Season’s Greetings, Tor.com! Please take a moment from your increasingly-panicked holiday shopping to peruse the Wheel of Time Reread Redux, today embarking on a brand new book!
Today’s Redux post will cover the Prologue of The Dragon Reborn, originally reread in this post.
All original posts are listed in The Wheel of Time Reread Index here, and all Redux posts will also be archived there as well. (The Wheel of Time Master Index, as always, is here, which has links to news, reviews, interviews, and all manner of information about the Wheel of Time in general on Tor.com.)
The Wheel of Time Reread is also available as an e-book series! Yay!
All Reread Redux posts will contain spoilers for the entire Wheel of Time series, so if you haven’t read, read at your own risk.
And now, the post!
Before we begin, Scheduling Note: There will definitely be a Redux post for the 22nd, but depending on circumstances which hopefully will be cleared up soon, one of the next two Tuesdays (the 29th or January 5th) will have no post. I’m just not sure which yet; I’ll let you know as soon as I do.
In the meantime, onward!
Prologue: Fortress of the Light
Redux Commentary
[Byar:] “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.”
In an abstract sense, I think it was a little difficult at first for me to grasp why exactly so many people would be so eager to throw down for just the rumor of the Dragon Reborn, to the point where I almost considered it a little unrealistic. But then I remembered that as an agnostic and general skeptic, my probable reaction to the news that the prophesied savior-and-also-destroyer-of-the-world had come again is… hm, unlikely to be the prevailing one.
Considering that, just for example, Seventh-Day Adventists are the 12th largest religion in the world according to Wikipedia, with some 18 million members. Given that, it’s probably not unrealistic at all to consider that thousands of Randlandians would be on the idea of their own version of the Second Coming like white on rice. Especially considering how much more heavily weighted their faith-to-fact ratio is on the “fact” side of things.
By authorial fiat, Randland doesn’t really do organized religion, but it certainly does do fundamentalism, in the more general sense of that word. The Whitecloaks, of course, being the obvious and most glaring example, but it’s probably helped along greatly in the general population by the fact that, as Robert Jordan pointed out, in Randland if you want proof of it all, it’s pretty much there for the viewing.
You know, as long as you don’t mind being eaten by Shadowspawn and/or becoming evil sword fodder when you toddle up to Shayol Ghul to see the place where all the apocalypse is from. Religious tourism in Randland: not for the faint of heart!
Niall’s skin was as thin as scraped parchment, drawn tight by age over a body that seemed all bone and sinew, but there was nothing of frailty about him. No man held Niall’s office before his hair was white, nor did any man softer than the stones of the Dome of Truth. Still, he was suddenly aware of the tendon-ridged back of the hand holding the drawing, aware of the need for haste. Time was growing short. His time was growing short. It had to be enough. He had to make it enough.
Niall and Byar present an interesting contrast in types of zealot, a differentiation defined a lot more by class and education than most people would probably prefer to believe. Byar is, in some respects, the more honest of the two: he is horrible in his brutal rigidity of worldview, but at least he is wholly sincere in his simplicity of purpose. Niall, on the other hand, is possessed of intelligence and ambition, two things which I always rather felt must be the curse of the devout person, in how to reconcile logic and self-interest with faith and mandated selflessness.
Niall appears to have dealt with the conflict by considering it all part and parcel of the same thing, which I speculate must be a common thing among members of the higher echelons of any religion, particularly those with significant worldly power. Niall’s aggrandizement, after all, is not just his own, but that of his entire cause; his glory is the glory of all the Children of the Light, and therefore it must be right and good to seek after, and not selfish at all.
Must be nice, to have it all dovetail so neatly, mustn’t it. Uh-huh.
And then there’s Carridin, who is the third kind of zealot: one who isn’t a believer at all, but apes belief in order to use actual true believers to further his own ends, generally with a breathtaking disregard for (or disinterest in) the right and wrong of any of it. His kind is the bane of any sincere faith, and is at least 90% of the reason I personally view those who profit in any way from their faith with skepticism at best.
