Hero Profile: Moiraine Damodred

Be vewy, vewy quite. She's hunting dwagons, hahahaha

Okay, so we’ve covered the first few episodes of The Wheel of Time, and Lan this month, let’s move onto Moiraine. Moiraine Damodred is the Gandalf of this series, though she does make a few more mistakes than the Maia in human form did. An Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah from the royal family of Cairhien, she’s pretty much the most Aes Sedai in terms of obfuscating. But more on that later. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Hail the Queen, baby.

Moiraine Damodred was born and spent most of her formative years in the royal palace of Cairhien. Her father, Dalresin, was a scholar at heart and was something of the odd one out of the Damodred family. She is the youngest child of her family, having two elder full sisters Anvaere and Innloine, and an eldest half-brother, Taringail. Things changed when she was sixteen and discovered that she had the power to channel. She was taken to the White Tower and trained as an Aes Sedai. She met and formed a strong relationship with Siuan Sanche, daughter of a fishing family from Tear. When I say “strong” I mean the books imply they were BFFs that used to “comfort” each other during difficult times at the tower, but nearly everyone I’ve ever spoken to has read them as lovers up to and beyond their times as Novices and Accepted. But what are you going to do?

 

Moiraine spend the next six years in training, advancing to Accepted in three years and then again to Aes Sedai in the second three years. She and Siuan were notorious for pulling pranks on their fellow Novices and Accepted, with Siuan being the “leader” between the two of them, something that was weird for Moiraine at first, but she learned to roll with it. Things took a turn for her about a week before her advancement. She and Siuan were chosen to attend on the Amyrlin Seat and the Keeper of the Chronicle. They had a bit of trouble focusing, as the Battle of the Blood Snow, the final battle of the Aiel War, was raging outside the tower. Things were calm in the office, until the Keeper, Gitara Moroso, was struck with a foretelling, a prediction the near future. She predicted the rebirth of the Dragon, the man that broke the world 3000 years ago, the shock of which killed her. Moiraine and Siuan were sworn to secrecy and sent on their way.

 

If you like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, you can't
complain that Rosemund Pike is taller than the 
character she portrays.

The two spent the next week practicing for their final test and compiling names for the potential Dragon Reborn. The Amyrlin Seat sent all the Accepted to collect the names supposedly to celebrate the end of the war and reward the soldiers and their families, but really to find the Dragon. They initially collected names directly, but were swapped over to recopying all the names when the higher ups thought she needed to grieve for her uncles whom had been killed. She really didn’t, though, as Laman and the other Damodreds were pretty terrible people.

 

Ten days, or a Third Age week, later, she and Siuan were assessed and then raised to the full Aes Sedai sisters. They did the final ceremony in lock step, which was almost unheard of. Almost at once, Siuan was pulled in to be the apprentice spymaster for the Blue Ajah, and Moiraine was put in charge of distributing the bounty the old Amyrlin wanted to issue for the births. This was actually busy work, though, as the Sisters were planning to force Moiraine to put her name forward to inherit the Sun Throne of Cairhien. When she realized this was inevitable, she took her copy of the list of possible Dragons and ran for it.

 

She was dead set against becoming the Queen of Cairhien, as the last Queen Damodred was more… Bloody Mary than Elizabeth the second, if you know what I mean. The Aes Sedai had been really pushing for it, though, as there hadn’t been a full Sister as a Queen in several thousand years and they really wanted to break that streak.

 

On a road trip with her BBF for 20 years.

She spent the next few months searching for The Dragon but coming up short. Eventually she crossed paths with Lan Mandragoran, traveled with him to Candor, reunited with Siuan there only to find out that all of the sisters sent to secretly search for the Dragon were dead, discovered the existence of the Black Ajah, and ultimately bond Lan as her Warder. I know, heavy summary, but I covered this at length in my history post.

 

Eventually, she and Lan got a tip to search the isolated village of Emond’s Field in the Two Rivers. There she found not one, not two, but three Ta’Veren, all born within a week of Gitara’s prediction. While in town, she pretended to be some sort of visiting noble, and gave the three boys Tar Valon coins and insist they keep them safe. Unfortunately, she was only about twelve hours ahead of the Myrddraal and Trollocs that were sent to get the boys as well. Using her power, Lan’s sword and seer Two Rivers stubbornness, the Trollocs were driven off and she convinced the boys to seek shelter at the Tower. They also pick up the gleeman Thom Merrilin, and Rand’s sort-of Girlfriend Egwene al’Vere, who insisted on coming due to her own desire to have an adventure. There was a SLIGHT hick up were a mob formed outside the inn to try to force Moiraine away, but she got them to back off by telling them of their ancient history and the fall of Manetharan.

 

The group set out, riding all night and resting only briefly. Moiraine used her Channeling to “wash away the fatigue” of the animals and people, all save Rand’s mare Bella, whom Egwene was riding. She said the shaggy mare must have spirit. Odd. They cross the Tarren Ferry using the Ferry at the Tarren, Moiraine ultimately sinking the ferry to slow the Trollocs, and also creating a heavy mist up and down the river to confuse their pursuers. Over the following days, she takes Egwene away from their camp when it’s time to rest, giving her the basics of what it means to be a channeler. Two halves of the source, Gender Binary (I’ll talk about this someday), Female half Saidar is safe and good, Male half Saidin was tainted and kind of sucks now. She shows Egwene the she has the potential to be an Aes Sedai, and Ms. al’Vere jumps at the idea.

 

She embraces Saidar and F's S up!

They ride to the city of Baerlon, where they rest for a day, with the Wisdom of Emond’s Field, Nynaeve, catching up to them in the city. She and Moiraine fight over what’s best for the young people but come to a stalemate. Moiraine, ever sifting for information, asks probing questions about where the boys were born, but Nynaeve refuses to play ball. That night, there’s a dance where Moiraine blows all the boys minds by participating in it, but that’s ruined when a Fade attacks Rand. They beat a hasty retreat, exiting the city. Moiraine has to scare off a few Whitecloaks by using her powers to appear to grow to giant size. They spend the next few days running, the Trolloc chases getting closer and closer until there is a small skirmish with them. They kill the group, and Moiraine is forced to follow Lan’s suggestion to take them to Shadar Logoth to hide. She uses her Channeling to make a fake trail to distract the Fades and Trollocs for a while.

 

They arrive at the city, and Moiraine is so exhausted from using so much of the power, she passes out. This gives the boys enough time to slip off and get into trouble. When they get back, she explains the whole, evil history of how Aredhal fell and became Shadar Logoth. The story ends with Lan running in to tell them that Trollocs are in the city. They all run but are separated by Trollocs and by the killing mist Mashadar.

 

Moiraine and Lan regroup near the river, where Nynaeve finds them. When Lan goes off to fetch Nynaeve’s horse, she and Nynaeve have another confrontation, this time with Moiraine revealing that Nynaeve has the power to channel. And furthermore, that she could potentially be the strongest channeler in living memory. Keep in mind, channelers live centuries, so that is a LONG time. Moiraine reveals that she can track one of the boys, using the coin she gave them. The other two she can’t track as they gave up their coins for passage on a boat. She chooses to follow the two who she lost down river, as, ya know, it’s much harder to change course on a river boat on a river without tributaries.

 

So awkward to talk to your wife when your 
coworkers are watching.

They travel after the boys for several days, coming to the city of Whitebridge just behind the two that had been through there. Not having any more to go on, she takes her small party towards the one she can still track, hoping to get him and meet up with the other two at Caemlyn or Tar Valon. They track the boy, Perrin and bonus points find Egwene, held hostage by Whitecloaks. They’re able to free them and massively inconvenience the Whitecloaks, so win-win.

 

They make it to Caemlyn, meeting up with Rand and Mat. Seeing that one of her charges had been possessed by pure evil and uses her power and an Angreal to temporarily reduce Mat’s evil sickness symptoms, hopefully giving him enough time to get to Tar Valon and get him fully healed. She also hears from Mat, Rand, Perrin and their new friend Loial that the Eye of the World is in danger. They use Loial’s knowledge of the mysterious Ways to travel to the Borderland nation of Fal Dara to get to the Eye. They meet with an old friend of Lan and Moiraine’s, Lord Agelmar, at Fal Dara. He’s hopeful that they’re there to help stop a Trolloc offensive, but that obviously isn’t the case. They also find out someone followed them through the ways, the peddler Padan Fain. Moiraine interrogated him and found that he was a Darkfriend, and he’d been hunting the boys for the last few years. She asks Agelmar to hold him, and they set out.

 

Do. Not. Touch. The. Dagger.

