how can Aiel be Darkfriends?

[nophone]

or the ones with the bands were dark friends!

[Malruhn]

Up until this point, I've only been able to point out ONE DF that ended up being a DF... (forgot his name) the Peddler in the Aiel camps.  Other than that, they've always been quiet and unassuming and the last person you would EVER suspect.

 

Cenn is obviously a craven backstabber - and evil to the core - by default, he CAN'T be a DF!  ;)  Same with the leader of the Shaido... just evil, nothing to gain to turn her.

 

I've long suspected someone in the Wise Ones' camp - and not Amys, as she's to powerful.

[Asgard Thorin]

Any one so afraid of dying that they'd swear to the devil(DO) to gain immortality is what makes darkfriends. Just because Aiel embrace death doesn't mean they don't fear it. They're still people. The Wise One that would really be a kick in the teeth if she were darkfriended would be Sorilea. (Shudders dramatically).

[Luckers]

Even if they didn't fear death it doesn't mean they might not see the value in living forever. And remember there are other reasons to turn to the shadow--a desire for power for instance, which we've seen in Aiel before.

[nophone]

Any one so afraid of dying that they'd swear to the devil(DO) to gain immortality is what makes darkfriends. Just because Aiel embrace death doesn't mean they don't fear it. They're still people. The Wise One that would really be a kick in the teeth if she were darkfriended would be Sorilea. (Shudders dramatically).

 

there is no courage without fear.

[Elend]

I'd be much more confused if there were no Aiel Darkfriends.

[LazyMonk]

Wouldn't be crazy if any Aiel not wearing headband is a DF (accept maidens, or not!) :D

crazy indeed, that would mean that the major bulk of the Aiel are darkfriends, there aren't that many headband wearers.

[Corlock]

Another reason for an Aiel to turn would be them feeling there was no way to win against the Dark One. It's sort of why Ingtar turned, isn't it? He didn't turn out of a desire for power, but from the hopelessness that the Dark One couldn't be defeated, there were simply too many Trollocs. It's likely that an Aiel might turn simply to be one what he/she viewed as the winning side.

[Durinax]

nah aiel would turn in return for more personnal glory and honour

[Duskfire]

Couladin broke like a thousand rules and customs of the Aiel, as did the Shaido in general. And they weren't even darkfriends (well, that we know of. I guess Couladin could have been?) The Aiel arent immune to greed or jealousy or envy or any of those things. In fact, I could just as easily see another form of bleakness where the Aiel turn to the DO instead of throwing away their weapons and running.

 

However, they would be pretty rare you would think. We only know of seven I believe, which is a pretty small amount, even if the darkfriends were remaining lowkey.

[Durinax]

its surprising we havent seen any forsaken dwelling among the Aiel, which is strange considering the extreme fighting prowess of the Aiel

[Elend]

its surprising we havent seen any forsaken dwelling among the Aiel, which is strange considering the extreme fighting prowess of the Aiel

 

They'd need to learn ji'e'toh. I could see Balthamel managing this but he died in Eye of the World and then reincarnated. Following the reincarnation, he was kept on quite a leash. So its not that surprising.

[Duskfire]

its surprising we havent seen any forsaken dwelling among the Aiel, which is strange considering the extreme fighting prowess of the Aiel

 

Would be extremely hard to learn their customs and they could easily piss off the wrong kind of Aiel. Rand irritated the Aiel all the time, but he got away with it because of who he was. An outside trying to pass themselves of as Aiel would be close to impossible without constantly alienating themselves. That, and its entirely possible that the Forsaken didn't really know how much they had changed or how good they were at fighting other then rumors. Asmodean seemed surprise by them.

[Random Man]

Only one person besides Cadsuane knew the location of the male a'dam...

that can be explained away by Semi realizing that caddy was in charge among the AS and thus wouldve kept it around

 

 

and the people dedicated to war and its applications are more susceptable because things go bad and in desparation they will turn to a prominate force which may help them

Only one other person had seen where Cadsuane kept it. Sorilea already knew she had it, and so did others. The fact that Cadsuane had possession of the male a'dam was not exactly a secret. That doesn't exonerate Sorilea, but it spreads out the pool of suspects quite a bit. Heck, a rat could have spied on Cadsuane experimenting with them and gone to tell SH. Rats are everywhere they're not supposed to be these days.

 

I wonder how Aiel darkfriends would stay in communication with each other and with the darkfriends of the westland. I suggest that peddler DFs like Fain and Kadere who were allowed access to the Waste performed this task. Otherwise the Aiel DFs would be largely isolated and would, I suppose, be essentially sleeper cells. Perhaps there's a hidden society among the Aiel or a number of different ones where basically all they do is recruit to sustain their numbers.

 

Ji'e'toh is not a perfectly-adhered-to ideal, obviously, or else there wouldn't be the need for Wise Ones to occasionally name someone Dsa'tang (sp?). Some Aiel might delude themselves into thinking they're still acting with honor as well, which isn't that hard to believe since selfishness can drive a person to believe a lot of things about himself and others that an objective observer would say isn't true.

[Ozzie_aiel]

I doubt many Aiel would be Df's, and remember that Malindhra isn't the only Aiel shadowrunner we've seen, just the only one we know the name to (Mat was attacked in his camp by a small group of Aiel Travelled in by someone). For much the same reason that there don't seem to be very many DFs along the Two Rivers folk. Until recently, the Aiel have been insular and away from where the main fight would be. The Shadow would welcome any aiel who wished to join the ranks, but I doubt actively seek them out.

[Guest Dissevered]

Any one so afraid of dying that they'd swear to the devil(DO) to gain immortality is what makes darkfriends. Just because Aiel embrace death doesn't mean they don't fear it. They're still people. The Wise One that would really be a kick in the teeth if she were darkfriended would be Sorilea. (Shudders dramatically).

 

Me thinks you don't truly understand what it means to embrace death my friend. :P The Aiel who are dark friends obviously do fear death (or just want power) and thus have not embraced it one bit. To embrace death means to accept it and live without fear of it. Just as the Aiel embrace pain and laugh at it. They have no fear of it.

[Haran]

I am sure they could find a way to use Ji'e'toh to justify joining the Dark One if they really wanted to. To me Ji'e'toh has always been unfathomable, which is kinda the point I guess.

Take the aiel wars for example. They went across the dragon wall to punish one man, yet they brought with them thousand upon thousands of troops. All of them were going to kill this one man? Yeah that makes no sense at all. Most of them must have been there to join the battle and thus gain much ji. You gain honor from killing people? Alright, so join the Dark One today. Much ji will be earned. Rand al’Thor is a wetlander and has no honor yadayadayada