They did that with three AS training them, though. I don't see that much advantages to the sul'dam leading the circles. I would choose Alivia as circle leader anytime over Bethamin.



There's just as many legendary parallels that suggest Caemlyn will well and good fall to the Shadow.

It fits also with the Manetheren parallels being developped lately around Elayne and the Band of the Red Hand. I don't even discount the possibility Elayne gets captured by the Shadow as she travels back inside her palace from Merrilor.... Moghedien hates her. Cyndane would want her if she's told Elayne bears Rand's children. Demandred lusted about LTT's wife... almost certainly because she was his wife. Moridin had surrounded Elayne... and there's the whole "she can't die" thing...

I tend to think the foreshadowing doesn't concern the take-over of Caemlyn but the final battle when the Light will finally attack the BT. That may well be shortly before the strike at SG.

I know most people think Pevara and co. will find a way to escape and give a warning, but I don't share that theory. IMO, it doesn't fit. Why? Because Brandon thought of telling that story as a novella before changing his mind and including the first half of it in TOM. I can't imagine Brandon considered telling as a pre-TOM novella a story in which Pevara's group defeated the dreamspike and escaped to go warn the Light about the BT.

I think their purpose in the story, and why they got hint of the turnings and all, is that Jordan meant them to foresee the upcoming purge and as they can't leave, find a way to hide inside the grounds (which would have been the end of the novella). It would have been very mysterious, as then we wouldn't have had a clue about the dreamspike, and still have no idea about the battle of Caemlyn.

Then TG will start. The Asha'man with the talent for Gateways will eventually figure out to an extent how or why Travelling is blocked there, and they will locate the dreamspike that's very likely inside Taim's palace, and really not easy to reach. I just don't think RJ planned for the two dreamspikes to be defeated from TAR. It may be that channelers who know the key to the dreamspike can Travel - Moridin almost implied as much: don't try to trap me with it, I know the key and it won't work. Knowing the key wouldn't help him much if he's trapped nowhere close from the dreamspike itself... unless the "key" is something you integrate in your Travelling weave to make them work despite the dreamspike. If that's so, the defeat of the dreamspike may come from the Asha'man with the talent managing to get close enough to the Shadow's Travelling ground and figuring out that little detail they modify in their weave that make them work. Because of his talent, he will figure out that little but highly complex detail in their weaves that's different from regular gateway. The second option is very appealling, because Pevara and co. could then Travel to TV without the Shadow even realizing their dreamspike is now useless, and the Light could mount a surprise massive attack on the BT.

But I'm quite convinced Jordan can't possibly have planned for the Light to rescue Caemlyn or destroy the BT as TG begins. As well seal the Bore right away, while he was at it... Caemlyn is doomed, much as it's doomed in most versions of the Arthurian legend. Don't forget that battle means to explain why Camelot is nowhere around anymore.

In many versions, it comes in two distinct times, by the way: the foes of Arthur first seize his capital. Eventually, Arthur's armies comes to retake it (and in some versions, his wife taken hostage by Mordred) and it's a pretty cataclysmic again - very costly battle for the good guys, death of Arthur and most of his knights etc. There's a tie to Manetheren in all of this... Arthur was often on the continent fighting a massive war when Mordred seized Camelot and his Queen, and his armies had to run back home and met a big defeat.

Unless Brandon has made the mistake of bringing the story way too far ahead and a sizeable part of the book is devoted to pre-Merrilor, pre-battle of Caemlyn events (which I highly doubt), it's too early for the Light to "rescue" anything. It's time for defeats, the bigger the better. How Elayne misinterpreted the info she found, how Mat didn't open Verin's letter as he should have, all speak for a big fiasco.

We'll see, but IMO when Talmanes joins the battle, I believe Merrilor is almost over. Elayne and the Kin will return for the end of the battle, Mat won't be at Merrilor and he won't get back to Caemlyn from Ghenji before it's all over. The cataclysm at Caemlyn, and the news from Grady about Merrilor, and about the Seanchan attack on the WT, is what will convince Mat to go to Tuon and convince her she has to stop the Return and fight the Shadow.