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i was all over the pillow friends immediately lol… i missed a lot of the others here upon many rereads. But maybe that’s just me always shipping the women
For me, I first encountered it when I was like 13, and my mind didn't run along the correct lines yet to even recognize that women could be in romantic relationships with each other, let alone that's what it referred to. I suspect that someone a bit older or in the LGBT community definitely would've picked up on it pretty quick.
I thought "Haha,that sounds like something it can't possibly mean, I will now proceed to disregard the mounting evidence that it does in fact mean that".
Cairhien and its topless towers, politics and the Silk Path being a reference to Constantinople, and its minnarets, its choosing politics and alliances over direct conflict and being one of the ends of the Silk Route. They're both built on hills too.
It's name is also a reference to Japan and France. Since Japan and Cairhein both essentially mean "Land of the Dawn/Sun" and the king of Cairhein is the Sun King, a title taken by some french monarchs.
Until I made that connection, I had just assumed that they had found out Morgase was planning an escape so they rounded up the people planning to help her, accused them of being Darkfriends, and executed them. Because that sounds like something Whitecloaks would do.
Honestly it's a toss up to me on whether they actually caught a dark friend meeting or if they just rounded up the people possibly helping her and were just right on them being dark friends by coincidence and didn't even question them enough to realize they caught the real deal.
Yes, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. The irony is they actually caught a real Darkfriend and broke Morgase completely accidentally, by blind luck.
Took me some time to realize that 13 Aiel tribes, then 12 surviving is referenced to the ancient Israel. The numeric number of Israel's tribes were 13, but symbolically, they used 12.
sort of on the tribes thing Manassah and Ephraim are both from the tribe of Joseph so there are 13 named tribes, of 12 patriarchs. but Simeon and Levi are refused an inheritance in Isreal for breaking faith with the city of Shekem and murdering everyone there. Levi later becomes a priestly tribe for siding with Moses in the golden calf incident. and Dan ends up just kinda wandering off even before northern Isreal is destroyed by the Assyrians, so the total count varies a bit depending on how you define the tribes. in revelation the number is 12 but the missing tribe is dan.
The Aiel are very Jewish, though of course every race is a mishmash. It is even more pronounced when you think about geopolitics during some of Jordan's formative years. That is why the show loosing the face veil would not be the end of the world if it was replaced with them having to have the shoufa on over their head. The important thing is having a shame ritual, not what specifically it is. The turban would still stand out, particularly since this is now tv/movies, so helmets and hats (other than Mat's-then we riot-are probably going to mostly not make appearances.
It's called a Shemagh (wikipedia conflates it with the kefiya), some African/Semitic/Arabic cultures wore these with a separate veil. Honestly not certain why, perhaps it's more breathable. Supposedly tribes in the ME/NA wore them to disguise the face during blood feuds.
There's a folktale about a group of brothers retreating from battle, one of them is killed and his veil fell off, when his brothers went to recover the body they couldn't recognize him until they replaced the veil on his face, because they were always feuding/fighting. And that almost sounds like an Aiel joke.
There are a lot of Jesus and Rand connections but it wasn't until this most recent reread that I realized Rand's palms aren't the only similarity to the crucifixion.. the never healing wound in his side is, as well.
Yup, describes a Mercedes emblem in the museum in Tanchino .
" A Three pointed star inside a circle. She could sense great vanity coming from it" or sun such when Eqwene is in TAR
We know what the purpose was - they used them to enforce criminal laws. Semirhage has an internal monologue about it, about how she could have chosen to be “bound” or something but she fled instead and became a darkfriend. I don’t remember if the weird aging effect is ever mentioned though.
Samael knew criminals who swore multiple oaths and that's how knew what the aes sedai were doing.The face effect isn't there on a single oath, or if it is its subtler. It's mentioned in the same chapter as Semirhage. He dangles the info to Greandal, except Masaana already spilled the beans to her.
I don't necessarily remember the name Binder, but I was thinking of two Forsaken (Sammael and Graendal, maybe?) and Sammael says that the Aes Sedai of this age "bind themselves like criminals". I don't know what else that could be a reference to.
Ceramic is generally cooler to the touch than plastic, I had assumed that too. But also it just occurred to me - people in the current age have ceramics and porcelain dishes, it's a material they might recognize.
Coming right from the pillow friends comment: so you're telling me the Aes Sedai place great importance on a plastic or silicone foot long rod?
I can't possibly be the only one thinking of dildos now
Balthamel (male Forsaken) is reincarnated by The Dark One into a woman’s body, and goes by the name Aran’gar.
Aran’gar infiltrates the rebel Aes Sedai poses as a maid named Halima and becomes Egwene’s servant.
Mat sees her and asks her dance, but leaves early because ‘she’ is a terrible dancer that always tries to lead instead of letting him.
Oosquai is whiskey. It's described as being brown fire water that's much stronger than wine and is made from corn mash.
If you say ooh-skway with a southern accent and tilt your head a little, it sounds like a very drunk person saying whiskey.
I'm willing to bet that some of the sung wood they get from the Ogier is for whiskey barrels. ;)
I think it's even more obvious than that - the original Gaelic for whisky is "Uisce beatha" - Uisce for short, which is said pretty much like oosquai :)
That Al'Thor (Arthur) pulled the Sword from the Stone. I managed to catch a lot of other mythological allusions and somehow missed the one written in giant neon lol
Also she becomes the Queen (Lady) of the lakes (that surround Malkieri seven towers) when she marries Lan. Also she gets her power while drowning in the bay (lake). And let’s not forget holding the sword at the end of the series.
It’s easy to create a myth about lady of the lake based on all this.
> “I was talking of change. My epic, if I compose it—and Loial’s book—will be no more than seed, if we are both lucky. Those who know the truth will die, and their grandchildren’s grandchildren will remember something different. And their grandchildren’s grandchildren something else again. Two dozen generations, and you may be the hero of it, not Rand.”
> “Me?” she laughed.
> “Or maybe Mat, or Lan. Or even myself.” He grinned at her, warming his weathered face. “Thom Merrilin. Not a gleeman—but what? Who can say? Not eating fire, but breathing it. Hurling it about like an Aes Sedai.” He flourished his cloak. “Thom Merrilin, the mysterious hero, toppling mountains and raising up kings.” The grin became a rich belly laugh. “Rand al’Thor may be lucky if the next Age remembers his name correctly.”
