To be honest, the only bit of magic in the series that I was consistently curious about was Padan Fain's. I always found the Shadar Logoth magic fascinating, and one of my pet theories is that the Pattern had Fain on the chance that Rand destroyed the DO, so that then Fain/Mashadar would take the DO's place, thus keeping the Wheel balanced. Once again, though, BS makes this super disappointing, with Mat being 'immune' and playing dead. Ugh, just thinking about that pisses me off.