They travel to the Blight and through Lan’s homeland of Malkier. They eventually find their way to the Greenman’s Grove, the hidden pocket dimension that the Eye was hidden in. The Grove’s Greenman shows them to the titular Eye, just before two of the Forsaken, Aginor and Balthamel attack. Lan hesitates between protecting Moiraine, his Aes Sedai, or Nynaeve, his love, and gets blasted for it. The Greenman sacrifices himself to kill Balthamel. Moiraine battles Aginor, but the power scale between her and the Forsaken is too great for her to overcome. The kids run off, which draws Aginor away, probably saving Moiraine’s life. When Rand returns, having defeated Aginor, his boss Ba’alzamon, and revealing himself to be the Dragon Reborn, Moiraine is using her powers to heal up Nynaeve. They return to Fal Dara, and Moiraine uses a trick to eavesdrop on Rand and Egwene resigning themselves to their futures and proclaims him the Dragon Reborn.

 

Moiraine Damodred is an Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah. This means that she believes in championing causes, in justice, and is a fairly talented gatherer of information. She is an incredibly strong channeler, being considered one of the three strongest Aes Sedai active in the Tower at the Time. Along with her strength, she has Talents (basically specialization) in Sky Dancing (an affinity for manipulating the weather) and Healing, if she wasn’t talented before she gets plenty of practice in the next few years. She isn’t said to have a talent for illusions, but she does use them with enough skill that I think it counts. Like all modern Aes Sedai, she is bound by the three Oaths. A ter’Angreal called the Oath Rod is used to bind the oaths into an Aes Sedai’s flesh and bone, making them unable to break them. She can speak no word that is untrue, use the Power to make a weapon for one person to kill another, or use the One Power as a weapon unless in the last extreme of defending her life, her warder’s life or the life of another Sister. While she can’t say an outright lie, she did grow up in the palace of Cairhien, a country known for it’s love of Daes Dae’mar, the great game, or game of Houses. Stop right there, Jordan had 7 books published in his series before Martin published Game of Thrones, if anyone was copying homework, it was Martin. Regardless, Moiraine’s upbring ensured she’d be a master of the half truth and obfuscation regardless of if she went to the tower or not. She is more or less obsessed with finding the Dragon Reborn and seeing the Prophecies fulfilled.

 

Moiraine is being portrayed by Rosamund Pike for the Amazon Wheel of Time adaptation. Rosamund Pike is known for her roles in Gone Girl, Wrath of the Titans, Die Another Day, and Pride and Prejudice, amongst others. As far as I’m aware, she’s the biggest actor attached to this project. Her version of Moiraine, while significantly taller than her book counterpart, has been spot on with her ability to lie without lying, manipulate situations, and use her power to great effect. She’s also been shown to have a stupidly high pain tolerance, as she took a Trolloc dagger to her shoulder during Winternight and didn’t hit “too sick to move” territory until days later.

 

Moiraine is an amazing wizard to draw our Emond’s Fielders out of their sleepy village to go on a grand adventure. Mysterious, intelligent, able to lie without lying, powerful, and more than willing to sacrifice just about anything to make sure her goals were met. She has been obsessed with finding the Dragon Reborn for literally her entire adult life and seeing the world saved from impending doom. She goes so far as to tell the boys that if she thinks they’ll turn to the Shadow, she’ll kill them immediately, and I have no doubts on her ability to follow through on that threat. She’s a brilliant strategist, pretty much effortlessly using Nynaeve’s obvious hatred for her to her advantage on more than one occasion. Her power is great, her goal set, and her cause is literally saving all of creation, so the best cause one can have honestly. That’s Moiraine Damodred for ya. Next time, I’ll finally talk about the Eternals. 

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Hero Profile: al'Lan Mandragoran

 The Golden Crane rides for Tarmon Gai'den

Okay, so I was going to do Dune (2021), but HBO Max took it down sooner than I had planned. And I haven’t found the summaries on Wikipedia or other such pages to be particularly helpful with my usual scene by scene obsessive breakdowns, so I’m shelving Dune until it returns to HBO Max. Which does sound like it’ll be sooner rather than later next year, so I doubt you’ll wait too long to see my thoughts on it. And, since I needed an additional idea to fill out my usual 7 posts this month as well, I figured I should do the rest of the main Wheel of Time cast, Lan and Moiraine. Does this mean I will have basically devoted 3 months to Wheel of Time? Yes, yes it does. … Moving on.

 

All hail the king.

As the name of this post has undoubtedly already told you, we’re talking about al’Lan Mandragoran, Uncrowned King of Malkier, Lord of the Seven Towers, Lord of the Lakes, True Blade of Malkier, Defender of the Wall of First Fires, Bearer of the Sword of the Thousand Lakes, May He Sever the Shadow, Dai Shan, and Aan’allein. Yeah, if you’ve been following the show, the guy who doesn’t talk much has a plethora of titles to his name. Do ya want to know the history of Lord Tight-Lip before the show gets to it? Of course you do. Let’s go.

 

I should point out that some or all off what I’m about to go into might be slightly to significantly different in the show. I forgot to mention it in the previous posts on the subject, but the show is considered a “different turning of the Wheel.” Basically, it means that while the greater events of the story repeat themselves with each turning, the details shift. The previous Dragon breaks the world in his battle with the Dark One, is reborn, and fulfills the prophecies of the Dragon to show his coming. But the locations the Dragon goes to, the order in which he meets and influences people, can change each time. Get it? Got it? Good. Now, onto Lan.

 

He looks so tired.

Lan’s story begins not with himself, but his father and uncle, Akir and Lain Mandragoran. The Elder Mandragorans were as close as brothers could be. They fought and trained together, and beloved by their people. Even when Akir was chosen to assume the throne of their father, Lain was the now al’Akir’s biggest supporter. But his wife, on the other hand, Breyan, was less steadfast in her support of al’Akir and was a firm believer he stole the crown that should have been Lain’s. Breyan, encouraged by the Mandragorans friend Cowin “Fairheart” Gemallan, dared Lain to travel into the Blasted Lands, the worst area of the great Blight. He, and nearly all the men he brought with, were killed there. Breyan, rather unfairly, blamed al’Akir for this, and plotted with Cowin to overthrown al’Akir and put her infant son Isam on the throne. Cowin pulled troops back from the garrisons, leaving only skeleton crews, to help with their coup. As bad luck would have it, this was when the biggest Trolloc assault in generations assaulted the garrisons, destroy them and forcing all Malkier into retreat south. It’s at this point where it was discovered that Cowin was in fact a Darkfriend and had done all of this to destroy Malkier. Breyan fled with Isam, but neither were seen again. Aa young hero of the Malkieri. Jain “Farstrider” Charin, captured Cowin and brought him to his king. Rather than let Cowin have the nobleman’s death of beheading, al’Akir faced him in single combat and killed him. The story has it that al’Akir wept by his friend’s corpse, for the man who lost himself to the shadow, or for his nation, no one is sure.

 

Malkier was being overwhelmed by Trollocs, and it’s allies too far to arrive in time. With no hope in saving their land, al’Akir and his wife, el’Leanna, anointed their infant son Lan as king of Malkier, giving the babe his father’s sword and anointed him a Dai Shan, a battle Lord of Malkier, and in his name swore the oaths of Malkieri kings. They also gave him his family’s signet ring, and a locket to remember them by. He was then given to the 20 best swordsmen in Malkier and sent to Fal Moran in Shienar. Five survived the trip.

 

I have no idea why some official art 
has him wear a helmet. I can't think of
a single time he wore more than his 
hadori on his head.

Pretty much the moment Lan could walk, he began training as a swordsman. His every waking moment was used to train and push his body to make it the ultimate killing machine, to make him capable off avenging his people. At fifteen, a Malkieri noblewoman, Edeyn Arrel (sister of the idiot that screwed everything up, Cowin) chose to be his Carneira. This is a somewhat gross Malkieri tradition where an older person is chosen to be their first lover. Women chose the boys, girls chose the men. Yes, it is deeply uncomfortable. After their first night, Lan’s hair was cut to his shoulders and a lock of it was kept by Edeyn and turned into a daori. It’s a sort of talisman that, while having no actual power over Lan, traditionally compels the man to do as his Carneira asks. More on this later. Lan at 16 was given a hadori, the braided leather cord he wears holding back his hair, making him a man in the Malkier tradition. He spent the next 9 years training and battling the shadow wherever he found it. But things took a turn when he was 25.

 

At the time, the Aiel traveled across the Spine of the World in mass for the first time since they went over it the first time to hunt down and kill Laman Damodred, King of Cairhien, for chopping down the Chora tree they gave him. The battle raged for three years, the final battle being at Tar Valon as the Aiel retreated, having killed Laman. During the retreat, Lan, leading a small force of Borderlanders against the Aiel, the group they passed stopped to chant Aan’allein. This means “A Man who is an entire Nation,” and is a sign of the great respect the Aiel have towards Lan. After the fighting it truly finished, he heads back north, to return to his battle in the north.

