I'm not apathetic on genocide at all. Still, hearing that a bunch of people poisoned themselves and their children because a stone hand lit up - to paraphrase Terry Pratchett, there's many ways to commit suicide, if you aren't careful. These guys sounded like sad idiots when I heard about their illusion-jumping act. I felt bad that they killed themselves, angry that they killed their kids, and surprised that RJ thought I should be upside-down over a bunch of folks who had done nothing in the books so far.

Back to the point. I hope that the Sea Folk do have some grand task, like preserving Randland's weak & young. Otherwise, I haven't really seen them as doing anything. Not anything at all, save possibly serving as a weird footnote in Rand lore... Y'know, "there's one people who were totally eating out of his hand, then he didn't follow through quite right, and then they were just snotty pains in the ass who dragged their feet on their obligations." Weird footnote, right?

So yes, I hope the other posts are right and that they actually do something other than complain and demand too much from others while giving nothing.