Prologue "What the Storm Means" Spoiler Thread

[Aiemond]

I am making a spoiler thread here so that people in the other thread looking for distribution and availability information are not accidentally spoiled. I have not read all of it yet so this is kind of a place holder.

[Kadere]

Just downloaded it and scrolled through to see what PoV's we get. I'm SO excited for the last one! *wigs out*  ;D

[Ereinion]

And done. It was a little shorter than I was hoping but still good.

 

I had an 'ooooh' moment when Moridin flexed his left in pain.

[Aiemond]

And done. It was a little shorter than I was hoping but still good.

 

I had an 'ooooh' moment when Moridin flexed his left in pain.

 

Yes, and notice when it said Mordin looked very much like Rand when he was standing staring at the wall? The link is very powerful, and it appears that physical damage transfers over it to some extent.

 

Another one was when Demondred said he had a throne and army. Who is he?

 

Other good moments were the Trolloc attack on the Seanchan and Faile's handling of the prophet. I wonder which forsaken was the manipulator in that? Demondred I bet.

[Diederichos]

i really dislike bugging folks for this, but as the ebook is so far not available in a way that I can get in Canada. Can someone post more elaborate summary, especially on the Seanchan bit, who won/how close?

[Deadsy]

Another one was when Demondred said he had a throne and army. Who is he?

 

 

Graendal inferred that he has a throne and army. Though, she's supposed to be smart, so maybe she's right. But all he said was "my rule is secure"

 

Could just mean he's twisting the strings on the whole Borderland army.

[Aiemond]

i really dislike bugging folks for this, but as the ebook is so far not available in a way that I can get in Canada. Can someone post more elaborate summary, especially on the Seanchan bit, who won/how close?

 

For the Seanchan bit, here is a rundown on what happened. Tylee is thinking about how good Perrin's plan was and is not looking forward to a time when she has to face him herself. She is one that likes to win outright, not have a challenge. She also thinks how odd it is that she is now of the blood, a message just received by raken.

 

Mishima comes over and they discuss a bit about Perrin and the trees not budding. Mishima claims that he knows nothing about trees on this side of the ocean. Also, scouts are seeing men which dissapear and even the rations are turning to dust. Not only that, she sees the worst omen she has even witnessed: two dead rats, one having the tail of the other in its mouth. She then thinks that Suroth and Galgan were dedicated to gaining control of all of the land on this side of the ocean, but she though instead they needed to look for allies, even if that thought may be treason.

 

She turns to Mishima and notices that he has a barbed arrow through his neck. Both are shocked and something enormous comes out of the forest. She is thrown off her warhorse and calls for an attack, while at the same moment, many others do the same. She then turns to the man who tried to kill her and for the first time notices what it is. She says it is a creature out of a nightmare (she never names it a trolloc but by the description it surely is)and sees hundreds of them coming out of the forest. She wonders how they got so close to Ebou Dar without scouts noticing (waygates I am sure ;)) as they are only a day's march from the caital. The scene ends as Tylee charges down the hillside as more trollocs come out from behind her.

 

 

The whole prologue really shows how close the last battle is and how things are leading up to it. In fact, if this is not the only attack down south at Ebou Dar, it may even be beginning there. I wonder how Tuon is going to handle this and if she will be moving against the White Tower still. I also wonder if this will be the only location the trollocs will be attacking now or if the other groups will still be waiting.

[Ereinion]

i really dislike bugging folks for this, but as the ebook is so far not available in a way that I can get in Canada. Can someone post more elaborate summary, especially on the Seanchan bit, who won/how close?

 

It's a typical Jordan prologue in that not much happens. He skips around to a lot of different short PoVs to let us know what's going on in the world.

 

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,42449.0.html is pretty spot on for the first part of the prologue.

 

Next Rand orders the Sul'dam(From a sul'dam's PoV) from the semi attack to go back and tell the Daughter of the Nine Moons that he still wants peace, promising that he will stop the fighting in Arad Doman. He drops them off somewhere near Ebou Dar and sends them on their way.

 

Next up the Seanchan. Tylee, recently raised to the blood for her work with Perrin, is talking with Mishima when trollocs come out of nowhere and start attacking.

 

Forsaken Meeting. Moridin shows signs of the link with Rand. Orders the chosen to NOT help Semi and that she deserved to suffer for her failure.

 

Ituralde starts to close the trap he made for the seanchan. A battle begins, and PoV changes again...of course.

 

Finally Faile enters and with the words "Sometimes, a wife must do what her husband cannot" kills Masema(yay).

 

Not so elaborate, but there it is.

