Welcome back to my re-read, recap, and reaction to Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. This post will only have spoilers through the current chapter.
You can find my previous chapter recaps HERE.
Prologue: Deceptive Appearances
NOTE: The following chapter summary comes from wot.fandom.com
Point of view: Ethenielle Kirukon Materasu
The rulers of Kandor, Arafel, Shienar, and Saldaea met to perform a ceremony that had been recorded only seven times in all the years since the Breaking. This agreement would commit them beyond words. While they were meeting, Queen Tenobia of Saldaea tries to set up a romance between Queen Ethenielle, of Kandor, and Tenobia’s uncle, Kalyan Ramsin. Between the four of them, they have brought thirteen Aes Sedai with them. Each ruler slashes their hand and they grip their hands together. They give an oath that they are all one to the death. Next they need to find al’Thor to do what needs doing.
Point of view: Verin Mathwin
Verin is in the Aiel camp, getting information from the Aes Sedai that are being held prisoner. She has been given permission by the Wise Ones to question them. She only wants to interrogate Sisters without warders. Verin has a small lily brooch angreal that she’s kept for forty years. It has been seventy-one years since Verin’s last major mistake. Once Beldeine Nyram enters the tent, Verin uses a modified weave of Compulsion on her that she pieced together by interrogating wilders. This weave encourages Beldeine to look inside herself to find a reason to accept Verin’s instructions. Verin had wanted to interrogate Katerine Alruddin, but Katerine escaped from the Aiel the night before and killed three people to do it, thus proving herself as Black Ajah. Verin is determined to keep Rand alive until it is time for him to die.
Point of view: Moridin
Moridin is sitting in a windowless, doorless room, idly playing with the two mindtraps hung around his neck. He is attended by a beautiful young man with vacant eyes. Moridin is focused on the game he is playing, sha’rah, a modified version of the game now called stones. Everything in sha’rah revolves around a piece called the Fisher, which has a blindfold and a bandaged side. Moridin suspects that it is based on an ancient legend about al’Thor. Moridin is allowed to use the True Power and has flecks of saa flowing through his eyes. He starts laughing when he realizes that he can’t lose because he is playing both sides of the board.
REACTION:
The really enjoyed the prologue.
First, Jordan addresses something that might have been bothering his readers if they’d put much thought to it. What are the rulers of the Borderlands up to? We might take for granted that they’ll come to Rand – knowing better than anyone how important his task and victory are – but Rand did not go to meet with them. Maybe you could forgive that lack of a meeting prior to his emergence from the Aiel Waste with the largest known army in the world, but couldn’t he have gone to visit *at some point* during any of the events of Books 5, 6, or 7? It’s actually pretty crazy that he didn’t do that. If the ruler of Aiel, Tear, and Cairhien also adds the entire Borderlands… wouldn’t everyone else (including the Aes Sedai) have been more or less forced to get in line behind him, too? Well, maybe not Elaida. He now also has Illian and Andor under this thumb. It never even occurs to him to meet with the Borderlanders. He – like us – just assumes they are already his.
Either way, he chose to work from south to north, and he ignored his most natural allies, and now they’re riding south. They even have 13 Aes Sedai with them. I don’t get the impression that they are hostile, per se, but they’re not warm toward him either.
I think this is the longest (only?) Verin POV we’ve had. She remains as mysterious as ever. Is she Rand’s ally, employing shady methods to help him out? Is she Black Ajah orchestrating a plot against him? My instinct is to assume that she’s a good character, however, she leaves a lot of hints in this chapter about an extremely shadowy (pun intended) background. She’s spent a lot of time around murderers and she’s using a crude form of Compulsion here, which is definitely forbidden.
We learn in Verin’s POV that Katerine escaped – which proves Katerine is Black because multiple people were murdered in the process. This effort also implies someone in the camp must have been a Darkfriend as well to aid her (perhaps still alive, or one of the people who helped her was then killed by her to guarantee silence.) Verin is legitimately upset about this and considers her a serious threat to Rand. Of course, she might just view her as a threat to Verin’s plans for Rand. Or maybe she’s *really* upset because she’s worried Katerine might expose *her* as a fellow Black if she’s recaptured.
You’re a very shifty woman, Verin Mathwin.
The prologue ends with a Moridin POV. We are not told outright that he is Ishamael, but this POV should remove all doubt that he is. We get an in-world history lesson on the game “Stones” that everyone has been playing throughout the series. Moridin knows it by its Age of Legends name, Sha’rah. And if you don’t know, the original name for the game “Chess” was “Shah” (the king.) Shah then evolved etymologically over time into “chess.” “Shah mat” (“the king is helpless”) turned into Check mate.
