The Wheel of Time: Book Four, The Shadow Rising

Update: I made a video version of this post! Check it out here:

That’s four down – and damn was that a good book. Today I’m talking about book four, The Shadow Rising. You can catch up on book three here if you haven’t already.

As a reminder, this is a response to the book. There will be spoilers. If you haven’t read the book yet, go do that first: it’s a great book and I’d hate to spoil it for anyone.

Quick summary

I hate to just summarize a whole book… but so much happened here that I think I need to at least list the main points

• Rand and Mat went through the red door ter’angreal, but we only saw Mat’s perspective. He met with some snakey people (either Aelfinn or Eelfinn – unless I missed something, we don’t actually know which is which.) He was told a few prophesies:
  • He must go to Rhuidean or he’ll die
  • He will marry the Daughter of the Nine Moons (doesn’t the Seanchan empress sit in the Court of the Nine Moons – will he marry either the empress or her daughter?)
  • He will die and live again.
  • He will give up half the light of the world to save the world.
• Rand commanded Tear to aid Cairhien, then sealed Callandor back in the Stone and left for the Waste.
• Rand, Mat, Moiraine, and Aviendha have been to Rhuidean.
  • Mat met some fox people, the counterpart to the snakey people from before, making these the other of the Aelfinn or Eelfinn. They wore human leather and seemed ready to eat him, but gave him a spear engraved with Huginn and Muninn (thought and memory), and a fox medallion.
  • Rand saw the history of the Aiel by stepping backwards in time through nine generations of ancestors, all the way back to the moment when the Dark One’s prison was first broken. He learned just a ton of stuff here, but the main point is that the Aiel were once the Da’shain Aiel and followed the Way of the Leaf. The Tuatha’an split off a long time ago and the Aiel have forgotten that the reason they don’t carry swords is because they follow the Way of the Leaf – it has nothing to do with swords in particular.
• Perrin went back to Emond’s Field to protect it from the Children of the Light. He rallies the people of the Two Rivers to fight back thousands of Trollocs and kick out the Whitecloaks, becoming Perrin Goldeneyes. His family is dead – killed by Ordeith, though Perrin thinks it was just Trollocs – and he married Faile.
• Siuan and Leane have been stilled and cast out: Elaida is now the Amyrlin Seat. All Blues have been killed or driven out of the Tower. Siuan, Leane, and Min barely escape with their lives – taking Logain along for the trip. Gawyn let them leave, but is siding with Elaida. As far as I can tell, none of our other characters know about this yet, not even Moiraine.
• Egwene is learning how to control her dream walking from the Aiel. They’re forcing her to learn a little patience and maturity as well.
• Nynaeve and Elayne went to Tanchico, hunting the Black Ajah and stopping their plan to control Rand. With help from Julian, Thom, and Domon – as well as a new Seanchan ally, Egeanin, they accomplished their goal by finding and hiding an a’dam meant to control a man. Nynaeve also beat Moghedien – one of the Forsaken – in a one-on-one fight, but accidentally let her escape.
• Aviendha is training to become a Wise One. She’s also set to spy on Rand, but it seems like her true purpose is to endear the Aiel to Rand (my guess is that they want her to bear him a child to give him a stronger tie to them, but that’s just speculation.) In any case, she’s definitely got a bit of an angry crush on Rand.
• Rand is the Car’a’carn and He Who Comes With the Dawn to the Aiel. He called down a great rain storm in the Waste, destroyed Rhuidean leaving a lake behind, and is accepted by many of the Aiel.
• Rand defeated Asmodean, cutting him off from the Dark One. He intends to use him as a teacher, now that he’s merely a man who can channel (and weakened by a barrier from Lanfear, who’s still hanging around, occasionally invading Rand’s dreams.)

There’s a lot more, but that should get you more-or-less up to speed on which book we’re talking about if you’re looking back at these after reading more of the series.

What is The Shadow Rising about?

With so much world-building, so many lore-dumps, and all of the stuff that happened, it seems a bit silly to try to wrap it all up into one overall theme… or, at least, it would if Robert Jordan wasn’t so damn talented at putting this all together and lining up parallel themes between the main perspective characters.

The Shadow Rising is all about leadership. Over the last three books, we’ve gradually watched our characters grow towards accepting their various powers and destinies. This time around, they see what this means for other people: this is not a story about purely internal battles and coming of age, it’s a story about the world and everyone in it. The Dark One will not be defeated and humanity will not be saved by magic powers and courage alone: the support of many, many people will be necessary to win. Our characters don’t need to merely become independent adults, they need to become leaders and supporters.

Let’s break down some examples.

Perrin Goldeneyes

Throughout the story so far, we’ve seen Perrin struggle to decide whether he’s a warrior or a blacksmith. This time, he discovered that he’s a leader, no matter how foolish he thinks that is. Whatever else he does, he’s not a lone wolf.

“I don’t know why everybody keeps calling it that,” he said. “A plan, I mean. That Luc was talking nonsense. Defying Whitecloaks in the door. Boys on the roof to watch for Trollocs. A couple of open gates to disaster. All I did was point it out. They should have been doing this from the start.”

Sometimes he wished one of these men would turn to him and say, “This is business for the Mayor and the Council, young fellow. You go on back to the forge. We’ll let you know what to do.”

What I like most about Perrin stepping up as the protector of Emond’s Field and the Two Rivers is how self-conscious he is: it’s very relatable. I’m reminded of my own thoughts when I’ve stepped into leadership positions. Pretty much every time I’ve been told that I’m doing a great job as a leader, I was kind of stumped: I’d only applied some common sense that everyone has access to. When I first started as an engineering manager, nearly all of my early accomplishments were just basic bookkeeping stuff. I’m talking about stuff like creating a working agreement, standardizing our meetings, and documenting our expected workload. It was all common-sense stuff: they should have been doing this from the start.

But, it’s easy to say that when you’re looking back at it – back at the finished results. By the time I left my team, I’d doubled the team’s size, dramatically changed the careers of everyone on the team, trained everyone on modern scrum and kanban techniques, created all necessary team documents and charters, and built us a better position and role without the org. Each step along the way felt like common sense: I was almost angry that nobody else had done it already. Looking back at it, I still think that most of the individual steps were things that anyone could have done, but – though it feels boastful to say so – I don’t think that it would have happened without me. If I hadn’t stepped in, the team probably would’ve dissolved and the whole product would have been much worse off for it. Nobody would’ve been eaten by trollocs, but isn’t comparing your boring life to that of heroes the point of reading fantasy?

So it is with Perrin. Most, if not all, of the individual orders he gave were obvious things that anyone could have thought of. Most of the time he didn’t even need to provide an answer of his own, he just had to confirm what the other person already knew. That’s how it works Perrin.

I love how Perrin never fully accepts that this is normal. In my view, this is what makes someone a good leader. It should feel a little bit silly. Perrin’s initial call to arms was inspired by a bit of angry jealousy towards Luc and some sad frustration that the people around him wouldn’t likely survive the trolloc attacks. He didn’t even really know that it would work: he just started talking without thinking. I really want to emphasize this point: Perrin did not set out to become a leader and he didn’t have a perfect end goal in mind. He was just angry that Faile was blushing at Wil and Luc and anxious that so many good people would be hurt if they didn’t take things more seriously. This is often how it starts. Over my professional career, I couldn’t begin to enumerate all the times I was sitting in a meeting getting more and more angry that the person in charge of something was doing a poor job or focusing more on their own accomplishments than the work at hand. After a while, I’d just open my mouth without really thinking about it and start poking holes in the plan. Sometimes I’d just come off looking like a fool… but other times I’d find myself suddenly taking charge of the project and handing out orders. By the time the meeting was over I’d often feel a moment of panic – What the hell did I just sign up for? I don’t have a plan, I just didn’t like that other jerk’s plan. – but by that point it’s too late and all you can do is follow through, no matter how silly it all feels.

