic link to the prophecies about the markings with the first sword), and Rand had to use it to kill the monster again, driving the sword of light into the heart/chest of the Heart of the Dark. In The Eye of the World, these scenes happened with the full moon like "about to fall on their heads", with several mentions of moon shadows hiding Rand and moon beams threatening to expose him - the role the "moon goddess" of the series, Lanfear, plays in this book. Lanfear managed to lure 'the rising sun', the Prince of Dawn/Lord of the Morning to the Stone of Tear, the 'fortress of the Moon', with his moon crescents banner.

The name 'Callandor' itself is interesting. A 'Old Tongue-ified' variation on Calandbog and Excalibur, Robert Jordan never gave us the keys to fully decipher the Old Tongue meaning. We do know that 'Cal' can mean red (perhaps with the connotation of "the red of the flame/fire"), as in The Red Eagle, 'Caldazar' of Manetheren, in a few ways a kind of Fire Eagle/Phoenix. We do not know for sure the meaning of Andor/Ande. There are some clues, however. Andor is the Realm of the Rose Crown, and Ellisande means 'the rose of the sun'. The actual meaning of Callandor could be the Red Sun, or perhaps more interestingly, The Red Rose. Not only Rand found the Sword in the Heart of the Stone, but he also found Elayne of Andor's Heart - future wearer of the Rose Crown in the Stone.

I will look in a similar fashion at the travels of Perrin and Mat in The Dragon Reborn in upcoming posts, a kind of unplanned (and somewhat ironic) homage to RJ's splitting the original outline of book 1 into three books. :P

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- You're welcome to leave comments about this post below, or to use The Dragon Reborn Round-Table open thread to leave a commentary of your own about any aspect of the book.

- Got any nagging question about a topic from The Dragon Reborn? Send them to 'Ask Zemaille' and the librarians will do their best to answer it.

The Dragon Reborn Read-through #1- The Fortress of the Light: Once More Unto the Breach

The Fortress of the Light: Once More Unto the Breach

by Linda

According to Niall, no man had previously held office of Lord Captain Commander before his hair is all white. Valda is therefore yet another young leader in these troubled times, since he is described as dark-haired, never grey. He’s perhaps around his 40s, since he refers to Niall as an old man and Dain Bornhald as a young one. Galad, in his late 20s, is younger still.

Carridin and Niall between them set the conditions for an extreme and rapid reaction to the news of Rand’s fight at Falme:

”It is a worse madness than any false Dragon I’ve ever heard of. Thousands have declared for him already. Tarabon and Arad Doman are in civil war, as well as at war with each other. There is fighting all across Almoth Plain and Toman Head, Taraboner against Domani against Darkfriends crying for the Dragon - or there was fighting until winter chilled most of it. I’ve never seen it spread so quickly, my Lord Captain Commander. Like throwing a lantern into a hay barn. The snow may have damped it down, but come spring, the flames will burst out hotter than before.”

- The Great Hunt, Prologue

It is treason and blasphemy for Whitecloaks to allow a false Dragon to roam free. Yet Niall knowingly does and pays for it in the end.

Niall’s summary of the situation:

Chaos multiplied; what was unheard of, happening again and again. The whole world seemed to be milling, stirring near the boil. It was clear to him. The Last Battle really was coming.

- The Great Hunt, Prologue

He knows about the wars, Illian, Falme, etc. He receives very good intelligence and mostly uses it well.

However:

All his plans were destroyed, the plans that would have secured his name among the Children of the Light for a hundred generations. But turmoil meant opportunity, and he had new plans, with new objectives. If he could keep the strength and will to carry them out. Light, let me hold on to life long enough.

- The Great Hunt, Prologue

shows that despite believing that the Last Battle is imminent, Niall is thinking of his own ambition as much has anything. Rather like Elaida.

Niall’s original plans, now destroyed, were:

”Your task was to seize Almoth Plain! An empty bucket that no one holds except by words and claims, and all you had to do was fill it. The nation of Almoth would have lived again, ruled by the Children of the Light, with no need to pay lip service to a fool of a king. Amadicia and Almoth, a vise gripping Tarabon. In five years we would have held sway there as much as here in Amadicia. And you made a dog’s dinner of it!”

- The Great Hunt, Prologue

Events prevented the Children from beginning an empire.

Niall doesn’t believe in the Tarmon Gai’don of Prophecy. He thinks it will be like the Trolloc Wars again:

Pedron Niall was a man of cold logic, and he had reasoned out how Tarmon Gai’don would be. Bestial Trolloc hordes rolling south out of the Great Blight as they had in the Trolloc Wars, two thousand years before, with the Myrddraal-the Halfmen-leading, and perhaps even new human Dreadlords from among the Darkfriends. Humankind, split into nations squabbling among themselves, could not stand against that. But he, Pedron Niall, would unite humankind behind the banners of the Children of the Light. There would be new legends, to tell how Pedron Niall had fought Tarmon Gai’don, and won.

- The Great Hunt, Prologue

Therefore Niall will unite nations behind the Children and win Tarmon Ga’don. His daydreams of going down in legend as winner of Tarmon Gai’don are rather like Elaida’s. I’m sure they’d be greatly comforted to know how similar they are.

Niall tells Carridin to keep Rand alive and kill any Aes Sedai come to capture him: the tactic is to scare nations with the threat of a false Dragon so that they ask for help from the Whitecloaks and ultimately depend on them to lead them.

