Two interesting Forsaken issues you haven't raised - Edit 1
Before modification by DomA at 22/09/2012 06:42:04 PM
At the beginning of the scene, Moridin tells Demandred and Moghedien that there are people they needed to meet, not that there was someone they needed to meet. He spoke clearly of more than just Taim.
He later specifically excluded Hessalam as being one of those people.
Then of course he introduced M'Hael, the (first?) new Chosen.
The scene ends in media res without any of the other people Moridin wanted the three original Chosen to meet being shown to us. How many more doors were to open once Moridin was done introducing M'Hael? (unless of course this is the result of bad editing again, and no one caught that if Moridin excluded Graendal, then he shouldn't say "there are people"
Obviously if it's not a a mistake there are more, and from the way Moridin spoke of them being too few leaders/Chosen left for the Last Battle, I'd say there's 95% chances the other people he would go on to introduce behind the scene are also all new Chosen, or at the very least very high ranking agents of the Shadow for the LB.
It's interesting because at this point there's no one fully obvious. Of course there's Alviarin, chosen as Head of the Black Ajah by Ishamael himself, servant of Shaidar Haran who marked her as a pet. It remains to be seen if the DO thinks she deserves it - or that pragmatically she will just have to make do. Is she the one who managed to get a great deal of the BA out of the White Tower right before the purge? Is the disaster at the Tower blamed solely on Mesaana?
But there's also the fact it seems fairly obvious the "army now in need of proper monitoring" was to be originally lead by either Semirhage or Mesaana, though probably if it was Semirhage's Demandred first re assigned them to Mesaana's forces, and now is in need of another Chosen to lead this female army under him. That force likely includes the BA, which makes having Alviarin Chosen a bit redundant... unless like the BT the BA is kept apart, under Alviarin's leadership, perhaps originally to fall under Mesaana's control but now passing directly to Alviarin under Demandred or under Moridin. Which could leave an army of "various female channelers" be what Demandred needs Moghedien for. (and I still believe Mesaana had a group of agents hidden in TV beside the BA, a group of novices to be precise)
The fact Brandon chose to hint there's more new Chosen but not to reveal it plainly or tell us who they are suggests they are unrevealed DF channelers, and thus will start off as hidden infiltrated Forsaken.
One of those Chosen could be a Wise One, for example (no, it won't be Sorilea.) Other possibilities for a new Chosen include a Windfinder, a highly placed Seanchan, a Sharan leader, a leader of the Red Veils etc. At this point in the story, raising known characters we didn't know were DF would have more impact than introducing wholly new blokes as Chosen.
But aside from Alviarin, there's really no obvious candidate... But if there's only her beside Taim, there wasn't really much point to Brandon not revealing her beside M'Hael. There has to be at least one new Chosen Brandon really didn't want us to know about yet, probably because that character isn't revealed as a DF yet.
I don't interpret it that way at all. Moridin speaks elsewhere as if he clearly knows what Demandred is up to and what his forces are. He knows his plans, that the DO is pleased with them, that Demandred now has need of Moghedien. That's not what sparked Demandred's anger, it's Moridin's lack of respect for his accomplishments, his calling his followers "playthings" for example. Moridin is no doubt a great deal more satisfied with Demandred's results than he's willing to acknowledge wherever Demandred can hear (out of his presence, he spoke of him as having pleased very much the DO...). Openly he shows despise, and that grates Demandred. Another aspect is that Moridin is again probably showing a good dose of bad faith, with the fact that Demandred seems to have for the most part spent his time to prepare for the War and build himself armies, thus most of the fruits of his work are yet to come into play but Moridin chose to unfairly present that as Demandred not having produced concrete results yet. That's what angered Demandred and made him exclaim Moridin will see tons of results and be surprised by some of them. There is obviously some rivalry going between the two, as it appears more and more to me I was right Demandred has built himself hidden armies. Ishamael had no competition for thousands of years with building DF networks, the Black Ajah - and the Red Veils are almost certainly his creation as well. Demandred, who didn't have to hide his recruits carefully in plain sight for centuries, build structures so their organizations would be more or less automonous and so on probably got impressive results with intensive recruitment and secret training. That probably grates Moridin's pride a bit, or it's just Demandred's too great pride in his achievements, the fact it's a little too obvious Demandred seeks to outshine him, that grates him.
Incidentally, it seems pretty clear from the scene that the new Chosen M'Hael is, or at least was, under Demandred's sphere of influence yet that he was Moridin's protégé in the first place. I think now that Ishamael was behind Taim proclaiming himself Dragon, perhaps also Ishamael's the one who ordered Alviarin to organize his escape, before he died in Tear. Then, I think it was Demandred's idea when he learned of the amnesty to find and send Taim to Rand, originally to become his second at his side. Rand offered better: he put Taim in charge of training the Asha'man, and it's probable that while it was Taim's doing, Demandred helped him. I suspect Demandred distanced himself from the Black Tower project later when Moridin arrived and meddled. Taim had been his pawn, and with Moridin back in play Demandred could no longer fully trust him. That's when Demandred started going in Taim's back, and when Taim started to turn the place into a second fortress bearing Moridin's colors.
And it doesn't sound like Demandred is behind the battle of Caemlyn after all. It sounds more and more like this happened on Moridin's orders, a plan which earliest pieces go way back to Shiaine and Hanlon, the orders from Moghedien and so on. Whatever was in store for Elayne didn't work, as she left the city. It still looks like the whole thing is meant to get rid of Caemlyn which Queen, walls, sheer size and ressources threatened the safety of the BT during TG, and to give free access to a Waygate to the BT, but this appears to be a plan of Moridin linked with Taim, not Demandred, like giving Taim a Dreamspike. It looks to me like Moridin doesn't intend to leave nearly all the control of the War to Demandred.
