Who is Mesaana?

[balefireruinssteaks]

that makes a lot of sense to me.

 

Obviously Mesaana would have to recreate the agelessness, otherwise she couldn't pose as a Sister.  Posing as Danelle gets her all kinds of information and also the ability to just sort of disappear at will since Browns are given to losing themselves in their thoughts. 

 

Alviarin doesn't recognize Danelle as Black Ajah so she probably doesn't pay that much attention to her.  So when the Illusion is undone, Alviarin sort of recognizes her but not entirely since the agelessness is gone.

 

It makes the most sense that Mesaana is Danelle.

 

My one question is when a Sister masks her ability to channel, can she also make it so she is less powerful?  Mesaana far outstrips anyone in the Tower in sheer power, so if she were to pose as a sister, she would need to put herself in the range of power of the Tower...otherwise someone would surely ask "why on earth is Danelle more powerful than anyone we've ever come across!?!?!!?"

[Bob T Dwarf]

Yes.  She would ( like all the Forsaken ) have the ability to "fudge" her strength in the Power.

[Nightstrike]

Yeah, sure! I could accept it very much if Danelle is Mesaana.

 

But, why then has Tsutama Rath been chosen Highest of the Red? That practically SCREAMS compulsion!

[Luckers]

Well, yes, she does have the knowledge to mask her strength--RJ states this, but he also said that it was not something that was well known even in the Age of Legends, so not all the Forsaken might know this.

 

And Tsutama was raised because the Reds felt someone hard was needed, someone able to do what needs to be done irrespective of the rules. Tsutama is the perfect choice in light of that.

[trakand_01]

I am reading CoT, and am at the bit where Egwene goes into the tent to see the Novices (and AS) making cuendillar from bits of iron pot etc.

 

What do we know about Janya? She is Brown, and wears bronze skirts. She doesnt particularly get on with the other AS in the tent, and she's quite convincing in her interest in the task of turning pots to cuendillar. She almost doesnt let the other AS speak, she's very firm and quite persuasive.

 

This has possibly been discussed previously, i dont know?

 

 

[DemandredFO]

Janya has intrigued me as well, I can't really point to anything but I believe she is Black Ajah.  She seems like a twisted and menacing version of Verin to me.

As to the original post Danelle is Mesaana.  Egwene can come close to Mesaana in strength but the only AS known to be able to best a forsaken is Nyneave.  There lots of wildcards around like the novices, noteably Sharina.

[Snowy Dawn]

``Janya has intrigued me as well, I can't really point to anything but I believe she is Black Ajah.  She seems like a twisted and menacing version of Verin to me.''

 

You can't point to anything probably because there is nothing to point to. She does not seem twisted and menacing to me. Where do you evidence of that?

[Snowy Dawn]

Bleah. That should be ``Where do you find evidence of that?'' Sorry, hit ``post'' to quickly.

[RAND AL THOR]

Snowy Dawn, it is possible to edit your post. On the top right corner of your post, hit the modify button and change your post. ;)

[Snowy Dawn]

No, because I already pressed the post button, and it was too late to edit. :-(

[Elgee]

Snowy Dawn, look at the top right hand corner of your OWN post (after you have posted) - you will see a button called MODIFY.  (quote + MODIFY + remove, is what you will be able to see, i think)

 

Click on that, edit your own post, then click on SAVE at the bottom (where it would normally say POST (or PREVIEW first, to double check your edit  :D)

[Snowy Dawn]

Elgee: now I understand. I can edit the post after the initial version has already been posted. I did not realize that. Not thinking clearly. :-(

[havoc110]

Janya is an interesting case.  Hanging about with Delana, a known BA.

Standing up in critical votes in which increased Tower/Salidar devisiveness will/may result.

No mention of a warder, but mention of her comparative age.

Sitter in the Tower, Sitter in the Hall.

 

Since I think Verin herself is twisted and menacing, I can't imagine a version, only more so.

 

Also her first appearance coincides with Mesaana's on screen debut.  (LoC prologue).  Either in this or the Demandred thread I had mentioned going over the 1st half of LoC very closely because Messana may have alter ego on screen time (personal theory that I think fits).

 

Further, it fits with Sheriam's torture scene, where she makes a brief mention about being sorry she ever talked to Sitters, or something to that effect.  (identity of Sheriam's torturer still a mystery, however.)