If Carridin had not been ordered by the Shadow to muck up Niall’s plan, the Seanchan would have met greater resistance from the Whitecloaks. (The Seanchan would probably still have been able to destroy them though). The Shadow wanted the Seanchan to invade the mainland.

Carridin claims that Bornhald only took half his legion to their deaths at Falme and he will use the remainder to hunt down Rand.

Niall frightens Carridin with threats of sending Carridin to the Questioners as a scapegoat. (It was amusing when he said that Carridin would name himself a Darkfriend once the Questioners got hold of him.) Niall threatens Carridin with death if Rand dies before Niall orders it, or if Rand is taken by Aes Sedai. If Niall dies, Carridin will also die soon after (this actually happened - Rand was taken by Aes Sedai, and Niall was assassinated - but it was coincidence. Niall’s threat was not carried out).

Preview of the Dabels' The Eye of the World #1

Newsarama has posted a 7 pages full colour preview of issue #1 of The Eye of the World comic.

First look at the character models for the main cast and at Emond's Field.

The issue is set for release on June 24, 2009.

On a related note, issue #6 of New Spring was released last week. We will review it in the next few days.

The Great Hunt Read-Through #13 - Blowing the Horn

Blowing The Horn

by Linda

When the Horn was blown a white fog appeared. Rand sees through the fog to a remarkable degree. Falme is both beneath him and above:

Falme floated somewhere beneath him, its landward border black with the Seanchan ranks, lightning ripping its streets. Falme hung over his head.

- The Great Hunt, The Grave is No Bar to my Call

The battle between Ishamael and Rand showed in the sky over more than just Falme as was explained by RJ at DragonCon 05:

Q98: At the end of TGH, when Rand and Ishamael were fighting in the air above Falme, they appeared in the sky over many places. And my question is whether this is something done by the One Power or something done by the Creator? How did they appear in the sky?

RJ: An effect of the Wheel, really. It wasn’t the Creator. The Wheel is more than a simple mechanism. Remember the Wheel can spit out ta’veren, can spit out Heroes as a self correcting device because the Pattern is drifting from what it is supposed to be. We are not talking about something as simple as a spinning wheel at all, we are talking something more along the lines of the most complex computer you could possibly imagine. There were at that time, two, there were False Dragons that had a chance to create a lot of disruption. By the appearance in the sky at that battle, not just in Falme but in other places, those False Dragons were taken off the board because there was only room now for one, for one Dragon.

Time slowed:

It seemed as if no time at all had passed since the Horn was first blown, as though time had paused while the heroes answered the call and now resumed counting.

- The Great Hunt, The Grave is No Bar to my Call

Rand charges in front of other Heroes; ‘charged alone through the fog‘. Red throws him off and he lands on the fog. Both Rand and his opponent walk on fog:

They were alone, only they and the rolling fog. Behind Ba'alzamon was shadow. The mist was not dark behind him; this blackness excluded the white fog.

So the white fog represents light/good. We’ve seen Ishamael’s black fog/shadow before as a representation of the Dark One’s touch and the potential availability of the True Power.

It is strange that Rand would assume the Dark One would take burns to his face, burns that took months to heal. But then Ishamael assumes or believes Rand blew the Horn, even though he can hear somebody else (Mat) using it in battle. Neither of them is thinking straight.

Their fight is linked: Rand with the Heroes versus Ishamael and the Seanchan. Tuon would not like that if she knew!

Ishamael claims the Power is killing Rand, implying that Rand is holding too much and will die or burn out. He is still trying to convince Rand he needs him as teacher. Ishamael tells of his plan for the girls:

"They will not save you," Ba'alzamon said. "Those who might save you will be carried far across the Aryth Ocean. If ever you see them again, they will be collared slaves, and they will destroy you for their new masters."

- The Great Hunt, The Grave is No Bar to my Call

This plan has been a thousand years in the making, since Ishamael (in his role as Hawkwing's advisor Jalwin Moerad) encouraged Artur Hawkwing to send his son to Seanchan.

'Those who might save Rand' are Egwene and Nynaeve, who Liandrin was ordered to take to Suroth. Ishamael and a lot of others mistakenly ignore Elayne (and Min) in their plans.

Ishamael says he is Rand’s only salvation, yet the Horn was Rand’s salvation – as the Prophecy of the Horn says : ‘ think not of glory, only salvation.‘ Rand thinks of what he saw in the Portal Stone and says he has never served the Dark One. The Falme battle is spiritual as well as physical. The Last Battle will probably be even more so.

And Three rather than One were vital for the Battle. RJ uses a lot of number symbolism, and this is probably the most important. It’s not Rand alone, it’s the three ta’veren together supporting the world between them that will win.

Perrin and Mat contrast each other. Perrin, the more mature of the two, listens carefully to what Rand says and questions him to make sure he is clear about meaning. Mat assumes Rand is leaving them because of his doom of insanity. Perrin is the first to notice the Seanchan forces gathering. He accepts the supernatural phenomena of the Horn and merely trots off to cut a pole for the Banner. Perrin is the Bannerman. Mat, wringing wild cries from the Horn is both Hornsounder and Trumpeter: the Horn represents both the Horn of Norse mythology, sounded by the Norse god Heimdall to herald Ragnarok, and the Trumpet which will sound the Last Trump.