A good leader should be willing and able to see and accept how silly leadership is, that even some of their greatest triumphs are mostly just luck and the hard work of other people. That’s just how it goes. Sometimes, when you start talking without thinking, you give a stirring speech. Sometimes you make an ass of yourself. So long as you hit a decent ratio and have the responsibility to follow through appropriately, it’ll all work out. The silliest part of all is that it’s often easier to clean up a mistake than it is to follow through on a good plan.

I also really liked how much support Perrin had from those around him. Not just Faile, but the older men and women in Emond’s Field. A simple “You’re doing fine” goes a long way. In my first months as a manager, I couldn’t tell you how many times I felt completely unsure of whether I was making any sense at all. I’d occasionally stop a 1-on-1 meeting just to ask “Does this make any sense at all?” It feels weird to be the one giving orders, rather than taking them. You start to wonder whether you’re doing a good job… or making such a mess of things that no one even knows how to tell you that you’re being crazy. Perrin, like any reasonable person, needed some extra assurance. I firmly believe that anyone who doesn’t need the occasional confirmation that they’re leading the right way is no leader at all. Over time, you learn how to gather this feedback without sounding so unprofessional, but you never stop checking that the people below you still see your plan, at least well enough to follow along with, if not in its totality. Perrin didn’t rise to greatness alone, he had the love and support of many people around him: people who told him when he was doing a good job, who forced him to take breaks, and who didn’t let their own egos get in the way of helping.

Rand

Unfortunately, Rand’s plan isn’t just a long sequence of common-sense decisions that simply needed a leader to pull together. He’s not just a leader and he can’t be as open with his plans as a leader generally should be. He needs to break and save the world as both a political and spiritual leader, while occasionally stepping out for high-stakes magical duels, and he doesn’t have much time to get everything figured out. He doesn’t have the time to be a perfect leader, he needs to settle for good-enough.

Whereas Perrin’s sections display the real fundamentals of leadership, Rand’s situation focuses more on responsibility and understanding. Rand needs to figure out how to relate to the people he’s supposed to lead. On a personal level, he doesn’t always do a great job of this. He’s utterly unable to read Aviendha’s conflicted infatuation with him. He’s so worried that Moiraine and the Wise Ones will control him that he doesn’t seek their advice even when he really needs it. He doesn’t even try to find a confidant in Mat or Egwene. Perhaps he’s right to be as paranoid as he is… but he’s running himself to death and relying on luck as often as planning. Sure, he can’t trust any of the people around him completely, but he could trust them more than he does.

Yet, for all of that, Rand does a decent job of managing the larger role of leading an entire people. His choice to continue riding a horse and wearing a red coat was excellent: trying to pass himself off as an Aiel would have alienated them. Jordan’s a pretty realistic and well-informed author, he wouldn’t have allowed Rand to go full “white-savior” Muad’Dib. Instead, he chooses a more honest approach: Rand clearly marks himself as an outsider while also striving to understand and relate where he can. In the last book, Rand leaned on destiny quite a lot: this time around, he’s far more wary – he knows that he could lose the faith of the Aiel at any time.

What I really wanted to see was a bit more humility, as in Perrin’s sections. The perfect time for this was when he first entered Cold Rock Hold and notes some vegetables that he wasn’t familiar with. “He had been too long a farmer not to wonder.” He should have talked about this with someone. His image as He Who Comes With the Dawn would only have been strengthened by a bit of modest and sincere curiosity. Granted, he does show this modesty when he asks to enter the hold as an individual, rather than as a chief, but I would’ve really enjoyed a short scene where he discusses agriculture, demonstrating a familiarity with common people.

In fairness, Elayne specifically cautions him against humility when he considers admitting when he got an idea from her while ruling Tear. For most leadership roles in real life, that sort of transparency and credit sharing would be good – but for Rand, who needs to be seen as a prophetic messiah, Elayne is probably right. I’d still like to see Rand holding on to his humble origins a bit more, but he’s striking a hard balance by necessity.

Nynaeve and Elayne

Nynaeve and Elayne become leaders as well, though on a much different scale. Rather than leading hundreds or thousands, they need to learn to operate independently and take charge of the more experienced people around them. Unlike in Perrin’s case, where the older men and women accept him quickly and lend their support, Thom, Julian, and Domon continually vie for some control. The challenge the girls face here is in accepting the help without being swept away by it.

And they needed the help; turning the men (and later Egeanin) away would have meant failure. There’s simply no way that they could have pulled off their mission in the Panarch’s palace without every single one of their allies… but they absolutely couldn’t do things the way the men wanted either. This is a challenge that Rand and Perrin didn’t really face. It’s made all the more challenging by the girls not really being naturally suited for it: Nynaeve is far too angry and Elayne is far too privileged. Neither fully overcomes these failings, but they do manage to maneuver around them well enough to accomplish their goals. Overall, these two still have a lot of growing to do, but there were some definite steps forward here.

I do want to mention, however, that I don’t think that Thom is just being condescending here. He’s not even just being protective of Elayne: he’s doing the same thing he’s been doing since the first book. He sees a couple of very young girls being driven by the White Tower into a horrible situation and he’s sickened by it. He’s been primarily concerned with protecting the boys, as the girls aren’t likely to be killed or stilled by Reds outright, but sending them off to hunt the Black Ajah doesn’t feel much better. It’s still for the best that Nynaeve and Elayne don’t let Thom take control of the situation, but it’s hard for me to judge Thom too harshly: he just doesn’t want to see any of these innocent kids get hurt by the Aes Sedai.

Moiraine

Moiraine did not get much chance to lead in this book, but she did get a chance to demonstrate one of the hardest aspects of leadership: mentorship. With Rand declared as the Dragon and quickly gaining power, Moiraine can’t simply bully her way into being in charge anymore (not that she was ever all that successful with this.) She’s now finding that, in order to achieve her life’s work of guiding the Dragon to his destiny and helping humanity through Tarmon Gai’don, she needs to learn how to support Rand. In The Shadow Rising, she kind of does a terrible job of this, but there are some moments where she’s clearly trying. In chapter 50, she asks Rand to confide in her. This isn’t much, but it strikes me as a sincere attempt to step back a bit and support Rand… if only because she’s begrudgingly accepting that she can’t dominate him. I hope Moiraine shows some more significant growth here in future books. Thus far she’s been a terrible leader and her bullying, arrogant, and manipulative personality has only gotten in the way of her goals… but she’s also been one of Rand – and the rest of the Emond’s Fielders – most valuable allies. With a little growth, Moiraine could step into a role of mentorship and become one of Rand’s strongest allies. I’m definitely curious what she’ll do when she finds out that Rand has Asmodean and the sa’angreal with him.

Siuan

Ah, Siuan… it was still hard to see her fall. I loved how she picked herself back up!