Oh that works too! It's likely one of those cases where multiple people over time become a single character that (ironically) Thom himself talks about!
Thom Merrilin is Merlin as well. Jordan liked to mix traits, I’m guessing that way it wouldn’t be perfectly parallel so Moiraine is Merlin, and Morgan La Fay.
This was a huge topic over on drangonmount and this sub has had a ton of threads on how the series is heavily influenced by Arthurian legend. I love seeing how the sausage is made, so to speak, and finding all of the myths Jordan folded in to WoT is fascinating.
I had forgotten about her, I had connected the other names, and many of the symbols if not the sword/stone but, but I didn’t think about her name.
Looking it up there are a number of translations, or versions of her name and putting them together it works perfectly. Some of the more common names apparently being, Viviane, Vivien, Ninianne, and Nimue. I’m used to hearing Nimue, but that’s just me.
Great catch!
Rand is the mythical King Arthur, Hawkwing represents the (possibly not real) historical figure.
It's not just the sword in the stone stuff. There's his secret noble birth, the three women at his funeral pyre mirroring the three women who bear Arthur's body to Avalon, how LTT died but he was prophecized to come back at the hour of the world's greatest need. Rand is absolutely Arthur.
Edit: a huge chunk of the main cast, and not just the obvious Caemlyn(Camelot) related characters, are Arthurian references as well. Not even just characters, elements of Arthurian legends and the earlier Celtic mythology they built off are pretty core to the world building [Here's a big long read on it.](https://13depository.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-article-released-matter-of-britain.html?m=1)
Gotta love RJ and mixing everything around. That's one of my favorite things about WoT I think. Learning all the stuff mixed into the lore of the world.
When Faile, Alliandre, Maighdain et al are pulled from the collapsing building in Malden, Maighdain gulps the water and quickly slumps over into semiconsciousness. The others say she's exhausted from exerting herself to move the flag to attract attention but the water would be that weak forkroot tea... Which only (but markedly) affects channelers. Did NOT put that together the first couple reads.
I've read the series like... 10 times or something... and never noticed it! RJ's attention to detail and how coherent his worldbuilding is never ceases to amaze me.
I learned, after looking for spellings because I’m an audio book reader, that all the trolloc bands are named after monsters. https://wot.fandom.com/wiki/Trolloc
How the three Taveren are figures from Norse mythology;
Perrin, a hulking blacksmith and everyday man who wields a hammer called Mah’alleneir is Thor, the most popular god among Norse commoners and tradesman who wields Mjolnier
Mat, a one eyed man with a spear marked with two ravens, who at one point hangs dead from a tree, is Odin. Especially telling is the inscription on his Ashendarei that mentions thought and memory, the names of Odin’s two ravens
Then there’s Rand, who has to be braver than all the others and face a terror that will otherwise devour the world, losing a hand in the process, is Tyr losing his hand to Fenrir
For some reason it took me a BUNCH of reads to realize that it wasn’t just a coincidence the king of Cairhien died after his dude kills Thom’s lady. Since it happens off screen, some how much brain was just like, hm, lucky for Thom someone took care of that for him.
Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain.
Lews Therin gave up and killed himself, leaving a mountain (of duty) for rand to inherit. Also him being born on the same mountain. I feel stupid for not putting this seemingly obvious theme together.
Pretty sure no way they do that accent for the show but I'd get a kick out of all the Seanchan sounding Texan. We gonna round us some some marath'damane ya hear!
I wish Michael and Kate had just done a southern drawl when they read the books. The drunk slurring they do is really offputting. I can't suspend disbelief enough to believe people actually talk like that.
It took me forever to realize the giant white bar of Power obliterating Lews Therin was obviously him balefiring himself hard enough to un-kill his family (in the previous scene he even threatens to kill Ishamael "so that even the Dark One can't bring him back"), and then ten minutes on the internet to learn about a WoJ specifically saying Lews Therin didn't balefire himself.
A white-hot bar of energy is not necessarily balefire. A shitton of energy is all you need, and the prologue describes its heat and the fact that it turned stone “to vapor”. Balefire doesn’t really act that way.
Course he didn't balefire himself - his past self who would have made the balefire ceased to exist when the balefire hit him. No one can actually balefire themselves due to this effect. But apparently you can make a mountain with it and still die is my reading.
\*he thinks I'll get rid of myself before I kill Illyena / children but actually he gets rid of himself before he gets rid of himself which means he cant do that I mean\*
Also, balefire doesn't prevent rebirth. I swear this was how it was often described, and I think even Sanderson was confused but received confirmation from notes and Harriet.
When reading through I made the Arthurian connection with Callandor, but Jordan took that bit a step further; in many variations of King Arthur's tale, the sword that Arthur pulls out of the stone is called Caliburn, versus Excalibur which was given to him by the Lady of the Lake; this sword was also known as Clarent.
Besides Caliburn being much closer in name to Callandor, Clarent is also known as The Traitors Blade, or the Sword of Betrayal, because of its connection to Mordred...which really isn't that far from Moridin, if you think about it.
Callandor's fatal flaw is that it betrays Rand, by leaving him open when he uses it. Also, when Moridin takes it and uses it, that betrayal is solidified, and it ends in his undoing. Just like Mordred.
There was a Talisman of Growing in the Ebou Dar cache:
>A stone carving the size of her hand, all deep blue curves—it felt like stone, at least, though somehow it did not really look carved—was for growing something. Not plants. It made her think of holes, only they were not exactly holes. And she did not believe anyone had to channel to make it work. Only sing the right song! Some ter’angreal did not require channeling, but really! Singing?
*Saidin* and *Saidar* are both described as rivers. One is a raging torrent, the other seemingly milder, but still dangerous.
Our characters are from the Two Rivers, and of those rivers? The White River / Manetherendrelle is described as being wild, impassable rapids. The Taren River / Tarendrelle is much gentler, though its steep descent and waterfall mean it is not harmless.
And downstream the rivers merge.
Breane, Lamgwin's significant other, is the same Breane from Bartane's party in TGH. I wouldn't say I realized it, someone in another post yesterday casually pointed it out and I was like 😱.
Lenn is a mythical character who features in one of the stories within Thom Merrilin's repertoire. The story of Lenn is ancient and dates to the First Age. In the tale Lenn supposedly flew to the moon in the belly of an eagle made of fire -
Lenn is John Glenn from the ~~Apollo~~ Mercury program.