 

A few months later, he was traveling to Chachin, the capital of Candor, to deal with the machinations of Edeyn. It turns out, Edeyn had raised the flag of Malkier, and seemed to be trying to resurrect their nation, regardless of Lan’s feelings on the matter. He, his old teacher Bukama and his friend Ryne, were on the road when they were followed out of town by Moiraine Damodred. She was trying to sneak up on Lan when the Malkieri threw her into a lake. She doused him in water as payback a short time later. They traveled together to Chachin, as it was also the next destination on Moiraine’s list of potential candidates for the Dragon Reborn. Lan, meanwhile, learned that Edeyn was planning to use her position as his Carneira and holder of his daori, to go against all tradition and force him to marry her daughter Iselle. Thankfully, Iselle is 100% against it too and wants to go to the Tower. Sadly, Iselle isn’t given that chance, as she’s one of several people killed by Merean Redhill, a Black Ajah Aes Sedai who was also hunting the Dragon Reborn. It’s also revealed that Ryne is a Darkfriend and killed Bukama when he caught the older Malkier spying. He and Moiraine were able to kill both, though. After the battle, Lan rode out to return to the blight but stopping to burn his daori, so it could never be used against him. Moiraine catches up with him, though, and convinces him to let her bond him as her Warder.

 

Just Lan and his non-romantic life partner.

Over the next twenty years, Lan and Moiraine searched for the Dragon Reborn. They were finally led to Emond’s Field in the Two Rivers, where they found not one, not two, but three Ta’Veren. Matrim Cauthon, Rand al’Thor and Perrin Aybara. Unfortunately, Trollocs attacked the day after they arrived during the Winternight Festival. Thankfully, Lan and Moiraine were able to protect the village and rout the enemy. After, they convinced the three boys to accompany them to the White Tower, convincing them that they’ll be protected there. They’re also joined by Thom Merrilin, a gleeman that had been invited to town for Winternight but realized no one is celebrating anymore, and Egwene, Rand’s kind of girlfriend that wants to go on an adventure too.

 

They race across the Two Rivers district, Lan scouting ahead and behind for much of the journey. When there is time, he begins training each of the boys in the weapons they brought along, Rand his sword, Perrin the axe, and Mat a bow. They eventually arrive in the city of Baerlon, where the town Wisdom Nynaeve al’Meara catches up to them. Lan is so impressed she followed his trail, he noticeably emotes. The group tries to relax and dance the night away, but in the night, Rand is attacked by a Fade. Lan, sensing it, rushes to Rand and scares it off. They hastily escape Baerlon and are harried by Trollocs after.

 

Due to Lan’s urging and a lack of options, the group travels to Shadar Logoth, the cursed city, to try to rest as Trollocs try to avoid that city as much as possible. He’s distracted by an exhausted Moiraine long enough for the boys to run off and get into trouble in the city. He goes out to look for them, misses their return, but does report Trollocs are in the city. They rush to escape but are followed both by the Trollocs and by Mashadar, the killing mist that haunts the city after dark.

 

Lan and Moiraine find each other and lament that they lost the boys. Nynaeve finds them, much to Lan’s surprise, and the three of them set out to find the missing boys. He helps Moiraine liberate Perrin and Egwene from Whitecloak captors, with Nynaeve’s help, and then travel onto Caemlyn where they find Rand and Mat.

 

Lan and Mandarb, power couple.

Rapid fire time. He leads the group through the Ways with help from the Ogier Loial, whom Rand had befriended in the city, to the Borderland city of Fal Dara. They traveled north fast to try to protect the Eye of the World, multiple sources telling them it’ll be under attack. They travel into the Blight and into the ruins of his home to try to get to the Eye. In the night, Rand overhears him speaking with Nynaeve. It’s subtle, but heavily implied that the two of them had grown close in their travels. Both want to be together, but Lan doesn’t believe there is room in his heart for anyone with his battle against the shadow and doesn’t want her to watch him die. So, yeah, he tries to break up with her, but in the least effective way possible. This is what he tells her, Verbatim.

 

“You are a remarkable woman, as beautiful as the sunrise, as fierce as a warrior. You are a lioness, Wisdom. I will hate the man you choose because he is not me, and love him if he makes you smile. No woman deserves the sure knowledge of widows black as her bridepiece, you least of all.”

 

Lan, I’m not saying all women love poetry. But I am saying that you shouldn’t tell one poetry when you are trying to break up with her, dummy!

 

They make it to the Eye and meet the Greenman, it’s guardian. They’re almost immediately attacked by two of the Thirteen Forsaken, Aginor and Balthamel. They threaten both Nynaeve and Moiraine, but the two are far enough apart that he can’t protect both. Hesitating, he gets hit by a blast by one of the Forsaken and knocked out. He comes to after the battle and returns to Fal Dara with the rest.

 

If you'd told me in 2009 that "Agent Zero" from 
X-Men Origins would be al'Lan Mandragoran,
I'd have laughed in your face. But here we are.

al’Lan Mandragoran is a born warrior. He’s been a blademaster for most of his life and is considered by many to be the greatest swordsman alive today. He’s also proficient in most other weapons, but his sword is his preferred weapon. His sword is Power forged before the Breaking, meaning the blade is nearly unbreakable and doesn’t require sharpening or oiling to keep it battle ready. Natural skill and power were enhanced by the bond that Moiraine created to make him her Warder. The bond greatly enhances Lan’s strength, endurance, and senses. He can sense when Shadowspawn draw near, and fight for far longer than any normal man. It also allows him to sense Moiraine’s health and emotions at a distance and allow him to track her if they’re separated.

 

Lan is a main character in the Wheel of Time series on Amazon. He’s portrayed by Daniel Henney. He’s been in multiple seasons of Criminal Minds, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and as the voice of Tadashi Hamada in the Big Hero 6 movie. Lan of the series is pretty much identical to his book counterpart, being a man of few words and stony disposition. But with a soft spot for Nynaeve al’Meara.

 

Lan is a great character. In the initial story he is a mysterious man of few words, immensely strong, a man made of steel. He teaches Rand and the boys a lot about fighting, and Rand specifically about concepts of honor. They share a mantra, “Death is lighter than a feather, Duty is heavier than a mountain.” Yes, not a great mantra, but there you go. But, as the story goes on, we see more of him, of the man that hides behind the mask. Nynaeve does her damnedest to break down his walls and make him… human. Their romance is easily the best in the series, and I can’t wait to see more of it. he’s the greatest swordsman of all time, and I can’t wait to see him prove that again. Next time, we’ll talk about the MVP of the series, Moiraine Damodred. 

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Hero Profile: Egwene al'Vere

The innkeeper's daughter with dreams of grandeur. 

Alright,  last but certainly not least, Egwene al’Vere. The innkeeper’s daughter is very much a support character in this first tale, but trust me when I tell you that her role in the story is ultimately closely tied to, some might even say actually tied with, Rand’s own. Her adventure starts with chasing after her friends, but she’ll run out ahead of some of them before long. But I’m getting WAY ahead of myself. Let’s get to it.

 

Spoilers

Egwene al’Vere was born in Emond’s Field, the youngest daughter of the mayor and proprietor of the Winespring Inn Bran al’Vere and his wife Marin. She worked at the inn along side her family, danced at festivals with her friends, and other typical teenage girl stuff. She had a sort of romance with local boy Rand al’Thor since they were very young. Most residence of the Emond’s Field assumed they’d be getting married in the near future. Just before Winternight, she began training under Nynaeve al’Meara as a Wisdom. It seems that, while she had just gotten approval to braid her hair (the Two Rivers sign that a woman a is considered an adult) and COULD ask for approval to marry her sort-of boyfriend Rand, she wasn’t 100% into the idea of being a housewife before she was 20.

 

She who becomes the sun.
... wait, different story.

We officially first meet her after Nynaeve arrives and chastises Mat for spreading a story he’d heard from a caravan guard about the Dragon being Reborn in humanities’ greatest hour of need. When Rand sees that her hair is braided, he has a minor panic attack at the thought that, technically, they could be married at this time next year. And yet, he’s also panicked with Egwene mentions she’s getting Wisdom Training from Nynaeve and might considered going to another Two River’s village to practice, as some areas specifically hire out-of-towner Wisdoms, believing you get less favoritism that way. Egwene has the wanderlust bug, it would seem. When she hears the boys discussing the Black Rider, she doesn’t believe them and tells all three they shouldn’t be off their mother’s apron strings. They’re briefly distracted by a demonstration of Gleeman talent by Thom Merrilin and the stare down that follows between him and Moiraine when the traveling Lady comes out to see his tricks as well.