Niall drew a deep breath. He could sense the unseen knives waiting in the shadows. But he was committed, now. “It is no treason to do what must be done. And even blasphemy can be tolerated for a cause.” Those two sentences alone were enough to kill him. “Do you know how to unite people behind you, Child Carridin? The quickest way? No? Loose a lion—a rabid lion—in the streets. And when panic grips the people, once it has turned their bowels to water, calmly tell them you will deal with it.”
But then, Niall has got Carridin’s number, hasn’t he, at least mostly. Who else could you admit logical, glory-accruing blasphemy to, except to one whom you already know doesn’t really care about blasphemy? Too bad Niall is just slightly too un-pragmatic, unfortunately, to allow himself to suspect that Carridin is not just an unbeliever but an actual Darkfriend. Things might have turned out quite differently, otherwise.
His name was a lie, of course. In the Old Tongue, Ordeith meant “wormwood.” When Niall challenged him on it, though, all he said was, “Who we were is lost to all men, and life is bitter.” But he was clever. It had been he who helped Niall see the pattern emerging in events.
Of course, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition morals-corrupting Rasputins to throw a wrench in one’s clarity of thought. Frickin’ Fain, y’all.
That said, I did enjoy the reference here. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with the Book of Revelations knows the significance of wormwood. Revelations claims it is a star which will fall to earth come Armageddon: “And the name of the star is called wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.” (Revelations 8:11, King James version)
Making things poisonous and bitter: yep, sounds like Fain. Very clever reference, in all.
“Nothing has changed, human. You foreswore your oaths to the Light and swore new oaths, and those oaths you will obey.”
Carridin started at the gouges marring the polished wood and swallowed hard. “I don’t understand. Why is it suddenly so important to kill him? I thought the Great Lord of the Dark meant to use him.”
“You question me? I should take your tongue. It is not your part to question. Or to understand. It is your part to obey!”
Yeah, but it is my part to question, so nyah.
This is where we get the first hints that all of the Shadow may not be working in concert, but in fact at odds with each other. Oh, my, bad people acting in bad faith? Say it ain’t so!
I’m sort of hazy in remembering who was holding Carridin’s leash at this point, but I think it was Sammael? At any rate, one of the Forsaken who did not give a good goddamn that Ishamael wanted him alive. Which, uh, at this point could be any of them except Lanfear, but Sammael had the biggest hate-on for Lews Therin, as we will learn (barring only Demandred, but apparently he was Busy Elsewhere), so I feel pretty okay about putting this one on him until someone tells me different.
I said in the original commentary that I felt a little sorry for Carridin, but on reflection I retract that statement. I feel sorry for everyone related to Carridin (and most people who come in any kind of contact with him whatsoever, really), but Carridin himself made his own shitty, shitty bed, and it was just a shame he wasn’t the only one who ended up having to lie in it.
And that’s where we’ll stop for now, kiddies! Have a lovely week, try to not wrestle anyone for the last Lego set at Walmart (because they are evil and you shouldn’t be shopping there anyway, shame, SHAME) and I’ll see you next Tuesday!
Niall seems not to realize that he lives in a fantasy world. He knows about channeling and trollocs, but believes in a mundane Last Battle (if fighting monsters counts as mundane).
Why is he so sure that he can catch his lion at a time that is convenient to him while everyone else fails to do it first?
Is Fain tearing the picture of Rand foreshadowing for the dagger wound?
Book of Revelation, not Revelations. Sorry to be pedantic.
I’m pretty sure that RJ said at some point that the fade who visits Carridin here was a prototype version of Shaidar Haran, a fade with somewhat of a level of autonomy. I know Sammael protects Carridin later on and tells him not to bother with killing Rand (that the search for the *greal cache in Ebou Dar was more important), but I don’t think we ever learn which of the Foresaken gave Carridin the order to kill Rand. I would imagine that it was actually directly from the Dark One, not to get Rand killed, but just to let the Lord of Chaos rule, so to speak.
I do know that it was Sammael talking to Carridin at a later point (Ebou Dar?) when Mili Skane was also present, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything for this, as we learned much later on with the POV of one of the Not-So-Fantastic-Four (Kisnan?) that a particular Darkfriend might have multiple higher-ups (in their case, Taim, Demandred and Moridin) all giving them directions that may not be compatible with each other.