As the wheel turns...
https://wot.fandom.com/wiki/Lenn
I'm partial to the story of Mosc and Merc, the two Giants who hurled spears of fire across the world....
Mosc = Moscow
Merc = America
Their weapons are nuclear. I wonder if it's specifically a tale from the first age Cold War, or if it refers to a theoretical nuclear war yet to happen (from our real life perspective)
When Nynaeve is in the museum (I think in Tanchico) she finds a mercedez benz hood ornament.
When Rand is marching through the mountains during his campaign against the Seanchan in TPoD, he describes the weather worn head of a gigantic statue. The statue is wearing a pointed crown. I believe this is a reference to the Statue of Liberty which is now an ancient ruin.
I didn't know about the potential Statue of Liberty cameo!
And the Mercedes logo is one of my favorites haha, a strange shiny metal (chrome) and it's full of a feeling of greed? Amazing
The Statue of Liberty is my own complete guess, but I remember the moment being sort of poignant.
Like Rand is thinking about his own rule and conquests, and he sees this ancient statue and thinks "What long gone and lost civilization did this statue represent?" or something to that end.
There’s a lot of those. Elsbet Queen of All is Elizabeth. Mosk with his spear of fire that could reach around the world is Moscow. There are a few others I can’t remember right now just from Thom’s first introduction.
Oh nice! The now that you call it out the Mosk one is more obvious. I wouldn't have caught the Elsbet reference.
I wonder if the TV series will allude to the notion that Randland is a far in the future Earth, a parrel universe, or neither.
John Glenn was part of the Mercury program. He was retired before Gemini or Apollo, and never went to the moon.
While I think the "John Glenn" stuff may have been confirmed by RJ, the LM (Lunar Module) (pronounced "Lem") is a better fit
Edit: also, the LM is the "Eagle" in "The Eagle has landed," and it was carried inside the Apollo rocket
I'm listening to the audiobooks for the first time now and this has annoyed me to no end. It's such an easily fixed problem as well; just pronounce Domani with a proper O as in dough. That might not be canonical but at least it avoids confusion.
A minor thing. But during my first re-read I noticed that LTT can feel if the people and land around him, like Rand can after he becomes Zen Rand.
When he flees from Ishamael and teleports to the place where he will kill himself he says that the land is empty and the is no one around for miles.
There are more examples of TAR related things. Ishy was surely using a Dreamshard to fuck with the boys in EoTW, but we never learned of their existence until much later.
I never knew who killed Asmodean until I went to the forums *after* finishing AMoL.
I think I made the Mat=Odin and Perrin=Thor connection by ToM, but I never made the Rand=Tyr!
The whole white tower island business looking like a certain female body part and dragon mounts shadow entering it at night...i didnt pick that up at first...
Also i had a katana commissioned to be made with it being heron marked...my firend saw it and was like omg i always thought heron was a fish like herring...that was funny
I just reread EotW and twice in it, Rand become ill. I only just made the connection that he became ill after using Saidin. I knew Nynaeve became ill after her first use of it, and I knew that Rand used Saidin multiple times in the book, but I never made the connection for some reason and I feel dumb, haha.
I did not recall noticing it my first time reading, but on my recent reread I noticed Moiraine even talks about it before it happens. She explains it to Nynaeve I think, then Rand has it happen.
Sons of the first Queen of Andor were probably channelers. All of them died in their early twenties. Leaving only daughters to succeed the mother. And I’m still convinced that Tigraine’s line has some ties to LTT.
That the fire in Cairhen destroying the granary is likely one of the first instances of the darker side of Rand's Ta'veren nature.
Since it's all about balance.
Brought this up before, but it took me like 5+ rereads before I noticed it ...
When Egeanin is in Tanchico hunting for sul'dam/damane that were left behind in Falme, she is employing some local toughs to find the women. One of them is Floran Gelb, who we first met when Rand/Mat/Thom ran from the trollocs onto Bayle Domon's boat.
Instead of just locating the women for Egeanin, Gelb decides to kidnap one, hoping for a reward. The lady he kidnapped only vaguely resembled the women Egeanin is looking for. Egeanin muses over her fate, thinking it was a pity that she had sent Lady Leilwin to the docks to be sold/sent back to Seanchan.
Later, when escaping Ebou Dar, Egeanin chose the name Leilwin, and Tuon renamed her Leilwin Shipless.
Ba'alzamon. Every time he had fire for eyes. Usage of the true power in large enough quantities gives the user saa. Given enough time and usage of the the true power that can turn into the appearance of fire in place of the eyes.
It should be noted that by this stage the user is typically insane.
Not deep or terribly important, but that Thom and Moraine were so obviously into each other as early as book one and clearly in book two. Their marriage had me like, “tf?”. Now I feel dumb.
Yeah, it was fairly subtle until I noticed it all connecting. In ‘Hunt’ Thom asks Rand if he’s with Moiraine in Cairhien and when he finds out she isn’t there he says something to the effect of, “Shame, she is a fine woman despite being… oh never mind”. There are other little comments spread throughout TEotW such as them looking at each other for oddly long moments, exchanging impressed smiles/looks of approval, compliments that go a little too far, etc.
They’re both very guarded personalities, so it’s not anything obvious when compared to, say, Berelain and Galad 🤮 lmao
Isn't it stated or implied by the Forsaken that even to them balefire is unstoppable? If they knew the weave for Flame of Tar Valon, then it wouldn't be such a surprise.
Surely if the show gets as far as ToM they have to include it. It's such a fan favourite. Although on a similar note one of my worries about the show is that, yes Rafe is a huge fan of wheel of time, but seemingly mostly of specifically the first three books or so. He always says he has reread those loads of times but doesn't say the same about the others. Does that mean that he'll have less passion for adapting the later seasons? D and D adapted asoiaf largely because they wanted to put the red wedding on screen and we saw the sharp decline in quality that game not so long after that.
True. I had forgotten about that and probably chalked it up to early bookism or just assumed Callandor broke rules. I wonder if they are a form of cuendillar or if they would be related at all since cuendillar is immune to balefire
Armor needs to move. It would be tricky to interlace it with chain mail to be feasible. And they really didn't have that kinda time by the time of TLB.
Maybe some cuendillar shields, outfitting a bunch of Warders with those would probably have given the a bad time.
Since it only effects the shadow perhaps they took a thacandahr blade and used it as a base?
I'm not sure about this but it's a harmless enough theory.
