What is the likelyhood that Demandred is indeed gathering an army of Dreadlords in the Land of the Madmen?
I'm fairly sure that when Sammael talked about Demandred in the south, he didn't mean that.
RJ was once asked whether the Isle of the Madmen would feature in the last books of the series. His answer was that he was undecided, because some of the events he had planned could happen there, but they could just as well take place on the Main Continent.
This to me rather suggests that if no scenes are set *on* the Isle of the Madmen, it won't come into play at all. He talked about events happening there or on the Main Continent, not about Isle of the Madmen channelers coming to the Main Continent.
What else could realistically warrant a scene involving the Land of the Madmen?
I'm guessing some smaller events - for some of the reasons you mention yourself, and because space is limited in the two remaining books, I doubt a lot of space will be devoted to the book, but something sort of like Aviendha's "far snows" could make for a scene on that continent - seems like the only way anyone could find out about its existence. Which would also explain why RJ was undecided where said scene would happen.
Another RJ quote said that the last time around, half the channelers in the world followed the Dark One. However, this time around, the Dark One was limited to the Black Ajah, some wilders, and a few other sources which RJ "did not want to divulge at the time."
Sharans seems possible to me. Definitely Black Asha'man, yes, possibly also DF damane/sul'dam (imagine being a non-DF damane forced to fight for the DO...).
Now that obviously included the Black Ashaman, but it might also include an army of channelers gathered in the Land of the Madmen.
Eh. It'd be pretty much a deus ex machina.
Lastly, when BS was asked whether the Land of the Madmen would feature in the final books, his answer was RAFO.
They said that to everything though.
One weakness in this theory, is that the Land of the Madmen has never even been mentioned in the actual books. It is only known from the peripheral source known as the World of the Wheel of Time.
Yeah, that's the main point. How on earth is Demandred supposed to know about it? And we have no reason to assume that he'd take a wider view than e.g. Sammael, who iirc has some disdain for Graendal bothering to interfere with events in Shara, saying those peripheral continents don't matter. Nor do we know of anyone he could use to do all the training for him, and I don't imagine he'd do it himself - the men are mostly mad anyhow, so he'd need a woman to train the probably more useful women.
Therefore, from a purely plot perspective, an army of Madman Channelers would be the equivalent of Demandred rocking up with a spaceship full of Martian dreadlords on the Last Day.
Precisely.
Sharan channelers would have more of a basis in the story than these unknown Madmen. There has simply been no backstory to justify their appearance.
Graendal's (likely) death makes the appearance of Sharan channelers a lot less likely as well, you'd think.
Demandred and the far, far South...
- 16/11/2009 10:08:35 PM
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I doubt it, honestly.
- 16/11/2009 10:40:45 PM
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Land of Madmen could be intro'd easily, but incorporated awkwardly
- 16/11/2009 11:36:17 PM
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The Land of Madmen was already introduced in TGS, silly
- 17/11/2009 03:49:42 AM
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I thought it was mentioned in TGS.
- 17/11/2009 05:08:55 AM
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You can hardly describe a continent that size as a "barren isle". *NM*
- 17/11/2009 09:06:31 AM
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no, but it was briefly mentioned by the sea folk earlier in the series......can't remember when. *NM*
- 17/11/2009 04:42:35 PM
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