Myrddraal and a balance for the light

[KingK]

Hello again!

 

As Min had said, in one fashion or another "point to to the bad, and there is good." 

 

The Wheel if time is all about Balance as we all know.

 

For every good there is an evil, but the truth applies the other way.

 

Myrddraal were created to fight for the Shadow. A being of Maggot white skin, that somehow dissappear in the Shadow.

 

But what other characteristics are there of Myrddraal that make them stand out?

 

Well, the wind does not touch them for one, cloaks remain still in a breeze. The are often seen riding a horse weilding a wicked black sword.  

 

Their eyes are missing only showing their mouth. The look of the eyeless is... (well was it death or fear? I forget the quote) Taller than most.

 

I think that is a rough sum of a Myrddraal.  If anyone has any guesses yet of the lights Balance of such a creation, now is your chance to think to yourself and come up with the answer? 

 

Ready?

 

Here goes.

 

Who rides no horse? Who vanishes in the daylight? Dark, sun-kissed skin? Never known to ride a horse?

Won't touch a sword? Covers everything other then their eyes when they kill?  Who does not fear death?

 

Almost point for point the Aiel counter the Myrddraal. 

The one point above all that made me come to this conclusion was the fact that a Myrddraal cloak was never touched or stirred from the wind.

 

What an odd detail? Yet so strongly enforced. But what is the balance? The wind? ..... the wind?? What could be the opposite of a Mrydrall?

 

Then is dawned on me.

 

The way of the Leaf

 

The leaf lives its appointed time, and does not struggle against the wind that carries it away. 🍃 

 

Bonus: Feel free to add your own balances to the list. Nakomi to Shaidar Haran for instance.

[Bugglesley]

The Myrddraal are beings created by Aginor explicitly as living weapons, though, they are definitionally Shadowspawn and physically cannot make independent moral judgements. They are creatures of the Dark One/The Shadow fully and completely.

 

The Aiel are humans. They follow a particular code, but there are very clearly Aiel in the series working to advance the Light or to advance their own petty concerns (Sevannah and the Shaido more broadly). Aiel end up fighting for the Shadow; turned against their will, sure, but also you can't exactly "turn" a Myrddraal to the light. The point is that humans have the power of choice.

 

To other points, both Sharans and Sea Folk are specifically mentioned to have much darker skin tones than the Aiel. Aiel can hide really well in the daytime, but uh, they do hide better at night. Also, they cannot slide sideways into daylight to disappear or phase through walls.

 

I feel like this reading is really missing the forest for the trees (or should I say missing the tree for the leaves?)

 

To me, the characters most in opposition to Fades are Warders. Apart from named characters with plot armor who start to knock them down like bowling pins in books 4+5, Warders are the only humans with a reasonable 1-on-1 chance against a Fade (Aiel still need to gang up on them and are going to take heavy casualties). They also have weird cloaks. They're real good with swords. They are also "created" using the power, by supporters of the Light, and almost certainly with fighting Fades in mind, and this process robs them of some degree of free will through the bond.

 

If anything, I don't think there is supposed to be a "direct opposite" to Fades other than people in general. They are inhuman monsters who physically resemble us but are different in the most important aspects that I listed above: they are "soulless" both in name and in truth, and they cannot choose how to behave morally. They are fundamental perversions of humanity. They are a representation the Dark One's solution for the messiness of the world; to strip everything of the choice between Light or Dark, and force them to the Dark path (and it is the inverse destruction of free will that Rand rejects in the conclusion).

[Andra]

On 1/15/2024 at 8:02 AM, KingK said:

 

Myrddraal were created to fight for the Shadow.

 

On 1/18/2024 at 8:27 AM, Bugglesley said:

The Myrddraal are beings created by Aginor explicitly as living weapons,

Actually, neither of these things are true.

 

Aginor made Trollocs.  But the Myrddraal were a surprise offshoot descended from them.  A sort of throwback to the human side of the human/animal mix of the trollocs.

