Moridin's War Plan: Part 1 - Tsutama Rath

[Dionysus]

It's been two days since Tsutama Rath received her summons back to the White Tower. Riding through the Braem Wood she gets the image of the White Tower appearing over the horizon flashing through her mind once again, and she smiles. She often dreams of the magnificence of the White Tower, standing tall and glistening in the sun. She had almost forgotten its magnificence in the 15 years since she had been sent away, but now she can see it clear as day. Suddenly she is stopped, unable to move, unable to draw the source, and her eyes start to close.

 

“Blood and Bloody Ashes, Who are you?†Tsutama demands of her captor. Confused over what has happened, but with a newfound fury to get back at those who had sent her into exile for so many years. What she had done was for the good of the tower, those bloody men would have sent the world into madness had she not stopped them!

 

“I am Moridin, you now serve me. I have a very important mission for you.â€

 

In part one of my theory on Moridin's war plan, I'll lay out why I think Tsutama Rath is a darkfriend and some of what her role will be, which will be expanded upon in later theories.

 

The Red Ajah, although having among the fewest numbers of confirmed Black Ajah amongst the Ajahs*, is often associated most closely with Black Ajah and Forsaken plots. The highest of the Red Ajah, Galina Casban, was Black Ajah herself. During the vileness, which was the cause for Tsutama Rath's exile, it was the Red Ajah which was illegally gentling male channelers, a Black Ajah plot**. Liandrin, the leader of the 13 Black Ajah sent out was also Red Ajah. It's clear that the Black Ajah and the Forsaken prefer working within the Red Ajah and Robert Jordan has been leading it this way with most of the sympathetic Aes Sedai characters among the Blue Ajah, and their rivals being amongst the Reds.

 

Setting up the Red Ajah as their base of powers, requires them to have sisters in positions of power to exert their influence, such as sitters, heads of the Ajah, Keeper of the Chronicles, or even the Amyrlin seat herself. During the vileness, Galina was the head of the Red Ajah, Jarna who was a grey with more than a touch of red was Keeper of the Chronicles, and Merean Redhill was the Mistress of Novices. It is unknown whether any of the sitters were Black, but we know that Toveine was not.

 

Fifteen years later, we see a similar trend, with Alviarin becoming Keeper of the Chronicles, Galina retaining her position as the Highest of the Red Ajah, and several sitters among the different Ajahs but both of the formerly mentioned sisters have lost their influence, with Alviarin being replaced by Tarna Feir for failing to be in the tower during the siege and Galina being replaced by Tsutama Rath after her disappearance at Dumai's Wells. There is little to no control within the tower at the moment for the Black Ajah to work unless some of the questionable sisters are in fact Black Ajah.

 

Continuing with the trend that the Black Ajah prefer to work through the Red Ajah, we are introduced to the latest Red Ajah initiative, to bond Asha'man as warders. It is debatable whether this is in-fact a Black Ajah plot, or if Mazrim Taim will even accept the offer to be bonded by the Red sisters. I am not going to debate these issues in this theory but for it I will accept them both.

 

If you can accept that Taim is going to allow the Red sisters to bond his Asha'man, and that this is a plot constructed and executed by Darkfriends, we run into a problem of just who is pushing this through in the White Tower. Tarna Feir, Tsutama Rath, and Pevara Tazanovni are the three Red Sisters who are involved in the creation, the planning, and the execution of the plot. We know from many sources that Pevara is most definitely not Black Ajah. Elaida, the Amyrlin, is deliberately kept in the dark about the plan so it is clear she is not pushing it through behind the scenes. Alviarin has lost all her control so we can rule her out of this plot. And we are left with two likely candidates; Tsutama Rath, the newly appointed Highest of the Red Ajah, and Tarna Feir, the newly appointed Keeper of the Chronicles.

 

In Knife of Dreams, we get to see a PoV from Tarna, and it suggests to me at least that she is not Black Ajah, although it is certainly debateable.

 

 

(Knife of Dreams, Chapter 25 "Attending Elaida")

 

Galina had been quite surprised when Tarna refused her advances after gaining the shawl.

 

Tarna had suggested that less flaunting of her former Ajah--she had phrased it more diplomatically, but that was what she meant-- might help bring the Ajahs together again...

 

"I want to hear some good news, Tarna. Is there any word of the seals on the Dark One's prison? We must make sure no more get broken." As if Tarna did not know that!

 

"The redone wards appear to be keeping rats out of the Tower, Mother," for how long was another question; she checked those wards herself every day...

 

 

She refuses Galina's advances, attempts to foil some plots orchestrated by the Black Ajah (Ajah relations and wards to keep rats out of the tower) and with an exclamation point states that she knows the seals should not be broken.

 

With Tsutama, we have someone who returns to the tower after being sent into exile for 15 years, almost immediately gets unanimously voted in as Highest of the Red Ajah, then pushes through the plan to bond Asha'man. It seems very suspicious, everything about her. And we start to notice changes about her, during Pevara's and Tsutama's discussion in the Prologue to Knife of Dreams, Pevara notes several times that something is odd about her behavior, she has hardened.

 

 

(Knife of Dreams, Prologue: Embers Falling on Dry Grass)

Back then, she had been hammer-hard, yet many had thought her a broken reed when she returned to the Tower. For a while, they had. Then everyone who spent any time near her realized that those shifting eyes were far from nervous. Exile had changed her, only not toward softness. Those eyes belonged on a hunting cat, searching for enemies or prey...

 

Exile had coarsened her language, too. The isolated farm she had been confined to must have been... vivid.

 

...yet she was uncertain about Tsutama. There was something ... wild ... about her, now. Something unpredictable. Was she entirely sane?

