Vampire Aiel?

[dileeph]

I read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings about 10 yrs after I had read Eye of the World (I still hadn't read any of the other books in the WOT series). I was surprised to see the similarity in the characters. Also I have come to learn from various WoT fansites that RJ had planned the ending before he had finished EoTW.

 

So this new breed of human like shadow spawn coming out could be the Uruk-hai of the WoT world.

 

"It became clear in time that undoubted men could under the domination of Morgoth or his agents in a few generations be reduced almost to the Orc-level of mind and habits; and then they would or could be made to mate with Orcs producing new breeds, often larger and more cunning. There is no doubt that long afterwards, in the Third Age, Saruman rediscovered this, or learned of it in lore, and in his lust for mastery committed this, his wickedest deed: the interbreeding of Orcs and Men, producing both Man-orcs large and cunning, and Orc-men treacherous and vile." - JRR Tolkien

 

I guess this goes in tune with the missing Aiel + Trolloc offspring theory.

[bsmnt23]

It's really more like the wicked men fromt he kingdoms of the East, subjucated by Morgoth. There is still no indicator that these are nothing more than men with filed teeth, but the wicked men from the Kingdoms of the East could well describe Shara. However, I'm leaning toward these guys being from the Blight itself, so as not to introduce a whole new unseen part of the continent. There is the <blank> in the Blight after all, and it seems indicators are good that it is a city.

[LordMikeRahl]

I believe the sharpened teethed people are from shara. We know very little about shara, and i believe somewhere it says their faces are hidden. Additionally, people can not venture into shara unless they are from shara. The pointed teeth people could be the cause of the prevention, or all sharans could have the pointed teeth, which would explain the vieling of the sharans.

Yeah, but it would be quite strangegiven the large distance between them and the Blight..

 

Travelling, Waygates (being capable of use by Dark forces) and Portal Stones mean that distance isn't the factor it once was...

 

Oh yes, for some reason I forgot all about them lol

[LordMikeRahl]

I don't really get the channeller part either. There's already plenty of DF Ashaman and Aes Sedai around, not to mention a few extraneous Forsaken, so it seems a bit redundant to introduce some random other group of channellers into the series right at the end. I always just figured that they were dudes who'd been affected by the Blight somehow.

 

The Shadow is in dire need of channellers though. There far more Aes Sedai and Ashaman on the Light's side than on the Shadow's side. It's likely to be around the same proportions with the Windfinders and Wise Ones (it's pretty unlikely any damane would be darkfriends). They're completely outnumbered. That's why I think Shara and the Ayyad is a good solution for the Shadow. A powerful nation with countless channellers to recruit.

 

My first thoughts as well.

[LordMikeRahl]

So, basically, we think they're Turned Aiel Channelers because we hope the Shadow has some kind of channeler ace up it's sleeve, and that would be badass? Still seems weak to me. Hoping for something to be true isn't a reason to believe it, the same as it's not a reason to believe something just because it would be awesome if it were true. Otherwise, I'd believe the last book was already released and they were giving it out for free with Jordan's authentic signature on each one at the local library.

 

Moreover, we know the Shadow has channelers enough, and male channelers at that, to throw at Maradon and at that battle with Perrin/the Whitecloaks. We don't know where those guys came from. Plus, they've got all the Black Ajah that managed to escape Egwene's purge. Considering they've corrupted a significant portion of the Black Tower as well, I doubt the Shadow will be hurting all that much from a lack of Power wielders.

 

I'm going to have to break out my copy to double-check, but I don't think we're even given confirmation or any substantial evidence that these guys are friends of the Dark. Just their overall evil-ness really gives any indication, and we've seen non-Shadow related evil before. All of this was from the subjective perspective of a dying merchant anyway, and what he perceives to be inhuman and myrddral-like may be as much from his fear and impaired condition as from his murderers being really Darkfriends.

 

I'm not saying these pointy-toothed, sinuous, red-veiled spear-chuckers aren't associated with the Shadow, and in context, it seems likely to me that they are. I'd be surprised if they just turned out to be a raiding party from Shara or something with no Shadowy links. But the very thin evidence we have when they are introduced leaves that possibility open.

 

My point here is just that given the evidence presented in the books, it is just as likely that these guys turn out to have nothing whatsoever to do with the Dark as it is that they turn out to be Turned Aiel Channelers. And if the only real reason TACs are being discussed is because that idea is teh awesome, then I propose that an alternative explanation be that it turns out that not all Fades are sterile, but the fertile ones are really female, and these red-veiled guys are the rape-children of the Fades with Male Aiel Channelers who've gone to spit in Sightblinder's eyes and got themselves caught. That would be much more awesome.