 

 

[Dunedain Fal]

I am thinking that Demandred is actually King Roedran of Murandy.  He is at the center of all things happening in Randland.

 

By the way, what Faile did was brutal but absolutely necessary.  However there will be a price for it.  She committed murder no matter how justified it was because it was not done with justice in mind. Once Perrin finds out, he will lose trust in her.

[Xcom788]

The whole prologue really shows how close the last battle is and how things are leading up to it. In fact, if this is not the only attack down south at Ebou Dar, it may even be beginning there. I wonder how Tuon is going to handle this and if she will be moving against the White Tower still. I also wonder if this will be the only location the trollocs will be attacking now or if the other groups will still be waiting.

 

Who can really say what is going on with the trollics? Remember it might not be ishy who is sending them commands. We still have one person who is pretending to be Sammael. Graendal's POV made it clear that Moridin was gathering his trollic forces. Not useing them.

[jemron]

A few things really stood out to me, and I think we should consider making several threads (one for each) so that the theories don't all get jumbled in this thread):

 

(1) Moridin flexing his left hand = AWESOME!  Also, Moridin looked like al'Thor when he stood at a certain angle.

(2) Masema was visited by the Lord Dragon in glowing white (not an exact quote).  Now, Masema is mad, but could he be Demandred's proxy?  Are the chaotic followers of the prophet/dragonsworn Demandred's doing?  Did Demandred appear as the Dragon to Masema and tell him to kill Perrin?  Or was that Moridin?

(3) Demandred's people are "gathering for war" and his "rule is secure."  My first thought was "Ashaman" but then, I thought (after reading about Masema) was he talking about the Prophet and his "Dragonsworn"?  Maybe not, since many of them were killed at the end of KOD and Masema was killed here, but it seemed appropriate to me that Demandred, who wants to BE the Dragon, would impersonate him.

(4) Nothing about the sword from Ch. 1 = Bummer!

(5) Semi NOT to be rescued/helped

(6) Masema had a "source" from within Rand's group that told her about Semi's capture.  Do we already know who this is?  Or does this still need to be revealed?  Cadsuane maybe?

(7) It was too short!  Was that really 20k words?  It felt just like the first chapter.

(-8 )Finally: I loved it... but I was just curious, do we know how much of it was written by RJ, and how much by BS?  I don't care either way, but I thought some of it felt more like RJ than other parts of it.

 

These are my initial "we should discuss this stuff" thoughts. 

[kingoftonga86]

Some questions I have after the prologue:

 

-How did the Trollocs get into Altara to attack Tylee? Loial claimed that all the waygates were guarded except in the Borderlands and on the Shadow Coast. Did the Trollocs go through the Shadow Coast waygates to get there?

-What's Demandred up to? "My rule is secure. We gather for war." Graendal thinks about the Borderlanders so much that I'm sure that's a red herring. Perhaps he means Taim and the Asha'man?

-Demandred and Mesaana are working very closely together, and both seem upset that Semirhage is captive. I'm thinking that, if Demanded is secretly controlling Taim and the Asha'man, the three of them had worked out how the Seanchan will attack the White Tower. At the same time that this happens, the Asha'man warders might start causing chaos on their own. This is the only plan I can think of that would involve all three of them.

-Masema is dead. But will be find out the extent of his relations with Suroth? With Annoura and Masuri? I'm still curious about that. In his POV, he seems crazy but not evil. He still hates Darkfriends and worships the Light. It sounds like some Forsaken has been manipulating him. My guess is Moridin, seeing as he got orders to kill Perrin, and that seems to be Moridin's objective. Was Moridin also responsible for making sure the Seanchan left Masema alone?

[Deadsy]

Do we already know who this is?  Or does this still need to be revealed?  Cadsuane maybe?

 

No  :P

 

That much I know.

[kingoftonga86]

And one more thought - could Tylee be Egwene's Seanchan woman with a sword? She's having doubts about fighting the Randlanders now. Perhaps she'll show up at the White Tower with a Trolloc head and convince everyone to all get along?

[algspkr]

Some questions I have after the prologue:

 

-How did the Trollocs get into Altara to attack Tylee? Loial claimed that all the waygates were guarded except in the Borderlands and on the Shadow Coast. Did the Trollocs go through the Shadow Coast waygates to get there?

I would guess waygate; the Shadow Gate is on the coast of Amadicia, which is close to Tylee.

-What's Demandred up to? "My rule is secure. We gather for war." Graendal thinks about the Borderlanders so much that I'm sure that's a red herring. Perhaps he means Taim and the Asha'man?