As part of The Great Hunt read through, an article on the Horn of Valere, detailing all that is known about the Horn and the Heroes, written by long-standing Wotmania member Scalius and myself for the Wotmania FAQ is now re-published here in the Reference Library: The Horn of Valere.

New Article Released: Lanfear Parallels

By Linda

At the end of The Great Hunt, Lanfear appears to openly claim Rand as hers. She also probably Healed him when she drew the dragon fang on his forehead in Falme. At least someone Healed him and it wasn’t Nynaeve.

Lanfear is based on many mythological and historic characters, even a literary character – that of the arch villain in Alexander Dumas’ novel The Three Musketeers. Cairhien too has the flavour of Dumas about it: it was meant to resemble the court of the Sun King Louis XIV in France. I think Lanfear is the better piece of work. She's brilliantly drawn.

As part of The Great Hunt Read Through, my essay on Lanfear's parallels originally written for Wotmania is being republished here in the Forsaken Parallels series of the Reference Library, indexed and illustrated. It details all the different figures that may have gone into creating this dangerous woman. Lanfear was the first character I dissected in this way, back in 2004. This essay is also memorable because Dominic kindly made some very useful suggestions to me about Lilith and Lanfear, the first of very many discussions between us about The Wheel of Time, and which has led to our inspiring, productive and most enjoyable collaboration at wotmania and now here at the Thirteenth Depository.

So do go and read about 'er ladyship - or as Dumas called her: Milady. She's a dangerous woman to reject!

Nice new interview with Brandon Sanderson

Brandon Sanderson took some time off his BEA schedule to speak with Damon from BSCReview (formerly Bookspotcentral).

Damon let us know the result, a 20 min video interview, is now uploaded and available.

It's a very nice interview - no earth-shattering new information about the WoT for those who follow Sanderson closely, but he's often approaching things from a different angle in this one (and of course it's fun to see him had fuel for my personal theory that RJ was bringing things full circle and scenes in EOTW hold keys to scenes in the last book ;)). There's also a great and funny anecdote about RJ's notes.

Thanks again to Damon for the info!

The Great Hunt Read-Through #12 - 'Lesser' events at Falme

A couple of the 'lesser' events at Falme

by Linda

I just thought I'd take a quick look at a couple of interesting side-issues. They're not unimportant: particularly Verin ensuring events were consistent with the Karaethon Cycle. Not that I'm that keen on self-fulfilling prophecies! But still.


The Whitecloaks at Falme

The Whitecloaks rushed on the Seanchan because he believed that Perrin would warn them that Whitecloaks had arrived. Bornhald led the Whitecloaks into what he knew was a hopeless charge and one he would not survive:

It was too soon, the town too far, but he drew his sword - a clatter of scabbards ran down the rank of his half legion - and called, "The legion will advance at a trot."
The fog covered everything, now, but he knew Falme was still there, ahead. The pace of the horses picked up; he could not see them, but he could hear.
Abruptly the ground ahead flew up with a roar, showering him with dirt and pebbles. From the white blindness to his right he heard another roar, and men and horses screamed, then from his left, and again. Again. Thunder and screams, hidden by the fog.
"The legion will charge!" His horse leaped forward as he dug in his heels, and he heard the roar as the legion, as much of it as still lived, followed.
Thunder and screams, wrapped in whiteness.

- The Great Hunt, The Grave Is No Bar to My Call

This charge of the Children of the Light parallels the famous charge of the Light Brigade.


Verin's Input

The consequences of Verin being in Falme: if Verin had not been there, Rand would not have convinced only five to go to Falme, and there would have been no extra Aes Sedai to take Mat and the girls back to Tar Valon. Mat would have died. Verin helped shape the Pattern and fulfill prophecy by making sure only five went to Falme. Their raid was successful and they were able to drive the Seanchan back, allowing the women to escape.

I wonder whose idea it was for Verin to take the Horn of Valere back to the Tower? Verin seems most likely.

The Great Hunt Read-through #11 - Portal Stones

Portal Stones : Interesting Pieces from another Time

In the Great Hunt we are introduced to Portal Stones which can instantly transport a person, or a large group of people to different worlds.

From the beginning, it is insinuated that using a Portal Stone requires a great deal of the One Power. Loial clearly mentions that the strongest of the Aes Sedai who could Travel, could also use Portal Stones. The statement does have several interpretations. Once again, it could follow the slightly flawed statement echoed by Moiraine that only the most powerful Aes Sedai from the Age of Legends could Travel. I say slightly flawed, because while Moiraine may believe that only channelers approaching Forsaken strength can Travel, she is right that it takes a considerably strong woman to Travel unaided. Aes Sedai tend to be stronger in the Power than the average woman. We see later in the series that it takes up to three linked Kin to Travel effectively, and while most Aes Sedai cannot Travel, many above average women such as Verin can.

Loial either means that those who could Travel could also use a portal stone, or he means that out of those who could Travel, only the strongest could use them. I'm inclined to think that it takes a very powerful channeler to wield these ancient relics. I would go as far to say that not even Egwene or Elayne could transport themselves, though Nynaeve and Rand obviously could. Verin says that she would be destroyed long before she channeled enough saidar to transport them, though Verin has always been a dodgy authority on the Power, even for a Brown. For instance, she makes claims that while the Amyrlin, Elaida and Moiraine could wield the Choedan Kal on Tremalking, Logain would be burnt out if he tried. Aes Sedai ignorance is a major theme of the early series, and Moiraine only makes in worse in The Dragon Reborn.