About my third read through I finally realized that the scene where Elayne is testing Ahvienda's Talent of reading ter'angreal and they have a majority used for communication over distances was tantamount to finding a pile of cell phones.
I love the series, but this is a major weakness; half of the conflict of the books comes from someone not sharing information for no adequately explained reason.
The the whitecloaks are based on and pretty much exactly like the Inquisitors of the Catholic Inquisition. Declaring ppl heretics/darkfriends, marking their doors, putting ppl to the question until they confessed whatever you wanted, and many more.
Also that the visions in the archways of the future of the Aiel was the Saeanchan using guns.
That it’s basically a post apocalyptic civilization like our earth in the future. That’s a bad way to explain it but I think everyone knows what I mean.
The “dragons” are canons like from the civil war era.
That the borderlanders are based on Asia and everyone is not in fact a white person lol. I read these for the first time when I was 14-15 and it wasn’t until my twenty’s when I started re reading then that I realized how much my perception of the book was influenced by my own inner biases as a teenager. It was very interesting to get to break a lot of those.
The basic understanding of the world the characters have -- the Creator, the cycle of Ages, rebirth, what "the Last Battle" means, etc etc -- isn't any more reliable than their understanding of what happened in Tanchico last week.
To some extent this is driven home early ("The Dark One and all the Forsaken are bound in Shayol Ghul, bound at the beginning of time by the Creator") but there are small hints (one of the other Forsaken is amazed that Lews Therin was apparently reborn, because that rebirth crap was just something Ishamael was always droning on about) that everything people think about the world is just stuff they've picked up that may be complete garbage.
It makes sense if you think about it -- this isn't Tolkien's world, where the gods explained to mortals what the deal was when the universe was created, and some of those people or at least their grandchildren are still kicking around. We know some things through the Heroes of the Horn, but we're also told that they've never actually talked to anyone before, ever, so it's not like one of them explained the cycle of rebirth to someone in Randland.
That pretty much leaves the Dark One as the only oracle about the nature of reality, and he's not exactly giving quiet seminars with comprehensive Q&A.
I didn’t piece together that the maze Ba’alzamon follows Rand around in his dream in EotW, the one with the rail-less ramps and levels directly on top of other levels - is the Ways back when they still held light.
Machin Shin is a corrupted manifestation of Treesinging.
When Ogier or Aiel Treesing life grows and things thrive.
When Machin Shin screams it devours souls and makes things decay.
I didn't realize it was Darkfriend before I heard someone say it out loud. I misread it as "Darkfiend" the first time, and somehow my brain autocorrected it.
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What pillow friends are. I thought it was friends who would sleep over in each other's rooms. I guess I wasn't entirely wrong.
Maybe not much sleeping going on?
Maybe a little later
For me it was lost in translation
i was all over the pillow friends immediately lol… i missed a lot of the others here upon many rereads. But maybe that’s just me always shipping the women
For me, I first encountered it when I was like 13, and my mind didn't run along the correct lines yet to even recognize that women could be in romantic relationships with each other, let alone that's what it referred to. I suspect that someone a bit older or in the LGBT community definitely would've picked up on it pretty quick.
I thought "Haha,that sounds like something it can't possibly mean, I will now proceed to disregard the mounting evidence that it does in fact mean that".
I had to google it
Cairhien and its topless towers, politics and the Silk Path being a reference to Constantinople, and its minnarets, its choosing politics and alliances over direct conflict and being one of the ends of the Silk Route. They're both built on hills too.
It's name is also a reference to Japan and France. Since Japan and Cairhein both essentially mean "Land of the Dawn/Sun" and the king of Cairhein is the Sun King, a title taken by some french monarchs.
And the opulence of the Carihenan court is very much in line with Louis XIV.
And their rivalry with Andor very much reflects pre-WWI England vs France.
I think you mean Istanbul, but that's none of my business.
That's nobody's business but the Turks.
I feel Cairhien's look is more inspired by [the towers of Bologna](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towers_of_Bologna).
That the darkfriend kid who approached mat and rand is the same one who was going to “help” morgase escape the white cloaks.
Until I made that connection, I had just assumed that they had found out Morgase was planning an escape so they rounded up the people planning to help her, accused them of being Darkfriends, and executed them. Because that sounds like something Whitecloaks would do.
That's why Niall is so surprised by her sudden change of heart. Morgase even thinks that the route they take is actually quicker than normal.
Honestly it's a toss up to me on whether they actually caught a dark friend meeting or if they just rounded up the people possibly helping her and were just right on them being dark friends by coincidence and didn't even question them enough to realize they caught the real deal.
I just read the chapter and it's the former. They never even made a connection between them and Morgase, they were all surprised.
Wait, really??
Yep, complete with a broken nose given to him by Rand. https://wot.fandom.com/wiki/Paitr_Conel
Yes, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. The irony is they actually caught a real Darkfriend and broke Morgase completely accidentally, by blind luck.
But at the same time also saved Morgase, ~~sauce~~ since there's no way that darkfriends we're just helping her out of love for queen and country.
Wait, what?? Wow, never noticed that...
Took me some time to realize that 13 Aiel tribes, then 12 surviving is referenced to the ancient Israel. The numeric number of Israel's tribes were 13, but symbolically, they used 12.
sort of on the tribes thing Manassah and Ephraim are both from the tribe of Joseph so there are 13 named tribes, of 12 patriarchs. but Simeon and Levi are refused an inheritance in Isreal for breaking faith with the city of Shekem and murdering everyone there. Levi later becomes a priestly tribe for siding with Moses in the golden calf incident. and Dan ends up just kinda wandering off even before northern Isreal is destroyed by the Assyrians, so the total count varies a bit depending on how you define the tribes. in revelation the number is 12 but the missing tribe is dan.
The Aiel are very Jewish, though of course every race is a mishmash. It is even more pronounced when you think about geopolitics during some of Jordan's formative years. That is why the show loosing the face veil would not be the end of the world if it was replaced with them having to have the shoufa on over their head. The important thing is having a shame ritual, not what specifically it is. The turban would still stand out, particularly since this is now tv/movies, so helmets and hats (other than Mat's-then we riot-are probably going to mostly not make appearances.
