But how long would that be useful? As soon as the first Trollocs appeared... And why would Demandred consider seizing control of Tear, Andor, and Illian to be stupid plans while he was wasting time consolidating and controlling a backwater like Murandy?



Except that we have evidence that someone appeared to Masema in his dreams in the guise of an angelic, light-embodying Dragon to push him over the edge. That final POV made it sound like it wasn't the first time that had happened, and both the skill with dreams and the willingness to portray Rand as a pure and holy being suggests someone other than Demandred. As Dominic has often argued, Lanfear makes by far the most sense here.

That is not to say that all DRAGONSWORN were Lanfear's doing. The Prophet was only one part of the larger dragonsworn movement. The Arad Doman dragonsworn were different than the Ghealdan group, who were different than the Tarabon group, who were different than the "dragonsworn" who were really Niall's cronies. Demandred may have had a hand in one of these groups and even in directing the Prophet's movements. It is worth noting the later connections between the Seanchan and Masema, which may have been part of a plan by the Shadow.



Except that the SL corruption seems to brainwash and control deeper than the Shadow. Also, Mordeth and Fain both demonstrate abilities beyond the norm and it may be that Fain could do more with a city than any Forsaken ever could.



Demandred may indeed think he is more in charge than he really is. I have long suspected that Taim would betray on of his higher ups in order to seize power as a full equal of the Chosen. Still, I think that Demandred trained Taim and instructed him in how to militarize the Asha'man. The BT operation is incredibly well organized and secretive. Also, we have absolutely zero evidence (I think) that Ishy/Moridin has channeled anything except the TP since the Age of Legends. He would definitely need to channel saidin to instruct Taim and I find that unlikely. Yes, Ishy promised to train Rand, but a) Rand is special as the Dragon and b) Ishy lies A LOT.

That Demandred did not recognize Flinn or know that any Asha'man were with Rand is good evidence that Demandred spends very little time at the BT and may have had some communication failures with Taim (who may have wanted to hide this problem from his superiors).

Finally, I know RJ stated flat out that we would not see Shara or Seanchan again in the series, but I still think it odd that so much has been made of these super powerful lands and only one has so far been relevant to the story. Will the Ayyad and the Shara armies participate in the Last Battle (we don't have to see their lands for the people to be involved)? Graendal threw the Sharan Empire into chaos by decapitating their figure heads, but that still leaves the infamous Ayyad channelers and their breeding program (is this only from tBWB or do we know about the Ayyad from any other sources?) If huge OP battles are in the near future, wouldn't Shara be a huge wildcard? Is it feasible that Demandred has been working on not only the BT, but Shara too? I dunno, but Semirhage with the Seanchan, Messaana with the WT, and Demandred with the BT almost, but not quite, accounts for that major institutions of channelers in the world. Why leave Shara alone?