The best evidence comes from Selene, who is Lanfear in disguise. When Rand transports them back to the real world, she regards it as a truly remarkable feat - stating that all of them were transported safely with their horses included. This strongly hints at the fact that Rand was far more powerful than she expected at this stage of the series.

The more saidin or saidar you channel through the symbol of the Portal Stone, the greater the radius of transport. Rand channels while he is sleeping, leading to three of them and their mounts being taken for a ride to a parallel world where the Shadow defeated the Light. Later Rand brings Selene back with them, and she comments on the act. In TSR, Rand takes everyone to the Aiel Waste, though he requires the fat man angreal to aid him, once again pointing to an area of effect which is proportional to the amount of the Power used.

It may be a stretch to call these stones ter'angreal. They seem to predate the Aes Sedai from the Age of Legends. Of course, the Power is not limited to their Age, but the stones are said to be ancient. The stones are not written in any known language such as the Old Tongue, but contain a vast array of symbols. Certain levels depict other portal stones, and once can move between the beacons instantaneously. Other symbols depict worlds, and when one arrives there, one cannot return unless one finds another stone. This is what happened to Rand and his friends.

The stones also appear to react to both saidin and saidar. While only saidin is used to activate them, we see that Verin cites her lack of strength as the reason that she cannot use them, and not the fact that she is a woman. Selene also seems to be very familiar with their use, and she undoubtedly used them to follow Rand to the parallel world where she was 'rescued' if she did not Travel there directly. The stones also have other qualities of ter'angreal. They seem to resist movement, and although one did fall over and was pulled up, they seem to have been minimally affected by the Breaking. On the other hand, many symbols do seem to have been slightly eroded over the years, which is unusual with Power-wrought objects.

These stones probably require considerable skill to use, because Lanfear is not easily impressed. Despite this, it is Rand's great power and dumb luck that save the day. Rand's saidin surge later in the book causes them to miss out on three months of time, and leads them into various parallel existences almost to the same degree as the Wise One ter'angreal in Rhuidean.

The Portal Stones remain a mystery in the series. Anything that predates the Age of Legends is usually not elaborated on, and must usually just be accepted by the readers - such a being a wolfbrother. With Travelling fully established in the series, it is unlikely we will see these devices used again.

The Great Hunt Read-through #10 : Who killed Barthanes Damodred

Who killed Lord Barthanes?

By Dominic

The night after the visit of Rand to his palace near Cairhien, Lord Barthanes Damodred was assassinated, gruesomely if the rumor that rapidly spread through Cairhien isn't exaggerated. Those who watch too much procedural shows on TV know this often indicated personal hatred and a desire for revenge... or sadism, or torture.

Lord Bsrthanes's murder was an early example of an element of Jordan's storytelling that would become typical of his style as the series progressed. He loved to leave loose threads around and created quite a few, whenever the resolution of the mystery itself had no further impact on the plot. All WOT readers know the absolute classic of the genre: the assassination of Asmodean, which Jordan originally didn't intend to resolve (he changed his mind since and was looking for a way to either reveal it in AMOL - or if he couldn't find a proper place, to reveal it on his blog eventually - Brandon and Harriet have since found an opportunity for the revelation in the book). The Great Hunt has its fair share of unresolved issues, and it used to have many more before Jordan started answering questions about them on his Blog : Ingtar freed Padan Fain, Fain was responsible for the weird time loop trap in the village etc. Is that too many open-ended mysteries? To my personal taste, yes, at least as The Great Hunt is concerned. I must confess it's my least favourite book of the whole series, and each time I embark on a full re read, the first three books are a tad more difficult to get through than the rest. I find it a bit hard to get interested all over again in events that never get explained, in Forsaken plots that are murky at best in places. I find RJ got infinitely better at playing the 'open threads' game in The Shadow Rising and beyond.

About the murder of Damodred's High Seat, the book offers no definitive answer but still few scant clues - yet all pointing in the same direction. The list of realistic suspects is fairly short, basically there are four - and while most people assume Ishamael or his pawns were responsible, I'll also look at other avenues.

As we know, Lord Barthanes passed a message from Padan Fain to Rand, a message he knew came from another Darkfriend, and a message he didn't understand. As Linda demonstrated in her post about the 'Darkfriends social', Lord Barthanes wasn't one of the DF summoned, and had no idea he was facing the Dragon Reborn, or even a man very must wanted by Ishamael. The night after he passed this message, he was murdered.

As motive for killing him, Ishamael would have fury that Rand was lead to Toman Head. It's a viable scenario in a crude way, but I see many problems with that solution. The foremost is that Barthanes can hardly be blamed. Fain knew all the signs and secrets, and the way Ishamael organized the Darkfriends such mistakes can be expected. Ishamael may have been furious, but he had little motive to be furious enough at Barthanes to so gruesomely punish him. With other Forsaken and some Black Ajah, this wouldn't count for much, but this is Ishamael. He has let pass many failures unpunished before, Mili Skane's and Paitr Conel's in The Eye the World, for example. Ishamael is not Mesaana, while he punishes darkfriends, he isn't one to waste his resources for no good reason. Barthanes was an interesting asset, his power on the rise he had become the most powerful noble, second only to the King in Cairhien - a relatively short way from delivering the Sun Throne to the Shadow. As part of his schemes, he had secured a Waygate on Cairhien's doorstep. Furthermore, during his tenure as High Seat and in his rivalry against House Riatin, Barthanes had escalated and darkened the Great Game very much, which was also all to the Shadow's benefit. I find it hard to think Ishamael would stupidly assassinate the man for a mistake he wasn't even really responsible for.

