I believe Demandred has recruited far more than we see at the BT, and those probably aren't even his elite troops. Taim has long been obsessed with recruitement and numbers. I believe Demandred has let Taim have only a fraction of the people Taim found, enough to consolidate his power and control the BT, and be able to destroy or turn Rand's army down the line.
I agree that Demandred has far more recruits than we know, but I think it is an unintended byproduct of his initial plan i.e. to sow chaos. It's most likely that he ordered Taim to recruit and train men for the sole reason that so many would go insane that they would consume all of Rand's time, wreck the civilized world and provide him with a wonderfully disarrayed Light from which to launch his primary invasion. When the taint vanished, Demandred suddenly had to shift his plan - all those channelers were no longer risks, they were assets. He then told Taim to divert all the recruits to the secret training bases, and that's when he really got going with forced turnings. But I don't think anything happened regarding true recruiting of males for the Shadow prior to the cleansing of saidin.
But Demandred saw even the Taint didn't stop Rand's inner circle, and those circles were a match to the Forsaken. The Cleansing proved to Demandred he would need mixed gender circles.
Well yes, except I don't think Demandred did any male recruiting before WH. Why would he? Demandred isn't crazy enough to use tainted male channelers. He would have to spend half his time fighting rabid males on his own side or putting them down as they started to behave erratically. There is no proof that anyone except the Forsaken have protection from the taint, and I don't think he ever considered using male channelers until that point in the series.
It's not Aran'gar who stupidly went and killed with saidin the two women the most closely tied to Cabriana Mecandes. Nahhh... Aran'gar didn't kill those women.
It's a nice theory, but I prefer the easier one i.e. Aran'gar killed them. It's pretty much implied anyway. Aran'gar said that she knew everything about Cabriana thanks to Semirhage, and she went and killed her two closest associates to prevent a link to her. The fact that it created paranoia regarding the Ash'aman was an excellent way to keep the two groups at a distance. Aran'gar is highly impulsive anyway - it's one of her most well known traits. Mesaana also become extremely angry with Aran'gar when Egwene started to stray implying that the trio relied on Aran'gar to do her job. It doesn't make sense to say that they were trying to remove her, and then they ambush her at the first Forsaken meeting.
It's the BA who planted in the Rebels' minds the very notion that the Forsaken unleashed some mass destruction weapon at SL and that the AS had no choice to seek the Asha'man for mixed gender circles.
I'll have to disagree with this too. The Forsaken are the most likely explanation for a giant spike in the One Power. The fact that people bought it so easily was a testament to the validity of the claim. As for the Ash'aman, I presumed that it was the work of the Wheel of Time. To claim that saidin was cleansed and that 3,000 years of bad blood between the sexes was cured by the Shadow is very cynical indeed! It's more likely saidin was cleansed and the two could be actively encouraged to work together in preparation for the Last Battle.
I would say that if you think the Shadow has not closely followed the mixed gender developments and their spread, and taken initiatives to undermine this and prepare to get their own counterparts, think again.
I think the Shadow covets a lot of what the Light has, but it doesn't mean it can implement it. Mesaana by her own admission couldn't steal angreal and sa'angreal from the White Tower, and I have made no claim that they are not interested in objects of the Power. The Shadow encouraged the formation of the Ash'aman, and the destruction they could unleash once the taint caught them. The Black Ajah were a well established entity, but that fell horribly flat.
Shadow mixed gender work is already done secretely at the BT or by BT-linked people... how else do you think the Shadow is turning one by one the sisters sent by the Tower/Rebels?
I really don't know how it is done. Thirteen women can pull it off, but so can a mixed circle. We just don't know.
I think we've already seen as well men from Demandred's real army.
Absolutely. I'm pretty sure the male channeler who blew a hole in the wall was one such person. I never considered it to be one of the Forsaken.