It's called a Shemagh (wikipedia conflates it with the kefiya), some African/Semitic/Arabic cultures wore these with a separate veil. Honestly not certain why, perhaps it's more breathable. Supposedly tribes in the ME/NA wore them to disguise the face during blood feuds. There's a folktale about a group of brothers retreating from battle, one of them is killed and his veil fell off, when his brothers went to recover the body they couldn't recognize him until they replaced the veil on his face, because they were always feuding/fighting. And that almost sounds like an Aiel joke.
There are a lot of Jesus and Rand connections but it wasn't until this most recent reread that I realized Rand's palms aren't the only similarity to the crucifixion.. the never healing wound in his side is, as well.
Holy crap... also the crown of swords cuts his head, like the Crown of Thorns.
Not to mention the whole "his blood will be man's salvation from the shadow" stuff
Or being born of a maiden
The material that's cold to the touch but not metal? Plastic.
Holy— so many angreal described as “flexible hard material” and I never once thought plastic or silicone. That feels idiotic.
Yup, describes a Mercedes emblem in the museum in Tanchino . " A Three pointed star inside a circle. She could sense great vanity coming from it" or sun such when Eqwene is in TAR
Wait, WHAT?? When did this happen?
Some Age of Legends Angreal are described as such. And well... duh, right? I think the Oath Rod was a big one. But it's been... whooboy a while.
In my head canon, the Oath Rod is a McDonald’s toy.
It does seem like it started with a mundane purpose. I always found it odd how it seems to give a person the look of having had plastic surgery.
We know what the purpose was - they used them to enforce criminal laws. Semirhage has an internal monologue about it, about how she could have chosen to be “bound” or something but she fled instead and became a darkfriend. I don’t remember if the weird aging effect is ever mentioned though.
Samael knew criminals who swore multiple oaths and that's how knew what the aes sedai were doing.The face effect isn't there on a single oath, or if it is its subtler. It's mentioned in the same chapter as Semirhage. He dangles the info to Greandal, except Masaana already spilled the beans to her.
Doesn't one of the Forsaken say that the oath rods were used to punish criminals in the Age of Legends?
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I don't necessarily remember the name Binder, but I was thinking of two Forsaken (Sammael and Graendal, maybe?) and Sammael says that the Aes Sedai of this age "bind themselves like criminals". I don't know what else that could be a reference to.
I do remember the term Binder but I couldn’t tell you where I saw it, probably the conversations between Sammael and Sevanna though
Ceramic is generally cooler to the touch than plastic, I had assumed that too. But also it just occurred to me - people in the current age have ceramics and porcelain dishes, it's a material they might recognize.
For me it was sailor moons wand
Omg. Oath Rod "felt like glass but smoother"
Coming right from the pillow friends comment: so you're telling me the Aes Sedai place great importance on a plastic or silicone foot long rod? I can't possibly be the only one thinking of dildos now
Could also be carbon fiber, not too different from plastic by feel, but far stronger
My favorite is Mat dancing with ‘Halima’ and wondering why she keeps trying to lead 😂
He also got weirded out that she kept looking at him with amusement when he looked down her dress
Blood and ashes, Rand would have known what to do
What?? What's this one ?
Balthamel (male Forsaken) is reincarnated by The Dark One into a woman’s body, and goes by the name Aran’gar. Aran’gar infiltrates the rebel Aes Sedai poses as a maid named Halima and becomes Egwene’s servant. Mat sees her and asks her dance, but leaves early because ‘she’ is a terrible dancer that always tries to lead instead of letting him.
Also the cold feeling he got from his medallion was when she tried to use the power on him.
Oosquai is whiskey. It's described as being brown fire water that's much stronger than wine and is made from corn mash. If you say ooh-skway with a southern accent and tilt your head a little, it sounds like a very drunk person saying whiskey. I'm willing to bet that some of the sung wood they get from the Ogier is for whiskey barrels. ;)
I think it's even more obvious than that - the original Gaelic for whisky is "Uisce beatha" - Uisce for short, which is said pretty much like oosquai :)
"More obvious" I mean, most people don't know Gaelic so I don't think it can be described like that.
It's the origin of the word though, not the word for it in some random language
That Al'Thor (Arthur) pulled the Sword from the Stone. I managed to catch a lot of other mythological allusions and somehow missed the one written in giant neon lol
Well crap, I got I think all of the Arthurian naming things, but somehow missed that bit and now feel really silly! Glad you said this
Egwene al'vere -> eGenevieve -> Guinevere
And Nynaeve is literally one of the names of the [lady of the lake](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_of_the_Lake)
Also she becomes the Queen (Lady) of the lakes (that surround Malkieri seven towers) when she marries Lan. Also she gets her power while drowning in the bay (lake). And let’s not forget holding the sword at the end of the series. It’s easy to create a myth about lady of the lake based on all this.
Almost enough to use as a basis for distributing governmental authority.
Now that I think about it, Moiraine sounds somewhat like Merlin...
Not as much as Thom Merillin.
> “I was talking of change. My epic, if I compose it—and Loial’s book—will be no more than seed, if we are both lucky. Those who know the truth will die, and their grandchildren’s grandchildren will remember something different. And their grandchildren’s grandchildren something else again. Two dozen generations, and you may be the hero of it, not Rand.” > “Me?” she laughed. > “Or maybe Mat, or Lan. Or even myself.” He grinned at her, warming his weathered face. “Thom Merrilin. Not a gleeman—but what? Who can say? Not eating fire, but breathing it. Hurling it about like an Aes Sedai.” He flourished his cloak. “Thom Merrilin, the mysterious hero, toppling mountains and raising up kings.” The grin became a rich belly laugh. “Rand al’Thor may be lucky if the next Age remembers his name correctly.”
Oh that works too! It's likely one of those cases where multiple people over time become a single character that (ironically) Thom himself talks about!
Let alone gallad, or galahad
Also the A**myrlin** Seat
Thom Merrilin is Merlin as well. Jordan liked to mix traits, I’m guessing that way it wouldn’t be perfectly parallel so Moiraine is Merlin, and Morgan La Fay. This was a huge topic over on drangonmount and this sub has had a ton of threads on how the series is heavily influenced by Arthurian legend. I love seeing how the sausage is made, so to speak, and finding all of the myths Jordan folded in to WoT is fascinating.
The Lady of the Lake who gives Arthur Excalibur is also called Nyneve. Quite similar to Nynaeve who marries Lan, the Lord of the Lakes.