Notably, she really did fall and stay down for a little while. She held some secrets back, but she gave in to the torture and told Elaida most of what she knew. She was about ready to just give up for a little while there. She’s not infallible… but she is a badass.

Me, I mean to see Elaida does not get away with this. I could almost forgive her, if she truly believed I had endangered the Tower. Almost, I could. Almost. But she has been filled with envy since the day I was raised Amyrlin instead of her. That drives her as much as anything else, and for that I mean to pull her down. That is what fills me, Leane. That, and the fact that Rand al’Thor must not fall into her hands.

She’s running on anger and desperation… but she can also see that Leane is ready to just give in and Min is not at all comfortable with being the leader any longer than she needs to be. Well, Siuan has been in some bad situations before and she’s not going to waste any time wallowing in it: plans change, but she still has a mission. Sometimes, this is what leadership is about. Plans don’t always work out – in fact, they rarely go exactly as planned. It’s only human to have some moments of despair, but if nobody is willing to keep things going, then everyone will fall apart. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Siuan’s still capable of, even without the ability to channel. I get the impression that Elaida’s going to be surprised at how little that will hold Siuan back. Somehow, I can’t really see egotistical Elaida picking herself back up like Siuan did.

Gawyn

If we’re purely concerned with leadership, then we have to include Gawyn in this list as well. We don’t have much direct knowledge of how Elaida’s coup went down, but we know that Gawyn rallied the Warders in training and killed both Hammar and Coulin. It sounds like he really stepped up during a crisis.

But, did he stop to consider what he was actually doing? The Warders’ loyalty is to the Tower, but it really seems like anyone who knows anything about Elaida had to at least suspect that she was just vying for power. That Gawyn had to kill both Hammar and Coulin demonstrates that the older, more experienced men at the Tower weren’t willing to stand for Elaida: we don’t know whether they were loyal specifically to Siuan or if they merely didn’t want to take a firm side, but they were willing to die for it. Elayne has also expressed some private concerns about Elaida: Gawyn should have at least a bad feeling about Elaida taking charge. He’s young, and not well informed on internal Aes Sedai politics, so I’m not saying that Gawyn should have come out willing to die for Siuan, but if he really wanted to help, he should have just ensured that the Warders in training were kept safely out of the fighting, or rallied them to help evacuate noncombatants and provide aid to anyone injured. Instead, he chose the path with the most glory, regardless of what that meant.

My take here is that Gawyn made a pretty common mistake for young people seeing an opportunity to step into a leadership role: he was so excited to become a leader that he didn’t bother to consider whether he was leading a worthy cause. He saw an opportunity for power and glory and just seized it. Now he can tell himself that he’s surpassed his teachers, proved himself capable of making hard decisions, and shown himself to be a person of importance.

This is no different from a young manager in a modern professional setting agreeing to manage a team they know nothing about or take on a project that they don’t agree with. I’m reminded of the time that I inherited a project to convert a codebase’s build system to Bazel. It was a good idea in theory, and upper management was excited about it, but I quickly learned that my team – and the teams we supported – didn’t like the idea at all. I did some research to determine whether it really was a good idea and I just needed to convince the team… and found that, for a variety of reasons, it just wasn’t a good project for us to take on. Cutting the project didn’t look good – I was a new manager cutting the first major project my team had – but it was the right move for everyone involved. Sometimes leadership means being the one to call a surrender. Songs about heroic last stands and Pyrrhic victories sound glorious, but that doesn’t do anything for the people who were actually there.

What really proves this point for me is that Gawyn let Siuan, Leane, and Min leave. If he was solely focused on Egwene and Elayne, then he should have demanded answers: when else is he going to get them? If he truly supported Elaida and saw Siuan as a Darkfriend, he wouldn’t have let her leave. Siuan and Leane have been stilled, but they still know far too much to be allowed to leave. If Siuan wanted to destroy the Tower or aid the Dark One, she still has plenty of power to do so. She could go to the Whitecloaks and allow them to use the coup as an excuse to invade the Tower to quell the mutiny. She could run to the Dark One and tell everything she knows about Rand and the forces of Tar Valon. Siuan is still very dangerous, both as a source of information and as a political figure. She could easily continue to give orders as the Amyrlin Seat to anyone who isn’t aware of the schism. So, why did Gawyn allow her to leave? He didn’t have to kill them: he could’ve easily overpowered them and brought them back to Elaida, so it wasn’t just queasiness at killing unarmed women.

He just doesn’t know what he’s doing, and on some level he knows it. He’s perfectly willing to take all the glory of leading men into battle and proving his skill against his former teachers, but what glory is there in simply catching some escaped prisoners? When there’s little to gain, he goes with his gut, which is to trust Min. This is pathetic. Leadership without integrity is just greed, and Gawyn really showed his hand here.

I think there’s plenty of chance for him to redeem himself in the future. He could still learn. This was also an exceptional situation with little time to think, so he may come to see that he made the wrong call… but it’ll take a lot of courage to do this. I’m looking forward to seeing how things go for Gawyn in the future, but right now, he serves as a great example of what a leader shouldn’t do. Honestly, I’m not getting my hopes up too high.

Egwene

That, finally, brings us to Egwene. Egwene didn’t do much leading this book… which is great character growth for her.

Egwene’s been kind of an idiot for the whole series to this point. She’s arrogant, hypocritical, and power-hungry. I half expect her to wind up being a foil for Lanfear in the future. She’s openly derisive towards anyone who tells her to be careful, yet is quick to call out anyone else who ever does something reckless. Egwene honestly thought that she was nearly as powerful as Rand until he proved otherwise in the scene where Egwene and Elayne tried to train him. She’s power-hungry, arrogant, and spoiled.

Which is why I’m glad to see her finally being forced into some character growth! After spending quite a while butting heads with Nynaeve over who should be in charge – Nynaeve who’s several years her senior and has some real experience in leadership – Egwene finally steps back a bit for her training with the Wise Ones. Granted, this isn’t by choice, but she is – finally – accepting that she’s not ready to lead yet. She needs some more growth first. Perhaps if Gawyn had found the same scrap of humility, things would have gone different in the Tower.

Alright, that’s enough about leadership! What else do we have going on in The Shadow Rising?

I fuckin’ called it with Mat being Odin

Okay, I’m not going to gloat too much – it really was pretty obvious after Egwene’s dream – but yeah, Mat is Odin. He even gets a spear now, which is Odin’s favored weapon. There was also a scene where a bunch of Aiel spears perfectly missed Rand: spears and arrows landing a bit too fortunately is one of Odin’s many powers!

Did everyone catch the engraving on his spear? Ravens, and the following words:

Thus is our treaty written; thus is agreement made.

Thought is the arrow of time; memory never fades.

What was asked is given. The price is paid.

Thought and Memory: in Old Norse, that’s “Huginn” and “Muninn” – the names of Odin’s two ravens.

Alright, I already talked enough about this last time, so I’ll move on.

Lord Luc and Isam

So, fun aside, “Lord Luke” was my old online handle. I… may have also signed my high school papers as “Lord Luke” when I was a cringey teenager.

But who is Lord Luc?

Well, we know that he’s kind of a douche-bag.

