TDR mystery guy in the Wolf Dream

[Hybrid]

In TDR, Chapter 9, Perrin runs across a mystery guy in the Wolf Dream (who then has a bad run in with some shadows):

 

As he came on one of those crossing halls, he skidded to a halt. A man stood there, blinking at him uncertainly, in strangely cut coat and breeches, the coat flaring over his hips as the bottom of his breeches flared over his boots. Both were bright yellow, and his boots were only a little paler.

"This is more than I can stand," the man said, to himself, not Perrin. He had an odd accent, quick and sharp. "Not only do I dream of peasants, now, but foreign peasants, from those clothes. Begone from my dreams, fellow!"

"Who are you?" Perrin asked. The man's eyebrows rose as if he were offended.

 

I only bring this up because I ran across it in a recent reread, and I've seen people propose that he's a Sharan. I disagree. Contrast with the fellow from KOD, who is almost certainly a Sharan:

 

A very dark fellow with tightly curled hair, at a square table beside the door, seemed not to notice the Maidens at all. Rand took him for one of the Sea Folk at first, though he wore a peculiar coat without collar or lapels, once white but now stained and wrinkled. "I tell you, I have many, many of the . . . the worms that make . . . yes, make . . . silk on a ship," he said haltingly in an odd, musical accent. "But I must have the . . . the . . . andberry . . . yes, andberry leaves to feed them. We will be rich."

 

Notice the differences in accent and style of dress. The Sharan has a musical accent, speaks haltingly, and has a white coat without collar or lapels. The man from TDR has a quick and sharp accent and a bright yellow coat which flares over his hips. Of course, Shara is a big place, so there could be many different styles of dress. The different accents, though, are a different matter. Seanchan, the most similar empire to Shara, has a single common accent, at least as far as we've seen, and Shara's been unified since before the Trolloc Wars, even longer than Seanchan.

 

So if I don't think he's a Sharan, who is he? Here's another comparison:

 

It did not go well with his [Juilin's] dark Tairen coat, tight to the waist, then flaring.

 

I propose that the TDR guy is a Tairen lord. The coat descriptions match, for one. In addition, he's got the same attitude to "peasants" as the Tairen lords we see throughout Rand's dealings in Tear.

 

A minor detail, yeah, but it bothered me, seeing him referred to as a Sharan. Thoughts?

 

(If you're wondering how I came up with these obscure quotes, I just stumbled across them in my reread.)

[MagnusDahlerNorling]

I think that is the obvious answer, yes. Tairen would sound foreign to Perrin at that point.

[magnutz]

I think that is the obvious answer, yes. Tairen would sound foreign to Perrin at that point.

 

Or maybe the feel and detail of a sharan has changed over the books?! ;) RJ has changed other things so why not the appearance of a sharan?

[Kaznen]

I don't think it really matters. I think the guy was one of those people who wandered into TAR for a few brief moments. It happens.