Re: The reason is... - Edit 1
Before modification by DomA at 24/01/2010 08:00:42 PM
If the Shadow gave a damn about the Tinkers, they would have been exterminated long ago, not now at the last minute. Nothing has yet happened to make the Shadow see the Tinkers suddenly as a potential threat.
That most Tinkers are for the first time gathered at one place. This could be a good opportunity for the Shadow to destroy a group, whose belief is likely an anathema to the DO's agenda.
The idea that this Trolloc army was a lost part of the army that attacked Rand in KoD doesn't really work with the timeline.
The problem is that this is not accurate.
They are not in one place. Several (most? we don't even know) bands have sought safety in Seanchan lands, not all of them in Ebou Dar specifically. There is a large group in Ebou Dar, but it's not the only group.
Earlier on, we also have heard that a great many bands of Tinkers had sought safety in the Waste (Many Aiel touched by the bleakness were going to them). It's a distinct possibility that those Tinkers are still in the Waste, if they have not been convinced by the "bleak" Aiel who joined them to return to Rhuidean. With Aviendha going there and in the columns, the possibility that Tinkers bands will be around is a distinct one.
Secondly, that's also wrong that this is the first time the Tinkers gather like this. They have held similar gatherings of the bands each year around Sunday for millenia (the first time we heard of Tinkers gathering in the south, it was actually dismissed by a character as just that "oh, it's just their annual Sunday gatherings"
. The only difference now is that they don't gather between themselves for Sunday but have sought the vicinity of cities. Nothing points (to the Forsaken, not to us who see all the foreshadowing) to the fact anything of any importance has changed about the Tinkers or that anyone is on the verge of discovering anything important. There's no reason to worry about them all of a sudden. The Shadow had plently of opportunities to eliminate Tinkers in the last three millenia if they gave a damn about them or their philosophy. To the Shadow they're just light siders who won't lift a finger to fight for the Light, the shadow of a shadow of the da'shain who don't remember anything of what they were.