He later specifically excluded Hessalam as being one of those people.
Then of course he introduced M'Hael, the (first?) new Chosen.
The scene ends in media res without any of the other people Moridin wanted the three original Chosen to meet being shown to us. How many more doors were to open once Moridin was done introducing M'Hael? (unless of course this is the result of bad editing again, and no one caught that if Moridin excluded Graendal, then he shouldn't say "there are people"
Obviously if it's not a a mistake there are more, and from the way Moridin spoke of them being too few leaders/Chosen left for the Last Battle, I'd say there's 95% chances the other people he would go on to introduce behind the scene are also all new Chosen, or at the very least very high ranking agents of the Shadow for the LB.
It's interesting because at this point there's no one fully obvious. Of course there's Alviarin, chosen as Head of the Black Ajah by Ishamael himself, servant of Shaidar Haran who marked her as a pet. It remains to be seen if the DO thinks she deserves it - or that pragmatically she will just have to make do. Is she the one who managed to get a great deal of the BA out of the White Tower right before the purge? Is the disaster at the Tower blamed solely on Mesaana?
But there's also the fact it seems fairly obvious the "army now in need of proper monitoring" was to be originally lead by either Semirhage or Mesaana, though probably if it was Semirhage's Demandred first re assigned them to Mesaana's forces, and now is in need of another Chosen to lead this female army under him. That force likely includes the BA, which makes having Alviarin Chosen a bit redundant... unless like the BT the BA is kept apart, under Alviarin's leadership, perhaps originally to fall under Mesaana's control but now passing directly to Alviarin under Demandred or under Moridin. Which could leave an army of "various female channelers" be what Demandred needs Moghedien for. (and I still believe Mesaana had a group of agents hidden in TV beside the BA, a group of novices to be precise)
The fact Brandon chose to hint there's more new Chosen but not to reveal it plainly or tell us who they are suggests they are unrevealed DF channelers, and thus will start off as hidden infiltrated Forsaken.
One of those Chosen could be a Wise One, for example (no, it won't be Sorilea.) Other possibilities for a new Chosen include a Windfinder, a highly placed Seanchan, a Sharan leader, a leader of the Red Veils etc. At this point in the story, raising known characters we didn't know were DF would have more impact than introducing wholly new blokes as Chosen.
But aside from Alviarin, there's really no obvious candidate... But if there's only her beside Taim, there wasn't really much point to Brandon not revealing her beside M'Hael. There has to be at least one new Chosen Brandon really didn't want us to know about yet, probably because that character isn't revealed as a DF yet.
There is even the insinuation that Moridin himself doesn't know what Demandred is up to - and Demandred says that he will discover in due time and be shocked at what he's accomplished.
I don't interpret it that way at all. Moridin speaks elsewhere as if he clearly knows what Demandred is up to and what his forces are. He knows his plans, that the DO is pleased with them, that Demandred now has need of Moghedien. That's not what sparked Demandred's anger, it's Moridin's lack of respect for his accomplishments, his calling his followers "playthings" for example. Moridin is no doubt a great deal more satisfied with Demandred's results than he's willing to acknowledge wherever Demandred can hear (out of his presence, he spoke of him as having pleased very much the DO...). Openly he shows despise, and that grates Demandred. Another aspect is that Moridin is again probably showing a good dose of bad faith, with the fact that Demandred seems to have for the most part spent his time to prepare for the War and build himself armies, thus most of the fruits of his work are yet to come into play but Moridin chose to unfairly present that as Demandred not having produced concrete results yet. That's what angered Demandred and made him exclaim Moridin will see tons of results and be surprised by some of them. There is obviously some rivalry going between the two, as it appears more and more to me I was right Demandred has built himself hidden armies. Ishamael had no competition for thousands of years with building DF networks, the Black Ajah - and the Red Veils are almost certainly his creation as well. Demandred, who didn't have to hide his recruits carefully in plain sight for centuries, build structures so their organizations would be more or less automonous and so on probably got impressive results with intensive recruitment and secret training. That probably grates Moridin's pride a bit, or it's just Demandred's too great pride in his achievements, the fact it's a little too obvious Demandred seeks to outshine him, that grates him.
Incidentally, it seems pretty clear from the scene that the new Chosen M'Hael is, or at least was, under Demandred's sphere of influence yet that he was Moridin's protégé in the first place. I think now that Ishamael was behind Taim proclaiming himself Dragon, perhaps also Ishamael's the one who ordered Alviarin to organize his escape, before he died in Tear. Then, I think it was Demandred's idea when he learned of the amnesty to find and send Taim to Rand, originally to become his second at his side. Rand offered better: he put Taim in charge of training the Asha'man, and it's probable that while it was Taim's doing, Demandred helped him. I suspect Demandred distanced himself from the Black Tower project later when Moridin arrived and meddled. Taim had been his pawn, and with Moridin back in play Demandred could no longer fully trust him. That's when Demandred started going in Taim's back, and when Taim started to turn the place into a second fortress bearing Moridin's colors.
And it doesn't sound like Demandred is behind the battle of Caemlyn after all. It sounds more and more like this happened on Moridin's orders, a plan which earliest pieces go way back to Shiaine and Hanlon, the orders from Moghedien and so on. Whatever was in store for Elayne didn't work, as she left the city. It still looks like the whole thing is meant to get rid of Caemlyn which Queen, walls, sheer size and ressources threatened the safety of the BT during TG, and to give free access to a Waygate to the BT, but this appears to be a plan of Moridin linked with Taim, not Demandred, like giving Taim a Dreamspike. It looks to me like Moridin doesn't intend to leave nearly all the control of the War to Demandred.