"Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are...."

[Luckers]

In CoT we encounter a pack of fifty Darkhounds heading south through Altara. Masuri states that they have long been hunting their prey, and that it is eluding them.

 

Now, many people suggest Fain as the most likely culprity, but thats never sat well with me. It seems a waste--the Shadow knows Fain can move by Waygate, so sending what are essentially hunting dogs to find him seems foolish. Yes they might luck upon his trail in between leaping, but that truly would take luck--one pack managing accross him in the entire Westlands. They cannot keep up with him, can't follow any form of trail or track or estimate his direction. For them to take him it would require an accidental encounter--and they could have had a pack of trollocs roaming the land if that was the method they wished to use. To use Darkhounds to do it is a waste of their abilities.

 

So what are the other options? I think we can intelligently exclude any channeler able to Travel for the same reason, so it's unlikely to be Rand or Nynaeve or any of the others. Possibly Galad, but he's been in Amadacia for anyone to find if they wanted to. No, only one group has been hiding from the Shadow, and only one figure was important enough for one of the Forsaken to employ such effort to try and find them--Mat, or more specifically Tuon.

 

Now, I've suggested this before, and people immediately lean on two reasons to exclude Tuon. Firstly they say that the Darkhounds have been hunting their pray for sometime and are frustrated over it eluding them. That's Masuri's interpretation anyway--but it does make sense. But that does not exclude it being Tuon.

 

If Semirhage sent out the Darkhounds the moment Tuon disapeared, then they've been on the hunt for nearly two months now--possibly close to three. That does not seem that long, but concider that Darkhounds are very fast, and very efficient. They don't pause in their hunt, and as Lan states, you cannot outrun them. Effectively, this may well be the longest hunt they've ever done. The longest any pray has elluded them.

 

And it makes sense that Mat did ellude them, he hung around for a week outside Ebou Dar, than ambled up north with the show, and did it on purpose because people would expect him to be far away by then. Doubtlessly the Darkhounds were brought out of the Ways somewhere north of Altara--Caemlyn, or a stedding somewhere in Murandy if one such exists. They would have been dogging accross northern Altara and even Murandy looking for the trail, yet finding nothing--and we see them suddenly heading a beeline south, and at around the same time Elbar found Mat's camp, and caused that fun little battle.

 

If this is the case, Tuon apparently made it all the way to Ebou Dar before they caught up--but i doubt they'll be far behind. Could prove interesting.

[Cybertrolloc]

Since you've been trying to out Masuri as a darkfriend and all of the infomation about this darkhound pack except for their existance comes from her...

 

If Semirhage sent out the Darkhounds the moment Tuon disapeared, then they've been on the hunt for nearly two months now--possibly close to three.

WoT chronology (with mistakes it has) puts the time of Perrin and Masuri talking about darkhound tracks and Mat's crew leaving Ebou Dar at 6 days. At the very least, we're talking Mat's ending in WH to Perrin's first chapters in CoT (both pre-cleansing).

 

So what does the KoD timeline yield? I vaguely recall Mat's group being outside Ebou Dar for a few days at least before everyone notices the Cleansing. Regardless, this timeline needs to be figured out before I'll speculate more.

[trakand_01]

So is your theory that perhaps they know they are looking for a ta'veren (more specifically, someone WITH a ta'veren), and so circled Perrin's camp thinking he could be Mat?

[Luckers]

Since you've been trying to out Masuri as a darkfriend and all of the infomation about this darkhound pack except for their existance comes from her...

 

Except i don't really see why she would lie about this, even as a Black.

 

Quote from: Luckers being wrong, wrong, wrong! Update your calendars, and have your pets spayed or neutered!

If Semirhage sent out the Darkhounds the moment Tuon disapeared, then they've been on the hunt for nearly two months now--possibly close to three.

WoT chronology (with mistakes it has) puts the time of Perrin and Masuri talking about darkhound tracks and Mat's crew leaving Ebou Dar at 6 days. At the very least, we're talking Mat's ending in WH to Perrin's first chapters in CoT (both pre-cleansing).

 

Will it excite you if i agree? Your right, i did mistake the timeline.

 

I still think it Tuon--but let me concider it and see if i can figure out a reason for the frustration. What are your thoughts on the other points--Tuon still makes the only viable target in the south, and the points about Fain?

 

So is your theory that perhaps they know they are looking for a ta'veren (more specifically, someone WITH a ta'veren), and so circled Perrin's camp thinking he could be Mat?

 

Maybe, or else just simply curiosity. They are hunting, it makes sense to check out groups of people and ensure that it isn't their target.