Elayne's delivery is still several months away in story time. It won't happen before the LB for sure, and while it's possible the war lasts several months and she delivers during it, the most likely outcome is that Elayne will give birth only in the "epilogue" chapters of the book dealing with post LB events.

If that's the case, there's not much Jordan could gain from killing Elayne in childbirth or another way except pissing off readers who, after 14 books and once the LB is over, will be quite eager to get all the details they can about the future lives of the main players. The small doubt that exists is that from a mythological perspective, if Elayne's twins are in any way implied to be the Heroes whose birth herald a new age (eg: if these two don't show up at the LB - RJ said the souls join the body at the time of conception, so the absence of the pair at the LB don't necessitate Elayne giving birth before the SG events) in many similar myth, the mother/father represent the previous stage/Age and die to leave the place to their offspring (old and new Ages don't co-exist). But this can also be represented through the death of Rand, for instance, or even his "retirement" to a private life.

Killing a main character in WOT isn't something Jordan would have planned lightly, especially not in the epilogue section where we might expect his primary goal would be to set the "open ended" post LB lives of the characters.

Contrary to most, it seems, I find it quite possible Jordan has planned to kill a main character during the LB, where the dramatic impact would be the highest. It could possibly be one of the EF gang, in which case Rand remains the most likely candidate, though I wouldn't rule out Perrin, Egwene or Nynaeve as possibilities as well (we know it can't happen with Mat, for obvious reasons). Killing off a main player early in the LB would be an extremely effective plot device. It would be unexpected and would destroy the whole notion that the main cast is "safe" in the part of the series where that impression of "safety" would be detrimental to suspense and dramatic impact. If RJ has planned something like this, I'd place my bet on Nynaeve being his choice for that.


Perrin would be quite a twist, as most of the series has dealt with his fears of losing Faile, with points like how she would come back to haunt him if he didn't remarry. That Faile would find herself a widow (and pregnant) would be quite a twist. The odds for that happening aren't high, of course (it wouldn't have any impact otherwise!).

Egwene's main mission through the series will soon be over (reach a milestone, anyway), in the sense that once she's welcome back the male AS, the missing elements in her "alliance" and bringing a main theme of the series full circle (this is also represented through her relationship with Gawyn... first letting Rand go, then accepting a relationship - something she wasn't quite sure she wanted early on, and now Egwene is hesitating again though it's pretty obvious this will get solved, and will be echoed with full acceptance of the male channelers by the female ones) and once the reunited channelers have fought the LB, all the "seeds" will have been planted, and the rest is rebuilding. It does seem more likely that Jordan will leave Egwene continue the work and just put quite a few open ended challenges in front of her, and it's through her last POV we will get our vision of what the AS might become in the next decades, and what Egwene hopes they become in the new age beginning. But it's not impossible he had decided to "retire" Egwene, or has planned a more dramatic exit such as her death during TG (which would introduce a threat to her "legacy" at the Tower, and a challenge for the AS not to return to the old ways instead of continuing on the paths Egwene is trying to set. It could make a suitable "open ending" for the WT affairs, especially with Logain involved).

Nynaeve can also easily die, though I find it far more likely she's made a widow (which maybe why Jordan defies expectations and kills her off, or kill off both Lan and her).

As for the "main secondary cast", including all those close the main players (partners, friends, allies etc.), they're all "fair game" and no doubt Jordan has planned for quite a few of them to die during the LB. He's kept a massive cast alive through 14 books, and little would give Tarmon Gai'don a proper end of times/apocalyptic tone and dramatic impact than if Jordan suddenly started killing off a lot of his "expendable" players (it's mostly, almost exclusively, players from the main cast who are needed up to the end). I suspect he had a list of those he made sure to provide a big enough role through the series so their deaths would really count dramatically (and substitute for the fact he can't really kill more than one or two "main players". Building up/making sympathetic characters more than demanded by the plot in order to increase the dramatic impact when he killed them off was a device he's used quite a few times already for more minor figures like Adeleas and Vandene, Reane Corly, Ingtar, Jain Farstrider, Verin and so on, and I'm pretty sure he's done the same, just more elaborately, with far more "important" players who will die during the LB (I'm pretty convinced he's even formed couples in order to make widows/widowers later). The list of the secondary cast that could go down in the LB is much, much too long to enumerate, though I'm thinking of characters of the status of Siuan, Thom, Moiraine, Morgase, Tam, Berelain and so on.

As for Cadsuane, who seems destined to die a heroic death in TG, personally I find it more amusing/interesting if contrary to all expectations she survives the LB and faces the challenge afterward that she's but middle-aged and once the binding is removed she may live 300 more years... but having her die fulfilling her purpose as a Green Sister after a life of preparation is more "classic".

We'll see. I expect a rather high death toll, mostly because Jordan has kept around such a huge cast until his final apocalypse, but I expect it will be fairly light when it comes to main players. It could well be none and they'll only have close calls, but I tend to expect one or two deaths.