The lord himself followed almost on the boy’s heels, a tall, broad-shouldered man in his middle years, with a hard, angular face and dark reddish hair white-winged at the temples. There was an arrogant cast to his dark blue eyes, and he certainly looked every inch a nobleman, in a finely cut green coat discreetly embroidered in golden scrolls down the sleeves and gauntlets worked in thread-of-gold. Gold-work wrapped his sword scabbard, as well, and banded the tops of his polished boots. Somehow he made the simple act of striding in through the doorway grand. Perrin despised him on sight.

All the al’Seens and Lewins rushed in a mass to greet the lord, men, women and children crowding around him with smiles and bows and curtsies, babbling all over one another about the honor of his presence, the great honor of a visit from a Hunter for the Horn. They seemed most excited about that. A lord under the same roof might be exciting, but one of those sworn to search for the legendary Horn of Valere—that was the stuff of stories. Perrin did not think he had ever seen Two Rivers folk fawn over anybody, but these came close.

This Lord Luc took it as clearly no more than his due, perhaps less. And tiresome to put up with, at that. The farm folk did not seem to see, or maybe they just did not recognize that slightly weary expression, the slightly condescending smile. Maybe they simply thought that was how lords behaved. True enough, a good many did, but it irked Perrin to watch these people—his people—put up with it.

After Perrin gathers everyone in Emond’s Field, Luc starts going out hunting Trollocs and Myrddraal most nights. “Laughing, he tossed a bulging cloth bag at Perrin. The bottom gleamed darkly wet in the moonlight. Perrin caught it out of the air and hurled it well over the stakes despite its weight. Four or five Trolloc heads, no doubt, and perhaps a Myrddraal. The man brought in his trophies every night, still seeming to expect them to be put up for everyone to admire.”

Wait, he’s going out to hunt Trollocs and Myrddraal on his own most nights and coming back with bags full of heads? That’s… actually pretty impressive. I’m not even sure if Lan could go out hunting Myrddraal casually. So, he’s a remarkably talented warrior, if nothing else.

It’s Luc’s poor advice (and his obnoxious flirting) that first inspired Perrin to start taking charge of the Two Rivers.

“Not so,” Luc announced loudly. He had galloped up along the edge of the houses from the direction of the North Road. He reined his rearing black stallion to a flashy halt, forehooves pawing. “You are no doubt fine at singing to trees, Ogier, but fighting Trollocs is something different. I estimate less than a thousand now. A formidable force to be sure, but nothing these stout defenses and brave men cannot hold at bay.

He says this shortly before the massive attack that nearly wipes out Emond’s Field. Luc is either just terrible at strategy, logistics, and operations, or he’s a saboteur.

We also discover that he has some link to Slayer, a man fully in the dream who kills wolves and looks like Lan.

Very mysterious, but seriously, who are these people?

Well, if we’ve been paying attention, then we already know.

Luc; Lord Luc of House Mantear (LUKE; MAN-tee-ahr): Tigraine’s brother, who would have been her First Prince of the Sword when she ascended the throne. His disappearance in the Great Blight is believed to be in some way connected to Tigraine’s later disappearance. His sign was an acorn.

From the glossary in Eye of the World

so, Lord Luc is Tigraine’s brother. Note also the sign of the acorn: this is likely a symbol of Avendesora. Who’s Tigraine though?

Tigraine (tee-GRAIN): As Daughter-heir of Andor, she married Taringail Damodred and bore his son Galadedrid. Her disappearance in 972 NE, shortly after her brother Luc vanished in the Blight, led to the struggle in Andor called the Succession, and caused the events in Cairhien which eventually brought on the Aiel War. Her sign was a woman’s hand gripping a thorny rose-stem with a white blossom.

Also from the glossary in Eye of the World

Oh, she’s also almost certainly Rand’s mother. Character have commented on how much Rand looks like Tigraine several times by now. Perrin notes that Luc looks a bit like an Aiel or Rand too. What do we know about Rand’s mother from the Aiel perspective?

Sitting back on her heels beside Rand, Amys nodded. “She spoke of a child abandoned, a son she loved. A husband she did not love. Where, she would not say. I do not think she ever forgave herself for leaving the child. She would tell little beyond what she had to. It was for us she had been searching, for Maidens of the Spear. An Aes Sedai called Gitara Moroso, who had the Foretelling, had told her that disaster would befall her land and her people, perhaps the world, unless she went to dwell among the Maidens of the Spear, telling no one of her going. She must become a Maiden, and she could not return to her own land until the Maidens had gone to Tar Valon.

The Aiel knew Rand’s mother as Shaiel. Hmmm, Tigraine abandoned her husband and son too, so this all fits conveniently well.

We can’t say for certain at this point, but at the very least we’re definitely meant to believe that Tigraine is Rand’s mother and Luc is his uncle.

But that’s not the only time Luc has come up so far.

Daughter of the Night, she walks again.
The ancient war, she yet fights.
Her new lover she seeks, who shall server he and die, yet serve still.
Who shall stand against her coming?
The Shining Walls shall knell.
Blood feeds blood.
Blood calls blood.
Blood is, and blood was, and blood shall ever be.

The man who channels stands alone.
He gives his friends for sacrifice.
Two roads before him, one to death beyond dying, one to life eternal.
Which will he choose? Which will he choose?
What hand shelters? What hand slays?
Blood feeds blood.
Blood calls blood.
Blood is, and blood was, and blood shall ever be.

Luc came to the Mountains of Dhoom.
Isam waited in the high passes.
The hunt is now begun. The Shadow’s hounds now course, and kill.
One did live, and one did die, but both are.
The Time of Change has come.
Blood feeds blood.
Blood calls blood.
Blood is, and blood was, and blood shall ever be.

The Watchers wait on Toman’s Head.
The seed of the Hammer burns the ancient tree.
Death shall sow, and summer burn, before the Great Lord comes.
Death shall reap, and bodies fail, before the Great Lord comes.
Again the seed slays ancient wrong, before the Great Lord comes.
Now the Great Lord comes.
Now the Great Lord comes.
Blood feeds blood.
Blood calls blood.
Blood is, and blood was, and blood shall ever be.
Now the Great Lord comes.

Prophecies from the Shadow written on the walls in Fal Dara in The Great Hunt

So, it seems that Luc did – as the glossary said – head into the Blight, but he survived. Or, at least, he came back. Perrin notes on multiple occasions that he smells… cold. Not the same as Slayer, but similar in that they both smell cold and note quite human.

We also have a mention of Isam here. In The Shadow Rising, we only heard the name Isam a few times: chanted by Trollocs just before they began the final attack on Emond’s Field. Once again, we actually know precisely who Isam is if we’ve been paying attention.

“Lan is from Malkier,” the Wisdom said softly, looking up. She seemed troubled.

It was not a question, but Agelmar nodded. “Yes, Lady Nynaeve, he is the son of al’Akir Mandragoran, last crowned King of the Malkieri. How did he become as he is? The beginning, perhaps, was Lain. On a dare, Lain Mandragoran, the King’s brother, led his lances through the Blight to the Blasted Lands, perhaps to Shayol Ghul itself. Lain’s wife, Breyan, made that dare for the envy that burned her heart that al’Akir had been raised to the throne instead of Lain. The King and Lain were as close as brothers could be, as close as twins even after the royal ‘al’ was added to Akir’s name, but jealousy wracked Breyan. Lain was acclaimed for his deeds, and rightfully so, but not even he could outshine al’Akir. He was, man and king, such as comes once in a hundred years, if that. Peace favor him, and el’Leanna.