I agree with the different types of zealotry. Niall’s big problem was that he made his personal peace with religion and how it fits into his personal worldview, but seemed to assume everyone else under him was on board in the same way. Since he was considered one of the world’s five great generals, that might have come from how a general expects to be obeyed by subordinates when he issues commands. Unfortunately, when it came to the Whitecloaks, most everyone had their own agenda and Galad didn’t come into power and quash those agendas until Niall was long dead. Niall was somewhat lucky with Carridin, as he definitely had his own agenda, but spent most of the time getting drunk because of the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” nature of his DF marching orders compared to Niall’s. On the other hand, Valda (more or less a common thug in a high-ranking position) and Asunawa (torture-happy zealot who makes Byers seem wishy-washy) were not so conflicted and Niall didn’t even see the betrayal until it was too late because he was too focused on his goals.
I’m not sure who sent the fade. It could be Ishy himself who is now in on the kill Rand order, as this Fade is a prototype Shadar Huan (sp?). Whether he really meant to kill Rand or not is debatable, but it seems that by the end of this book he had decided to take the lesser victory and Kill Rand. It didn’t work out too well for him though. The machinations of the Forsaken are kind of hard to follow for this book and the next several, but once you become familiar with them it becomes easier: Grey Men are sent by Ishamael, Darkhounds by Sammael, Fades and brigands (foreshadowing his ‘White Lions’) and Comar by Rahvin – and what relates to Dreams (incl. Slayer) is the doing of Lanfear.
So it could be Rahvin, but many books later – when Moridin is musing on the ‘shah’ game (in the PoD prologue I believe), he thinks about trying to kill the ‘fisher’ and how much of a mess that turned out to be.
The problem with the proof-so-no-need-for-faith/religion rationale is that large swathes of the population don’t even believe in Trollocs, let alone the Dark One. Heck, some of them don’t even believe in ice. (Although I guess taking the Dark One’s name in vain is the one proof available to all.) And even with a present Dark One and shadowspawn, you have no visible hand of the Creator. And what the heck is the deal with the Dragon? Between all of that I don’t see how you don’t wind up with diverse religious beliefs. The Whitecloaks instead wind up as this out-of-place quasi-religious organization with almost overtly religious principles in a world otherwise devoid of religion.
Two things. First, regarding those who profit from faith, I think it is unfortunately common among televangelists, Or at least it used to be. The Internet allows for more transparency, and people should demand it these days. Outside of the television world, I don’t think it’s as common as you believe. I was a member of one of the larger mega-churches in my town, and they made their financial records an open book. Any member could see how the money was being spent. (They were also members of an organization that would audit their finances and ensure that the books weren’t cooked, that salaries were appropriate, etc.) The leaders of the church weren’t paupers, but they weren’t living extravagantly either. They weren’t in it for the money. I’ve known other prominent individuals who have a genuine, strong faith and aren’t using their position to profit themselves.
Second, Walmart is evil? I’d agree they aren’t perfect (what is?), but look at the big picture. Walmart has done more to improve the standard of living for the average person than any government program. They give people the ability to by decent quality products at lower prices. You can disagree with some of their business practices, but “Evil” is a pretty strong word.
Wow I haven’t been here in a long time. Really missed this!
I thought RJ having Fain call himself wormwood was an homage to Lord of the Rings where you had Grima Wormtongue poisoning King Thoeden’s mind. Similarly, Fain helped poison both Niall’s and Elaida’s mind: by convincing the former that Two Rivers was a nest of darkfriends (with the goal of trying to bait Rand) and the latter by trying to further the friction between Elaida and Alviarin. IMO, it is Fain’s influence (and his furthering the paranoia of those close to him) that helped with the divisions that wound up in the White Tower. I acknowledge that the Black Ajah benefited (and Alviarin’s orders to Elaida caused some of those divisions). However, Elaida first started out with more power than Alviarin (before the disasters of Dumai’s Wells and the Black Tower) tilted the balance between the two. Yet after Elaida regains the balance (and is able to dismiss Alviarin), Elaida is still a megalomaniac. I believe that much of that was due to Fain’s influence.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
Oh, forgot to add this: the part where you said you felt kind of bad for Carridin, but don’t now makes a lot of sense. One thing that Jordan RAN with (and Sanderson continued to a degree) was the “being evil sucks” trope where you get a lot of evil-person POVs where you got to see that being a bad guy wasn’t all super powers, world domination and evil laughs.
