Re: They seemed pretty much nuts from the scenes we've seen them in - Edit 1
Before modification by DomA at 30/09/2012 09:26:14 PM
The Chosen are obviously more Powerful, but they are also predictable in the way sane people are.
The SN are at once insane male Channlers and a source of fear from his earliest childhood ... A powerful combination ... I doubt they are even particularly skilled Channelers (no more than most Dedicated at the BT). Ishamael would have been stunningly foolish to train them beyond being weapons. I imagine they are the prototype for the Asha'man training in the BT.
The SN are at once insane male Channlers and a source of fear from his earliest childhood ... A powerful combination ... I doubt they are even particularly skilled Channelers (no more than most Dedicated at the BT). Ishamael would have been stunningly foolish to train them beyond being weapons. I imagine they are the prototype for the Asha'man training in the BT.
I wonder if being turned in some way isolates you from the effect of the taint? There seem to be a great many of these SN and why would Ishamael have trained a bunch of insane channelers or kept them around in one place?
But anything is possible ... Too little information to be certain of anything
I didn't get the impression they've been trained. I think they function as a twisted Aiel society: they train each other, and given the rules in place, it seems to me they must be trained during raids in the Blight, far from the town itself (where it appears they're forbidden to channel or there's a mechanism in place to prevent them touching saidin. We know apparently not all of them have been turned either, it sounds like some were raised there.
My intuition is that they're forbidden or prevented from touching saidin and aren't insane from the Taint. Rather it's the True Power they use, and the DO is not letting them use it in the Town itself... but Moridin of course is allowed.
As for being insane I'm not so sure. The taint is very debilitating... few would last very long if they used saidin without protection, which they may not have/use because they simply don't use saidin...
As for their behaviour and totally wild side, I'm not sure it's insanity so much having been turned... and being Aiel in the first place. RJ gave the impression such people become utterly and completely evil, as if they had been immersed completely in the essence of the DO by the 13x13 ritual. Aiel without ji'e'toh to humanize and civilize them would be pretty frigthening....
I also find it pretty interesting that at the end of TOM Fain seemed to be nearing that town... a town where a lot of people, like him, have been forced by the Shadow to do things against their will...