The second problem with Ishamael is that he had to be aware of Fain's message before he could decide to kill Barthanes for passing it. The evidence is that Ishamael never knew, as it took no disposition over months to catch Fain up on Toman Head, nor did he, or his agents among the Seanchan like Suroth, seemed in the least prepared for Rand's arrival months later. As far as we can tell, Rand vanished and Ishamael had not a single clue what happened (perhaps suspecting Lanfear, another excellent tracker of ta'veren, was involved) - in a move to force Rand to resurface he rather had Nynaeve and Egwene 'kidnapped' from the Tower, perhaps thinking Moiraine was with him and could learn of this from Siuan.

So, Ishamael doesn't even make a good suspect.

The second suspect is Lanfear. In her case, the only possible motive to kill Lord Barthanes would be to prevent Ishamael from learning where Fain, and Rand, were going next. It is somewhat weak, notably because it is quite uncertain Ishamael would even make the connection and learn he should go to Lord Barthanes for answers, and secondly because Lanfear had to be aware that Ishamael could track ta'veren as well as she. Lanfear also claims not to kill unless she has a good reason to, and her motives would be devoid of the rage or desire for revenge that the gruesome murder suggest. What Lanfear did in this book, a prelude to offering Rand a teacher, was to give to Rand a mean to almost-Travel, and thus increase his chances to escape Ishamael for a while (it's doubtful the Forsaken are able to track ta'veren in the Pattern very fast, especially if they do not know in which area to expect them - it is more likely a process of narrowing it down until they find the precise location). A problem with Lanfear is that unless she was right there in the night to learn about all this first hand, it's difficult to understand how she even found out, and so quickly, about Barthanes and what Fain did. The same might be said for Ishamael, for that matter.

So, Lanfear definitely doesn't make the best suspect either.

The third suspect is one of Padan Fain's cronies. Fain had the best motive to eliminate Barthanes as soon as he passed the message: he wanted to escape Ishamael and to have his chance to kill al'Thor, and what better way to erase his trace than to kill Barthanes, once he discovered he was a Darkfriend? Fain also had the means at his disposal: one or more darkfriends who were with him in Cairhien could easily be left behind, with orders to come to Barthanes's palace in the night to eliminate him. Darkfriends could explain the nastiness of the murder, possibly without rage or the desire for revenge - especially darkfriends in complete fear of Fain, and who had lived among Trollocs and witnessed Trolloc ways for weeks. One problem with this is Hurin, but it's a small problem: one or a few Darkfriends left behind would not leave that much of a trail, and Hurin could have overlooked it for the core of Fain's group. It is much harder to believe Fain could have managed to leave behind Shadowspawn, and for all I said above, the murder was still gruesome even for Darkfriends.

Still, Padan Fain is already a much better suspect than either Forsaken.

The fourth realistic suspect is King Galldrian. In the Great Hunt, RJ introduced a somewhat simplistic and crude version of The Great Game. It has yet none of the relative subtlety of later books. Ta'veren or not, this whole episode of the piling up invitations from incrementally powerful Houses is somewhat nonsensical. But that's the book, and this can be taken at face value. We even see that the results are indeed deadly - a complete innocent, Dena, got coldly assassinated the next day, obviously because Thom had been seen by Riatin spies (among the nobles or servants, possibly) talking to Rand at Barthanes's palace the last night. We are told that the fact Rand threw to the fire the King's letter and accepted Barthanes' invitation may well have dire consequences, that these two are deadly rivals. As ridiculous as it seems, we have to take at face value that the nobles became absolutely convinced Rand was utmostly important and up to some scheme. We must also note that he passed for Andoran nobility, and House Damodred still has links to the Andoran throne, all dormant that they were under Barthanes. Rand may well have passed for an agent of Morgase/Galad, and the presence of a Shienaran Lord and an Aes Sedai with him would have done nothing to appease Galldrian. In this context - and in the light of Dena's murder the next morning which suggests Galldrian left no stone unturned and may constitute a clue, it's not hard to believe that as soon as he learned in the night about Rand's presence at Barthanes's palace in the evening, Galldrian, by all accounts a dark character, entered in such a fury and decided to take the means to get to the bottom of this plot - sending his thugs to force Barthanes to reveal the secret of the conspiracy, torturing him if necessary, and eliminating this bitter and infuriating rival when they were done. Barthanes, of course, could not tell anything close to the truth or provide a satisfying explanation, short of revealing he is a darkfriend - signing his death warrant. So Galldrian's assassins ended up torturing him, learning not much - and the butchery may have been inflated by the rumor as 'he's been torn apart limb from limb'. By the next morning, one of the assassins was already after other people Rand had talked to, like Thom. By the end of that day, Galldrian's paranoia about Rand and Barthanes had lead to his death at Thom's Merrilin's hands - he had had committed one too many assassination. And Cairhien plunged into a bitter and senseless civil war.