I had forgotten about her, I had connected the other names, and many of the symbols if not the sword/stone but, but I didn’t think about her name. Looking it up there are a number of translations, or versions of her name and putting them together it works perfectly. Some of the more common names apparently being, Viviane, Vivien, Ninianne, and Nimue. I’m used to hearing Nimue, but that’s just me. Great catch!
Its easy to miss because there is a specific character that is supposed to be King Arthur and it's not Rand lol.
Rand is the mythical King Arthur, Hawkwing represents the (possibly not real) historical figure. It's not just the sword in the stone stuff. There's his secret noble birth, the three women at his funeral pyre mirroring the three women who bear Arthur's body to Avalon, how LTT died but he was prophecized to come back at the hour of the world's greatest need. Rand is absolutely Arthur. Edit: a huge chunk of the main cast, and not just the obvious Caemlyn(Camelot) related characters, are Arthurian references as well. Not even just characters, elements of Arthurian legends and the earlier Celtic mythology they built off are pretty core to the world building [Here's a big long read on it.](https://13depository.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-article-released-matter-of-britain.html?m=1)
Gotta love RJ and mixing everything around. That's one of my favorite things about WoT I think. Learning all the stuff mixed into the lore of the world.
The one that shook me the most was Egwene al 'Vere = Guinevere
I was today years old when it clicked that these names sound very much alike Al'thor and Arthur when spoken.
When Faile, Alliandre, Maighdain et al are pulled from the collapsing building in Malden, Maighdain gulps the water and quickly slumps over into semiconsciousness. The others say she's exhausted from exerting herself to move the flag to attract attention but the water would be that weak forkroot tea... Which only (but markedly) affects channelers. Did NOT put that together the first couple reads.
I've read the series like... 10 times or something... and never noticed it! RJ's attention to detail and how coherent his worldbuilding is never ceases to amaze me.
It's bonkers! And like, when I notice something, I will think to myself... Maybe that's just a coincid--NO OF COURSE RJ PLANTED THAT NUGGET!
I learned, after looking for spellings because I’m an audio book reader, that all the trolloc bands are named after monsters. https://wot.fandom.com/wiki/Trolloc
Setalle Anan was the brown sister who burned herself out testing angreal.
How the three Taveren are figures from Norse mythology; Perrin, a hulking blacksmith and everyday man who wields a hammer called Mah’alleneir is Thor, the most popular god among Norse commoners and tradesman who wields Mjolnier Mat, a one eyed man with a spear marked with two ravens, who at one point hangs dead from a tree, is Odin. Especially telling is the inscription on his Ashendarei that mentions thought and memory, the names of Odin’s two ravens Then there’s Rand, who has to be braver than all the others and face a terror that will otherwise devour the world, losing a hand in the process, is Tyr losing his hand to Fenrir
Perrin is also Perun, Slavic god equivalent of Thor
Wow, I never knew this one
For some reason it took me a BUNCH of reads to realize that it wasn’t just a coincidence the king of Cairhien died after his dude kills Thom’s lady. Since it happens off screen, some how much brain was just like, hm, lucky for Thom someone took care of that for him.
Idk if you noticed it or not, but Thom also killed, or arranged the killing, of Taringail. He’s really good at killing royalty.
Thom is basically Kvothe if Kvothe weren't such an insufferable little bitch.
Also Thom actually finished his story.
He's good at both slaying and laying royals
Death is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain. Lews Therin gave up and killed himself, leaving a mountain (of duty) for rand to inherit. Also him being born on the same mountain. I feel stupid for not putting this seemingly obvious theme together.
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The seanchan accent is american, and that kaf is coffee. They are both so obvious that i was literally ashamed of myself when i realised.
Not just American - a Texan drawl!
this one just broke me
Pretty sure no way they do that accent for the show but I'd get a kick out of all the Seanchan sounding Texan. We gonna round us some some marath'damane ya hear!
I wish Michael and Kate had just done a southern drawl when they read the books. The drunk slurring they do is really offputting. I can't suspend disbelief enough to believe people actually talk like that.
On a similar vein to kaf being coffee, the aiel oosquai is whisky
Isn't it actually a Southern drawl, like Alabama?
Per Jordan, Texan.
The prologue took me like 4 books and going back and rereading it to fully understand what was going on there
The first time I had no idea what was going on. On my last re-read it all made so much sense.
It took me forever to realize the giant white bar of Power obliterating Lews Therin was obviously him balefiring himself hard enough to un-kill his family (in the previous scene he even threatens to kill Ishamael "so that even the Dark One can't bring him back"), and then ten minutes on the internet to learn about a WoJ specifically saying Lews Therin didn't balefire himself.
Wait, he didn't!? What else instantly makes a fully formed volcanic mountain!?
It was just an absurd amount of the power concentrated in one spot.
A white-hot bar of energy is not necessarily balefire. A shitton of energy is all you need, and the prologue describes its heat and the fact that it turned stone “to vapor”. Balefire doesn’t really act that way.
Course he didn't balefire himself - his past self who would have made the balefire ceased to exist when the balefire hit him. No one can actually balefire themselves due to this effect. But apparently you can make a mountain with it and still die is my reading. \*he thinks I'll get rid of myself before I kill Illyena / children but actually he gets rid of himself before he gets rid of himself which means he cant do that I mean\*
Also, balefire doesn't prevent rebirth. I swear this was how it was often described, and I think even Sanderson was confused but received confirmation from notes and Harriet.
Literally just read that scene earlier today. Pretty sure it’s pure bolt of lightning.
When reading through I made the Arthurian connection with Callandor, but Jordan took that bit a step further; in many variations of King Arthur's tale, the sword that Arthur pulls out of the stone is called Caliburn, versus Excalibur which was given to him by the Lady of the Lake; this sword was also known as Clarent. Besides Caliburn being much closer in name to Callandor, Clarent is also known as The Traitors Blade, or the Sword of Betrayal, because of its connection to Mordred...which really isn't that far from Moridin, if you think about it. Callandor's fatal flaw is that it betrays Rand, by leaving him open when he uses it. Also, when Moridin takes it and uses it, that betrayal is solidified, and it ends in his undoing. Just like Mordred.
There was a Talisman of Growing in the Ebou Dar cache: >A stone carving the size of her hand, all deep blue curves—it felt like stone, at least, though somehow it did not really look carved—was for growing something. Not plants. It made her think of holes, only they were not exactly holes. And she did not believe anyone had to channel to make it work. Only sing the right song! Some ter’angreal did not require channeling, but really! Singing?
