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Part of a mystery from KoD is solved Logain Send a noteboard - 14/12/2009 08:37:45 PM
One of the unanswered mysteries in the series is who sent the 100K army of trollocs against Rand and company in KoD?

I believe it is safe to rule out any of the Forsaken who channel saidar from candidates for the culprit. That is the part of the mystery that is solved. It could have been any of the men or Halima/Osan'gar because she channels saidin.

There are two pieces of information to support my idea and they work in conjunction. First, in aCoS, it is remarked that Myrdraal can distinguish the difference between Saidar and Saidin by "smell." See A Crown of Swords, chapter 40. Second, Moridin comments that someone appeared as "Sammael" to the Myrdraal, and that it could ONLY have been one of the Forsaken who gave the order because the Myrdraal had to obey.

The only other person who possibly could command Myrdraal would be Alviarrin (she got a special mark after all), but she is eliminated from contention by the same reasoning as the other female forsaken (see above). We have no evidence to suspect any other non-forsaken (i.e. Mazrim Taim or anyone else) of being able to command Myrdraal.

The above two clues work in conjunction to eliminate the saidar wielding Forsaken from consideration. For a saidar channeler to appear as "Sammael" would require the person to weave a mask of mirrors to make her look like Sammael. But because Myrdraal can smell the difference, the Myrdraal should have been able to detect the deception immediately if one of the saidar channelers tried that. That should eliminate the saidar channelers.

For the deception to work properly, a saidin channeler would have had to of appeared as Sammael.

Remember that Myrdraal do not actually see the weaves, and thus inverting them seems to me not to matter at all. Of course, I'm assuming here that a Myrdraal can smell a weave whether it is inverted or not. I admit I could be wrong there. However, for evidence in favor of my assumption I point to the scene in The Great Hunt where the Myrdraal who came to purchase Nynaeve and Elayne to turn them using 13 Myrdraal were not in the same room as Elayne when she channeled just a little bit, yet they knew immediately she had channeled. The book doesn't say it explicitly, but I think the Myrdraal could smell she had channeled.

Do you agree that only a saidin channeler could have deceived the Myrdraal into thinking it was "Samael" giving the orders?
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Part of a mystery from KoD is solved - 14/12/2009 08:37:45 PM 1587 Views
Only SH can distinguish saidin and saidar - 14/12/2009 08:46:31 PM 954 Views
Graendal's streith gown gives a lot away... - 14/12/2009 08:53:49 PM 1636 Views
Yes... - 14/12/2009 09:00:26 PM 799 Views
Why would she be worried about that if she ordered it, though? - 15/12/2009 02:01:10 AM 733 Views
I think she excludes herself in TGS - 15/12/2009 04:39:18 AM 895 Views
Very interesting argument... - 14/12/2009 08:49:08 PM 856 Views
Alviarin's Mark doesn't give her control over shadowspawn. RJ told us this in a Q&A. - 14/12/2009 08:49:50 PM 732 Views
Link please to the RJ quote. *NM* - 15/12/2009 03:31:06 PM 282 Views
Here is the quote: - 15/12/2009 03:35:34 PM 682 Views
Thanks! So we can eliminate Alviarrin for sure! *NM* - 15/12/2009 03:50:05 PM 271 Views
I always thought it was Demandred - 14/12/2009 08:59:01 PM 1136 Views
I saw Demandred's comment to mean the following: - 14/12/2009 09:07:26 PM 822 Views
I also interpreted... - 14/12/2009 09:17:19 PM 693 Views
I've always thought it was Semirhage's doing - 14/12/2009 09:39:18 PM 683 Views
I agree - 15/12/2009 04:44:14 AM 788 Views
In my view... - 15/12/2009 07:32:18 AM 654 Views
Graendal is low on my list - 15/12/2009 01:47:20 PM 695 Views
Posing as Sammael is Graendal's modus operandi - 15/12/2009 01:58:34 PM 715 Views
Re: Posing as Sammael is Graendal's modus operandi - 15/12/2009 02:21:07 PM 909 Views
I think it makes perfect sense - 15/12/2009 03:20:28 PM 624 Views
Two things... - 15/12/2009 02:03:23 PM 692 Views
Re: Two things... - 15/12/2009 02:24:42 PM 758 Views
Let's look at purpose and method... - 15/12/2009 02:34:36 PM 754 Views
I don't think it makes much sense that this was a test - 15/12/2009 07:20:52 AM 734 Views

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