 

We don’t see Egwene again until Rand drags his sick and injured father into town after the Trolloc attack on the village and the al’Thor and Aybara farms. She’d been up most of the night helping Nynaeve tend to the injured. Despite their earlier fight, Egwene basically tackles Rand in a hug upon hearing that Tam might not make it. We don’t see her again until the boys, Lan and Moiraine are about to head out, pack in hand and insisting that she brought along. When asked how she knew they were leaving, she claimed she saw Mat and Perrin trying to be sneaky, badly, and heard Lan buying the extra horses, so it wasn’t hard for her to figure out. Moiraine agrees to bring her along, much to Lan’s annoyance and Rand’s horror. She ends up riding stout Bela. As Rand helps get his family’s mare saddled, he promises Egwene that he’ll protect her, and she counters by saying they’ll protect each other.

 

They race across the Two Rivers district, only stopping long enough for Moiraine to use her powers to take the horses and their rider’s exhaustion, before reaching Tarren Ferry. They cross the river, and Moiraine creates a whirlpool that destroys it. Moiraine then shows off her power one more time by creating a bank of fog that follows the river down stream for a few miles, using it to hopefully trick the Trollocs, Myrddraal and Draghkar following them into thinking they traveled down stream a ways before heading to Baerlon. When they finally stop to rest, Moiraine pulls Egwene to the side and tells her that Moiraine believes that Egwene can learn to channel. She actually thinks Egwene has “the Spark” meaning she’d channel on her own regardless if she were taught or not. It is 100% better than she be coached, though, as that increases her odds of survival drastically. Moiraine uses the blue gem she wears on a chain to test her, having her try to light it with the power, which she does, much to Rand’s disappointment, even when Egwene asks that he’ll be her Warder.

 

She's a quick study.

Over the next several days, Egwene continues to have private lessons with Moiraine about channeling, and also unbraids her hair, telling a perplexed Rand that Aes Sedai only braid their hair if they wish and he can keep his nose out of what would be Women’s Circle business. In a lesson with Moiraine, Egwene gets some of the basics of Channeling. One Power with two halves, Saidar is for girls and is safe, Saidin for boys and it drives them batty. The Power is broken down into five threads, Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Spirit, that are weaved together to make magic happen. Typically, men are stronger with Earth and Fire, women with Air and Water, and are about equal with Spirit. Neat. One day, Rand follows them and listens in. She hears Egwene asking for reassurance from Moiraine that it was only the evil men channelers fault the world broke, which Moiraine confirms, but stresses that those men were insane, no to evil. She then asks why the Trollocs attacked the Two Rivers, at which point Moraine looks directly at Rand who runs. They arrive in Baerlon and Egwene is the only one of her friends that doesn’t have nightmares about a man in black with burning eyes and mouth. 

 

But, then Nynaeve shows up, and Egwene finds herself stuck between her established existing loyalty to Nynaeve, and her new but fast-growing loyalty to Moiraine. She tries to stay out of sight with her hood up until things are settled, and clearly does not enjoy Nynaeve’s comment that she thought Egwene had more sense than the boys did. Things cool of, though, and Egwene has a bit of fun dancing with everyone later that night. Though a Myrddraal appearing and trying to strangle her boyfriend does kill the mood. She rides out with the others after the attack, marveling at Moiraine’s power when the Aes Sedai makes herself appear to grow large to help cover their escape. They are chased by Trolloc for the next few days, until Moiraine has no choice but to lead them to ruins of the city once called Aridhol, now known as Shadar Logoth. She does her best to help Nynaeve administer to the exhausted Moiraine, so misses it when her friends slip off to explore the city. I imagine her looking quite smug when she’s the only one not yelled at for running off. They get the brief history of Aridhol’s fall, how the mysterious Mordeth caused the city to metaphorically eat itself and becoming the cursed pit that is Shadar Logoth. Lan arrives then, to tell them that Trollocs are in the city. They group rushes to escape, but are separated by the Trollocs and by Mashadar, the killing mist that rises in the city after dark.

 

Yes, she's very much a Belle type.

Egwene ends up escaping across the River Arinelle, keeping some of her supplies and her horse Bela in the crossing. Perrin discovers her a short while later, after she’d gotten a fire started and was trying to warm up. The two begin traveling together, heading east and hoping to find their friends, a road, or village to point them towards a road. They travel for a few days, Egwene following Perrin lead on some things, but also fighting the big man on taking turns riding Bela. They eventually meet Elyas Machera, a wilderness man waiting for them by a fire. They try to hide their past, but Elyas pokes holes I all their stories, and brings in his friends, a pack of wolves, to the two. Egwene is freaked out, but is intrigued by the idea of talking to wolves, but Elyas says that only Perrin could learn to talk to them. Because Perrin is a “Wolfbrother” he’s willing to help led them to civilization. Without his help, they’d have passed 100 miles north of the Andoran capital of Caemlyn, and wouldn’t have run into any towns between there and the Spine of the World Mountains.

 

Elyas leads them for a few days before they run into a group of massive mastiffs. Perrin almost attacks them, but Elyas calls them off with a few hand signs. He leads them to a camp of the Tuatha’an, the traveling people. Elyas introduces them to the Mahdi, a friend of his named Raen. While introducing everyone, Raen’s grandson Aram comes over and sweeps Egwene away to have dinner with his mother. Aram does his damnedest over the next few days to charm Egwene, taking her dancing when he can, giving her a set of blue beads, and taking up as much of her time as he can. Perrin, being a good firend, is uncomfortable and kind of judgy that Egwene is getting so chummy with this guy when she’s dating his friend. When he confronts her about it, she has a sort of mini-breakdown where she starts crying and asking Perrin if he thinks they’ll ever go home. He does his best to reassure her, she even makes him promise to dance with her at Sunday (a holiday, not the day of the week) if they’re back home in time. Eventually, Elyas tells the Two Rivers kids they need to move out. Egwene, despite clearly having had fun with the Tuatha’an, basically turns on her heals to get her stuff packed when she hears. Aram clearly tries to get her to stay, but she’s not interested. Aram’s grandmother Ila seems happy that she’s going but not trying to take Aram along.

 

They spend the next few days running. They run into huge murders (yes, that is the correct term for flocks of crows and ravens) of ravens, patrolling the sky. The Dark One can use carrion eaters as his spies and messengers, so it’s clear he is controlling them to search for them. The ravens attack and absolutely obliterate a fox that tried to sneak by.  They run through gaps in the Raven’s search pattern. They’re all worked to their absolute limit. When it looks like they might be caught, Egwene will never learn this, but Perrin considered killing her with his axe to spare her the slow death the Ravens or Trollocs would offer. Thankfully, they cross into a stedding. These places are where the reclusive Ogier make their homes, though this stedding is abandoned. Stedding are places where the One Power disappear to Channelers senses, and Shadowspawn and animals under the Dark One’s influence can’t cross into them. They rest for a short while, Elyas informing them when they inquire about a massive rock in the shape of an eye that this stedding is where the legendary Artur Hawkwing had intended to build his capital, away from Aes Sedai influence. The common folk, who loved him, commissioned a statute of him, but after Hawkwing’s sudden death and resulting 123 years civil war (confusingly called the 100 years war) the statue was pulled down. They’re history lesson is ended when the wolves tell Elyas and Perrin riders are coming.

 

Oh my, how unseemly, going about with
her hair unbraided.

Perrin and Egwene hide in the ruins of Hawkwing’s hand. The wolves and Elyas try to scare them off, but Perrin and Egwene are discovered. One of the wolves, Hopper by name, attempts to save them but is killed. Perrin in a blind rage attacks the men that did it before being knocked out. They’re brought before the leader of these men, these Whitecloaks, a man named Geofram Bornhald. Whitecloaks being a group of domineering Knights Templar wannabes that use the excuse of spreading the Light to force people to follow their commands. Assholes is what they are. Bornhald presents an almost grandfatherly air, but when their answers (some truthful, some outright lies) make him believe they are Darkfriends. He plans to take them to the Whitecloak capital in Amador for Questioning. And by Questioning, I mean painful torture meant to make them confess to whatever the Questioner asks. Egwene, he says might be released if she repents and confesses, but Perrin is set to be executed for killing two of the Children.

 

They travel as the Whitecloak’s prisoners for several days. Egwene is left reasonably unscathed, but Perrin is used as a punching bag by the Whitecloaks, especially by Bornhald’s #2 Jaret Byar. Eventually, Byar comes to them, kicking Perrin to wake him, and tells them that they’re slowing the Whitecloaks too much. He drops a sharp stone near Perrin, implying that if they cut their bonds and escape, the Children don’t have the resources or time to chase them. Perrin realizes that this is a set-up, but, thankfully, Lan arrives to actually free them. They reunite with Moiraine, Lan and Nynaeve.