Galldrian had the motive, the means and the dark character to get Barthanes killed. With the few clues Jordan left us about what could have happened - such as the evidence (from Dena's murder) he learned very rapidly all the details of what happened at the reception, he also offers the simplest solution to the murder.

Not a definitive answer - and probably not enough to convict Galldrian, but one better than Padan Fain, while Ishamael and Lanfear, well viable options, make very weak suspects.

The Great Hunt Read-Through #9 - Fain Fails in Falme

Fain Fails in Falme

by Linda

In Falme, Mordeth/Fain says he always did well where men were tense and afraid. Mordeth laughs at Turak’s hawk banner and thinks he knows its significance. How does he know? Hawkwing was 1000 years after Shadar Logoth. Did Mordeth understand all the Dark One’s plans from Fain? Or has he kept ‘up to date’ somehow, despite being stuck in Shadar Logoth?

The Seanchan notice that Fain is not afraid of Seanchan beasts and are surprised. Fain thinks they are nothing compared to Shadowspawn.

Fain leaves his Trollocs on Toman Head. Are these the ones who later attack Rand and co in The Dragon Reborn?

Fain doesn’t care about the Horn; it is a means to an end, the end being the Seanchan conquering the mainland and Fain gaining a position of influence with them. He thinks the damane are not of use to him now, but might be later - that would probably be when the Seanchan invade, especially for eliminating the White Tower.

Fain is too impatient, too clumsy, in this interview. He is used to being allowed to speak as he wants (this links in with Fain being a dark court Fool, see Fool and Joker article). Seanchan protocol is against him and he refuses to adapt to it. Fain is impatient because he thinks Rand and co are only a day or two behind him. He doesn’t know the Black Wind stopped them following even though he supposedly set it to guard the Waygate and catch them. Rand and co’s late arrival means the novelty and veracity of Fain and his tale have long worn off.

Fain is convinced he can get the Seanchan to kill Rand:

Fain let the grimacing Huan pull him out of the room, hardly even listening to the snarled lecture on what would happen if he ever again failed to leave Lord Turak's presence when given permission to do so. He barely noticed when he was pushed into the street with a coin and instructions to return on the morrow. Rand al'Thor was his, now. I will see him dead at last. And then the world will pay for what was done to me.

The Great Hunt, The Wheel Weaves

Fain didn't do that well, so maybe men weren't as tense and afraid as he thought.

The Great Hunt Read-through #8 : A Map and Survey of Almoth Plain & Toman Head

A Map and Survey of Almoth Plain and Toman Head

By Dominic





History and Geography of Almoth and Toman Head

The Nation of Almoth arose with the collapse of the High Kingdom of Artur Hawkwing and the War of Hundred Years, but it faded away over 400 hundred years ago, at an unknown date. Its territory covered the regions of Almoth Plain and, seemingly, Toman Head. The banner of Almoth showed the Tree of Life on a blue-and-black field. By Verin's explanation in The Great Hunt,the symbolism was 'blue for the sky above, black for the earth below, with the Tree of Life to join them'.

Almoth claimed to have possessed at some point a branch or even a sappling of Avendesora, the Tree of Life. The neighbouring nation of Arad Doman claim to have descended from the makers of Avendesora in the Age of Legends (a garbled legend at best, since Avendesora wasn't unique nor even a proper name in the Age of Legends - the name is probably a deformation of aviende chora, ie: Chora Tree - which was an Aes Sedai bio-engineered construct), while the Taraboners to the South call themselves the Tree of Man and claim descent from nobles and rulers from the Age of Legends - another unlikely legend. The origin of the area's association to Chora Trees is unknown, but they may originate with the passage of Da'shain Aiel in this area at some point. In The Shadow Rising, we see the wandering Paraan Disen Dai'shain in the years shortly after the Breaking in a region with seas to the West and further to the South (they then followed the second coast east, all the way to the Spine of the World, where they lost the Doorway ter'angreal the Mayeners later found, and then travelled north up to the area of Cairhien and took the Jendai pass into the Waste). If the area is identified correctly, a great city of the AOL, Comelle, used to stand west of this region, before it seemingly sank into what is now the Aryth Ocean during the Breaking (a parallel to Atlantis?).

In the Second Covenant era, the territory of Almoth formed the larger part of the nation of Safer. The nation joined the Compact of the Ten Nations during the reign of King Eawynd. The capital of Safer, Iman, stood at the present location of the city of Katar. The city of Miereallen stood at the site of Falme. A third city, Shainrahien, was situated as an unknown location, though its Old Tongue name suggests it was in one of the hilly areas and the hills at the end of the bay below Toman Head is a possible location (there are other areas with large hills on the Plain, however). Another possible interpretation of the OT name (as we do not known enough about the order of words and the grammar to be sure) would link it not to hills but to the setting sun. These cities of Safer were all destroyed in the Trolloc Wars. The capital city of Iman was Ogier-built and had a Waygate still existing near Katar. Little of the History of Safer is known: before the Trolloc Wars, King Aedomon of Safer destroyed the forces of Buiryn of Manetheren at Midean's Ford (unknown location, possibly near the source of the river Eldar) in a series of wars between the two nations. According to Mat, years later Aedomon died at the hands of a young Manetheren boy with a spear.