I would say he was controlling Mesema, and is also controlling the Border Landers

-Demandred and Mesaana are working very closely together, and both seem upset that Semirhage is captive. I'm thinking that, if Demanded is secretly controlling Taim and the Asha'man, the three of them had worked out how the Seanchan will attack the White Tower. At the same time that this happens, the Asha'man warders might start causing chaos on their own. This is the only plan I can think of that would involve all three of them.

I doubt it, I do not think that Mesaana is expecting the Seanchan attack.

-Masema is dead. But will be find out the extent of his relations with Suroth? With Annoura and Masuri? I'm still curious about that. In his POV, he seems crazy but not evil. He still hates Darkfriends and worships the Light. It sounds like some Forsaken has been manipulating him. My guess is Moridin, seeing as he got orders to kill Perrin, and that seems to be Moridin's objective. Was Moridin also responsible for making sure the Seanchan left Masema alone?

I think it was Demandred, he had ties to Semihrige who influences the Seanchan; on top of which Moridin ordered the other Forsaken to pass on that order.  Greandal also stated that he had been pretty much ignoring everything south of the blight.

[algspkr]

(6) Masema had a "source" from within Rand's group that told her about Semi's capture.  Do we already know who this is?  Or does this still need to be revealed?  Cadsuane maybe?

I highly doubt that it was Cadsuane; my money is on Elza.

[Kadere]

That was so awesome. I feel even more strongly now that Demandred is in Murandy and possibly Roedran. I felt that Graendal's assumption that he was with the boarderland armies was a dead give away that he WASN'T with the boarderland armies. Plus the fact that he was "gather[ing] for war" which is what Roedran has been doing while the boarderland armies are already gathered. Plus his "rule is secure" which seems like he'd have to be a king of some kind, if not using a king. I didn't catch the left hand thing, but that is cool. I just liked that whole scene and the end of it where she's ordered to cause serious chaos for Rand and hurt him. Makes me think she'll kill someone dear to him, or at least attempt.

 

The farmer scene I loved because you could tell it was RJ's style. The black and silver clouds were interesting how they would appear over head and then far away. Shows a lot about the DO reach and strength. And the "storm is coming" part was powerful.

 

The scene with Rand was kind of a waste, but it's good to know the Sul'dam are ordered to tell Tuon. I was wondering why Min wasn't there.

 

The Tylee part made me squee when the trollocs attacked. That was so cool! I love my trollocs and I love seeing them in the action again.

 

Ituralde was nice because this makes 3 consecutive prologues with him. I was kinda hoping it would end with Rand appearing to him, but I love how he conducts his war.

 

The Masema scene gave me chills. I love that we actually got his PoV after 11 books. He's just as crazy as I imagined. I don't believe that the "Rand" figure that appeared to him was a Forsaken, I think it's just his psychosis. I felt that this scene could have gone into KoD and tied up the whole Perrin plot more, and I feel a little disappointed that Perrin didn't get to take him to Rand. But at the same time I'm happy his plot is finished and Perrin can get back to Rand and be more a part of the central action. Plus I love Faile being bada$$.

 

Overall I thought this was a terrific prologue and it makes me super excited for TGS. It's been too long without any WoT. I need my fix. ;D

[Nimic]

The first thing that popped into my head as Demandred said his lines was "Shara". That doesn't mean I think it's likely, though. It's probably not it. He said his rule was secure, and I don't think it was too many books back when we were told that there was fighting in Shara over the Dragon Reborn.

 

Crazy theory: is it possible that Demandred is posing as the Dragon Reborn, in Shara? The fighting could have been over him, and possibly he could have 'secured' his rule by now. Probably not.

 

Either way, I absolutely loved the prologue. If the rest of the book is anything like it...  ;D

[Theodor89]

The first thing that popped into my head as Demandred said his lines was "Shara". That doesn't mean I think it's likely, though. It's probably not it. He said his rule was secure, and I don't think it was too many books back when we were told that there was fighting in Shara over the Dragon Reborn.

 

Crazy theory: is it possible that Demandred is posing as the Dragon Reborn, in Shara? The fighting could have been over him, and possibly he could have 'secured' his rule by now. Probably not.

 

Either way, I absolutely loved the prologue. If the rest of the book is anything like it...  ;D

 

Going by what jordan himself has stated I find Shara highly unlikely. Going by the prologue it seems that Demandred is either with the Borderlanders or is ruling Murandy.

[Luckers]

Just finished. I was a bit dissapointed at its short lenght. 32 pages compared to the 99 of KoD. What content we got WAS awesome, however. A few points.

