I thought Caemlyn was Rand's world, without the Dark One. The conscienceless world was Emond's Field, in the TR Blight where his friends casually betray him.
Check it again. Iirc, the Blighted TR was the first of the fake realities, which the DO made. Then, Rand created a version of Caemlyn with no DO. After that, the DO created one ALSO of Caemlyn. The reason I remember this is because Rand was going to buy an apple, and the street vendor just straight up shot some kid. Also, Basel Gill was going to rob Rand.
Baerlon was before SL, so he was a pure Shadow-minion at that point. The discussion of him here has to do entirely with his transformation to an agent of SLpower.
Yeah, that was my point; he hated Rand & co before he was even touched by SL, so his hatred didn't (at least entirely) come from SL corruption.