During the Free Years, after the Trolloc Wars had ended, the northern area of the territory became the nation of Darmovan. Again, fairly little of its history is known, though it is famous as the nation in which Guaire Amalasan falsely proclaimed himself the Dragon Reborn in FY 939, as a black plague scourged the land from East to West. Within a year, he had proclaimed himself ruler of Darmovan and had seized the nation of Elan Dapor (southwestern Almoth Plain) and Balasun (Tarabon). By FY 941 as he advanced and conquered the southwest, every nation had sent armies and generals against Amalasan in what became known as the War of the Second Dragon, including the man that would eventually be his nemesis: Artur Paendrag Tanreall of Shandalle.

Little is known of the geography of present day Almoth Plain. It is bordered to the west by the Toman Head peninsula and the Aryth Ocean. To the east, it ends on the slopes of the Mountains of Mist. To the northeast is Lake Somal and the large forest known as The Paerish Swar ('The Darkwood'). Almoth Plain is bordered to the North by Arad Doman and to the South by Tarabon.

Almoth Plain has had no formal government since Almoth collapsed. There is an unknown number of self-ruled communities and towns on the Plain, but no known city. The closest known city is the Domani city of Katar. Katar is ruled by a group of Lords. Recently, during the war for control of Almoth Plain with Tarabon (ongoing since sometime in 998 NE) that degenerated into civil wars in both nations after the events with Rand at Falme, the great Domani general Rodel Itulrade had a major victory at Katar, managing as a result to force the Lords of Katar to stop trading with the Dragonsworn (likely for weapons, giving their local speciality). Itulrade also claims a military triumph at Lake Somal, making it likely there's one or more unknown cities or towns down the road near the Lake area (unless there were just major Dragonsworn camps hidden there). Others cities mentioned as the sites of recent battles by Lord Ituralde were Solanje, Maseen and Kandelmar. It is unknown whether these cities are located on Almoth Plain or within the borders of Arad Doman itself, but as Itulrade mentionned them in the context of the civil war, they are more likely to be beyond the Domani border. There is an abandoned stedding near The Paerish Swar, where many suspect Ituralde plans to set an ambush for the Seanchan (he may be very disappointed if they have Ogier Gardeners with them - they may sense the Stedding ahead and give warning). There are several other stedding in the Mountains of Mist, including Chinden, Jinsiun, Madan, Shangloon, Tsofan, Yandar.

The Domani city of Katar probably controls the nearby passes through the mountains of Mist, that leads to Baerlon and into Andor. Those passes are snowed in in winter and do not open until late spring. The economy of Katar seems very similar to that of Baerlon, its connected mines and Ironworks on the other side of the mountains. A minor geographic mystery concerning this area is posed by the itinerary of Verin, Hurin, Mat and Egwene, Elayne, Nynaeve in The Dragon Reborn. We know they traveled back from Falme to Tar Valon through Almoth Plain and the Caralain Grass, and Egwene mentions only going through small isolated communities. They must have went through the mountain passes past Katar, but it is quite unknown how they reached the Caralain from there. According to information in The Eye of the World, there is no way to cross the River Arinelle South of Maradon in Saldaea before Whitebridge. They possibly only veered north after taking the Caemlyn road to Whitebridge, but Egwene rather mentions they've travelled from Almoth through the Caralain Grass. Possibly Verin knew of a village or town on the Arinelle with a ferry service. With Jim Rigney's passing, this is a small mystery most likely to remain one forever.

The peninsula of Toman Head is a hilly and sparsely wooded area, with villages and small towns and coastal fishing communities, all in the western area. Toward the eastern end of the peninsula a Portal Stone can be found. The small city of Falme is situated at the westernmost coastal point of the peninsula. We also know of the small village of Atuan's Mill, situated a day or two west of the Portal Stone. Falme is a trade center for Toman Head and Almoth Plain, notably with the Sea Folk. It was also home to an esoteric community known as the Watchers over the Waves, who believed in the return of the Armies of Hawkwing sent oversea.

The group of Sea Folk Islands known as the Aile Somera and the harbour of Cantorin are located ca. 150 Leagues due west of Toman Head. These islands were eventually seized by the Seanchan - before or after the events of Falme. They established their secret naval base of operations at Cantorin, seizing the Sea Folk ships and no doubt sinking or seizing those that showed up there later on. So far, it appears the Sea Folk have not discovered that the Seanchan have seized control of the Aile Somera - but Rand in KOD has sent their biggest and fastest ships to the West Coast, and Zaida intended to send fast ships to all the Islands to deal with the Amayar tragedy. The disappearance of the ships sent to Cantorin may finally attract attention.

For the last three hundred years, the nations of Tarabon and Arad Doman have laid rival claims to the territory, resources and populations of Almoth Plain and Toman Head. The diplomatic struggle lead to five Treaties of Falme, the last of which was negotiated and signed in 961 NE under the guidance of the Grey Sister Merana Ambrey, but it has failed almost immediately. It is unknown why control of Almoth Plain is so important to both nations. The nations of the Westlands are under populated and not lacking room. It may have to do with the resources of the Mountains of Mist. Faile will get reports of gold, silver and iron found by surveying the mountains beyond Emond's Field. It may also have to do with trade routes: Arad Doman is not a seafaring nation, yet like Tarabon it specializes in trade and both are major centres of Sea Folk trade. Almoth would give Arad Doman or Tarabon better access to the central and northern heartland, and let them control taxes on goods exported through the passes.

