A question about Myrddraal!

[Tigraine]

Doesn't it say somewhere that Myrddraal don't smile?

 

The reason I ask is this...in Book 1 when everyone is in Baerlon, Rand meets a Myrddraal downstairs after going to get some milk and....

 

(The fade glided closer, in no hurry.  It's stride had a sinuous, deadly grace, like a viper, the resemblance emphasized by the overlapping black plates of armor down it's chest. Thin, bloodless lips curved in a cruel smile, made more mocking by the smooth, pale skin where eyes should have been.  The voice made Bornhald's seem warm and soft. "Where are the others? I know they are here. Speak, boy, and I will let you live.")

[Usernameless]

Shadar Haran is NOT a normal myrddaal. RJ was trying to emphasize that.

[Tigraine]

I understand that, but it never mentions that this specific Myrddraal is Shadar Haran does it?

 

I thought that Shadar Haran is not brought in until later  ???

[Kryptoith]

Yeah, Shaidar Haran isn't until much later. Not sure if it ever says Myrddraal don't smile, maybe they only do it in extremely rare cases. Not really sure though.

[Crael123]

always thought it was shadar haran.

[ROB_88]

as far as i can tell, it doesn't say that they never smile, just that they don't laugh or have humour.

 

normal myrdraal could very well smirk a little when they are torturing a baby or something, so that thing doesn't have to be Shadar Haran.

unless there's a quote that says otherwise

[Muad Cheade]

It is in fact Shaidar Haran. However, that was an early version and RJ says the Great Lord didn't get it completely right the first time.. The current Shaidar Haran we see is the "perfected version."

 

With the exception of Shaidar Haran, Myrdraal do not smile.

[mb]

According to the Encyclopaedia site, Shaidar Haran has 4 scenes before the books name him.

These are the scenes::

-Eye of World Chapter 17

-Great Hunt Prologue

-Great Hunt Chapter 6

-Dragon Reborn Prologue

 

First named scene is Lord of Chaos Prologue

 

The closest things to the not smiling that the books tell are these:

-fades not having a sense of humor (Lord of Chaos Prologue, Osangar's POV)

-fades never showing amusement (Crown of Swords Chapter 25)

 

[acerbus80]

I do remember reading somewhere that the Shaidar Haran we saw up until he was actually named was what RJ referred to as "Shaidar Haran V1.0" or something really similar to that.  The current incarnation of SH I guess would be V2.0, but considering his limitations, I'd consider him being far from perfect.

 

One thing I never thought of till now is whether both V1 and V2 are one and the same, just slightly upgraded, or whether V1 was simply discarded for V2, or is still out there somewhere and will rear his ugly face again later in the series.

[Kryptoith]

hmm, guess I was wrong about that being Shaidar, I just never got the sense there was anything special about that myrddraal I guess.

 

 

[acerbus80]

I found the quote:

 

Week 23 Question: Was the Fade who visited Jaichim Carridin in the Prologue of The Dragon Reborn an early version of Shaidar Haran? Its response that it likes to keep an eye on 'all who serve me' and its apparent sense of humour are behaviour atypical of a Fade.

 

Robert Jordan Answers: I was wondering who would spot that. Shadar Haran Version 0.5! The Dark One doesn't get it spot on the first time every time.

http://13depository.blogspot.com/2009/03/tor-questions-of-week.html

 

After rereading this quote, it seem to me that the DO made multiple attempts at creating a superfade, at least two, so now I'm really curious as to what happened to "Version 0.5, or any other rejected products.