I just don't think he could realistically build an army of Channelers in secrecy or in the given amount of time. I think we will see him unleash mixed circle weaves on unsuspecting foes etc... Odds are most of these will be BA women and Dark Asha'man rather than hundreds of individuals Demandred personally trained.
Will he have a handful of his own people ... Almost certainly, how many of these will there be? Who knows!
Will he have a handful of his own people ... Almost certainly, how many of these will there be? Who knows!
These 10 could then each have trained 20 more, and he'd have his 200 Dreadlords.
Given that his moves have been unknown since the start of the series, and given that the Ashaman number around 500 or more and only started recruiting halfway through LoC, I see no reason why Demandred couldn't have set up something similar.
Especially if he recruited intensively from Shara, the Isle of Madmen, and Seanchan in addition to Randland.
There are around a total of 500 men at the Tower. Only a fraction of those are Full Asha'man ... I think someone says only a few dozen (with Taim promoting rapidly in the last few months to avoid the AS bond). And who would train and recruit the women, he'd want many women to form circles as we know how much more potent mixed circles are. Finding the numbers isn't the hard part. Training and keeping it secret from everyone is the hard part. Graendal, Moghedien and Aran'gar (the 3 masters of espionage)all comment that they couldn't find out what he was up to. Had he been doing something as overt as mass recruiting of Channelers they would have gotten wind of it.
And there is no such thing as a "Disturbance in the Force" that a Yoda like Forsaken could sense from the other side of the planet to tell them that Demandred is massing a few hundred channelers on some distant little tropical island in the Aryth Ocean.
And there are hundreds of millions of people on the planet.
Demandred's loyal dreadlords stealing one Sharan a day (out of a population of tens of millions), and one man from the Isle of Madmen a day (out of a jungly, plague-infested wilderness), and one Seanchan commoner a day( from an Asia sized continent), and whisking them away to this island to be forcibly turned to the Shadow by 13 Black Ajah and 13 Myrdraal is not going to be raising alarm bells anywhere.
Also, it is too far away from the action for a man like Demandred. What you describe is smart (assuming Demandred even knows the first thing about the altered world geography), but not in any way realistic to one of the Forsaken. They need to be seen and seen to wield power, even Moghedien needed to boast of her actions at every opportunity, It is how they measure their own success. Demandred couldn't stop talking about how amazing his achievements will be at every meeting. That and consistently threatening the others so they wouldn't think him weak. And why would he be wearing the latest fashions of the Age if he's hanging out teaching on an island?
If any of the Forsaken were willing to do this the battle would have been over before it started. Think of how Verin described them. Selfish. Not to mention the egos involved. Demandred sitting on a dessert island somewhere training a bunch of "children" to Channel for the good of the Shadow is laughable. Not while the other Forsaken were moving about and carving off fiefdoms. Not without direct orders from the DO or SH.
As a portion of his plan I can see him gathering a small core group and teaching them to a small degree, enough to enhance his armies, but as with all the FS he will be jealous of his knowledge. The thought of him training hundreds of master OP warriors seems both redundant and out of character. More likely he will recruit from the BA and Dark Asah'man, DF Sul'dam etc... to fight in his armies.
I can't see RJ having a new Channeler system start without giving us a few tidbits either, he loved to give us snippets of this type of stuff. And why would Bsand keep telling us the Demandred story will be epic if all we end up getting is another group of Channelers? I'd like to think Demandred is doing something new, not just being an imitation Taim. In the new prologue Moridin heaps praise on Taim for training new Dreadlords and says it was something none of the others had done.
After Sammael's death Demandred says exactly what you are saying.
He says Sammael's death was the price of " The need to be seen wielding power as well as wielding it"
He says it disdainfully, indicating his derision for Sammael's quest of the limelight, while he himself moved more subtly, behind the scenes, without anyone's knowledge.
This links to Sammael's comments about Demandred liking to use proxies instead of taking the limelight himself.
Demandred's modus operandi is in fact exactly what you think he is incapable of doing. Working behind the scenes to prepare for his big move.
And this would most certainly not be his entire plan, sitting on some island training dreadlords. He will train a dozen or so, and add them to 13 Black Ajah and 13 Myrdraal, and then leave them to do most of the training while he sets up more proxies across Randland, for his grand strategy.
AMOL Prologue : Analysis of Forsaken section *major spoilers*
19/09/2012 05:47:21 PM
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You left out that Taim and Demandred have met before.
19/09/2012 06:19:01 PM
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Part of me keeps screaming Logain, though that can't be right...
20/09/2012 12:14:00 PM
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We have our answer as to why Cyndane and Moiraine are reduced in power.
20/09/2012 05:14:01 AM
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It was spelled out before.
20/09/2012 05:25:05 AM
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And some of us guessed that's what happened, we just didn't have evidence. *NM*
20/09/2012 12:04:18 PM
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Nor a lot of support for the idea...
22/09/2012 06:28:14 PM
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Really? Seemed like the obvious series of events
23/09/2012 02:32:35 PM
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I know...
23/09/2012 05:30:42 PM
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I'm not so sure
24/09/2012 05:32:50 PM
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Why question it?
25/09/2012 01:40:39 AM
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Re: Why question it?
25/09/2012 06:12:32 AM
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No she doesn't. She focuses on Graendal's punishment being about her looks
25/09/2012 04:10:04 PM
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Re: No she doesn't. She focuses on Graendal's punishment being about her looks
25/09/2012 06:41:13 PM
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Re: No she doesn't. She focuses on Graendal's punishment being about her looks
25/09/2012 07:21:03 PM
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Re: No she doesn't. She focuses on Graendal's punishment being about her looks
25/09/2012 07:53:47 PM
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Demandred - the wasted Forsaken
20/09/2012 08:14:15 PM
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Talmanes
23/09/2012 12:42:27 AM
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I think you once again overestimate my appreciation of the series.