In 998 NE, the conflict finally led for the first time to open war between Arad Doman and Tarabon, in the midst of which the Seanchan Forerunners landed on Toman Head and along the coastline, seizing Falme and killing harshly one by one the members of the Watchers Over The Waves for obscure reasons related to 'not having watched for the right thing'. Though the details were never explained, it seems likely the Watchers failed to recognized the Seanchan as Hawkwing's returning armies, perhaps refused to swear the Oaths or accused them of being impostors.

In the early winter 999 NE, following the events of Falme concluding The Great Hunt and that proclaimed Rand al'Thor as the Dragon Reborn and pushed back the Seanchan to the sea and forced them to regroup and consolidate their forces at Cantorin, groups of scattered Dragonsworn sprouted all along the West Coast and on Almoth Plain - people of Almoth, Domani, Taraboners. The situation rapidly degenerated into chaos during the winter, leading to civil wars in both Arad Doman and Tarabon. It is still unknown what role if any Graendal, who placed herself in a country palace of Arad Doman as 'Lady Basene' - and Moghedien who went to Tanchico, played early on in the Dragonsworn crisis. According to a comment by Asmodean, Graendal was around before the situation degenerated - Asmodean even foolishly believed Graendal cared too much for her comforts and would have left the area. It is also quite possible Ishamael played a role, creating or infiltrating groups of Dragonsworn to lure Rand out of his hiding place and kill him - as Moiraine pointed out in The Dragon Reborn, young men vaguely matching his description were murdered on the Plain. Whatever her speculative early role, it is known that Graendal has since worsened the conflict badly, kidnapping several members of the Domani nobility including members of the Domani royal line and making King Alsalam 'vanish', compelling numerous leaders of the Dragonsworn and Domani Lords and giving conflicting orders. Despite this, Lord Ituralde has managed already mentioned military triumphs at Katar, Lake Somal, Solanje, Maseen and Kandelmar.

As the war erupted between Tarabon and Arad Doman, Lord Commander Pedron Niall of the Children of the Light conceived a plan to secure Almoth Plain and resurrect the sovereign nation of Almoth as a puppet state under the control of the Children of the Light, a first step in creating an empire for the Children in the West. His plans, put in the hands of the Inquisitor of the Hand of the Light Jaichim Carridin came to naught: a darkfriend, Carridin had conflicting orders from Ba'alzamon, including keeping the landing of the Seanchan secret from Amador. Lord Commander Geofram Bornhald who brought his legion to the plain, was appalled by the methods and actions of the Questioners and, intercepting rumors of the Seanchan, he managed to fool Carridin and bring a large group of soldiers all the way over Toman Head to Falme, where he launched a suicidal attack against the Seanchan and perished with his troops in the Battle of Falme. After the failure, Niall ordered Carridin to keep Rand and the Dragonsworn crisis alive on Almoth Plain, in an effort to paint the Children as the only saviours and unite the area behind his leadership. Carridin had conflicting orders to find and kill Rand from the Shadow. These plans of Niall also came to naught, and he then turned his eyes and his spreading of chaos using proxies and provocateurs to the East (in methods reminiscent of Demandred, which seems to have fooled Sammael into thinking his rival was the one coming for him, weakening Altara and western Illian using fake Dragonsworn).

In 1000 NE, Rodel Ituralde managed to vanish after receiving orders from the King to attack the Seanchan (actually coming from Graendal). Ituralde managed to get a truce between some of the important Dragonsworn, Domani Lords and Taraboners and conceived a plan to attack the Seanchan's bases in Tarabon to force them north in pursuit. This part of the plan worked and Ituralde and his forces are currently pursued over Almoth Plain by a large Seanchan army. His exact intentions, though obviously a trap or ambush of some kind, are still unknown, as is the possible role Rand's forces - that recently seized Bandar Eban - may play to help or hinder these plans.

About the map:

The map started from a scanned charcoal base scanned in the computer and completed in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

It is based on the layout of two maps by Ellisa Mitchell, the colour "big map" and the black-and-white versions.

The Aile Somera and Jafar are positioned according to canonical information in the books. The island and harbour of Cantorin are an educated guess. The harbour is described as a vast lopsided bowl and I put it at the location most closely matching this description.

The locations of the Portal Stone, Atuan's Mill and the villages are guesses based on the partial information in The Great Hunt. We know from Verin in the text the Portal Stone is in the east, and the towns and villages all to the West. Placing it more to the north would have placed Falme too sharply to the southwest for Verin to say this. The locations have been estimated by following the travel information from Steven Cooper's excellent Chronology and allowing for 10 to 12 leagues of Travel per day at most.

The scale was established by a transposition of the scale of the World Map found in Robert Jordan's The World of the Wheel of Time to my map of the Westlands. Thanks to Weird Harold for the help with this. This scale is forcibly approximate.

The decorations are inspired by the banner of Almoth and the trefoil leaf of Avendesora. The further decorative elements are inspired and reworked from elements found in 18th century Dutch Atlases and in a 17th century Spanish atlas.

The cities icons are only decorative and do not attempt to accurately show the size of the cities in the books (information is lacking for most, and they would be too small to be visible enough anyway).

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- You're welcome to leave comments about this post below, or to use The Great Hunt Round-Table open thread to leave a commentary of your own about any aspect of the book.

- Got any nagging question about a topic from The Great Hunt? Send them to 'Ask Zemaille' and the librarians will do their best to answer it.