This sounds very unlikely, that a male Chosen lead male armies and female Chosen lead female underlings. That's completely un-AOL like. That's not at all what would be natural for Demandred
My initial contention was that Demandred would have to fight this battle in a very different way to the War of Power.
Even before the Light started getting its own mixed gender circles it would have been stupid of him to willingly undermine his own army by making it a male-only club. That's also wasting the potential of the BA completely and therefore weakening himself. Demandred is supposed to be a genius of organization/strategy/tactics. A man like this spot advantages and seize them. Now it's even more obvious, because the Light will have mixed gender circles on the battlefied, and a great number of those, some of them can even be full 72 circles, probably able to wipe armies of Shadowspawn with a few weaves...
There is no proof that battles are fought like that. Again and again we have seen that the Light prefers to keep channelers separate during large battles. That was seen when Rand and his friends defeated the 100,000 trollocs even though they could have made an enormous circle. Even the Aes Sedai don't link during battle (Cadsuane vs Fain, Aes Sedai vs Shaido). I do not doubt that the superiority of using both powers together, but in battle it can hardly be called standard practice. Lews Therin showed exactly how dangerous a 'male only' club can be, and no one ever considered him to be a fool.
Aiel? Demandred hates Aiel. And sorry, but "sizeable foot of humans" is just a plain stupid notion.
Are you serious? There are thousands of darkfriends, men like Ingtar. I doubt the Forsaken are not going to use them. Demandred hates everything and everybody - I really don't think its good evidence to show what he will and will not do. He thinks he was above Lews Therin, for crying out loud.
You underestimate Demandred. I'll remind you Ishamael caused massive destruction but eventually "lost" the Trolloc Wars, because without him his leaders were not up to winning. Demandred would likely have won the Trolloc Wars.
From what we know Ishamael didn't teach mixed circles to his dreadlords in that War either. I see no evidence that the dreadlords ever linked in that War. Its weak evidence for the great last battle, but also rather important considering we're debating what Forsaken would do if they got hold of these two groups.
but the Shadow has nowhere near the numbers it had back then either.
That remains to be seen, unless you're just referring to Aes Sedai. I think there will be more Shadowspawn than in the War of Power. It's been alluded to already, and when Demandred or Moridin unleashes it, its going to be phenomenal. It might be one more reason why the Light needs so many mixed circles and sa'angreal. If they Shadow outnumbers the Light by less than 1000:1 I'll be very surprised.
I think much like you that he will get a series of successes through the first half of AMOL. The Shadow probably doesn't expect Rand to be capable of that, nor that he might even be willing to make that gamble.
I can't really figure out what Demandred is planning, but I'm sure its not a straight forward assault from the Blight. Most likely he's planning a round of simultaneous and devastating acts of sabotage or key assassinations in an attempt to disperse the Light. The Caemlyn idea is a nice one, but at the same time I don't see how Verin could have come across that piece of information. It seems that Demandred would tell no one what he was planning, perhaps not even Mesaana or Semirhage. Moridin did ask if they are ready and it seems to me that he is co-coordinating the attack, but Demandred will lead it.
As for the True Power ideas. Your theory makes sense, at least this is certainly a possibility for Shai'tan. The Chosen don't want the TP, but oh how they ressented it that Moridin still got exclusive access to it.... how easily Graendal was fooled to see being granted access again as a reward when it came.
I wouldn't be surprised that Shai'tan's next move is to force the remaining Chosen to use his True Power from now on, that it's the OP they're expected to use in a limited way, when they can justify it. At this stage, this would force the Chosen to fully commit themselves, because as addicts their future is totally in Shai'tan's victory, surviving his defeat no longer an option (no more than it is for Moridin. He'd likely kill himself if he survives a resealing. There would be no point for him to die no doubt horribly from TP deprivation.
