One of the unanswered mysteries in the series is who sent the 100K army of trollocs against Rand and company in KoD?
I believe it is safe to rule out any of the Forsaken who channel saidar from candidates for the culprit. That is the part of the mystery that is solved. It could have been any of the men or Halima/Osan'gar because she channels saidin.
There are two pieces of information to support my idea and they work in conjunction. First, in aCoS, it is remarked that Myrdraal can distinguish the difference between Saidar and Saidin by "smell." See A Crown of Swords, chapter 40. Second, Moridin comments that someone appeared as "Sammael" to the Myrdraal, and that it could ONLY have been one of the Forsaken who gave the order because the Myrdraal had to obey.
The only other person who possibly could command Myrdraal would be Alviarrin (she got a special mark after all), but she is eliminated from contention by the same reasoning as the other female forsaken (see above). We have no evidence to suspect any other non-forsaken (i.e. Mazrim Taim or anyone else) of being able to command Myrdraal.
The above two clues work in conjunction to eliminate the saidar wielding Forsaken from consideration. For a saidar channeler to appear as "Sammael" would require the person to weave a mask of mirrors to make her look like Sammael. But because Myrdraal can smell the difference, the Myrdraal should have been able to detect the deception immediately if one of the saidar channelers tried that. That should eliminate the saidar channelers.
For the deception to work properly, a saidin channeler would have had to of appeared as Sammael.
Remember that Myrdraal do not actually see the weaves, and thus inverting them seems to me not to matter at all. Of course, I'm assuming here that a Myrdraal can smell a weave whether it is inverted or not. I admit I could be wrong there. However, for evidence in favor of my assumption I point to the scene in The Great Hunt where the Myrdraal who came to purchase Nynaeve and Elayne to turn them using 13 Myrdraal were not in the same room as Elayne when she channeled just a little bit, yet they knew immediately she had channeled. The book doesn't say it explicitly, but I think the Myrdraal could smell she had channeled.
Do you agree that only a saidin channeler could have deceived the Myrdraal into thinking it was "Samael" giving the orders?
I believe it is safe to rule out any of the Forsaken who channel saidar from candidates for the culprit. That is the part of the mystery that is solved. It could have been any of the men or Halima/Osan'gar because she channels saidin.
There are two pieces of information to support my idea and they work in conjunction. First, in aCoS, it is remarked that Myrdraal can distinguish the difference between Saidar and Saidin by "smell." See A Crown of Swords, chapter 40. Second, Moridin comments that someone appeared as "Sammael" to the Myrdraal, and that it could ONLY have been one of the Forsaken who gave the order because the Myrdraal had to obey.
The only other person who possibly could command Myrdraal would be Alviarrin (she got a special mark after all), but she is eliminated from contention by the same reasoning as the other female forsaken (see above). We have no evidence to suspect any other non-forsaken (i.e. Mazrim Taim or anyone else) of being able to command Myrdraal.
The above two clues work in conjunction to eliminate the saidar wielding Forsaken from consideration. For a saidar channeler to appear as "Sammael" would require the person to weave a mask of mirrors to make her look like Sammael. But because Myrdraal can smell the difference, the Myrdraal should have been able to detect the deception immediately if one of the saidar channelers tried that. That should eliminate the saidar channelers.
For the deception to work properly, a saidin channeler would have had to of appeared as Sammael.
Remember that Myrdraal do not actually see the weaves, and thus inverting them seems to me not to matter at all. Of course, I'm assuming here that a Myrdraal can smell a weave whether it is inverted or not. I admit I could be wrong there. However, for evidence in favor of my assumption I point to the scene in The Great Hunt where the Myrdraal who came to purchase Nynaeve and Elayne to turn them using 13 Myrdraal were not in the same room as Elayne when she channeled just a little bit, yet they knew immediately she had channeled. The book doesn't say it explicitly, but I think the Myrdraal could smell she had channeled.
Do you agree that only a saidin channeler could have deceived the Myrdraal into thinking it was "Samael" giving the orders?
Well done on picking this up. If you are correct, it can only be Demandred who sent the Trollocs, since Arangar eliminates herself as a suspect.
The only weakness in the theory is that the other Forsaken would surely know whether the Myrdraal can distinguish between saidin and saidar in that fashion, and would therefore be able to make the same deductive leap that you did, instantly. This last point leads me to believe that an inverted weave cannot be sensed by Myrdraal.
Part of a mystery from KoD is solved
- 14/12/2009 08:37:45 PM
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Only SH can distinguish saidin and saidar
- 14/12/2009 08:46:31 PM
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I think this Mydraal in question was Shaidar Haran 1.5, was it not? I don't remember. *NM*
- 14/12/2009 08:50:24 PM
306 Views
SH obviously wasn't one of the Myrddraal, who were ordered by "Sammael" to attack Rand. *NM*
- 14/12/2009 08:53:43 PM
266 Views
Very interesting argument...
- 14/12/2009 08:49:08 PM
743 Views
Alviarin's Mark doesn't give her control over shadowspawn. RJ told us this in a Q&A.
- 14/12/2009 08:49:50 PM
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Link please to the RJ quote. *NM*
- 15/12/2009 03:31:06 PM
238 Views
I always thought it was Demandred
- 14/12/2009 08:59:01 PM
979 Views
I've always thought it was Semirhage's doing
- 14/12/2009 09:39:18 PM
562 Views
I agree
- 15/12/2009 04:44:14 AM
669 Views
In my view...
- 15/12/2009 07:32:18 AM
530 Views
Graendal is low on my list
- 15/12/2009 01:47:20 PM
578 Views
Posing as Sammael is Graendal's modus operandi
- 15/12/2009 01:58:34 PM
593 Views
Re: Posing as Sammael is Graendal's modus operandi
- 15/12/2009 02:21:07 PM
787 Views
But if she want's to appear as Sammael, she would surely "act in character"...
- 15/12/2009 02:42:27 PM
593 Views
Re: But if she want's to appear as Sammael, she would surely "act in character"...
- 15/12/2009 03:01:40 PM
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Two things...
- 15/12/2009 02:03:23 PM
562 Views