Why did the DO taint saidin?

[RAND AL THOR]

Why did the DO taint Saidin and why at the moment of sealing? Of course he all but destroyed the world by doing it but why did he do it at the moment of sealing? If he had done it before, he could easily have won the war earlier. Also, why only saidin and not saidar? If it because the DO is male? There is no prood of that. Since the creater and the DO balance each other I dont want to think of either of them belonging to a particular gender.

Also, the DO could easily do it again, after the cleansing. Why didnt he? Afterall, very few seals now hold.

 

Any ideas?

[Luckers]

The Dark One cannot just taint the power whenever he want. The actions of sealing the bore exposed saidin to his touch, and it was only then, during that moment of vunerability, that he could strike.

[Jehaine]

The way i see it, he was only able to attack Saidin itself because at the moment of sealing, there was a massive amount of it being channeled directly on his very doorstep, so to speak. I believe it's something similar to a miasma, only added into the flow of saidin, contaminating it.

 

It was because of this corrupting influence that the DO could work to destroy the seals, as a 'pure' saidin wouldn't have permitted that to happen. Now, the weaves themselves are corrupted from the inside, rather than attack cuendillar from the outside, which is pretty much a useless attempt.

 

That it was certain to mentally degenerate the DR during his next rebirth was a nice added bonus, as well as being able to make his own male Forsaken immune to the taint.

 

But that's just my two cents.

[Guest tree-brother]

I agree. I think it was some what like the funnel Rand used in the cleansing that allowed the DO to taint the power.

[aussie_ashaman123]

Ive never believed the Do tainted saidin deliberately. When he sensed what was going on he fought agaist it and the corruption that is the DO, coated the male source.

[RAND AL THOR]

I'm quite sure that the tainting was a last desperate attack on the forces of light by the DO. Futhermore, a non-channeler cannot see nor sense the weaves of the One Power. It is not clear whether the DO can channel or not. But how would he be able to touch the power in any way? For ex, we have not seen any Aes Sedai being able to 'touch' someone else's weave in any way. Sure, they can cut the weave or shield the person but there is not much else they can do to influence the weave of another person itself. Of course since the DO is not just any average person this may not apply to him.

 

Another thought I had is that the seals were not forged using saidin only. Remember that the Bowl of Winds was drawing on saidin as well as saidar though only female channelers were using it. In the AoL all great works wre done by uniting saidin and saidar. I think that LTT must have used some sort of terangreal which draws on saidar itself as well to make the seals-this would make sense because the seals needed to be as strong as possible and saidin/saidar combination would more or less ensure maximum strength. If he did use such a terangreal then maybe female channelers were not needed for the deed.

 

And I agree with Jehaine. There must have been hude quantities of saidin being channeled at the Bore during the sealing and we know that channeling near the Bore results in weird resonations so that may be the answer.

THankx guys.

[Guest durram laddel cham]

I don't think he tainted it on purpose. If so why doesn't he just ask a male and a female dreadlord to channel a little at him. if both used induvidual, he could taint Saidin and Saidar. Channelers destroying the world, perfect thing for him.

 

Another point I always was wondering about: we know from Demandreds POV that you can't channel in the Pit Of Doom, unless given permission (not even sure about that), but how did LTT and the companions channel without being destroyed by the DO?

[bRANDan]

Why did the DO taint saidin?

 

Simple. Covering something as large as the source with a slick coating made a great slip-and-slide.

 

 

[HoppyQ]

I had always thought that the taint was a side effect of the DO lashing out trying to protect himself.  Since we know that the TP can only be accessed by the chosen when the DO allows it.  I had assumed that the DO had used the TP to try and protect himself and that the taint was actually a coating of the TP on top of the OP.  While it doesn't cause the saa and the desire to draw too much, it does cause madness.

[Jehaine]

durram: Wells, probably, and other angreal with power storage options. I blame the DO being able to taint saidin as one of the downsides of LTT being a ta'veren, and the Wheel knowing it'd be time to end the Age.

[Rahela Sedai]

Well wasn't it a backlash fom suing so much of the Power?

 

Or you know it could've just been the DO's last Ha-ha-slap-in-the-face to LTT.

[billoumm7]

well after all sadin is that much more powrful than sadir... so why not taint the one that will destroy the world faster? it was a perfect plan... and also i think the DO thought he would just kill all the aes sedi (male + female) and end the channeling of the power completely.

[Majsju]

Look at when the taint happened, it was a counterstroke by the DO when It was under direct attack. Now, why would the DO chose to taint saidin rather tha trying to defend Itself, and hopefully stop the attack?

 

The taint was a side effect.

[RAND AL THOR]

Everywhere in the books it says that the counterstroke of the DO was the taint on saidin. This is how I interpreteted it:

 

The 'stroke' would have been LTT's attack on Shayol Ghul

 

Hence the 'counterstroke' would be the deliberate tainting of saidin.