 

1. Demandred--the number of times that Graendal considers the borderlanders suggests to me very firmly that it was not them. I rather think the forces he is gathering for war are the Shadowspawn--note what he says 'my rule is secure'? Secure against what? Someone else taking charge, like, say what occured with the Trollocs in KoD? And 'we gather for war'--all of the human armies are already gathered, including, sadly, Murandy. Most have been since LoC.

 

2. That 'why would you build a tower out of black stone[emphasis theirs]' struck me as a little heavy-handed.

 

3. Glowing al'thor. It appears I was wrong, and at least one Forsaken was playing with Masema--my guess would still be Moghedian. She was in such a perfect position. Demandred is still a close second, I guess, but the heavy emphasis this figure placed on killing Perrin seems more of a 'Moridin' run obsession, one only a true subordinate would emulate so fiercely.

 

I suppose it is still possibly that it be the Aes Sedai Berylla and Rhianna, but that would require Moghedian taught them mask of mirrors--which is definately possible, and they would fill the role of subordinate. Moridin certainly grabbed up some of the other Aes Sedai Moghedian commanded. But yeah, the figure seemed more Forsakeny.

 

4. Mesaana's 'our woman there' was interesting. It seemed to imply that this woman was actually there at the scene of the fight, which would mean she'd have to be one of the sul'dam. Of course it could have just been Mesaana being dramatic and it was one of the Aes Sedai who arrived later. We know it wasn't Elza, she wasn't allowed near.

 

5. Did anyone get chills from Graendal planning to cause Rand emotional pain? Aviendha would be the obvious target.

 

6. Mesaana was a bit pathetic. I'm even more convinced that she will be leashed in the Seanchan attack on the Tower.

[Theodor89]

Just finished. I was a bit dissapointed at its short lenght. 32 pages compared to the 99 of KoD. What content we got WAS awesome, however.

 

Wasn't the prologue cut in half or something, with the second part appearing in book 13 instead of book 12? So yeah, the prologue felt a little "incomplete". Even if the parts we got were still great.

[Owners.Inc]

2. That 'why would you build a tower out of black stone[emphasis theirs]' struck me as a little heavy-handed.

 

6. Mesaana was a bit pathetic. I'm even more convinced that she will be leashed in the Seanchan attack on the Tower.

 

What was the context? I can't read the prologue cos 1.) I've got no card. 2.) Its not available in my part of the world anyways

 

I'm especially curious about the black stone thing. Were they talking about the Black Tower? Or is it to do with Rand's death?

 

On a side note, I guess the whole 'Moridin looking like Rand' thing indicates a high chance of the Bodyswap theory coming true. I'm don't how to feel about that.

 

It'd be nice if one of Rand's lovers dies/is permanently injured. I'd prefer it be Eylane, but since its unlikely, I'm going for Min.

 

Messana was kind of pathetic anyway, before, but she'll be at an all time low if she gets adamed.

[angry_monkey]

I really enjoyed the prologue. I do wish it was longer but as Theodor89 mentioned, it was split up for several books.

 

I cannot wait till October.

[fikkie77]

2. That 'why would you build a tower out of black stone[emphasis theirs]' struck me as a little heavy-handed.

 

6. Mesaana was a bit pathetic. I'm even more convinced that she will be leashed in the Seanchan attack on the Tower.

 

What was the context? I can't read the prologue cos 1.) I've got no card. 2.) Its not available in my part of the world anyways

 

I'm especially curious about the black stone thing. Were they talking about the Black Tower? Or is it to do with Rand's death?

 

On a side note, I guess the whole 'Moridin looking like Rand' thing indicates a high chance of the Bodyswap theory coming true. I'm don't how to feel about that.

 

It'd be nice if one of Rand's lovers dies/is permanently injured. I'd prefer it be Eylane, but since its unlikely, I'm going for Min.

 

Messana was kind of pathetic anyway, before, but she'll be at an all time low if she gets adamed.

Maybe you shouldn't read all these spoilers? You do need a creditcard, but it is available for people outside the US through Powell's Books (i'm Dutch and I have downloaded the prologue)

 

But to give you the spoilers:

the black stone building is in the northeast of the Blight. So, that's not the Black Tower, but a black tower. If it has something to do with Rans's death, I don't know. But I think that the black rocks in that prophecy are those of Shayol Gul.

 

Moridin looking like Rand: it's about the link that'was established in Shadar Logoth. It supports the bodyswap theory, but it really doesn't make it conclusive.

 

And Messaana... I was surprised she was treated like a Chosen at all! I expected her to be brought in as a servant to Moridin to humble her even more.

[funsize]

Does anyone else feel bad for Mesaana? I feel like a wierdo  :-\