 

What doesn't fit is that if she is in Salidar, then she doesn't need to get all pissy with Halima or torture Sheriam, cause she's on the scene to get her own intel on Egwene's intentions.

[Snowy Dawn]

I think we need a separate thread about Janya to look at the rest of the evidence, e.g., the interaction with Egwene and others in the second part of the chapter ``Secrets'', Ch. 17 of <i>Crossroads of Twilight</i>. Here Egwene remarks of Janya: ``Janya might have been as sure as anyone that the Hall was getting a puppet when they raised Egwene, but she seemed to have accepted that Egwene did wear the stole, and deserved the proper respect from everyone.'' A little earlier on, there is effusive praise from Janya for Egwene's discovery of how to make <i>cuedillar</i> (COT, p. 427, p. 433). There is an earlier passage too that I need to find, suggesting a different and more positive take on Janya. Also on the ``remesh'' theory of the ``inappropriate sitters'', note that Janya is the only one of the tower sisters who fled to the rebels who stands to lose her seat, in that the tower Browns replaced her with someone who <i>is</i> an appropriate choice. At least that's the way it looks to me. See the FAQ, section 2.6.5, for the evidence. 

[trakand_01]

Woohoo!! I didnt expect this idea to last very long. I'm so pleased it's a valid contribution!

 

;D

[ThebigeyeAm]

ive thought for a while that mesaana was posing as shevan.shes a sitter for the brown and theres quite abit of contraversy surrounding the new sitters in the tower and of them all shevan is the only one that seems appropriate.hiding in plain sight????wot do you think?

[Luckers]

Shevan's peculiarity comes from the fact that she is the propper age to be a Sitter. This results for two reason, for one, the Ajah Heads only secured seats for the Sitters who were a part of the Too Young Sitter Conspiracy--specifically the Footdragging Five--Magla, Varilin, Taikima, Faiselle and Saroiya. Janya was never a part of their group.

 

The second reason she was raised is that prior to the split she was being prepared to replace Saerin who was considering stepping down from the Hall--it would have been almost impossible to avoid raising her.

[ThebigeyeAm]

ok luckers do you not think she could be posing as shevan?

  i understand the reasons why she stands out among the new sitters but im sticking to my guns i think she is posing as shevan xx

[balefireruinssteaks]

Mesaana is clearly posing as Bela.

 

No one is going to suspect her of being a horse, and although it might look strange to see a horse wandering through the White Tower, as Egwene pointed out "people EXPECT the White Tower to be a place of awe and mystery."

 

yes...Mesaana is disguised as Bela.  She hangs out in the stables and channels at people who walk by.

[DemandredFO]

Bela is just a horse, just because RJ has put her in 11 books when everyone changes horses like most people change socks.  I have never seen reason why people make Bela everyone under the sun.  If true that horse has a serious case of multipersonality dissorder.

[RAND AL THOR]

I want to kill Bela just to stop all this discussion about that frekaing horse!

[havoc110]

Doesn't Randland seem to have a shortage of fillies and colts?

 

And who really looks to see if a horse is a gelding or not?

 

Back to Mesaana.  Instead of guessing where she is, how about we know

where she isn't.  Specifically, she's not at the cleansing.

 

We know she paid a price for her absence.  Why?  Apathy? Ignorance?

Perhaps she was otherwise occupied.  Possibly her alter ego is somewhere on-screen during that time, doing something important.  Perhaps her alter ego is even at the Cleansing, but to me that is less likely.  Anyway, there are a few parallel scenes,

where Mesaana might be found...

[havoc110]

I keep going back to this, because to me this is a big hole in the Danelle as Mesaana theory.

 

Since Danelle hasn't really been part of the story, and we know the punishment Mesaana has suffered as a result of opting-out of the Cleansing, what would have prevented Danelle/Mesanna from going to the Cleansing?

 

I mean, I said earlier, I see that Danelle fits, but we're talking perhaps the biggest scene in the series to date, and she's AWOL.  Why?

[Majsju]

Perhaps she simply believed she would get away with it, if the rest of the forsaken managed to stop Rand from cleansing the taint...

[Ealdur Tinuviel]

Back on the old forums, I made a pretty lengthy post about who Mesaana is that took a look at every Aes Sedai mentioned in the books, and ultimately came to the conclusion that there were only two people who she could be... Tarna Feir, and Danelle.