Rank-and-file darkfriends were cannon fodder who were as likely to be eaten by grumpy Trollocs as actually accomplish anything (remember the descriptions of what Fain went through before a transformation).
Higher-ranked normals or lower-ranked Aes Sedai (like Carridin or Falion) were constantly threatened, bullied and treated like pawns on a chessboard where their purpose was to draw the assault of the good guys. Hell, any Aes Sedai got that treatment. Alviarin might have been the top Black Ajah in the White Tower, but Mesanna tended to treat her like a somewhat slow servant most of the time.
Taim became a Forsaken in the final book. And then spent most of the book having other Forsaken treat him like a widdle baby who can’t expect to know what to do without supervision. Hell, his main job was “here’s a powerful artifact; take it and blow stuff up, I think you can handle that, can’t you…oh yeah, dummy, don’t try using it on me…you’ll be dead 10 times before you hit the ground, you try that crap…”
Most of the rest of the Forsaken were caught in never-ending games of deceit and bickering where they hoped to be on the Dark Lord’s good side and feared getting on his bad side due to finding themselves in Soul Traps or raped by Shaidar Haran and other pleasant things.
Ishy/Moridin is the Dark Lord’s #1. He also is a self-hating, world-hating, existence-hating guy whose one dream is to just die and he considered being brought back to life the worst punishment he could have received.
A real fun bunch to chill with! They all made evil choices for various reasons with the end result of how nearly all of them are miserable to some level and the ones who aren’t are either too busy scheming to worry about things too much (Forsaken) or disinclined to think of things more deeply than “just keep my head down, do my work and hope the wrong people don’t pay attention to things” (Mellar).
@8 Andrew HB
The Wormtongue/Wormwood similarity might be both authors referencing the same source material. Tolkien was a member of the Inklings, a group of fantasy authors from the University of Oxford. It was during this group’s discussions that C.S. Lewis converted from atheism to Christianity, so I don’t doubt that Tolkien was familiar with the biblical prophecies of the end times. Revelation speaks of a false prophet and of the aforementioned Wormwood, so it’s a fine allusion to string them both together. RJ could then masterfully allude to all three.
@9: Yeah, I wonder if Trollocs have it better. They’re also battlefield fodder prone to fighting each other and controlled by fear and mind control, but they don’t seem to need to deal with complex politics, existential dread, or general intellectualizing. Just kill and breed, their favorite activities.
Seasoned Greetings, all!
Byar’s toxicity positively frightens me. Part of his toxicity is due to being willfully misinformed, but that’s certainly no excuse. I suppose it means RJ did a great job developing Byar, not many fictional characters gives me the willies.
Any ideology can be used to profit the corrupt. From humanistic Communism to professed Christianity the greatest common denominator is humanity. This fits nicely with my worldview and faith, so huzzah?
Granted some belief systems make it easier than others.
On the subject of Padan Fain, the word Padan can be translated in Aramaic as a pair – the Genesis town of Padan Aram was a twin town of two places called Aram. Awesome name for a duplicitous guy who eventually becomes two fractured souls in one body. I doubt this was intentional, but Jordan’s love for mining the Bible (particularly Genesis) for names really paid off here..
@13 agreed. I think if anything, the true enemy is extremism and rigidity and an inability to just live and let live. Which, sadly, we are seeing a ton of, from many different sides, nowadays.
Amusingly, we do get to see a Prologue with Whitecloaks again later on–KoD. And while it isn’t the entirety of the Prologue, what happens is incredibly important!
