I remain a bit unconvinced Demandred means to send the Murandians against Andor, even though they're the traditional enemies and all. It wouldn't be so easy to convince the Murandians, because there's a lot of unrest at their southern border. They're expecting that Seanchan invasion. Not the best time to send most of their armies into an attack in Andor...

There isn't much for the Light to do anymore around Caemlyn, except razing it Manetheren style and evacuating the population to Whitebridge, Baerlon, Aringill, Cairhien etc. (which is more or less what I believe truly happened in Manetheren: either the Dreadlords or AS razed the city after the fact. That story about Eldrene's heroics sounds like a WT invented "inspirational" tale).

There remains the fact southern Andor is very populated, and it puts pressure on Elayne if she's about to lose the heart of the nation after losing the capital. There's also the House who's not rallied to Elayne there, notably.

But... I don't know... it's all very much mundane war and there seems to be something missing in all of this.


Let's see... Murandy stands between Illian, Altara, Andor, Far Madding and the Way to Tear. It stands between the Seanchan and the rest. With Travelling, it's not that significant. Something major has to be escaping us. Perhaps the real goal of the plan is to make Murandy itself the battlefield (by an invasion of Andor and Altara before retreating, to provoke attacks on Murandy from Andor and the Seanchan/Altara both. Maybe the real goal of Demandred is to provoke the big cataclysmic clash between Seanchan and Rand's forces in Murandy... completed with a major offensive of the Demandred with what else he has in reserve, his "true" armies, on both Seanchan and Rand's side as they are clashing. That would be when he comes into the open.

It could be interesting, as in the chaos this could likely put Mat leading the Seanchan against the "Merrilor group"... including the Band! Both sides would expect to go deal with Roedran's invasion of their nation, only to find themselves facing one another once they enter Murandy.... and Demandred would have all kind of nasty surprises infiltrated among the Murandians, and reserves of another kind ready to join the fight against all sides (DF, channelers, Shadowspawn). One of his goal would be to draw Rand himself into the fight.