Rand's Sicknes...Taint or something else?

[Samudor]

Ok, so after finishing with Winter's Heart, I was all excited to see Rand not have to worry about touching the Source, only to see all that other stuff happen. I don't know how many times or if people have really discussed this indepth. Is he still suffering ill effects because of the residual taint in his body? Or is it the balefire incident with Morridin at Shadar Logoth? I wonder if Morridin avoids using saidin partially because he may feel those effects himself. Someone please enlighten me on this...

 

 

[erickm001]

Ok, so after finishing with Winter's Heart, I was all excited to see Rand not have to worry about touching the Source, only to see all that other stuff happen. I don't know how many times or if people have really discussed this indepth. Is he still suffering ill effects because of the residual taint in his body? Or is it the balefire incident with Morridin at Shadar Logoth? I wonder if Morridin avoids using saidin partially because he may feel those effects himself. Someone please enlighten me on this...

 

 

 

I think Rand has been damaged by the taint in various ways.

1. His obsession with woman. What started as a typical Two Rivers regard for the fairer sex, turned into a psycosis because of the taint.

2. His emtional state and mood swings. His fits of anger and his sullen depressions, and his coldness are all symtoms of the damage caused by the taint.

3. Lew Therin in his head. It's real and yet it's a taint corruption.

Just my opinion. Mr. Jordan might have had other ideas about what plagued his star character.

 

His latest illness while trying to draw saidin is something else (though could have been exacerbated by the taint). It came about after meeting Morridin. I can't give any explanation for it. Maybe other can.

[Angel of Death]

I dont think he has residual taint in his body, but RJ did say what effects it has had are permenant.

[Samudor]

The last two points make sense, although I don't think the issue with women is a direct result of his exposure to the taint. I think that has to do with the fact that he grew up without a mother, and then as he grew into adulthood, most of the women he met either wanted to manipulate him, seduce him, or kill him. I think that is the surest way to develop an issue with women. For that matter, he has an issue with men too. I think mood swings, while the taint has some sway there, you also have to look at the strain of taking a shepherd, and in just 3 years making him the most powerful/hated/worshipped man in the world. I can't say I would have handled the strain any better than Rand did.

 

[ksbsnowowl]

The sickness and dizziness while Rand first embraces the source is not an effect of the taint.  It is an effect from his and Morridin's balefire beams crossing at the end of Book 7.  When either Rand or Morridin embraces Saidin, both of them suffer the nausea and dizziness.  Notice that Morridin uses the True Power exclusively now, and also note Rand having a nausea attack (and seeing a vaguely familiar face in his head) while he was in Far Madding where he himself can't have embraced saidin.

[mb]

Like a number of this thread's posters told (and from other sites), Rand's "sickness" was from his and Moridin's balefires touching each other.  This is talked about here::

http://linuxmafia.com/jordan/2_nondark/2.3_one-power/2.3.16_taint-cleansing.html

 

About Moridin, he uses only the True Power whenever he channels and he used the True Power in that incident.

His not using saidin I think is for some other reason.  I am not sure what would happen if he did.

 

[Jethro]

What makes me wonder though, is why the connection between Moridin and Rand seems to be getting stronger. Also, another thing I wonder about is the wasting sickness mentioned in the stories about male channelers. Yes, the Source is now clean, but at the Cleansing Rand and Rand alone took the entire affect of the Taint throughout the ritual. Now, first going off the amount of Saidin being channeled and then taking into account that it went on for quite a long time, Rand alone took an incredible amount of the Taint indeed. At the start he marvelled at Saidar and the ammount of both sides being used, yet at the end he thinks to himself that the only way he knew he was still channeling was because of the Taint avalanching into him. All that, in one massive blow, had to have some sort of lasting effect, right? Could the sickness be the earliest stages of the wasting illness? The reason I wonder about this is because Rand is often sick without seeing Moridins face. My guess is that Rand sees Moridin when both channel at the same time, or maybe when Rand channels at the same time as Moridin uses the True Power seeing as the link was via the True Power from Moridins end.

[bubby]

I agree with everyone here, alot of good points.

 

I also hoped to see more, after WH, but I didn't expect it.  After Rand took callendor(can't remember how it's spelled) the ail and the soldiers all bowed and started saying "the dragon is reborn, the dragon is reborn".  Kinda silly, especially considering that RJ himself wrote the 4th book full of everyone trying to deny what he is, ael and teirens both.  The world took notice, but no one came close to bowing and saying "the dragon is reborn".  I didn't think anything would change after he cleansed the taint.  Everyone who knows the taint is clean thinks it was the creator, if they don't know it was rand, and everyone else who knows something happened, thinks it was an attack by one of their enemies.  So nothing really changed.

 

You'd think that if Rand took ALL of saidin through the angreal, into  himself, and pushed it through the tube to shador lagoth, he'd have been rotted to pieces and gone completely bonkers before he even finished, but I guess not.  Wasn't there some explaination Cad gave rand about how normally an angreal buffers a man from the extra taint the way it buffers from the extra power?  Maybe the sa'angreal buffered him?

He seems to be getting better, but not as quickly as Ny.

Ny was on her feet very soon after it happened, while he was in a wheelchair with blankets on his lap weeks afterward, but he's up and about, riding horses and getting in fights again, maybe he'll recover more?

[Jethro]

You'd think that if Rand took ALL of saidin through the angreal, into  himself, and pushed it through the tube to shador lagoth, he'd have been rotted to pieces and gone completely bonkers before he even finished, but I guess not.

 

For one thing, I speculate that Rand being bonded as a Warder to Alanna will help him somehow. I think after the Cleansing though he is in a hell of a bad state pretty much every time we see him. Can anyone remember exactly when the sickness started? I think its either early stages of the wasting sickness or a side effect of being part of a connection that was a mixture of Saidin and the True Power. I hope we learn a lot more about Rands state, Moridin, and the link between them, its one of my favorite things about the series.

[Luckers]

As of KoD we know for a fact that it is indeed the link with Moridin that causes the nausia. Specifically, Rand, when accessing saidin, experiences a confusing stream of sensations that causes nausia.

 

Moridin presumably has the same problem given he has given over use of saidin entirely after nearly four thousand years of using both the True Power and saidin--curious given that he was using the True Power, yet seemingly cannot access saidin.

 

Nevertheless that is the case. Either way this link is growing stronger--we have seen Rand experiencing it as it progresses, and the sensations grow clearer and clearer until they resolve into the image of Moridin along with the knowledge of his awareness--which is why i put forth the bodyswap theory to begin with. It can be found with the search function for those who are interested.