Not much to say about why people were so willing to declare for Rand, since aside from “the Pattern”, I think Leigh pretty much covered it. As to why him and not the false Dragons (who though they had plenty of followers never had the huge amount Rand ends up with)? Well, aside from the fact said false Dragons were thrown from their horses and captured, both putting an end to their campaigns and showing they weren’t as great as they thought they were, I’d guess what happened in Falme and especially the sky battle was more than convincing enough to prove he was the genuine article, even to people who didn’t know all the Prophecies.
I think the thing I remember most from our first introduction to Pedron Niall (and only borne out by his later interactions with Morgase) is something I believe Leigh might have mentioned, and which I know I did regarding Geofram Bornhald back in TEotW: that he comes so close to possibly getting things right, or even being an ally, but falls short in ways that makes him even more of a threat than the outright Darkfriends. Well, to a point; while his lack of effectiveness is more due to Fain’s influence, the Seanchan, and Valda and Asunawa’s machinations, he still doesn’t manage to accomplish very much before his death. At the same time, not only does he clearly have Carridin’s number (even as he doesn’t suspect his true allegiance), but the danger he poses to Rand, Andor, and the world at large is certainly far more than Carridin does. As shown by the bit with proto-Shaidar Haran and Carridin being caught helpless between conflicting orders. Even Compelled Byar is more dangerous to the heroes than Carridin, and of course he is the worst zealot of all while still somehow being of the Light. Niall sits somewhere between them in effectiveness, but if he hadn’t been poisoned by Fain, at the very least things would have gone very differently with the Seanchan. I also like to think he might have been more willing to listen to Galad than most high-ranking Whitecloaks, and that reuniting him with Morgase would have been another step in the process of their joining to clean up the Children of their rot and corruption. And I also think he genuinely liked and respected Morgase, and would have done as well by her and Andor as he could have.
All that said, though, he still woefully misses the obvious, and not just because of Fain. Leaving real-world commentary aside, a good part of this seems to be related to him being agnostic, thinking that the Creator had abandoned the world, that all that was left to save it was him and the Whitecloaks, and that there was no Dark One and no Forsaken, just Shadowspawn to face at the Last Battle. This lack of belief makes his pragmatism a foolish mindset and leaves him wide open to having his self-confidence shattered and his arrogance smacked back in his face even without Mashadar or the treason of his own followers. But it’s still sad, and something of a fascinating side diversion, to wonder how it could have been different, if he had been more open-minded, more willing to truly follow the Light. Since the intelligence he displays in seeing through both Carridin and Byar is formidable, and is testified to even more when we later see him with Omerna and Balwer. And he certainly knows how to manipulate people, considering his plan for Rand and the people of the nations dovetails neatly with how so many politicians, past and present, have succeeded in gaining power and obedience in our own world. If that could have been turned to truly beneficial ends…
Side note: interesting to wonder what would have happened if he had followed through on his threat and turned Carridin over to the Questioners. Would he have confessed his allegiance, and what would the Questioners and Niall have done if he had? Or would the Fade have prevented him from doing so, in a way that kept itself from being discovered?
Question: how did Fain get to Amador before Byar? Did he use the Ways again? Or did he flog his horses to death so as to outride him? And was his “half-dead” look faked, or did he end up that way thanks to the Battle of Falme and then having to flee without food and supplies?
Wormwood of course isn’t just a great Biblical reference, but made me think of Wormtongue from LOTR. Probably another deliberate homage, considering Grima’s role in Rohan, which puts Niall in the role of Theoden. Oddly fitting, considering the way Grima and Saruman turned Theoden against Gandalf and the rest of the heroes at first is very similar to Niall’s attitude toward the Aes Sedai and even the rest of Randland, and that both Theoden and Niall were great warriors with storied battles under their belts.
Yeah, not feeling sorry for Carridin at all, but very much so for his family. Did they all get killed before what happened to him in ACOS and WH? As for the Shadow’s internal conflict here…oddly, I had always thought it was Ishy himself who ordered proto-Shaidar Haran to kill Carridin’s family. While we don’t see him actually try to kill Rand until the end of the book, I always got the impression that the way things fell out at Falme was what convinced Ishy to stop trying to turn Rand, hence the new orders. After all, Rand is pursued by Gray Men when traveling overland to Tear, and for the most part it seems to always be Ishy who sends those, so that suggests he had indeed already made the fatal decision at that point.