 

They're both thinking of the life they wanted instead
of the life they're getting.

Rapid fire time, the group rushes to Caemlyn and the Queen’s Blessing where Mat and Rand are staying. Moiraine is able to heal Mat of the curse of the dagger he took from Shadar Logoth, repressing the infection to give him time to get to Tar Valon to fully cure him. There is a funny moment where Mat mentions Rand meeting a girl named Elayne, which clearly seems to annoy Egwene, only for Perrin to bring up Aram’s name and she gets super evasive. Rand, Perrin, Mat, and their new friend Loial, all have stories of warnings that the Eye of the World is under attack by the forces of the Dark One. Moiraine elects to use Loial’s Ogier knowledge to lead them through the Ways, an extradimensional highway that the Ogier once traveled but abandoned. It was made by tainted Saidin, and began to rot. They travel through the Ways, getting confirmation that the Shadowspawn are using them to move their troops unnoticed. They arrive in the Borderland country of Shienar just outside Fal Dara keep. The group rest at the keep for a night, while Moiraine interrogates Padan Fain, a peddler who seemed to have been following them since the attack on Emond’s Field. He, as it turns out, was tracking the boys for the Dark One. The next day they travel through the Great Blight, stopping to rest in the ruins of Lan’s home country of Malkier. They eventually enter the Green Man’s Grove, a forest oasis in the dead land that is the Blight. The Green Man leads them to the Eye of the World, a container of untainted Saidin. Just then, two of the Thirteen Forsaken, the Dark One’s most powerful minions, Aginor and Balthamel arrive and try to steal the Eye. They quickly overwhelm Lan and Moiraine, Nynaeve tries to stab Balthamel but the Forsaken grabs her by the throat and shocks her. The Green Man rushes over and kills Balthamel with plants just as the Forsaken destroys him. Rand draws Aginor away before battling and destroying him, and then severely wounding Ba’alzamon, the man claiming to be the Dark One that had been haunting Rand, Mat and Perrin’s dreams since Baerlon. Rand returns to the group, where Moiraine is healing Nynaeve while Egwene watches, and tells them he killed the Dark One with channeling. Egwene, reflexively, pulls back from Rand when he goes to hug her after this pronouncement, but then hugs him fiercely. They return to Fal Dara keep. Egwene goes to see Rand after he has a sparring match with Lan, to ask her sort of boyfriend to come with them to Tar Valon when they go. Rand refuses, though, claiming he’ll go somewhere to protect everyone from his potential channeling. Moiraine, who is eavesdropping with the Power, proclaims the Dragon is Reborn.

 

Egwene al’Vere at the start of the story is just an innkeeper’s daughter. She’s smart, driven, and stubborn as a mule. Of the five people to leave Emond’s Field, she is the only one that went of her own freewill and intends to go all the way to Tar Valon. It’s revealed on the trip that she is a Channeler born with the Spark. This means that she would eventually channel regardless of training. And, according to Moiraine, she has the potential to be one of the strongest channeler to enter Tar Valon in centuries, and will be one of the strongest Aes Sedai if she can finish the training. She doesn’t get many chances to use her powers in this first story, as she basically just gets a crash course in channeling before things go nuts.

 

You’re probably wondering why I used sort of whenever I referred to her relationship with Rand. That is because they’re relationship is the most chaste, strained relationship I’ve ever read in fiction. If we hadn’t had Rand’s inner monologue and references to the two being all but promised to each other, I wouldn’t say they’re really in a relationship at all. Just sayin’.

 

Egwene al’Vere is set to appear in Amazon’s Wheel of Time adaptation, premiering November 19, 2021. She’ll be played by Madeleine Madden. Madeleine Madden has appeared in Tidelands, Pine Gap, Mystery Road, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, and Around the Block, amongst other roles.

 

Egwene is one of those characters that is pretty divisive characters in the series. She’s headstrong, stubborn, at times quick tempered, and unwilling to admit when she’s wrong. So, she’s just like the boys she hangs out with. But, ya know, is a girl, so some people react badly to that. She’s also the only member of this group to leave her home of her own freewill, and despite not having sturdy boots or much traveling experience, she complains the least of all of them. She’s the only one to also not express a desire to return home early. As the series progresses, we see her power grow, as well as her ambition to be one of the greatest Aes Sedai of all time. In many ways, she’s Rand’s best foil in the series. Rand is destined to save the world and resists this duty every step of the way. Egwene, in contrast, has no prophecies preordaining her rise but fights tooth and nail to get the power necessary to help save the world. She’s the Yin to his Yang in many ways. And there we have it, my Wheel of Time theme week is at an end. I’ll see you next time when I get back to something Superhero related. See you then. 

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Hero Profile: Nynaeve al'Meara

 She's here to mix ointments and kick ass, and she's all out of ointments to mix.

Okay, so we’ve covered our three Ta’Veren, now we’re moving onto the two of their group that AREN’T Ta’Veren, but still are instrumental in saving all of reality. First up, Wisdom of the Two Rivers and local big sister Nynaeve al’Meara. She’s… intense. A combination of intense anger, immense power and loyalty, and a burning desire to heal make Nynaeve… I think intense is the best word for her. At times annoying, often a bit condescending, still, these kids probably would have died multiple times over if it weren’t for her. Let’s get to it, shall we?

 

Spoilers

Perfect "I'm done with this" energy.

Nynaeve al’Meara was born and raised in the Two Rivers. She’s about four years older than the boys, making her 24 at the time of the series. She spent the first few years of her life living with her father, her mother, Elnora, having died when she was young. Her father raised her like the son’s he never had, giving his girl a LOT of training in the art of woodcraft and tracking. He unfortunately died when she was 14, at which time she was more or less adopted by Mistress Doral Barran and made her apprentice Wisdom. She trained under Barran until she was 19, when she took over the role fulltime. A Wisdom is a combination hedge doctor, meteorologist, and spokesperson for the Women’s Circle, and Nynaeve was one of the best. Despite mutterings by some that she was too young or her rather intense temper makes her unfit, no one ever tried to replace her, as she performed almost miracle cures at times, and could predict the weather with extreme precision. And, in her defense, if I constantly had grey haired old men like the curmudgeon Cenn Buie questioning if I’m good enough at my job due to my age, I’d be pissed pretty often too. She began training Egwene al’Vere as her own apprentice when she was 24, but the plan of showing her the ropes of Wisdom were derailed by Winternight.

 

She is one of the first people to meet visiting Aes Sedai Moiraine Damodred and her Warder Lan, it doesn’t go well. Moiraine saw a young woman and followed an Aes Sedai impulse to call her “child.” She apologized when she realized what Nynaeve is, but she’d already made an enemy for life. When we first meet Nynaeve for real, she is immediately chastising Mat Cauthon for spreading a story that the Dragon would be Reborn during the world’s greatest time of need. She was the older kid that often looked after the boys when they were younger, also punishing them for their wrong doings, and she never quite let go of her role as the defacto-big sister. She goes to join the Village Council’s interrogation of peddler Padan Fain about the War and False Dragon in Ghealdan, and that’s the last we see of her for a bit. There are some mutterings that Nynaeve has been angrier than usual of late, as she predicted that winter should have ended weeks ago, but it still lingers on. When Nynaeve’s weather sense is off, she’s usually quite peeved about that and everything else around her.

 

She is in town when the Trollocs and Myrddraal attack the city. While she wasn’t able to help in the fighting, she worked for hours to save the injured. By the time Rand al’Thor drags his gravely ill father into town, she was exhausted and covered in grime, except for her arms which she cleaned religiously. She looked over Tam, but is unable to help as the infection killing him was beyond her skill level. I have to imagine she was… miffed when she heard Moiraine saved him.

 

Braid gets tugged, a lot.

We don’t see Nynaeve again until Baerlon. She followed the group a mere day or so after they left, and went straight for their inn upon arriving in town. At the Stag and Lion inn, she has an audience with Moiraine and the kids. Egwene in particular semes scared to meet Nynaeve’s eye, as she’d stopped braiding her hair, a massive no-no for Two Rivers women. In this audience, Nynaeve explains how she caught up to them. While the Tarren Ferry was sunk by Moiraine in their flight, she got across by bullying the ferryman to ferry her across in row boat. She impressed Lan with her ability to follow his trail, her dad was REALLY good at tracking, and was obviously embarrassed by the compliment. They all try to convince Nynaeve to keep going, but Nynaeve doesn’t believe things are desperate as they think. Of the boys three fathers/father figures, Tam believed they were doing the right thing and actually wanted to follow despite not being well, Abell Cauthon was worried his son’s practical jokes would get him killed, and Master Luhhan was displeased Perrin left. I assume papa Aybara and the al’Vere’s weren’t happy either, but she doesn’t draw attention to them. It’s at this point when Moiraine asks the young people and Lan out so they can have a private discussion.