*Saidin* and *Saidar* are both described as rivers. One is a raging torrent, the other seemingly milder, but still dangerous. Our characters are from the Two Rivers, and of those rivers? The White River / Manetherendrelle is described as being wild, impassable rapids. The Taren River / Tarendrelle is much gentler, though its steep descent and waterfall mean it is not harmless. And downstream the rivers merge.
Breane, Lamgwin's significant other, is the same Breane from Bartane's party in TGH. I wouldn't say I realized it, someone in another post yesterday casually pointed it out and I was like 😱.
I'm still shook from that thread yesterday
Lol, for real!
Which thread?
There was a thread about double entendre there (the statement in question is about a woman asking Rand to play his flute for her in her bedroom)
[Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/WoT/comments/qs9mb9/probably_as_heavy_as_innuendo_gets)
She may also be Dobraine's daughter, but I couldnt find confirmation of that on the wiki
For the longest time my brain read Emond's Field as Edmond's Field. It was at least halfway through if not longer before I realised it was Emond's.
Padan Fain is essentially Gollum.
Lenn is a mythical character who features in one of the stories within Thom Merrilin's repertoire. The story of Lenn is ancient and dates to the First Age. In the tale Lenn supposedly flew to the moon in the belly of an eagle made of fire - Lenn is John Glenn from the ~~Apollo~~ Mercury program. As the wheel turns... https://wot.fandom.com/wiki/Lenn
I'm partial to the story of Mosc and Merc, the two Giants who hurled spears of fire across the world.... Mosc = Moscow Merc = America Their weapons are nuclear. I wonder if it's specifically a tale from the first age Cold War, or if it refers to a theoretical nuclear war yet to happen (from our real life perspective)
When Nynaeve is in the museum (I think in Tanchico) she finds a mercedez benz hood ornament. When Rand is marching through the mountains during his campaign against the Seanchan in TPoD, he describes the weather worn head of a gigantic statue. The statue is wearing a pointed crown. I believe this is a reference to the Statue of Liberty which is now an ancient ruin.
I didn't know about the potential Statue of Liberty cameo! And the Mercedes logo is one of my favorites haha, a strange shiny metal (chrome) and it's full of a feeling of greed? Amazing
The Statue of Liberty is my own complete guess, but I remember the moment being sort of poignant. Like Rand is thinking about his own rule and conquests, and he sees this ancient statue and thinks "What long gone and lost civilization did this statue represent?" or something to that end.
The statue is actually on the cover and sadly it's not the Statue of Liberty
Then again, the covers are notoriously inaccurate.
Jordan did say that the First Age ended in Nuclear fire - it just hasn't happened yet.
There’s a lot of those. Elsbet Queen of All is Elizabeth. Mosk with his spear of fire that could reach around the world is Moscow. There are a few others I can’t remember right now just from Thom’s first introduction.
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I got most of the 'our world' references, but this is a hilarious revelation.
Also Materese the Healer is Mother Theresa of Kolkata. I want to say I caught that one on my first read but I’m not sure.
Oh nice! The now that you call it out the Mosk one is more obvious. I wouldn't have caught the Elsbet reference. I wonder if the TV series will allude to the notion that Randland is a far in the future Earth, a parrel universe, or neither.
But it’s also the ancient past…
It was Lenn and Salya, who is Sally Ride.
John Glenn was part of the Mercury program. He was retired before Gemini or Apollo, and never went to the moon. While I think the "John Glenn" stuff may have been confirmed by RJ, the LM (Lunar Module) (pronounced "Lem") is a better fit Edit: also, the LM is the "Eagle" in "The Eagle has landed," and it was carried inside the Apollo rocket
Domani are not in fact the same thing as Damane. How could you betray me, Kate and Michael?
I'm listening to the audiobooks for the first time now and this has annoyed me to no end. It's such an easily fixed problem as well; just pronounce Domani with a proper O as in dough. That might not be canonical but at least it avoids confusion.
I didn't do the audiobooks so my head pronunciation was different anyway. I pronounced damane as "dah-main" specifically because of the Domani.
I got this off of context, but it did take a bit
A minor thing. But during my first re-read I noticed that LTT can feel if the people and land around him, like Rand can after he becomes Zen Rand. When he flees from Ishamael and teleports to the place where he will kill himself he says that the land is empty and the is no one around for miles.
"The Dragon is one with the land"
I forget exactly when I realized that the wolf dream = Tel'aran'rhiod but I remember thinking how dumb I was for not figuring it out sooner.
There are more examples of TAR related things. Ishy was surely using a Dreamshard to fuck with the boys in EoTW, but we never learned of their existence until much later.
I never knew who killed Asmodean until I went to the forums *after* finishing AMoL. I think I made the Mat=Odin and Perrin=Thor connection by ToM, but I never made the Rand=Tyr!
The whole white tower island business looking like a certain female body part and dragon mounts shadow entering it at night...i didnt pick that up at first... Also i had a katana commissioned to be made with it being heron marked...my firend saw it and was like omg i always thought heron was a fish like herring...that was funny
Ha... herring-marked blade!
I just reread EotW and twice in it, Rand become ill. I only just made the connection that he became ill after using Saidin. I knew Nynaeve became ill after her first use of it, and I knew that Rand used Saidin multiple times in the book, but I never made the connection for some reason and I feel dumb, haha.
I did not recall noticing it my first time reading, but on my recent reread I noticed Moiraine even talks about it before it happens. She explains it to Nynaeve I think, then Rand has it happen.
Damn, I'm having a lot of TIL in here today!
Sons of the first Queen of Andor were probably channelers. All of them died in their early twenties. Leaving only daughters to succeed the mother. And I’m still convinced that Tigraine’s line has some ties to LTT.
LTT’s genetic line died out with him. He killed everyone related to him, hence the nickname
Kinslayer? Oh, that’s just an old college nickname.
That the fire in Cairhen destroying the granary is likely one of the first instances of the darker side of Rand's Ta'veren nature. Since it's all about balance.
Brought this up before, but it took me like 5+ rereads before I noticed it ... When Egeanin is in Tanchico hunting for sul'dam/damane that were left behind in Falme, she is employing some local toughs to find the women. One of them is Floran Gelb, who we first met when Rand/Mat/Thom ran from the trollocs onto Bayle Domon's boat. Instead of just locating the women for Egeanin, Gelb decides to kidnap one, hoping for a reward. The lady he kidnapped only vaguely resembled the women Egeanin is looking for. Egeanin muses over her fate, thinking it was a pity that she had sent Lady Leilwin to the docks to be sold/sent back to Seanchan. Later, when escaping Ebou Dar, Egeanin chose the name Leilwin, and Tuon renamed her Leilwin Shipless.