It’s hard to tell what Be’lal’s part in all this means…while clearly he wanted to use Rand to pull Callandor, the Netweaver seemed to genuinely want to Turn Moiraine as well as the Supergirls, so wouldn’t he have wanted to do the same to Rand? (As we learn later, it’s easier to turn one gender with Dreadlords of the opposite gender, and he had thirteen Black Ajah right there in Tear.) So why would Ishy have been against that and just gone right to the killing? Still, the fact he argued with Be’lal in TAR may have been another sign he was against Turning and was ready to just kill Rand. So he could have been the one ordering Carridin.
That said, Sammael was clearly the one controlling Carridin later in Ebou Dar, so maybe he was the one having his family killed all along for not killing the man Tel Janin hated so much.
@1 birgit: Ooo I forgot about that bit with Fain. I bet it is!
@2 neverspeakaword: Considering what Shaidar Haran was, you could well be right.
@3 R0bert: Excellent analysis. Another thing that could be said about Niall was that he was smart and perceptive, but just not enough or not in the right ways, partly due to his beliefs and ambitions but also because he just couldn’t imagine being wrong or that others might disagree so violently. I have to wonder if he’d have realized about Valda and Asunawa if he hadn’t had the Seanchan to worry about, or if Fain hadn’t mucked about in his head. If not, that’s quite a huge blind spot to not realize they were ambitious time bombs waiting to happen.
@@.-@ gadget: Ishy does look like the most likely possibility, doesn’t he? Good job on sussing out the Forsaken’s methods, I had trouble keeping that straight too at first. And while you’re probably right that it seems odd for him to be the one who sent Shaidar Haran to Carridin (seeing as we hadn’t even met him yet, and until Rand heard about Morgase he was never a threat to Caemlyn at all), suggesting Rahvin as the culprit is certainly a unique theory!
@8 AndrewHB: Yay, another proponent for Wormwood/Wormtongue! Though it is kind of a gimme. And yes, while obviously Alviarin and her machinations didn’t help the Tower at all (and what Sheriam and the Ajah Heads were doing on both sides of the split further muddied the waters), everything about how crazy and out-of-control Elaida got can be laid on Fain. I guess the reason some people dispute this is that she was ambitious and arrogant to begin with and that Niall didn’t go crazy the way she did (and presumably Fain was in Amador far longer than the Tower). On the other hand, maybe Niall had a stronger mind and will than Elaida, or it was the fact Fain’s power and taint were stronger after the Two Rivers invasion. Either way, I think it’s clear Fain is to blame, though he did obviously have some nastiness already there to work with.
@9 R0bert: Indeed! And when you’re forced to get in someone’s head and see this awful stuff happening to them, it’s easy to feel sorry for them–until you remember that a) they chose this life by aligning with the Shadow and b) they’ve done plenty of awful things, which we get reminded of later on (in this case, Carridin). So then it becomes schadenfreude. Still, that does explain things like how Leigh could momentarily give points to Mellar for not forcing himself on Falion, or be glad she stood up to her tomentors and didn’t get raped like so many female villains did, and then go “What am I thinking? Approving of/sympathizing with them?” It’s complicated.
@12 Ways: Agreed, Byar creeped me out from the moment I met him.
@14 Meira: Don’t be too sure it wasn’t intentional. Also, “Aram”? Seems he mined that town name more than once. And again, considering Aram ended up changing allegiances and becoming duplicitous, it fits him too.
@15 Lisamarie: Amen.
You can tell the Fade is Shadar Haran because he laughs and shows emotion, something regular Fades don’t do. He also mocks Carridin for claiming they “both serve” which Haran doesn’t, being an avatar of the dark one himself.
Supposedly it’s Ishamael that gave the kill order for Rand, since it’s reported later that another of Carridin’s relatives has died showing that “someone is still carrying out Ishamael’s orders”. It’s unclear that Haran would be delivering orders for Ishamael, though, so it’s still ambiguous.