 

Rand meets her after, and asks what they talked about. Nynaeve claims it was more of the same, and Moiraine didn’t convince her that there is danger. She actually thinks Moiraine was fishing for a reason for the attack, asking if any of the boys were born outside of the Two Rivers. Rand asks her if that’s really true, and tells her about his dad’s fever ramblings about finding him on the side of a mountain. Nynaeve does confirm that Rand was born outside the Two Rivers, she definitely didn’t tell Moiraine this, but said that she remembered Kari al’Thor looking at the baby she carried with the sort of love she only associates with biological mothers. Bit judgmental of her, but come on, Nynaeve was five at the time, she’s bound to remember things rosily. Rand isn’t comforted by this as it does confirm he was born outside the district. Nynaeve tells him not to worry and that she’ll at least stay the night in town. That night, she participates in an inn dance, absolutely flooring the boys as she doesn’t normally dance. She joins the group when they flee after a Myrddrall attacks Rand.

 

Queen.

They spend several days running from Trollocs. The first day, Nynaeve ignores Moiraine entirely, but spends the following two trying to talk herbs with Moiraine, but the Aes Sedai isn’t interested. Granted, if human eating monsters were following me, I’d have trouble focusing on other things too. After a clash with Trolloc outriders, they make for the ancient, abandoned city of Aridhol, later called Shadar Logoth. Nynaeve, despite her dislike for her, searches her pouch of herbs for something to help the exhausted Moiraine. Her distraction and Moiraine’s exhaustion is what lets the boys slip away to explore the city without they seeing. When they get back after their encounter with Mordeth, she joins in Moiraine’s chastisement of them, deducing that Mat was the ringleader. Moiraine explains the fall of Aridhol, due to the machinations of Mordeth who forever haunts the city, looking for a way out. Lan returns and warns them that Trollocs are in the city. They group tries to run and stay together, but the group is broken up by Trollocs and Mashadar, the killing mist that haunts the city after dark.

 

 Nynaeve spends the rest of the night sleeping against a tree in a hollow a short way from the riverbank. She’s awakened by her horse when the sun rises, and reflects on her escape. She’d escaped one Trolloc, only to run into a pack of ten. They caught a scent, though, and ran off without looking at her twice. It’s at this point that Nynaeve, angrily, has to admit Moiraine was right about hunting the boys. She resolves to ride all the way to Tar Valon to find her people, despite this being the farthest she’d ever been from home, herself. She rides for a few miles, but only finds jumbles of tracks. She does catch the whiff of smoke and heads toward it. She finds Moiraine and Lan, and elects to watch them from a distance for a while. They’re discussing the seemingly disappearing Trollocs and the lack of trail the boys left. Nynaeve takes a small measure of satisfaction that Lan couldn’t find them either. Lan is more concerned how close to a thousand Trollocs got this far south without the Borderlanders noticing, and why they didn’t attack Emond’s Field with that number if they had them. Moiraine doesn’t know either, but hopes it doesn’t mean the Forsaken are loose. She says that one of the boys is across the river and safe, but the other two are traveling down it and her connection to them is fading. Moiraine suddenly notices Nynaeve is there and calls out to her to join them. Nynaeve is obviously annoyed at being caught, but happy that it looks like Lan never noticed. Nynaeve starts yelling at Moiraine for her clearly underhanded plot to use the boys, but Moiraine doesn’t react. She instead chooses to drop the bomb on Nynaeve that she can channel.

 

Nynaeve tries to deny it, but Moiraine picks apart her excuses. First and foremost is the fact that she found Nynaeve, as female channelers can see the ability in other women. It’s like a glowing halo of light around their body, the only reason Moiraine didn’t see her sooner was due to being distracted. She talks about how the first use of the power is usually to get the channeler something they want badly, and they have a fever or other reaction ten days later. This definitely happened to Nynaeve, despite her denials. Moiraine then points out that a sort of bond can form between a healer and those they heal, and that explains why Nynaeve went straight for their inn despite it not being the closest, deducing she healed either Egwene or Perrin. Which she did, having cured Egwene of a fever when she was a baby. And Nynaeve does admit that she took for granted that she somehow could sense when certain people approached her and that it was always someone she’d healed. She still doesn’t want to be Aes Sedai, though and thinks that if she survived, so could Egwene. Moiraine disagrees, claiming that those born with the Spark that don’t get training die ¾ of the time. Moiraine goes on to tell her that, with training, Nynaeve could be the most powerful channeler on record, stronger than Egwene who will be one of the strongest. Nynaeve pushes back against this, asking that Moiraine keep this information to herself, which she agrees to. Moiraine sends Lan to find Nynaeve’s horse, saying the Wisdom won’t be joining them.

 

She'll break you nose, but then set if for you if you
apologize.

While alone, Nyneave asks more questions, namely how she can follow the boys. Moiraine explains that she gave each boy a token, a silver coin, that so long as they have them, she can track them a great distance. Rand and Mat had used theirs to pay for passage on the Spray, hence why their connection is fading. She can find them again if she gets close enough, though. When Moiraine mainly shows concern for the boys, it just makes Nynaeve angrier that Egwene doesn’t rank higher on her priorities. She ends up following the two, reasoning that if she can learn to use the One Power, she can use it against Moiraine.  

 

They arrive at Whitebridge a few days later, sadly long after Mat and Rand escaped the Myrddraal. Nynaeve hadn’t spoken much to Moiraine after that first day, and when she did, it was mostly Moiraine trying to convince her to go to the White Tower. Nynaeve knows she will go, but won’t admit it to Moiraine just yet. She spends most of the time annoyed and angry with Moiraine, or Lan, or both. Mostly both. Lan tries on a few occasions to convince her to go back to the Two Rivers, which just gets both women mad at him. When they actually enter Whitebridge, it’s in minor chaos. Apparently, there was a small fire that occurred when the Myrddraal attacked, distracting the people from the walking horror in their midst. They find the inn the boys stayed at briefly, but the trail is cold. Nynaeve asks where they’re going next, like after the boat that was rumored to have escaped the fire with a gleeman passenger. Moiraine says no, they’re going to go after the one boy she can still track. Mostly because she knows where he is. The other two could be anywhere, but she hopes they’ll head toward Caemlyn and wait for them there. Lan also informs them that he can smell the residual stink of a half-man, meaning the boys did have every right to run far and fast. Nynaeve is angered that Moiraine seems to not give a damn about Egwene, but Moiraine states quite angrily that she will not give up on a girl with such potential so easily, she’s just prioritizing. And it’s at this point that Nynaeve wonders if she’s not another prospect that Moiraine won’t give up on.

 

They followed the Caemlyn road for a few days after Whitebridge in the hopes of finding the two, but had to turn north eventually to find the trackable one. Eventually his connection broke, too, but Moiraine thinks this is because the coin was taken from him, not that he died. A few hours later, Moiraine claims the connection is reestablished and all will be well, which doesn’t help Nynaeve sleep. She does finally pass out, but Lan awakens her a short time late and brings her to a rise overlooking a Whitecloak camp. Lan knows where the boy is, having sneaked into the camp earlier, but doubts he will be able to move stealth-fully and asks Nynaeve for her help to free him. Nynaeve agrees, and is told to go to the Whitecloak’s horse pickets and cut the lines most of the way through. When Moiraine starts a distraction, the horses should be able to snap themselves free and will cause enough chaos for them to escape. Moiraine warns her to be careful and then she’s off.

 

She races to the picket line as fast as she can while staying hidden. She comes across two Whitecloak guards, but the morons don’t notice her, walking in a straight line and loudly announcing that all is well. She lets them make the rounds twice to get their pattern before running through. She starts cutting lines. She makes it about halfway through the horses before she cuts her hand and barely stifles a yelp. She considers running then, but the thought of Lan’s understanding but still slightly judging response to her getting only half the job done spurns her on. She gets to the final line to find stout, shaggy Bela also tied to them. She frees the horse so no one will have to ride double and avoid getting caught. She takes another horse too, for Perrin. She waits for Moiraine’s signal, which turns out to be a lightning flash, and escapes with the horses in the confusion.

 

They all eventually get back together and bid a hasty exit. They escape the Whitecloaks and get caught up on their separate adventures, Nynaeve taking the time to rub Perrin’s body down with an ointment that, combined with her channeling, heals his various bruises. She also asks about his eyes, but Perrin deflects that line of questioning. 