25/09/2012 02:33:34 PM
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Re: Talmanes
02/10/2012 03:27:05 PM
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I'm disappointed after waiting a week for a new post in the Forsaken thread, it's about Talmanes!
02/10/2012 09:46:48 PM
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Two interesting Forsaken issues you haven't raised
22/09/2012 06:21:34 PM
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Seems to me that Taim himself was behind going to Rand
23/09/2012 02:53:32 AM
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Re: Seems to me that Taim himself was behind going to Rand
23/09/2012 05:50:48 PM
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I think I rebel against this thought process because of the Taimandred Red Herring
23/09/2012 06:35:19 PM
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Re: I think I rebel against this thought process because of the Taimandred Red Herring
23/09/2012 07:46:59 PM
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I have to wonder at Hessalam
23/09/2012 01:20:13 PM
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Re: I have to wonder at Hessalam
23/09/2012 06:52:10 PM
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I agree that B-Sand seems to have inserted Graendal into the Slayer plot line in TOM
23/09/2012 07:17:15 PM
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Re: I agree that B-Sand seems to have inserted Graendal into the Slayer plot line in TOM
23/09/2012 08:19:02 PM
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EDIT ... Demandred has only had about 9 months (according to wotchron)
23/09/2012 09:13:44 PM
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Re: I have to wonder at Hessalam
24/09/2012 05:18:29 PM
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So based on this new info, what is Demandred's big game? Shara or Isle of Madmen back on the table?
23/09/2012 08:01:03 PM
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Re: So based on this new info, what is Demandred's big game?
23/09/2012 08:52:48 PM
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Interesting...
23/09/2012 09:06:18 PM
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Re: Interesting...
23/09/2012 11:31:31 PM
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I think we saw them during the attack on Maradon. The Portal Stone attack seems less likely
23/09/2012 11:41:42 PM
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If I had to take a guess right now I'd say he has been setting up various Shadow armies thought the
23/09/2012 09:30:34 PM
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I think at the very least he has recreated the One-and-Eighty male channelers from the AOL...
23/09/2012 09:34:56 PM
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As I said he will almost certainly have Channelers
23/09/2012 09:47:53 PM
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All he needed to do was train 10 guys personally..
23/09/2012 09:51:46 PM
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It took Taim nearly a year to train a dozen men to a place where they could teach
23/09/2012 10:00:40 PM
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The world is 25,000 miles by 25,000 miles in size...
23/09/2012 10:15:22 PM
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That is just far fetched ... I think I would laugh out loud if that is the case
23/09/2012 10:43:37 PM
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Direct quote from Demandred refutes this...
23/09/2012 10:49:10 PM
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Demanded is much more like Mesaana in his ways
23/09/2012 10:55:00 PM
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"My rule is secure." Could Demandred be ruling an entire Mirror World?
23/09/2012 10:43:51 PM
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The changes in Moghedien
25/09/2012 03:29:15 AM
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I believe she commented on Graendal's strength, comparing it to Nynaeve or something?
25/09/2012 11:07:24 PM
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Well..
25/09/2012 11:15:21 PM
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Thanks for the quote, but reading that, it kind of implies the opposite, to me...
25/09/2012 11:35:53 PM
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Hmmm....
26/09/2012 12:00:33 AM
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Hehe, that old argument again.
26/09/2012 12:09:25 AM
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Yes.
26/09/2012 12:58:03 AM
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I agree the Forsaken are all pretty close in effective Strength
26/09/2012 04:11:16 AM
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Re: I agree the Forsaken are all pretty close in effective Strength
26/09/2012 08:53:02 AM
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Well...
26/09/2012 09:09:38 AM
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Re: Well...
26/09/2012 10:17:03 AM
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Moiraine lost more than 2/3 of her strength. Siuan lost about that and Moiraine seems
26/09/2012 04:46:18 PM
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Re: I agree the Forsaken are all pretty close in effective Strength
27/09/2012 03:00:04 AM
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Re: I agree the Forsaken are all pretty close in effective Strength
27/09/2012 07:23:11 AM
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As always you forget book 4 is more than half way through the timeline of the series
26/09/2012 03:58:22 AM
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Actually......
26/09/2012 02:30:00 AM
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Not sure that's completely true..
26/09/2012 06:42:51 AM
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Probably something like this
26/09/2012 08:36:40 AM
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Probably true, but maybe a hint from a Sanderson interview should be considered here...
26/09/2012 08:56:32 AM
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Re: Probably true, but maybe a hint from a Sanderson interview should be considered here...
26/09/2012 10:01:08 AM
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Graendal almost has to be Stronger than Nynaeve
26/09/2012 05:57:35 PM
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One thing about that...
27/09/2012 02:58:56 AM
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Possible, but I find it unlikely
27/09/2012 06:16:56 AM
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The reason I think that...
27/09/2012 06:25:48 AM
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I always assumed Nynaeve at the top was a list he later revised as he decided to bring in
27/09/2012 06:39:35 AM
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I wasn't making a Strength comparison ... I was commenting on her lack of cowardice
26/09/2012 03:45:36 AM
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Re: I wasn't making a Strength comparison ... I was commenting on her lack of cowardice
26/09/2012 05:30:36 PM
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