The game is not exactly the same as chess. The key piece is the Fisher, with blinded eyes and a wounded side. This comes from the real world Arthurian legend of the Fisher King. (via wiki)
The Fisher King (French: Roi Pêcheur; Welsh: Brenin Pysgotwir; Cornish: Pyscador Myghtern; Breton: Roue ar Peskataer) is a figure in Arthurian legend, the last in a long line of British kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. The Fisher King is both the protector and physical embodiment of his lands, but a wound renders him impotent and his kingdom barren. Unable to walk or ride a horse, he is sometimes depicted as spending his time fishing while he awaits a “chosen one” who can heal him. Versions of the story vary widely, but the Fisher King is typically depicted as being wounded in the groin, legs, or thigh. The healing of these wounds always depends upon the completion of a hero-knight’s task.
Most versions of the story contain the Holy Grail and the Lance of Longinus as plot elements. In some versions, a third character is introduced; this individual, unlike the hero-knight archetype, is ignorant of the King’s power, but has the ability to save the king and land, or to doom it. Variations of this third party produce divergent legends.
As a literary character, the Fisher King originates in Chrétien de Troyes‘ unfinished writings of the adventures of Perceval. Many authors have endeavoured to complete and extend the work, resulting in various continuations. Major sources of the legend include Chrétien’s Li Contes del Graal; Perceval, ou Le Conte du Graal (c. 1160–1180), Wauchier de Denain‘s First Continuation (c. 1180–1200), Robert de Boron‘s Didot-Perceval (c. 1191–1202), Peredur son of Efrawg (c. 1200), Perlesvaus (c. 1200), Wolfram von Eschenbach‘s Parzival (c. 1217), and Thomas Malory‘s Morte D’Arthur (c. 1400). The Fisher King can be the Grail Knight’s father (as in Chrétien’s original) or his other relative (uncle, cousin, grandfather).
If Moridin is openly musing that this gameboard piece represents Rand (in some past Age) then we as the Reader probably ought to do the same. Jordan pointed us strongly in that direction, too, in the previous book.
“There can be no health in us, nor any good thing grow, for the land is one with the Dragon Reborn and he one with the land. Soul of fire, heart of stone, in pride he conquers, forcing the proud to yield. He calls upon the mountains to kneel, and the seas to give way, and the very skies to bow. Pray that the heart of stone remebers tears, and the soul of fire, love.
-From a much-disputed translation of The Prophecies of the Dragon by the poet Kyera Termendal, of Shiota, believed to have been published between FY 700 and FY 800”
If we’re keeping track then, Rand is clearly an adaptation of King Arthur. al’Thor = Arthur. They both pulled a magical Sword from a Stone when nobody else could, and in both cases doing so proved their identity. Like Arthur, Rand’s original love was Egwene al’Vere (i.e. Guinevere.)
Rand also seems to be the Fisher King (i.e. the grail guardian whose personal well-being is linked with the health of his kingdom.) Both have a seemingly unhealable wound in their sides. So that’s something to keep an eye on. The quote from A Crown of Swords above should indicate that Rand’s mental well-being plays a direct role on how things are going around him.
On the Arthur links… Moridin as a name feels not far afield from King Arthur’s great foe, Mordred.
Finally… what does Moridin mean by playing both sides of the board? I think this is straight-forward, if we put some thought to it. First, he has been the leader of the Shadow since.. always. Remember that Ishamael was not sealed in with the other Forsaken and he is the one who healed Lews Therin from madness, such that Lews fled and killed himself. He runs the Black Ajah. He runs the Forsaken. He pulls all the bad guy threads. HOWEVER… he believes that he’s also pulling Rand’s threads, too. He saved Rand from Sammael. We saw him spare and save Rand repeatedly during the first three books. He worked with Lanfear in that time. Lanfear ultimately kept the work going and got Rand a One Power tutor. Is Ishamael directing Rand’s moves, too? He seems to think so. Of course, like Rand, he is also going insane (something every member of the Forsaken has said is the outcome for using the True Power too much and too often.) So maybe he is not an entirely reliable narrator. But we can see why he thinks he’s playing both sides of the board. Either Rand will be defeated by the Shadow, or Rand will destroy himself by turning to the Shadow. (The latter was Ishy’s stated goal and seems to still be his goal.)
So he wins either way. Or so he thinks.
2 thoughts on “The Path of Daggers (Prologue): Deceptive Appearances”