“Lain died in the Blasted Lands with most of those who followed him, men Malkier could ill afford to lose, and Breyan blamed the King, saying that Shayol Ghul itself would have fallen if al’Akir had led the rest of the Malkieri north with her husband. For revenge, she plotted with Cowin Gemallan, called Cowin Fairheart, to seize the throne for her son, Isam. Now Fairheart was a hero almost as well loved as al’Akir himself, and one of the Great Lords, but when the Great Lords had cast the rods for king, only two separated him from Akir, and he never forgot that two men laying a different color on the Crowning Stone would have set him on the throne instead. Between them, Cowin and Breyan moved soldiers back from the Blight to seize the Seven Towers, stripping the Borderforts to bare garrisons.

“But Cowin’s jealousy ran deeper.” Disgust tinged Agelmar’s voice. “Fairheart the hero, whose exploits in the Blight were sung throughout the Borderlands, was a Darkfriend. With the Borderforts weakened, Trollocs poured into Malkier like a flood. King al’Akir and Lain together might have rallied the land; they had done so before. But Lain’s doom in the Blasted Lands had shaken the people, and the Trolloc invasion broke men’s spirit and their will to resist. Too many men. Overwhelming numbers pushed the Malkieri back into the heartland.

“Breyan fled with her infant son Isam, and was run down by Trollocs as she rode south with him. No one knows their fate of a certainty, but it can be guessed. I can find pity only for the boy. When Cowin Fairheart’s treachery was revealed and he was taken by young Jain Charin—already called Jain Farstrider—when Fairheart was brought to the Seven Towers in chains, the Great Lords called for his head on a pike. But because he had been second only to al’Akir and Lain in the hearts of the people, the King faced him in single combat and slew him. Al’Akir wept when he killed Cowin. Some say he wept for a friend who had given himself to the Shadow, and some say for Malkier.” The Lord of Fal Dara shook his head sadly.

“The first peal of the doom of the Seven Towers had been struck. There was no time to gather aid from Shienar or Arafel, and no hope that Malkier could stand alone, with five thousand of her lances dead in the Blasted Lands, her Borderforts overrun.

“Al’Akir and his Queen, el’Leanna, had Lan brought to them in his cradle. Into his infant hands they placed the sword of Malkieri kings, the sword he wears today. A weapon made by Aes Sedai during the War of Power, the War of the Shadow that brought down the Age of Legends. They anointed his head with oil, naming him Dai Shan, a Diademed Battle Lord, and consecrated him as the next King of the Malkieri, and in his name they swore the ancient oath of Malkieri kings and queens.” Agelmar’s face hardened, and he spoke the words as if he, too, had sworn that oath, or one much similar. “To stand against the Shadow so long as iron is hard and stone abides. To defend the Malkieri while one drop of blood remains. To avenge what cannot be defended.” The words rang in the chamber.

“El’Leanna placed a locket around her son’s neck, for remembrance, and the infant, wrapped in swaddling clothes by the Queen’s own hand, was given over to twenty chosen from the King’s Bodyguard, the best swordsmen, the most deadly fighters. Their command: to carry the child to Fal Moran.

“Then did al’Akir and el’Leanna lead the Malkieri out to face the Shadow one last time. There they died, at Herat’s Crossing, and the Malkieri died, and the Seven Towers were broken. Shienar, and Arafel, and Kandor, met the Halfmen and the Trollocs at the Stair of Jehaan and threw them back, but not as far as they had been. Most of Malkier remained in Trolloc hands, and year by year, mile by mile, the Blight has swallowed it.” Agelmar drew a heavyhearted breath. When he went on, there was a sad pride in his eyes and voice.

“Only five of the Bodyguards reached Fal Moran alive, every man wounded, but they had the child unharmed. From the cradle they taught him all they knew. He learned weapons as other children learn toys, and the Blight as other children their mother’s garden. The oath sworn over his cradle is graven in his mind. There is nothing left to defend, but he can avenge. He denies his titles, yet in the Borderlands he is called the Uncrowned, and if ever he raised the Golden Crane of Malkier, an army would come to follow. But he will not lead men to their deaths. In the Blight he courts death as a suitor courts a maiden, but he will not lead others to it.

Lan’s backstory, explained in Fal Dara in The Eye of the World

So, it seems that Isam survived the Blight as well. Or… not survived, but somehow endured. When Perrin shoots Slayer in the dream, he awakens to discover that Luc has been injured. Somehow, it appears that the two have been bound: Luc in the flesh and Isam in the dream.

Beyond that, I haven’t been able to figure them out yet. Were the Trollocs calling for Isam because they follow him, or were they attacking Emond’s Field to seize him? Bear in mind that the Trollocs were not in the Two Rivers to kill the people there. Based on what we know, it seems the Trollocs were in Emond’s Field to take care of Ordeith – the “renegade.” Killing some farmers along the way was just some fun at first, but then they pivot and start attacking the people in Emond’s Field in massive (and costly) attacks. Was this because of Perrin… or were they trying to find Luc and Isam, who had been staying in Emond’s Field?

I could be missing something… but I’ve dug pretty deep here and I’m still not seeing any definite answers. I think we’ll just need to keep reading to find out.

Side-note: digging through all of this reminded me that Jain Farstrider arrested Cowin Fairheart and is Malkieri himself. For some reason I had it in my head that Farstrider wasn’t contemporary with out characters, but now I’m wondering how long it’ll be before we run into him.

Rhuidean

Okay, this post is already getting kind of long, so I don’t want to spend too long geeking out over Rhuidean, but chapters 24-26 are just incredible.

First off, Rhuidean itself is really cool. A hidden city “in the clouds,” in the Waste, and filled with partially constructed buildings – with Avendesora and a collection of ter’angreal at its center. That’s just cool. But, just as we’re figuring out the secrets of Rhuidean, we’re shoved into a long series of visions that completely blow the city itself away.

One step per generation and nine steps backwards through his ancestors, Rand sees the story of the Aiel. Every facet of this is awesome. We see each of the major pivot points in Aiel culture and we see them firsthand. The story is tragic. Lewin being disowned for fighting to save his family, Adan struggling to hang on to the Way of the Leaf, and Jonai and the Ogier struggling to keep hope. The Aiel at Tzora.

“Do you know what happened to the Aiel at Tzora?” He nodded, and she sighed, reaching out to smooth his short hair as if he were a child. “Of course you do. You Da’shain have more courage than . . . . Ten thousand Aiel linking arms and singing, trying to remind a madman of who they were and who he had been, trying to turn him with their bodies and a song. Jaric Mondoran killed them. He stood there, staring as though at a puzzle, killing them, and they kept closing their lines and singing. I am told he listened to the last Aiel for almost an hour before destroying him. And then Tzora burned, one huge flame consuming stone and metal and flesh. There is a sheet of glass where the second greatest city in the world once stood.”

“Many people had time to flee, Aes Sedai. The Da’shain earned them time to flee. We are not afraid.”

Solinda Sedai and Jonai

We learn that the Aiel once followed the Way of the Leaf, as the Tuatha’an still do. The Aes Sedai gave them a mission to flee and take the various angreal, sa’angreal, and ter’angreal that could be of use to the tainted men where they could do no harm. Over generations, the Aiel begin to falter in their mission, splitting off into factions. The Tuatha’an still follow the Way of the Leaf and seek the old songs they once sung with the Nym and Ogier. The other Aiel take up weapons, but only weapons that can also serve as tools. The modern Aiel still remember that they do not touch swords, but they have forgotten why. Now they carry spears, even the Maidens, not knowing that they are not meant to commit violence at all, regardless of the instrument. They share a chora cutting in exchange for water, and this tree eventually becomes the cause of the Aiel War when King Laman of Cairhien cuts it down.