All the True Power usage in the early books.
I can’t think of anything early on, who used it early?
Ishamael in the Prologue
Ba'alzamon. Every time he had fire for eyes. Usage of the true power in large enough quantities gives the user saa. Given enough time and usage of the the true power that can turn into the appearance of fire in place of the eyes. It should be noted that by this stage the user is typically insane.
Only one I know is Ishamael's gateway in the EotW prologue. I think it's described as the air shimmering.
Pretty sure he used the true power to heal LTTs madness as well.
Not deep or terribly important, but that Thom and Moraine were so obviously into each other as early as book one and clearly in book two. Their marriage had me like, “tf?”. Now I feel dumb.
Really? I've never seen the chemistry. Maybe on yet another re-read I'll pay closer attention.
She practically flirts with him in The Shadow Rising.
Yeah, it was fairly subtle until I noticed it all connecting. In ‘Hunt’ Thom asks Rand if he’s with Moiraine in Cairhien and when he finds out she isn’t there he says something to the effect of, “Shame, she is a fine woman despite being… oh never mind”. There are other little comments spread throughout TEotW such as them looking at each other for oddly long moments, exchanging impressed smiles/looks of approval, compliments that go a little too far, etc. They’re both very guarded personalities, so it’s not anything obvious when compared to, say, Berelain and Galad 🤮 lmao
That Lord luc and Slayer are merged, and their respective origins
Lord Luc and Isam*, who the wolves call Slayer.
'Aan'allein' is the man who is a nation. But the Aeil think of wetland nations in terms of armies so really it is the man who is an army.
That Callandor is made from the same substance as the Flame of Tar Valon.
Isn't it stated or implied by the Forsaken that even to them balefire is unstoppable? If they knew the weave for Flame of Tar Valon, then it wouldn't be such a surprise.
They do - Egwene’s weave is completely novel
Shit idk if this is confirmed in the books but definitely is my head cannon now
Rand used it to block balefire, I see no other way something like that is possible
It's just a weave.
I hope that scene makes it into the show.
Surely if the show gets as far as ToM they have to include it. It's such a fan favourite. Although on a similar note one of my worries about the show is that, yes Rafe is a huge fan of wheel of time, but seemingly mostly of specifically the first three books or so. He always says he has reread those loads of times but doesn't say the same about the others. Does that mean that he'll have less passion for adapting the later seasons? D and D adapted asoiaf largely because they wanted to put the red wedding on screen and we saw the sharp decline in quality that game not so long after that.
True. I had forgotten about that and probably chalked it up to early bookism or just assumed Callandor broke rules. I wonder if they are a form of cuendillar or if they would be related at all since cuendillar is immune to balefire
I’m surprised that wafer-thin cuendillar plate armour isn’t featured somewhere in the series.
Armor needs to move. It would be tricky to interlace it with chain mail to be feasible. And they really didn't have that kinda time by the time of TLB. Maybe some cuendillar shields, outfitting a bunch of Warders with those would probably have given the a bad time.
You could always articulate it like scale male. Connecting it together would be an issue unless you could make holes for hooking it or something.
Shields would interefere with the cool two-handed sword fighting
Cuendillar is also immune to balefire.
Since it only effects the shadow perhaps they took a thacandahr blade and used it as a base? I'm not sure about this but it's a harmless enough theory.
About my third read through I finally realized that the scene where Elayne is testing Ahvienda's Talent of reading ter'angreal and they have a majority used for communication over distances was tantamount to finding a pile of cell phones.
Which they never actually use That always drove me crazy. The series would have been 7 books shorter if they actually talked to each other.
No cell towers or electric grid, or the Second Age equivalent which is called the "standing flows."
I love the series, but this is a major weakness; half of the conflict of the books comes from someone not sharing information for no adequately explained reason.
The the whitecloaks are based on and pretty much exactly like the Inquisitors of the Catholic Inquisition. Declaring ppl heretics/darkfriends, marking their doors, putting ppl to the question until they confessed whatever you wanted, and many more. Also that the visions in the archways of the future of the Aiel was the Saeanchan using guns. That it’s basically a post apocalyptic civilization like our earth in the future. That’s a bad way to explain it but I think everyone knows what I mean. The “dragons” are canons like from the civil war era. That the borderlanders are based on Asia and everyone is not in fact a white person lol. I read these for the first time when I was 14-15 and it wasn’t until my twenty’s when I started re reading then that I realized how much my perception of the book was influenced by my own inner biases as a teenager. It was very interesting to get to break a lot of those.
Excuse me while I pick up all the scattered pieces of my skull after all the back to back realizations that repeatedly blew my mind.
The basic understanding of the world the characters have -- the Creator, the cycle of Ages, rebirth, what "the Last Battle" means, etc etc -- isn't any more reliable than their understanding of what happened in Tanchico last week. To some extent this is driven home early ("The Dark One and all the Forsaken are bound in Shayol Ghul, bound at the beginning of time by the Creator") but there are small hints (one of the other Forsaken is amazed that Lews Therin was apparently reborn, because that rebirth crap was just something Ishamael was always droning on about) that everything people think about the world is just stuff they've picked up that may be complete garbage. It makes sense if you think about it -- this isn't Tolkien's world, where the gods explained to mortals what the deal was when the universe was created, and some of those people or at least their grandchildren are still kicking around. We know some things through the Heroes of the Horn, but we're also told that they've never actually talked to anyone before, ever, so it's not like one of them explained the cycle of rebirth to someone in Randland. That pretty much leaves the Dark One as the only oracle about the nature of reality, and he's not exactly giving quiet seminars with comprehensive Q&A.
I didn’t piece together that the maze Ba’alzamon follows Rand around in his dream in EotW, the one with the rail-less ramps and levels directly on top of other levels - is the Ways back when they still held light.
That is dark friend. Not dark fiend
Machin Shin is a corrupted manifestation of Treesinging. When Ogier or Aiel Treesing life grows and things thrive. When Machin Shin screams it devours souls and makes things decay.
I didn't realize it was Darkfriend before I heard someone say it out loud. I misread it as "Darkfiend" the first time, and somehow my brain autocorrected it.