 

 

In Robert Jordan's Question of the Week, he deals with what happens when someone is turned to serve the dark one.

 

 

(Question of the Week, Week 15)

Question: When a channeler is forcibly turned to the Dark, is his/her former personality lost to eternity? Are they in a permanent state of mindless Compulsion? Furthermore, can a channeler forcibly turned to the Dark return to the Light unaided?

 

Robert Jordan Answers: They are not in a mindless state of Compulsion. Their former personality is twisted, the darker elements that everyone has to some degree elevated while what might be called the good elements are largely suppressed. I don't mean things like courage, which is useful even to villains, but they are unlikely to be very charitable, for example, and forget any altruistic impulses. Call it being turned into a mirror image of yourself in many ways. It is very unlikely that a channeler forcibly turned to the Shadow could find a way back to the Light unaided. For one reason, by virtue of the twisting he or she had undergone, it is very unlikely that he or she would have any desire to do so.

 

 

Then, in a chat with Robert Jordan in 2001, Punisher asks him a question about turning channelers;

 

(Robert Jordan Chat)

 

Punisher: Have you ever thought about re-instituting some of the old ideas from earlier books? For example, in "The Dragon Reborn" you had a situation with thirteen dark sisters and thirteen Myrddraal to forcibly convert someone to the darker side of things. It seems you have abandoned that. Do you think you might have something like that pop up again at some unexpected moment? It doesn't seem realistic for the Black Ajah to abandon the idea.

 

Robert Jordan: I have not abandoned this notion about a circle of 13 AS and 13 Myrddraal can convert someone to the Shadow. It is not an easy situation to set up, in fact its a very difficult situation to set up. It has to be worth the effort, you don't go to all of this effort to just convert anyone. In fact it might be better for your plans to manipulate someone against their will than as a willing ally.

 

 

Robert Jordan says that he has not abandoned the notion of turning someone to the Shadow, just that it is hard to set up. A sister on a 15 year exile would be easier prey than a sister in the White Tower, and Tsutama as we learn later with her appointment to the head of the Red Ajah, is very important and definitely worth the effort to turn, especially since she is Red Ajah, and probably the strongest of all those returning from their exile, as we see with her being appointed the Highest of the Reds unanimously after Galina's disappearance.

 

Sending the Red Ajah Sisters to bond Asha'man as warders is the first step in a master plan which I will expand upon in later theories, to get the plan rolling there had to be a sister in the tower able to push it through, the only two likely candidates are Tarna Feir and Tsutama Rath. Tsutama Rath, with all the suspicions surrounding her is my most likely candidate.

 

* Numbers for Black Ajah were taken from the wotmania.com FAQ found at http://www.wotmania.com/faqtopic.asp?ID=81 The numbers in case you're interested are; White(5), Green(5), Grey(4), Blue(3), Yellow(3), Red(3), Brown(3)

 

** http://www.wotmania.com/theorypostdbtheory.asp?ID=1340&Category=KoD

[Jinjurluv]

You have a very interesting and complex theory here.

 

My post is a side note to the theory: It has been my assumption for a while now that Taim and all his cronies are darkfriends, so if the Red Ajah are going to Taim for Warders, they would be bonding darkfriends. They would then be unable to harm or kill those Warders. I vaguely remember reading in previous book something along the lines of it being very difficult to have an AS and Warder on opposite sides of the Light/Dark lines b/c they share so much of their emotions through the bond.

 

So, asuming your theory is correct, the bonding idea of the Reds means the Light will take a pretty good hit. The Reds who bonded darkfriend Warders would then theoretically be much easier to turn to the Dark. As Taim says, "Let the Lord of Chaos rule."

[Featherless Hawkwing]

Well, if the Reds are brave enough, they might kill their Warders, if they found out they were Darkfriends... but I don't think they would. Even the Black Ajah can't bring itself to kill Warders who walk in the Light, and they don't balk at much. And although the average Asha'man (especially one under Taim personal tutelage) is stronger than the average Aes Sedai, the price for a Warder, for killing his Aes Sedai, is far greater than the opposite crime by an Aes Sedai.

 

How would they be easier to turn to the Dark? With the bond giving warning, an Aes Sedai might just wrap up her Warder in Air, if she detected hostile thoughts. But that works both ways... hell, I don't know. Waste of space.

 

Still posted it, though.

[havoc110]

How does Mesaana fit into this scheme?

 

Is it another example of the Chosen working (knowingly or unknowingly) at cross purposes?

[mightisright]

Who says they will bond darkfriend ashaman? Taim says ask and those who say yes can be bonded. I don't see any dark friends and very few others allowing themselves to be bonded by reds from the tower (unless of course the DO orders it). Rands ordered that the Salidar AS could pick any soldier or dedicated and they could not refuse. Much different.

[Jinjurluv]

Taim and his dark Asha'man seemed to find the whole situation humourous when the Reds asked permission to bond them. To me that says they have something in mind. And since Taim says "Let the Lord of Chaos reign" I would assume that he is choosing to hold up Rand's command that no one asked can say no.

[Dionysus]

I posted a more complete theory of exactly where I was going with this train of thought on the WoTmania.com theory post.

 

The link is here

 

http://www.wotmania.com/theorypostdbtheory.asp?ID=1399&Category=Week

[dicetosser1]

what you were saying about turning a channeller. It seem obvious that this is going to be attempted on Egwene. Remeber her tast for accepted??

[Luckers]

The test for Accepted is not a valid prophecy. That situation will never come to be now.

 

Moreover, RJ has stated that the Shadow has reasons for not turning the likes of egwene and Rand.