We also get a fair bit of info about the Age of Legends.

Past Ages

Between Rhuidean and the museum in Tanchico, we learn a fair bit about past ages in this book.

• Elephants are extinct: we see a skeleton of one in Tanchico. Thom also mentions at one point that no one knows where ivory comes from.
• I’m pretty sure that silkworms are also extinct, or at least they aren’t anywhere near the lands we’ve seen thus far. Thom mentions that he’s not even sure whether silk comes from an animal or a plant.
• Egwene finds “A silvery thing in another cabinet, like a three-pointed star inside a circle, was made of no substance she knew; it was softer than metal, scratched and gouged, yet even older than any of the ancient bones. From ten paces she could sense pride and vanity.” That’s a goddamn Mercedes hood ornament, isn’t it?

Okay, so those are kind of cute, but we also learn some pretty cool stuff about the Age of Legends in particular.

First off, we learn a bit more about the Nym. I’m actually really curious whether the Green Man in The Eye of the World is Someshta. We learn that the Nym lead the tree-singing for the Ogier and Aiel: this must be the song that the Tuatha’an are still looking for, and a more powerful, original version of what the Ogier still practice. I just love this whole concept: being one of the singers sounds incredible.

We also learn a bit about the age’s amazing technology. The Age of Legends really was an advanced society, seemingly more advanced then our real world. They had flying machines… but also the ability to simply Travel. Their sophisticated fashion, weapons, and buildings all sound at least as advanced as anything we have today. There isn’t any talk of computers, but they had long-distance communications. We don’t really know much about the Bore yet, but it seems like they were tunneling into the Dark One’s prison to use it as a source of power.

Hmm, boring a hole into hell to find energy. That’d be a cool plot for a video game.

Mierin had said today was the day. She said she had found a new source for the One Power. Female Aes Sedai and male would be able to tap the same source, not separate halves. What men and women could do united would be even greater now that there would be no differences. And today she and Beidomon would tap it for the first time—the last time men and women would work together wielding a different Power. Today. What seemed a tiny chip of white spun away from the Sharom in a jet of black fire; it descended, deceptively slow, insignificant. Then a hundred gouts spurted everywhere around the huge white sphere. The Sharom broke apart like an egg and began to drift down, falling, an obsidian inferno. Darkness spread across the sky, swallowing the sun in unnatural night, as if the light of those flames was blackness. People were screaming, screaming everywhere. With the first spurt of fire, Charn broke into a run toward the Collam Daan, but he knew he was too late. He was sworn to serve Aes Sedai, and he was too late. Tears rolled down his face as he ran.

We also learn that Mierin is Lanfear, and Charn – at least – believes that she was not always evil. We’ll have to see about that: it certainly seems as though the Forsaken willingly served the Dark One in exchange for power.

The portrayal of women

Alright, so, I’ve been thinking about this a lot and talking it over with my brother, who’s been a huge fan of The Wheel of Time for a long time now. There’s no way around it: most of the women in The Wheel of Time are really unlikable, but I think that this is intentional and reflects excellent writing.

We’re seeing a world where saidin has been tainted and most of the highest positions of power are held by women. This is clearly meant to be an inversion of patriarchal power structures we’ve historically seen in western culture, but cranked up to 11. (Note that the extent to which we’re still living in a patriarchy today is a much larger topic than I’m getting into in this post, so for the sake of argument let’s bear in mind that this series began in the early 90s.) Not only do we have “witch hunts” for men who can channel, but the people carrying out the hunts are literal sorcerers themselves. Men can still freely walk outside, so it’s not as bad for them as it is for women in some cultures, but it sounds a lot worse than it was for women at any point in American history.

To make matters worse, women in The Wheel of Time still retain most of the social perks that women have traditionally had in the real world under patriarchal structures. You know, the little things that are sometimes held up as making men and women “equal” even at times when they weren’t. So, not only do women get to hold all of the political and magic power, but they also get to enjoy the male chauvinist perks like women being seen as less expendable than men when it comes time for war, mothers being seen in a higher light than fathers, and domestic violence of women against men being seen as fine but the reverse as a terrible crime. Note, for example, that our male characters are generally unwilling to commit violence against women even when these women are more powerful than them in every way. So, again, the men in The Wheel of Time are generally a lot worse off than 50s housewives.

That’s the world that our characters have been living in and it’s been that way for thousands of years. Everyone has completely internalized it. One of the things that’s bugged me the most about how many of the women act is that the men don’t even seem to see it as a problem. Women can be as rude or even violent as they want and the men only respond by impotently stating that they don’t understand women, and it’s taken as a simple fact of life. It’s infuriating… and it’s a great example of internalized misandry, as a foil for internalized misogyny.

That many of our female characters are annoying might be a bad way to write good female role-models in fantasy, but it’s fantastic both as social commentary and as consistent world-building.

Also note that women from less privileged backgrounds don’t show this nearly as much, so we’re also seeing some other privilege here. Characters like Min, Siuan, the Sea Folk women, and the Aiel Wise Ones are generally pretty likeable. Nobility like Moiraine and Elayne, Egwene the mayor’s daughter, and Nynaeve the uncommonly young wisdom are insufferable. That makes sense. They’re the equivalent of spoiled ivy league guys who know they can get away with anything and have been told their whole lives that they’re uniquely gifted and special.

With that in mind, I think we saw some character growth for the women in this book.

Moiraine

We get a short POV chapter from Moiraine’s perspective and learn that her inner thoughts are at least as selfish and scheming as one would expect. It’s not all in the service of her mission either: she’s even hoping that sending Nynaeve and Elayne with the Sea Folk will allow her to confirm her (rather obvious) theory that Windfinders can channel. She doesn’t even need to know this! She just wants every scrap of power she can get and she’ll justify all of it by saying that she can’t know what will help her in her mission. It’s really infuriating… but we do also get that bit towards the end of the book where it seems like she’s really trying to support Rand, rather than dominate him. This is only due to necessity, and it’s a small step, but I think it’s a move in the right direction.

Egwene

Egwene is still just ridiculously childish, haughty, and hypocritical. I really want to point out the hypocrisy in particular. When she first started learning to channel, the boys from Emond’s Field were terrified… but they didn’t cut her off. They had all grown up knowing that the Aes Sedai broke the world. They knew that men were more dangerous channeling than women, but it didn’t really seem like there was a huge difference here to the people in Emond’s Field. Yet, when Egwene starts learning to channel (and just immediately ignoring everyone telling her to slow down before she hurts someone) her friends remain her friends. When she learns that Rand is the Dragon Reborn, she really kind of just cuts him off. She instantly ends her romantic feelings for him and she also pretty much stops being his friend. He could really use a friend right now. Mat is dropping the ball here too, but Egwene could do a lot. I don’t think she’ll ever admit the hypocrisy here. Note, too, the condescending way she assumes that Rand is heartbroken by her dumping him.

