While We Are On Darkhounds...

[Vassili]

I think this has been asked before, but im not sure. How did Lan kill the darkhound in tDR? Rand cuts them to ribbons with a sword, but they liquified and then reformed (a lot like in terminator II). Not until Moiraine or Rand balefired them did they die. I imagine they can be killed without balefire, but how would you kill one without the Power?

[Djrock]

I think it was because Lan did not actually kill it.  The Darkhound was hunting Moiraine and Lan went to warn her.  She probably bale-fired it.  :)

[Hybrid]

The original Darkhounds were able to be killed by Perrin's arrows.  The new Darkhounds have to be balefired.  I think that there are two different types here, and one is much more resistant than the others.

[Blade]

maybe it's about where you hit it/stab it. That, or RJ just got things mixed up and decided to up the difficulty on killing the darkhounds

[Ashaman Kovan]

Maybe it's because in tDR the DO/Shadow wasn't as strong as in aCoS or later in the books. Stronger DO, effecting the weather and such, equal stronger Dark Hounds , T-1000'ing it lol.

[trakand_01]

Survival of the fittest, and all that. I very much doubt that the DO would think "Oh, these Darkhounds can be killed by arrows... oh well, work with what you've got..."

 

Or as someone else stated, there are more than one type of 'Darkhound'.

[Luckers]

Well we know that there are new Darkhounds active--by Masuri's comments we know they've had a surprising population boost, or else have been hiding somewhere....

 

Given, however, that we witness new behaviour in these Darkhounds that Masuri has never encountered (the whole 'pack of fifty not turning on each other' thing, thus we know these new Darkhounds are different in nature.

 

Thus i support the idea that the terminator 2 darkhounds are indeed a new type of Darkhound.

 

Possibly this is what happens when the Darkhounds are created rather than turned--as in we know originally Darkhounds were made by Aginor's work on wolves. We also know that Darkhounds can turn wolves into Darkhounds. My suggestion is that the Darkhounds turned by Darkhound bite are diluted and less powerful, whilst the purebreeds--created by direct manipulation--might be something else entirely.

[Hybrid]

Well we know that there are new Darkhounds active--by Masuri's comments we know they've had a surprising population boost, or else have been hiding somewhere....

 

I forget the specifics of Darkhound turning, but Dumai's Wells resulted in a lot of dead wolves.

[Charlz Guybon]

Well we know that there are new Darkhounds active--by Masuri's comments we know they've had a surprising population boost, or else have been hiding somewhere....

 

Given, however, that we witness new behaviour in these Darkhounds that Masuri has never encountered (the whole 'pack of fifty not turning on each other' thing, thus we know these new Darkhounds are different in nature.

 

Thus i support the idea that the terminator 2 darkhounds are indeed a new type of Darkhound.

 

Possibly this is what happens when the Darkhounds are created rather than turned--as in we know originally Darkhounds were made by Aginor's work on wolves. We also know that Darkhounds can turn wolves into Darkhounds. My suggestion is that the Darkhounds turned by Darkhound bite are diluted and less powerful, whilst the purebreeds--created by direct manipulation--might be something else entirely.

 

I'd be surprised if those 50 Darkhounds have the same powers as the ones that fought Rand, they'd be invincible unless they ran into Rand's party. I'd always assumed the T-1000 Darkhounds were a unique pack breed by Aginor right before the bore was sealed.

 

As for behaving in ways that Masuri has never seen I don't put much stock in that. Between the Trolloc Wars and now when would the Dark One have needed to send out such a large pack?

[a pale tanned lover]

Well we know that there are new Darkhounds active--by Masuri's comments we know they've had a surprising population boost, or else have been hiding somewhere....

 

Given, however, that we witness new behaviour in these Darkhounds that Masuri has never encountered (the whole 'pack of fifty not turning on each other' thing, thus we know these new Darkhounds are different in nature.

 

Is it just me are does anyone else not seem surprised about how much knowledge that Masuri has about Darkhounds and how many packs she has encountered?? Seems very suspicious

[Ahaz Flagg]

Not suprised at that realy, Masuri is Brown Ajah. Not any more suprising than Veriwn knowingabout the protal stones.

[a pale tanned lover]

But Verin's knows that through books, Masuri states she has come across 7 different packs herself. Thats excessive considering what they are, where they come from, and how they were only supposed to of appeared again since TDR. A brown tends to do most of her research from books. Thats the reason im surprised

[Charlz Guybon]

But Verin's knows that through books, Masuri states she has come across 7 different packs herself. Thats excessive considering what they are, where they come from, and how they were only supposed to of appeared again since TDR. A brown tends to do most of her research from books. Thats the reason im surprised

 

It's a bit odd, but if she spent several decades in the Borderlands trying to study them than it's possible I would think.

[triadruid]

...and how they were only supposed to of appeared again since TDR.

I think you're misremembering. Lan says "There hasn't been a Darkhound seen south of the Mountains of Dhoom since the Trolloc Wars", not seen period.

 

It's still an awful lot of experience for a Brown, but she's not necessarily lying.

[Hybrid]

However, there are people who are suspicious of Masuri for an entirely different reason.  It was mentioned in one of the threads a little while back.