 

Satanic, lol.

[LordMikeRahl]

My theory is the children of Mirdraal (we know they do things to women that leave them scarred for life but it never says these women don't get pregnant) so basically hybrid shadowspawn

Seriously? I really hope that's a joke

 

Look, the entire scenario that introduces these guys is presented from the PoV of a dying merchant. We're not in some third-person narrator's perspective for this, nor are we in the perspective of a character we could trust to properly interpret what they witness. The merchant thinks they're like fades, then that they're like Aiel. They have spears and red veils. They're encountered in the Borderlands near the Blight. The whole "Aiel" thing to me reads like a giant red-herring. There's a bunch of superficial similarities designed to make the reader think they're some kind of Aiel, heck Aiel are even directly mentioned. But it seems more likely to me that these guys have nothing whatsoever to do with Aiel, or at least no more to do with Aiel than with any other Randland culture.

 

I think it's more likely that the big unknown thing up in the Blight is a human city whose residents are sworn to the Shadow. Similarities in their clothing and weapons with the Aiel can be explained by the fact that living in the Waste and living the Blight would be very similar. It's very hot, common objects like sticks and rocks can kill, potable water is scarce, and breathing the air can be dangerous or unpleasant at times. The true Aiel adopted veils to cover their faces when committing violence, to hide their shame in abandoning the Way of the Leaf. But they kept those veils in the Waste, when everybody but the chiefs and the Wise Ones forgot they ever followed the Way, because face-coverings are darned handy in a desert. They'd be equally handy in the Blight. Same thing with spears. They're a light, easily wielded and maneuverable weapon, ideally suited to both attack and defense, small enough to be useful in stealthy scouting operations, and robust enough to be a main weapon in outright battle. If I had to pick a weapon to defend myself from an attacker or to attack an enemy, and I had a spear, a sword, a stave, an axe and a hammer to choose from, I'd pick the spear every time.

 

Basically, the circumstantial evidence that links these new bad guys to Aiel is way too circumstantial. We don't see anything really culturally unique to the Aiel reflected in these red-veiled warriors, and the weak circumstantial evidence we do get is given in such as way as to just scream out Red-Herring! That said, there is more evidence linking these guys to Aiel than there is evidence linking them to any kind of channelers, because there's none of that. There's no flames erupting from nowhere, or earthquakes rending the ground, or lightning striking nearby, or anything at all to indicate any kind of channeling, past or present. We don't know how the Borderguard fort was overrun, or whether channeling was used in destroying it or not.

 

So, no evidence that they're channelers, and weak evidence to suggest any connection to Aiel, evidence that could easily be a red-herring. On the other hand, we know there's something big in the Blight and we know humans live in the Blight, but we've never seen them, only evidence of their existence in the form of farming Blight-resistant crops and the transplanted village. A simple matter of parsimony leads me to believe this is our first look at these Blight-natives.

 

Yep, denizens of the Blight, but where did thye come from? Simple darkifriends? Some must surely be Aiel gone wandering into the Blight.

[blueeys54]

I believe that these are simply Aiel from an alternate world. The reason that we havent seen Demondred is because he has decided to go to one of the worlds reached by the portal stones and portray himself as the dragon. Once in this world, he got the allegience of the Aiel of that world. When we see them in the real world, that is Demondred bringing his Army for the last battle to fight the aiel of this world.

[wcbrooks]

maybe Aginor done a little bit of experiementing

[Goldstar]

I believe that these are simply Aiel from an alternate world. The reason that we havent seen Demondred is because he has decided to go to one of the worlds reached by the portal stones and portray himself as the dragon. Once in this world, he got the allegience of the Aiel of that world. When we see them in the real world, that is Demondred bringing his Army for the last battle to fight the aiel of this world.

 

Honestly, if this were true, I would be satisfied that. Perhaps the "Blank" In the Blight is a Portal Stone?

[doihavepotential]

maybe Aginor done a little bit of experiementing

 

There are lots of shadowspawn we haven't seen or even heard of yet, especially the high passes and creatures of the greater blight.It's not far-fetched to believe that some new things will emerge from AMoL

[Suttree]

maybe Aginor done a little bit of experiementing

 

RJ has stated he no longer has the proper technology to do so. It simply does not exist in this age.

[Bob Hopeless]

When the sharp-toothed evil Aiel showed up, my immediate thought was that this was what Demandred had been up to, gathering an army of outcast Aiel channelers. They'd be a great untapped resource, and it would explain why no one could locate him.