 

counterstroke would mean counter-attack. I assume it was a last desperate attack on LTT by the DO. Obviosuly the tainting was done after the seals were set or LTT would have gone mad before fully closing the bore. Hence, the DO knew that he was gonna be trapped forver more again and just as the last seal was set, he tainted saidin. I think it was more of a revengful move than a tactical move to somehow stop the sealing.

What d'u think?

[Guest Dreadlord]

The Dark One deliberately Tainted Saidin, no doubt about it. This is how I see it.

 

Lews Therin and his Hundred Companions (which numbered more than a hundred if I remember right, but thats irelevant) sealed the Dark One away. At the last minute, the Dark One sees his chance to strike before its too late.

 

So he thinks to himself, "Hmm. This Lews Therin chap bothers me, quite the thorn in my side. Should I strike him down? Seems like a waste of the last chance I have to do something, really. What if I strike at every single male channeller alive, and every male channeller EVER TO BE BORN? If I lay a snare on the True Source that will make male channellers go mad I could prevent them from ever working against me EVER AGAIN. Not only will they all die eventually, the female channellers will no longer work with them, and they will be feared by everyone as if they were me."

 

There is no way teh Dark One tainted Saidin by accident. No way at all.

[Luckers]

I've not really concidered it, but I'm more inclined to agree with Majsju. If the Dark One can do such a thing, he would have earlier than simply protected all his followers from it. The tainting resulted from happenstance, from chance--a specific once in a lifetime moment that allowed him to achieve what he achieved.

[Majsju]

Well, there is a small chance that the taint was on purpose, if the DO hoped to get LTT & Co to abort the attack by tainting Saidin. But it seems quite odd if the DO had waited til the last minute, if It were capable of doing such a thing. Much more sense to taint both halves, get even more advantage in the war, while securing the loyalty of both male and female channelers.

[Guest Dreadlord]

But he achieved it deliberately, the only thing that came down to chance is that Saidin was exposed to his touch. So he touched it, ON PURPOSE, to Taint it.

[Guest Dreadlord]

As for why Saidar wasnt Tainted as well, thats because there were no females present. If it were all female, then Saidar would have been Tainted, not Saidin. But if male AND female were present, as LTT had first planned, then the Bore would have been Sealed with no problems. I cant see how anyone can think the Taint wasn't deliberate

[RAND AL THOR]

As for why Saidar wasnt Tainted as well, thats because there were no females present.

 

Sensible suggestion, yes. However, we know that in the AoL all great works were done with both saidin and saidar. While no females were present, remember the Bowl of Winds? I am inclined to think that LTT Would have used some sort of terangreal which draws on saidin as well as saidar to make the seals. After all, this was the ULTIMATE project. It only makes sense. While there is no proof for this, I consider it highly likely that such a terangreal may have been used.

 

Also, the tainting was deliberate, I really cant think of it as a side-effect. It was deliberate. To the question: why didnt the DO taint it before then? I would answer that the cirucumstances created by LTT and 100 comp channeling at the Bore gave some sort of access to saidin to the DO. This idea is furthermore supported by the fact that channeling near the Bore causes weird effects. Few other theories make sense. :D

[Guest Dreadlord]

I dont think there is such a thing as an angreal for Saidar that can be used by men. There is a short passage on the internet that relates to Lews Therins plans to strike at the DO (the strike at Shayol Ghuo, I think its called) and the reason no females were present for this ultimate project was because the females thought it was too dangerous, so LTT took his 100 anyway.

 

Other than that, you said what I said. :)

[Corbett]

there had to be saidar used in one way or another. weither it was before lews therin went to the bore or not. the seals are half black and half white. because we have seen the female cuellendor is white it quite possible that male cuellendor is black. personally i think that the seals were made at the boore instead of before hand. so i am inclined ot agree with the theory of the ter'angreal.

[Luckers]

cuiendillar is not limited to types--we've seen it in metal form, in black sandstone form, in white sandstone form.

 

Furthermore it is very much improbable that saidar was involved in any way with the sealing. There would have been no point in the Fateful Concord if Lews Therin could simply turn to a ter'angreal.

[aussie_ashaman123]

But he achieved it deliberately, the only thing that came down to chance is that Saidin was exposed to his touch. So he touched it, ON PURPOSE, to Taint it.

 

if he could touch it, why didnt he grab onto it and use the power to break himself free?

[Guest Dreadlord]

No reason to believe that he can do that. Even the Dark One and the Creator are bound by rules. If someone draws Saidin, its not possible for someone else to snatch the Saidin you have already drawn. (The only exception is with Rand and Lews, but technically theyre the same bloke so that doesnt apply).