Aginor himself didn't know how they came to be, or how their powers actually work.  Though not for lack of trying to find out.

[Bugglesley]

On 5/11/2024 at 12:48 AM, Andra said:

 

Actually, neither of these things are true.

 

Aginor made Trollocs.  But the Myrddraal were a surprise offshoot descended from them.  A sort of throwback to the human side of the human/animal mix of the trollocs.

Aginor himself didn't know how they came to be, or how their powers actually work.  Though not for lack of trying to find out.

 

That is good to know, but I do think the first quote from KingK stands and the broad strokes of my argument stand as well. If I make steel and slag comes out too, I have still "created" the slag. That's not a perfect metaphor here, though, as we're talking about someone messing around with the Ancient Evil and not just materials science. I would like to to correct my statement to say that they were created by the Dark One, working through the actions of Aginor, who was creating the Trollocs... explicitly as living weapons. The Dark One rarely shares all of his power, plans, or processes even with his Chosen. I think it's pretty clear to a reader that the answer to Aginor's questions is "the True Power," which he can't access and ties them directly to the DO. When he has an intermediate step to touch the world as the seals weaken, it's through a Myrrdraal.

 

With that clarified--they remain fundamentally evil, do not have any actual agency and remain, at their core, completely incomparable to humans like the Aiel. Distinction without a difference.

[Dagon Thyne]

Fades were not created at all.  They were accidents.  They are Trolloc offspring who are throwbacks to the humans used to originally create trolleys.  Animal throwbacks exist as well but either are stillborn, die shortly after birth or are killed and eaten if they don't die on their own.

 

Fades look human but in reality are so corrupted by the true power that they are more than mere shadows pawn.  They are linked directly to the DO which is why he uses one of them as his voice to communicate with his followers without needing them to come to the Pit of Doon.  Their link to the DO is where they get all of their power.  

[Andra]

8 hours ago, Bugglesley said:

 

That is good to know, but I do think the first quote from KingK stands and the broad strokes of my argument stand as well. If I make steel and slag comes out too, I have still "created" the slag. That's not a perfect metaphor here, though, as we're talking about someone messing around with the Ancient Evil and not just materials science. I would like to to correct my statement to say that they were created by the Dark One, working through the actions of Aginor, who was creating the Trollocs... explicitly as living weapons. The Dark One rarely shares all of his power, plans, or processes even with his Chosen. I think it's pretty clear to a reader that the answer to Aginor's questions is "the True Power," which he can't access and ties them directly to the DO. When he has an intermediate step to touch the world as the seals weaken, it's through a Myrrdraal.

 

With that clarified--they remain fundamentally evil, do not have any actual agency and remain, at their core, completely incomparable to humans like the Aiel. Distinction without a difference.

No, if you produced slag as a waste product of smelting steel, you didn't make the slag for a purpose.

 

The statement I was responding to was that Aginor created the Myrddraal explicitly for some purpose.  In reality, they were an accident that took him completely by surprise.  That's pretty much the opposite of "explicitly for a purpose."

There is also no evidence anywhere in the books that the Dark One created them explicitly for a purpose either.  Whether through Aginor's actions or not.  He certainly made extensive use of them, but there's no evidence he planned their existence.

 

 

And though the Forsaken were only permitted to use the True Power with permission, they were absolutely familiar with it.  If it were obvious that's the source of the Myrddraals' abilities, he would have discovered it when he tested several of them to destruction.

 

And no, that's not what "Distinction without a difference" means.

Edited May 14 by Andra

[Temeraire64]

On 1/19/2024 at 4:27 AM, Bugglesley said:

The Aiel are humans. They follow a particular code, but there are very clearly Aiel in the series working to advance the Light or to advance their own petty concerns (Sevannah and the Shaido more broadly).

And even Aiel who do serve the Light can have pretty unpleasant beliefs (e.g. they all think Cairhien deserves to be genocided).