[Charlz Guybon]

However, there are people who are suspicious of Masuri for an entirely different reason.  It was mentioned in one of the threads a little while back.

 

Interesting, I must have missed this thread. What was the reason?

[Hybrid]

However, there are people who are suspicious of Masuri for an entirely different reason.  It was mentioned in one of the threads a little while back.

 

Interesting, I must have missed this thread. What was the reason?

 

It's Luckers' theory, I think:

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,35258.msg920809.html#msg920809

 

[Luckers]

So now we have a second reason to doubt Masuri--though in truth, i have no real problem with her being black and telling Perrin the truth, and if she did make a specific study of darkfriends i see no reason she couldn't have that knowledge.

 

I mean, seperate of Masuri we know the 50 member Darkhound pack is abnormal--several times its stated that if a Darkhound pack gets much above ten they have a tendency to turn on each other and kill each other.

[animals]

on the subject of darkhounds, what are they ones down in ghaldean(sp) in CoT looking for? I've heard they were looking for mat, but i dunno

[CUBAREY]

I think you're misremembering. Lan says "There hasn't been a Darkhound seen south of the Mountains of Dhoom since the Trolloc Wars", not seen period.

 

 

Except we know that borderlanders enter the Blight often enough some going to the Mountains of Dhoom (we know that trying to find the GreenMan was one of the things that adventurous Borderlanders did (and the Greenman was usually found beyond the mountains of Dhoom. We also know that Ogre also were known to have visisted the Greenman (Louels father and tutor for two) and Ogre are famous so writing books. So Masuri's research may have been based on  interviewing those who traveled to the Mountains of Dhoom (or at least studying the stories told by such men) and studying ancient human manuscripts of humans that dealt with the Hounds and similar Ogre Manuscripts (that would have tended to have a better chance to have survived the years). Not saying that there is specific evidence for this theory only that it would explain how Masuri was an expert on Hounds even though Hounds were not known to have traveled south of the Mountains of Dhoom since the Trollic Wars.

 

Moreover, since any half intelligent person who had spent time in the Borderlands might be thought to know that Hounds had not traveled south of the Blight for many years so that Masuri would have been taking a very big chance of being thought of as a Black Sister by claiming to be an expert on Hounds if gaining such expertise as I described was not a very plausible expalination.

[MikeRiley]

on the subject of darkhounds, what are they ones down in ghaldean(sp) in CoT looking for? I've heard they were looking for mat, but i dunno

 

They were running in a pretty straight line with an important enough target that they weren't stopping to kill on their way. My guess is these darkhounds can sense Rand similar to Fain and have been chasing him for some time. It's likely the darkhound packs would have melded together in their constant changing of directions running to where Rand is. That's how I see it, anyway.

 

Also, Slayer kills wolves in the wolf dream, causing the final death. Maybe that has something to do with an increase in darkhounds? He's the Shadow's assassin, would they let him have free time for sport?

[Majsju]

on the subject of darkhounds, what are they ones down in ghaldean(sp) in CoT looking for? I've heard they were looking for mat, but i dunno

 

My guess has always been that they are looking for Fain. Hunting him down was originally Slayers job, but he failed massively at the one attempt we have seen. Moridins comments in WH regarding Fain strongly hints at the shadow (or at least Moridin himself) considering killing Fain is quite important. So it would not be that shocking to see the shadow deciding to give Slayer a bit of back up.

 

This would fit nicely with how some people sees Slayers habit of killing wolves in T'A'R as a hint of a connection between him and Darkhounds.

[Alderthal]

Nothing was said that I recall in the books about Darkhounds attacking others in their own pack, no matter how big the pack. Two packs sent to hunt the same target would attack each other (according to Moiraine), but a huge pack wouldn't attack each other.

 

As for how invincible they seem/are, I think that's more to do with HOW they were killed rather than a new super breed of Darkhounds.

 

The dark hound Lan killed and the one Perrin killed were killed with mundane weapons. Perrin's arrows and Lan's power wrought steel sword.

 

Rand tried killing them with the power and his sword of fire, and it just pissed them off. Balefire worked though, but that's because balefire kills anything!

 

As for what they were hunting, my guess is Rand. South of Ghealdean is Illian and Tear, places where Rand was. Of course, since he constantly keeps Travelling through gates, the impatience Masuri sensed would be because of that (creatures of the Shadow cannot pass through gates since they die).

[Dmitri]

We also know that Ogre also were known to have visisted the Greenman (Louels father and tutor for two) and Ogre are famous so writing books.

 

Really, is it so hard to remember the name of one of a few races in Randland? Ogier  ;) I mean, Ogre may be a more common word in literature, but we are talking about RJ's world...

And also the name of a very big (in fact) character - Loial?

 

 

[CUBAREY]

Really, is it so hard to remember the name of one of a few races in Randland? Ogier  I mean, Ogre may be a more common word in literature, but we are talking about RJ's world...

And also the name of a very big (in fact) character - Loial?

 

As I have mentioned previously I am mildly dyslexic and learned to spell phoneticly. Thus I often mispel Ogier as Ogre ( since it is as you said the name of a hurry race normally used in fantasy) and/or Loyal for Loial? Moreover, its not like I'm using names that would confuse the normal reader.