When the Wise Ones are looking for a spy, Egwene says that she doesn’t think Rand would open up to her. Why does she think this? Rand even thinks to himself, during the journey in the Waste, that he hasn’t been able to talk to Egwene much. He wouldn’t have told her all of his plans… but Egwene didn’t even want to try. The few times she does talk to him, it’s just to berate him over Aviendha being upset… which doesn’t make any sense at all. Rand’s response is to just think that he doesn’t understand women.

Fortunately, the Wise Ones are the first people in a position of power who actually see this and try to do something about it. They don’t merely try to manipulate Egwene by taking advantage of her flaws, as Moiraine does: they see a character flaw in Egwene and immediately begin to address it. I really liked how the Wise Ones handle problems like this: they don’t skirt around it at all. They see that Egwene is acting like a spoiled little girl, so they make her dress like one until she can get her behavior in order. With their guidance, I think we’ll see some real growth from Egwene in the future.

Aviendha

Aviendha is also pretty annoying here. I mean, she clearly has a bit of a crush on Rand and doesn’t know what to do with it, so she’s deflecting and/or sublimating by throwing that energy into supporting Elayne. She’s also going through a hard time, being forced to leave the Maidens, but still… she’s a real jerk for most of the book.

She also acknowledges this, apologizes, and starts really trying to understand that Rand simply doesn’t know much about Aiel culture. She’s definitely acting immature, but she’s aware of it, and she’s working on it. Again, I’m interested to see how she’ll grow in the next book.

Elayne

Elayne is somewhat similar to Aviendha here. Getting mad at Rand for not asking her to stay, even though they both knew that she couldn’t, is just ridiculous. Frankly, I’m pretty sure that she would’ve gotten mad at him if he had asked too, unless he somehow happened to ask in exactly the right way. That said… this seems fairly realistic for a young person, particularly someone who’s a little spoiled by being the daughter-heir. It’s still frustrating to see Elayne acting like a dramatic teenager when the boys are trying so hard to act like adults… but it makes sense.

She’s also condescending and spoiled in her dealings with Thom. We hear her perspective as she tries to flatter him by saying that maybe he’ll write the story of the Dragon Reborn… even though this is really more of a job for a bard, not a simple gleeman. She continually questions why Thom would be able to help with anything political. When she finally learns a bit more about him, she lets up, but… I mean, even if he was “just” a gleeman, he’s doing her a huge favor. Both Elayne and Nynaeve, upon learning that Julian and Thom want to come with, treat them as though they’re doing the men a favor to allow them to tag along. This is just ridiculously spoiled. Oh, and how about the bit where she demands the larger of the two available rooms for her and Nynaeve because Nynaeve elbows people in her sleep. Nynaeve and Elayne are pretty tiny, aren’t they? The men wouldn’t have let them take the smaller room anyways, but it’s just silly how she thinks that Nynaeve’s elbows are a good reason. It would’ve been less spoiled if she’d just claimed it because she’s the daughter-heir, rather than coming up with such a flimsy reason. Again, she is the daughter-heir, so being spoiled isn’t really a surprise here… but it does make her a bit hard to like. I think that Thom will be a good influence on her though.

Nynaeve

Nynaeve shoes the same anger problems towards everyone and chauvinism towards men that she’s been showing throughout the books… but I felt like she was trying a bit harder this time. She’s still a jerk to Thom and Julian, but she has started to relate a bit better to the people around her, particularly Elayne. If Nynaeve wants to see some real growth, she needs to learn how to channel withing being angry: so long as she needs to be angry to channel, I don’t see how she can work on that temper of hers. Still, I think she’s come to accept that she needs to grow up a bit, and she’s pretty good at accomplishing things once she puts her mind to it.

Far Dareis Mai, Roof Mistresses, and Wise Ones

I mentioned it briefly above, but the Aiel seem to have much more balanced relations between men and women. The Maidens are definitely really obnoxious, but they don’t seem to be any worse than the men. What I liked here is that they still felt feminine: they didn’t need to become men to become warriors. My wife also mentioned that she really liked the portrayal of a society of women as it felt both real and badass.

The relationship we see between Rhuarc and his wives was also very good. It seems like they have a great partnership, a balance. It’s almost as if saidin isn’t tainted for the Aiel. The concept of having multiple wives, but where the wives have full consent to the arrangement was also interesting.

The Wise Ones are also just great. They really show what the Aes Sedai could be. They still wield a great deal of power – both political and magical – but they’re far more direct and transparent about it. They still keep some secrets, but only those secrets that they deem absolutely necessary, and even these – such as the visions from Rhuidean – are shared with the clan chiefs. There’s also a foil of the village council and women’s circle from the Two Rivers in that the Wise Ones meet in secret but also cannot interfere with meetings between the clan chiefs. Even when they spy on Rand, they do so openly, and they’re transparent with their worries: Rand hold the fate of their entire race in his hands. Their manipulation with Aviendha is a little sketchy… but this really is an unusual situation. My impression is that they’d like Rand to father a child with Aviendha so he sees the Aiel as kin. It’s manipulative, sure, but it feels like they’re doing their best not to be as conniving about it as the Tower has been.

Faile

Finally, we have Faile. For the first half of the book, she was pretty insufferable. I’m not saying that Perrin was handling things well by trying to drive her away so he could offer himself to the Whitecloaks, but her response to it really seemed to be a bit much. On the other hand… she didn’t know everything that Perrin was going through, and she would have let up immediately if he’d opened up to her, so a lot of their squabbling really was on Perrin. She was definitely the more annoying of the two, but as much as Perrin was tying to drive her away, she was trying to force Perrin to actually talk to her. Her flirting with Wil and Luc was also pretty infuriating; she acts like Perrin does the same… but he really doesn’t. Berelain hardly entered his room and he kicked her out, yet Faile was mad enough to pull a knife. Still… a lot of her bullshit was just a series of attempts to force Perrin to open up… and it’s a good thing that she did, as Perrin was planning to throw his life away for no good reason (seriously, why did Perrin think that offering himself to the Whitecloaks would save his family? Of course they’d go further than that.) Faile isn’t perfect, but neither is Perrin. In the second half, her relationship with Perrin is just adorable. Their wedding, and her letting him send her away… so she can get reinforcements were great. I particularly liked how both Faile and Perrin get some advice on picking their battles and then they actually follow it. Hopefully some of the other women will grow up a bit more too.

The Ending

Okay, that ending was pretty awesome. Calling down a storm in the Waste, right as he’s being declared the Car’a’carn, is an incredible image: I can imagine the Golden Bowl starting to flood in front of shocked Aiel. Traveling through the portal, first by climbing stairs and then by riding, offers a great glimpse into how this magic system works.

The fight itself was also really epic, though… it does kind of remind me of the ending of the first book, particularly how quick it felt.

I’m not sure how I feel about how quick and massively overpowered these final battles feel. Destroying Rhuidean so bad that a lake forms where it stood and shifting mountains accidentally is an amazing scene, but this sort of power creep risks making everything else feel irrelevant. Yet, Jordan does a great job of setting things up so that it doesn’t feel like power creep: it was just a unique situation – a temporary burst of power. I don’t expect everyone to start blowing up mountains whenever they fight… but Rand could have this power whenever he’d like. He put down Callandor early on in The Shadow Rising, but now he has an even more powerful sa’angreal. He felt like he could do anything with just the sword, but maybe now he really could do almost anything. Could he just grab both at once and destroy all of the Forsaken and Shadowspawn in a single move? That’d probably burn him out, but I’m honestly not sure. So far, I’ve been happy with the balance struct between spectacular magical battles and more mundane sword fights (even when the sword is made of fire.)