 

Okay, highspeed time. They meet up with Rand and Mat at the Queen’s Blessing in Caemlyn. All three boys and their new friend Loial tell Moiraine warning about the Eye of the World being under attack, and she forces Loial, an Ogier, to led them through the Ways to get to the Borderlands and the Eye in time. They learn in the extradimensional ways that the Trollocs have been traveling through them as well, allowing for an army to slip south unseen. They almost get attacked by Machin Shin, the Black Wind, that haunts the Ways but escape. They rest for a day in Shienar while Moiraine learns the dark secrets of a man that had been following them, the peddler Padan Fain. They arrive in the Blight, and cross it into Lan’s destroyed country of Malkier.

 

They make camp, and in the night, Rand overhears Lan and Nynaeve having a private conversation. It was a bit subtle, but it’s clear by this point that Nynaeve is smitten with Lan, and while he’s attracted to her, he’s doing his best to fight it. He claims that his war against the shadow to avenge his people is all that matters, and all he has to offer her is widows black. Rand closes his eyes at this point because he doesn’t want Nynaeve to know he saw her crying.

 

Just strutting out with the crew.

They make it to the Green Man’s grove the next day, and meet the Green Man, a large man made of vegetation. He leads them to the Eye, which turns out to be a large container full of untainted Saidin. It’s then that they’re attacked by two of the thirteen Forsaken, Aginor and Balthamel. Lan hesitates for just a moment, as Moiraine and Nynaeve are so far apart he can’t defend one without leaving the other open, and Aginor uses that moment to knock him out with a flick of his wrist. Overcome with rage, Nynaeve charges them with her knife, gets picked up by the throat by Balthamel, who then shocks her with the power. The others try to help, but Balthamel and Aginor are too powerful. The Green Man destroys Balthamel with plants as he too is killed.  And Aginor is ultimately defeated by Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn. Moiraine is able to heal Nynaeve and she returns with the others to Fal Dara Keep. Despite her continued unease with Aes Sedai, there she waits to travel onto Tar Valon with Egwene.

 

Nynaeve al’Meara is at the start of the story Wisdom of Emond’s Field. She’s incredibly skilled with making ointments and drafts with herbs to help with illness and pain, and is an excellent woodcraft-woman and tracker. She has no skill with a weapon, but carries a belt knife and has been known to crack people over the head with her Wisdom’s staff. She is also a Channeler of immense, but un-discipled power. She was born with the Spark, meaning that she channeled without being shown how to by someone with more skill. This actually leads to one of her biggest hurdles in the series, her block. See, as Nynaeve learned to channel on her own, she is what’s considered a Wilder in the White Tower. Wilders, Nynaeve included, often develop mental blocks that keep them from accessing their powers at will. It’s a way of denying what they are, in a sense. Nynaeve’s is anger, unless she’s thoroughly pissed off, she can’t channel more than anyone. She works through it eventually, but it’s a constant annoyance for her for a while. While it’s not exactly a power, the most common barometer to determine Nynaeve’s anger is how tightly she grasps and tugs her long braid. IF she’s grabbing her hair in a white knuckle grip, it’s best to kiss your ass goodbye, as it’s too late to run. 

 

Nynaeve is set to appear in Amazon’s Wheel of Time Adaptation, set to premier November 19, 2021. She’s going to be played by Zoe Robins. Zoe Robins has appeared in mostly television roles, The Killian Cures, The Shannara Chronicles, The Brokenwood Mysteries, and, my personal favorite factoid, Power Rangers: Ninja Steel. That’s right, Nynaeve was a Light Forsaken Power Ranger! What, that was a huge part of my childhood. And, final-final fun fact, she’s exactly 11 days younger than my baby brother. I just find that cute.

 

Nynaeve is one of the best characters in this series. She starts off as being incredibly judgmental, quick to anger, nagging and in general irritating, but she grows through out the series like few others. I appreciated her more now that I’ve gone through the stage where you’re not much older than the teenagers around you, but you still have to be the adult in the room. I can also appreciate how absolutely galling it must be to have incredibly power at your fingertips, but also unable to use it when you want. The fact she isn’t always pissed is something of a miracle. She and Lan also have the most believable romance in the series. Sure, a large chunk of it boils down to Nynaeve “Lan, I love you, do you love me?” Lan, “Yes, but we can’t be together,” Nynaeve “Why?” Lan “because I can’t love anybody, I’m an edgelord.” Nynaeve “harumph.” It’s almost funny, as Lan seems deadest against them being together, but he expresses it in such a beautiful, poetic way that I can understand Nynaeve getting flustered by it. al’Lan Mandragoran is king of sending mixed signals. She has an intense, and I would argue justifiable dislike of Moiraine and the White Tower as a whole, believing both meddle far too much in normal people’s affairs for their own ends. Which, she’s not wrong, and I think helps her keep from being sucked into the White Towers, at times, extremely cult like following. But more on that as the show goes on. Alright, so now that’s 4 of 5 Emond’s Fielders down. The only one left is the one that actually wanted to leave the village of her own accord, Egwene al’Vere. Gotta give props to the girl who wouldn’t take “No, stay behind” for an answer. See you then. 

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Hero Profile: Mat Cauthon

A Gambler that gets a crap hand for a while.

Alright, we’ve covered our first two Ta’Veren, time to finish out the trio. As Matrim Cauthon’s section follows Rand’s closely, this’ll be significantly shorter than the last few posts. I know that made some of you breathe a sigh of relief. Ha. He’s a character that is… difficult to like early on due to his cursed dagger, but more on that in a minute. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Spoilers 

Me: Mat, no!
Mat: Mat, yes!

Matrim Cauthon grew up in the Two Rivers, son of Abell and Natti Cauthon. There’s a slight in consistency with his backstory where they mention that he has four sisters, but only two, Bodewhin and Eldrin are ever mentioned by name. I only bring it up because it’s odd. He’s well known in the Emond’s Field for his pranks, that range from successful to horrible failures. His last before leaving the Two Rivers being trying to convince a younger kid that hell hounds are running around the Two Rivers. To do this, he took the blacksmith Haral Luhhan’s dogs, covered them in flour and unleashed them to try to scare his friend. But… the dogs immediately ran home, getting flour all over the Luhhan kitchen and causing Haral and his dogs to be chased from his own home. Haral was not amused.  He’s best friends with Perrin Aybara and Rand al’Thor, whom he often went on “adventures” with. This changed on Winternight.

 

Trollocs attacked the Emond’s Field, targeting Rand, Perrin, and Mat’s home along with the Luhhan forge. Visiting Aes Sedai Moiraine Damodred and her Warder Lan offer to take the boys to Tar Valon, the Aes Sedai capital, to protect them as they try to figure out why the Dark One is after them. They’re also joined by traveling Gleeman Thom Merrillin, who claimed he wanted to travel in company for protection, and Egwene al’Vere, Rand’s kind of girlfriend who wanted to see the world too. They spend days riding across the district of the Two Rivers. On the way, Lan gives the boys basics on how to use their weapons, Rand his sword, Perri his axe, and Mat his bow. They eventually make it to Baerlon, the biggest city the kids have ever seen. They spend a night there, and the boys all have a nightmare of a man in black with burning eyes and mouth calling himself Ba’alzamon. He tells them to serve or die and serve any way, warns the Aes Sedai will use them as a False Dragon, and that the Eye of the World will never serve them. The next day, Mat goes out into the city, running into Rand when the former chases after the peddler Padan Fain, whom they thought had been killed on Winternight. They try to find Fain, but can’t find him. They end up seeing a small group of Whitecloaks walking by. I’ve covered them a few times now, in short, they’re even judgier Knights Templar than the Templars. Mat, wanting to take them down a peg, sneaks off and causes some barrels to fall and splatter their white cloaks with mud. This almost gets Rand’s ass kicked, but the city guard saves them. They run into Thom on the way back to their inn and inform him of their nightmares. Thom advices them to keep the dreams to themselves for now.

 

Yes, he's a bit of a scruffy looking
nerf herder.

Back at the inn, they learn that the town Wisdom and their neighborhood big sister Nynaeve al’Meara followed them and is insistent they come home. They can’t convince her they need to keep going, but she isn’t going to drag them home by the ears, which is kind of a win with Nynaeve. They have a nice night dancing in the inn, but it’s ruined by Rand almost being killed by a Myrddraal. The group makes a hasty retreat, leaving the city. They’re briefly held up by the Whitecloaks, but Moiraine distracts them by using her powers to appear to grow huge so they can escape.