I wouldn't be surprised that Shai'tan's next move is to force the remaining Chosen to use his True Power from now on, that it's the OP they're expected to use in a limited way, when they can justify it. At this stage, this would force the Chosen to fully commit themselves, because as addicts their future is totally in Shai'tan's victory, surviving his defeat no longer an option (no more than it is for Moridin. He'd likely kill himself if he survives a resealing. There would be no point for him to die no doubt horribly from TP deprivation.
Nice ideas. It will be interesting to see how Forsaken treat the True Power 'gift'. They'll be like dogs who have caught a bone and don't know what to do with it. Either way, I think the Light will be in trouble if any of the Forsaken use the True Power primarily.
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This message last edited by Sidious on 21/03/2012 at 09:54:48 PM
Biggest blows to the Shadow...
12/03/2012 07:15:32 PM
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Re: Biggest blows to the Shadow...
13/03/2012 12:37:55 AM
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Those were the exact three I had first on my list. Good call. *NM*
13/03/2012 04:55:29 AM
- 377 Views
Re: Biggest blows to the Shadow...
13/03/2012 04:51:32 AM
- 920 Views
Re: Biggest blows to the Shadow...
14/03/2012 06:22:51 PM
- 690 Views
Re: Biggest blows to the Shadow...
14/03/2012 11:36:00 PM
- 813 Views
Another Concord...
15/03/2012 12:33:51 AM
- 731 Views
The LB started in the epilogue of TOM, if you ask me...
15/03/2012 04:24:43 PM
- 588 Views
This is a wonderful summary of what I feel the situation at Merrilor wil be and I wish I wrote this
29/04/2012 07:41:53 PM
- 706 Views
Re: Biggest blows to the Shadow...
13/03/2012 08:03:59 PM
- 711 Views
I disagree on number three don't think it's broad enough
17/03/2012 02:53:08 PM
- 587 Views
I wonder if it was advertised though?
17/03/2012 04:25:23 PM
- 655 Views
I very much doubt it
17/03/2012 04:48:56 PM
- 558 Views
Re: I very much doubt it
17/03/2012 07:33:48 PM
- 513 Views
It's funny because I don't think the Forsaken have proven particularly effective either
17/03/2012 07:47:58 PM
- 605 Views
I think they've been pretty effective
19/03/2012 10:46:11 AM
- 591 Views
Yet they have done very little to move the grand plan forward
19/03/2012 11:51:59 PM
- 561 Views
What plan?
20/03/2012 08:18:40 AM
- 771 Views
I disagree ... The DO seems to have a plan and Moridin showed us he is following a prophesy
20/03/2012 01:05:40 PM
- 632 Views
Up until the very end of TGS, wasn't the plan to turn Rand/make him do the DO's job for him?
29/04/2012 07:46:04 PM
- 632 Views
Re: I very much doubt it
17/03/2012 09:59:15 PM
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Regarding Demandred
19/03/2012 11:11:22 AM
- 534 Views
Re: Regarding Demandred
19/03/2012 06:26:49 PM
- 667 Views
Re: Regarding Demandred
21/03/2012 09:48:40 PM
- 532 Views
Re: I disagree on number three don't think it's broad enough
17/03/2012 05:46:31 PM
- 681 Views
I always thought of the victory at the Eye as the Lights first big win in the series
17/03/2012 07:27:12 PM
- 636 Views
Re: I always thought of the victory at the Eye as the Lights first big win in the series
17/03/2012 09:16:08 PM
- 682 Views
Re: I always thought of the victory at the Eye as the Lights first big win in the series
30/04/2012 07:04:06 PM
- 611 Views
"Seemingly young girl"? Is she actually old or something? Maybe she's not a girl?
19/03/2012 01:39:12 AM
- 666 Views
Re: "Seemingly young girl"? Is she actually old or something? Maybe she's not a girl?
19/03/2012 03:34:11 AM
- 641 Views
Re: "Seemingly young girl"? Is she actually old or something? Maybe she's not a girl?
19/03/2012 10:35:57 AM
- 736 Views