I’m really looking forward to seeing how using Asmodean as a teacher goes in the next book.

Tel’aran’rhiod

The expanded world building in Tel’aran’rhiod is cool. It continues to remind me of various forms of the afterlife, and I still love how it’s both a wonderland for Dreamers and an endless hunting ground for wolves. Using it to spy is neat, though I do wonder how well this is going to hold up as we continue to investigate it. The idea that non-living objects in the physical world are represented accurately in the dream seems a bit weird to me. I really like how quickly stepping across vast distances works. I can’t wait for Perrin to have a conversation about this with Egwene! What’s going on with the Tower of Ghenjei?

Rand coming to terms with his father

This is a small point, but I liked it so I want to call it out: I think Rand is finally coming to terms with his parents.

My father is Tam al’Thor. He found me, raised me, loved me. I wish I could have known you, Janduin, but Tam is my father.

For a few books now, Rand has been tormented by Tam’s feverish admission that he’s not Rand’s biological father. I’m really glad to see Rand at least beginning to accept that Tam is is real father, just not his biological father. Likewise, his real mother is Kari. Again, kind of a minor point, but it makes me happy to see Rand getting a bit of closure on this.

What’s Morgase (or Rahvin) going to do about the Two Rivers?

So, during the trolloc attacks, the Two Rivers raised banners both for Perrin Goldeneyes and for Manetheren. When soldiers from Andor come… what are they going to do about that? The people of the Two Rivers don’t consider themselves to be part of Andor, but – as a few characters have pointed out – royalty tend to trust maps. They might tolerate Perrin as the new lord of the Two Rivers, but they likely won’t accept the banner of Manetheren at all.

However, the Two Rivers did successfully fight off two invasions – from both Children of the Light and from Trollocs – without any help from Andor, so they have some legitimate legal claim that they are not part of Andor: if they were, then they would be able to rely on protection. Perhaps Morgase could argue that they didn’t know about the trollocs until it was too late, but they can’t really make the same argument about the Children of the Light.

I’m definitely curious how this will all settle. If it weren’t for Rahvin, I think that Morgase would seek a peaceful solution. Perhaps they demand the burning of the banners for Manetheren, install Perrin as the official lord of the Two Rivers, provide some aid, and make plans to send a tax collector in a few years, after they’ve managed to rebuild. But with Rahvin (I’m pretty sure it’s Rahvin) – a Forsaken – at her side… it wouldn’t be hard at all for things to spin wildly out of control. Sending soldiers to collect taxes and burn banners immediately while demanding that Perrin come to Caemlyn (I’m just noticing this moment that Caemlyn is clearly a reference to Camelot, by the way) to explain himself could easily spark a war.

Mythical sources

After calling Mat’s connection to Odin, I keep looking for other mythical connections.

I’m still really torn on Perrin. On the one hand, his wolf powers make me think of berserkers and his blacksmithing makes me think of figures like Hephaestus and Volundr, but I actually noticed a lot of references to Apollo this time around. For the most part, Perrin and Apollo almost seem like opposites: Perrin has a beard, he does not look young and boyish, and he’s a terrible singer. But, in the rescue mission, he’s walking around with a bow, a wreath of flowers on his head, and a symbol of the sun on his chest. It’s hard to ignore that these are all symbols of Apollo. Maybe I’m just grasping here, but I’ll need to keep an eye on this as I keep reading.

Luc has plenty of potential mythical inspiration, but I’m not sure which to look at. With his red hair, good looks, wolf armor, and trickster ways, he definitely reminds me a bit of Loki… but, somehow, I kind of doubt that this is his main inspiration. With his mysterious connection to Isam, the dream, and the Tower of Ghenjei (which has some connection to the Aelfinn and Eelfinn) I’m thinking of various fairy kings. In particular, I’m reminded of Manannán mac Lir and Arawn. I don’t have much more to go on yet, but I’ll definitely be looking out for any more hints as to Luc’s inspiration.

Rand, of course, is mostly inspired by King Arthur. Actually, I don’t think I directly addressed this in the last post. I mean, he’s literally the once and future king and he proved his heritage by seizing the sword in the stone. What’s really interesting is that we know a bit about how reincarnation works and we know that Lews Therin is not Artur Paendrag. I’m currently planning on doing a deep dive into some Arthurian myths after I’ve finished up The Wheel of Time and making some more comparison then.

One other thing I want to mention about Rand is his promise: “I bring change. Not peace, but turmoil.” This is pretty close to Matthew 10:34, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”

I’m sure we’ll learn more about the Aelfinn and Eelfinn eventually. Right now, I’m mostly noting that snakes and foxes are some common tricksters. The triangles adorning the red doors makes me wonder if there’s a third type out there. If there are, then I’m betting on either spiders or coyotes. Based on the names, I’m also wondering about Dark Elves and Light Elves. Then again, their ability to tell the future and grant wishes makes me think of Rakshasa and Jinn. For now, I’ll just need to wait for more detail before digging deeper.

The Forsaken

We got a bunch of new clues about the Forsaken.

• Moghedien is mentioned as having a connection with spiders a couple of times, but I’m not sure how metaphorical this is. She’s definitely a schemer who doesn’t want to take any real chances. She’s also bested by Nynaeve, who still has a lot to learn, so Moghedien appears to be fairly weak in an actual fight.
• Lanfear claims Tel’aran’rhiod as her domain, but we’re told that Moghedien is actually stronger in the dream and Lanfear is stronger in the flesh.
• The Forsaken men are able to channel without going mad because of their connection to Shai’tan – a connection which can be severed, as Rand proves on Asmodean.
• Lanfear mentioned that “Graendal” has a collection of handsome young men.
• Lanfear mentions that Sammael is envious of Rand, Demandred hates him, and Rahvin thirsts for his power.
• Moghedien mentions that Rahvin “does have a pretty little queen to amuse him now” – I’m assuming that this is Morgase.
• Moghedien also mentions that, in the Age of Legends, they could travel to “worlds in the sky,” and starts to say “Do you know that the stars are…” – so they appear to have knowledge of other stars and planets, as well as the ability to travel to them. Whether they can still do this, or could only do it using technology in the Age of Legends, is something we can’t yet know.
• Asmodean is separated from the Shai’tan and temporarily shielded by Lanfear so he can safely act as Rand’s teacher. They’re going to keep the disguise of Jasin Natael, gleeman to the Dragon Reborn. His old name was Joar Addam Nesossin.
• Lanfear’s old name was Mierin and she was one of the people working on Sharom and the Bore that first weakened Shai’tan’s prison.

Egeanin

Remember Egeaning from The Great Hunt? Well, she’s back, she’s still basically a Seanchan paladin, and she has a bit of a thing for Captain Domon.

I don’t have a lot to say about her yet, but I really like how much integrity she has. She has a D&D paladin’s sense of law and justice, but she’s also entirely willing to shift her worldview in response to new information.

I wonder if her name is a reference to Ægir or Aegeus?

Bela is still around!

When Min, Siuan, and Leane feel the Tower they take Bela! Seriously, this horse has been through a lot.

Alright, that’s The Shadow Rising. I’m planning on starting The Fires of Heaven before too long, but I have a couple of side projects I might get to first, so it could be a couple of weeks.