 

They have to run from Trollocs again, but can’t escape them this time. They clash with a group of outriders, where when Lan shouts a battle cry of “For the Seven Towers,” Mat shouts “Carai an Caldazar! Carai an Ellisande! Al Ellisande!” That was the battle cry of ancient Manetheren and in the old tongue, to boot. With no other option, Moiraine takes the group to the ruins of the city of Aridhol. While the more responsible people are distracted setting up camp, Mat convinces his two friends to explore the ruins. They have some fun seeing the grand scale of the city, but an empty city is kinda boring. Before they go back to camp, they meet a man calling himself Mordeth. He offers them treasure in exchange for their help getting his share of the treasure to his horses. The boys follow, and are led to a literal treasure trove. They mention that their traveling to Tar Valon with an Aes Sedai, causing Mordeth to freak out. He grows to impossible size and screams that they’re dead before fleeing. The boys run back to their camp and get chewed out by Nynaeve, and are informed why what they did was moronic by Moiraine. Short version, Aridhol was destroyed in part by the paranoia and anger created there by the machinations the mysterious Mordeth. The city became known as Shadar Logoth after a small Trolloc army disappeared, leaving only prayers written to the Dark One to save them in blood, which then disappeared a few days later. Lan returns, then, and informs them that Trollocs are in the city.

 

The group rides out, but are separated by Trollocs and by Mashadar, a killing mist that rises in the night. Moiraine had had a weave set up to keep the mist away, which is the only reason why they’d have been okay there. Mat ends up by the River Arinelle with Rand and Thom. They end up on a river craft called the Spray, captained by Bayle Domon. They spend most of the trip working the ship or taking basic Gleeman lessons from Thom. The lie they told Domon was that the boys were apprentice Gleemen, and Thom can’t fake teaching. Rand has skill with a flute, and Mat’s quick hands let him juggle incredibly well. But, cheerful Mat began acting angry, withdrawn and paranoid, Rand eventually discovering that Mat had stolen a dagger from the trove in Shadar Logoth. The dagger is gold with a large ruby in its hilt. Mat is insistent that because he stole the dagger, they can ignore the warning Moiraine gave about not how they shouldn’t take gifts from Mordeth from the city. Yes, Matrim Cauthon is an idiot.

 

He doesn't get his naginata, hat or amulet
in this story, but they look really neat.

They arrive a few days later in Whitebridge. In an Inn, they get caught up on rumors, and learn that a beggar is looking for them. They also learn that Thom is helping the boys so much as a means of making up for failing his own nephew Owyn. Owyn was a channeler whom was captured and gentled by the Aes Sedai, who later committed suicide from the depression that having his power taken from him induces. They go to leave, and run into another Myrddraal. Thom gives the boys his instruments and tells them to run, he’ll meet them on the road or at an inn called the Queen’s Blessing in the Andor capital of Caemlyn. He runs at the trolloc spawn, hurling knives at it.

 

Rand and Mat spend the next few weeks on the road. It’s a rough run, as they have virtually no money, no horses, and are constantly wary of darkfriends on their trail. They’re also slowed by Rand’s occasional bouts of strange illness. Mat grows more paranoid and darker of mood as they went. But it comes and goes, some days are better than others. They briefly try to work as entertainers to pay for their travels, but that plan blows up in their face when a Darkfriend named Gode nearly captures them for his dark master. Rand is able to channel and save them with a lightning strike, killing Gode, but blinding Mat for a few days. As they travel, Rand suggest that they sell Mat’s dagger or at least the ruby for money. Mat is furious at the statement, claiming the dagger is his and if they need to sell something, why don’t they sell Rand’s sword. Ya know, the heirloom he got from his dad. Rand backs off, but notes that Mat is very protective of his dagger, and often plays with it, sheathing and unsheathing it in a creepy manner. They also run into a few more darkfriends, including a random boy that just walked up to them, and a young woman that tried to murder them in a stable.

 

They eventually arrive at Caemlyn and the Queen’s Blessing. It’s at this point that Mat’s paranoia and apparent illness gets so bad that he doesn’t want to even get out of bed. He misses Rand’s exploits in the palace, and the arrival of his friends. Moiraine goes up to see him and is terrified of what she sees. Mat makes creepy, weirdly personal comments, a bit like Reagan ala the Exorcist. Moiraine explains that the dagger Mat took, like all of Shadar Logoth, is infected with the evil and anger that killed the original Aridhol. That evil infected Mat like a virus, consuming him and driving him mad. The evil also worked like a beacon to Darkfriends, drawing the attention of them, though only periodically. Which is why the rando just walked up to talk to them. Moiraine with her enhancing angreal to weaken the evil infection, helping Mat to recover a bit and give him more time to survive for her to get him to Tar Valon where a group of sisters can sever the connection to the dagger.

 

Yes, they were chased out a few areas by dogs
and sticks.

Rapid fire time again. Rand, Perrin, Mat, and their new friend Loial the Ogier give Moiraine multiple stories about warnings that the Eye of the World is going to be in danger of attack by the Dark One. To get to the Eye, which is far to the north in the Borderlands in the Great Blight, they use the Ogier Ways to travel hundreds of miles in days. They almost get attacked by Machin Shin, the black wind that haunts the Ways, but they make it. After spending a night in the keep of Fal Dara, where Moiraine interrogates and learns the evil history of the peddler Padan Fain, they travel to the Blight. They pass through the remnants of Lan’s country, Malkier, before arriving in the Grove of the Green Man, where the Eye is held. They arrive just before two of the Forsaken, the greatest minions of the Dark One, Aginor and Balthamel. Balthamel is killed as he kills the Green Man, but Aginor is more than enough to hold back and overwhelm Moiraine. Mat and Perrin run off for safety, allowing Rand to embrace his destiny as the Dragon Reborn and kill Aginor and deal a sever wound to Ba’alzamon. After, Mat and Perrin help Lan and Loial gather the items that were held in the Eye of the World. They’re a broken seal of the Dark One’s prison, the Dragon’s banner, and the Horn of Valere. The Horn is the biggest deal of these big deal items, as it’s believed to call back dead heroes to fight the Dark One. Mat returns with the others to Fal Dara keep, waiting for when they can head out to Tar Valon to free him from the dagger.

 

Mat Cauthon in this story is just a young farmer. He’s pretty skilled with a bow. He has the bad luck of grabbing a dagger from Shadar Logoth. This dagger is infected with the evil that corrupted and killed the city of Aridhol, turning it into Shadar Logoth. The dagger corrupts anyone near it, increasing paranoia and anger, and even draws some corrupted individuals like Darkfriends to it. Needless to say, begin cut by this dagger is… bad. It doesn’t happen until the next story, but in book two, we see a fella basically rapidly rotted into goo when sliced. It’s not a pretty way to go. Mat is also a Ta’Veren, a focal point of the Pattern of reality. This means that chance and the lives of others are drawn to and “swirl” around him, making the improbably probable around him. Such as, say, drawing a traveling entertainer to a location you are who can help you learn skills to survive on the road. Get it? Got it? Good. I will note that Mat does develop his own unique set of powers, but they don’t really get introduced until book 3, so I don’t want to spoil it, beyond acknowledging it exists.

 

Mat looks only a little like Mat.
Dónal Finn aka Mat 2.0 on left, Barny Harris right.

Mat Cauthon will appear in Amazon’s adaptation of The Wheel of Time, set to premier November 19, 2021. He’s going to be portrayed by Barney Harris in season one. Harris has been in A Brixton Tale, Brighton Beach, It’s Me, Clique, Billy Lunn’s Long Halftime Walk, and All Roads Lead to Rome. For reasons unknown at the time of writing, October 29, 2021, Barney Harris has left the Wheel of Time show. He’s been recast for season 2 with Dónal Finn. Harris has appeared in Albion, Cursed, The Witcher, and How to Build a Girl. While a I’m a little disappointed that we’ll only be getting one season of Barney Harris, his clips have been very good, Dónal Finn seems like a fine replacement. I hope the split from Amazon was amicable or at least not damaging to Barney Harris’ career. And it doesn’t turn out to be far, far uglier than it first appeared. Look up David Yost’s exit from Power Rangers to see how bad it can get.

 

I’m really curious as to how the show will present Mat. See, a pretty universal reaction to Mat when reading the books is that readers find him to be selfish, mean, and possibly stupid for the first two books, but then after book three when he’s finally separated from the dagger, he becomes a fan favorite. Odds seem good that they’ll shorten Mat’s time under the Dagger’s influence, but I’m not sure how they will do it. From the promotional material they’ve released thus far, it seems like they’re shifting Mat’s home life to being… well, crappier than it was in the books. It’s implied that Abell and Natti Cauthon are less than adequate parents and Mat grew up in poverty, making him taking a dagger with a gold hilt and big ruby in it more of a reaction to his lifestyle than an impulse theft. Regardless, I’m excited to see how Mat will be portrayed in the show, and I hope everyone will grow to like him, even if it’s sooner than I did when I first read the books. Alright, so we’ve covered our three Ta’Veren, next, we’ll cover the group’s big sister, Nynaeve al’Meara. See you then. 

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