TDR Prologue mentions three dragons...

[PsyQuestor]

I've been re-reading the series due to some inconsistencies I noted in later books. One of these is in the prologue of The Dragon Reborn. In a discussion Niall has with Carridan, he is up to date with all else going on but mentions three false dragons in various areas. We know one to be Rand and the other to be Taim, but who is the third? We know from book 2 that Logain has already been captured and gentled by the White Tower. Is there yet another False Dragon?

 

I've also thought that perhaps Thom Merrilin starts out as a Darkfriend due to other happenings, although i will have to wait and see in AMoL if he truly is hiding something... It seems that this changes once his girlfriend is killed in the Inn in the second book (sorry can't recall her name).

 

Best to other WoT readers :)

 

 

Tammara

[Leyrann]

Thom a Darkfriend? All Darkfriends have to kill Mat and Perrin, or did you forget?

 

And about that false Dragons, it is stated in that same paragraph. One is Rand, one in Saldaea (Mazrim Taim) and the third is in Tear.

[Kahsm]

I think even earlier than that Moir mentions a bunch of false dragons, before Rand declares himself. The number five springs to mind actually. I got the feeling that before Rand is seen in the sky the pattern was pumping out a tonne of false dragons and then they all dropped when Rand triggers the 'pattern-wide event'. but different people only hear of the big ones (Taim, maybe another in the south) and the ones small ones that gain like 10 followers but happen to reach their ear.

[Leyrann]

5 is because there were five before Rand. Some years before the start there was one at an unknown place, a few years later, but also before the series is one in Illian, then, around TEotW, we have Logain, and somewhat later, we get Taim, one in Morland that is almost immediately captured, and one in Tear, that is captured the same way as Taim.

[Arkane101]

Coincidentally enough, it's been days since I re read what your thinking of, It was early in tGH and your thinking of 3 false dragons in the past 5 years I think it was, Moiraine says 1 of those 3 was some nobleman trying to make himself a king or something, 1 of them was Logain and we don't find out the 3rd. Then there was 3 all at once, there was Taim, a guy who was captured immediately and executed in Murandy, and a guy in Tear who was killed immediately after Rand declared himself at the end of the book. Rand was not mentioned, as he was not yet the Dragon.

[Luckers]

On Thom, I've long thought RJ played him as a bit of a red-herring for who brought the Trollocs on Winternight. He's odd, knowledgeable, seems strangely intent on staying with the boys. Lan states that he does not trust him, and that he did not see him in the fight on Winternight. Moiraine seems very dodgy around him in the barn just before everyone leaves Emmonds Field, as if she suspects him of something (keep your friends close and enemies closer), and then, just before he runs at the Myrdraal Rand grows worried and suspicious and BANG, its ok, he's a good guy.

 

Of course we know the source of all this--his nephew Oweyn, his history as the Grey Fox. Moiraine's weirdness around him was likely a result of things Min had told her, etc.

 

Mind you I didn't think any of this when I first read the book, but doing a careful re-read of the Eye, there are lots of odd little moments that make me think RJ wanted us to settle on Thom instead of Fain, only he perhaps played it a little too subtle. A failed experiment at a red-herring.

 

 

But yeah, Thom's no darkfriend, and never was.

[True Source Creator]

Speaking of False Dragons, I think it was a great idea for RJ to have the first sighting of a male channeler in the books be Rand seeing Logain captured in Caemlyn. It showed Rand (and the reader) just how insane male channelers were.

 

...well, minus the prologue to TEoTW, but that could also show the insanity of the taint on saidin.

[Durinax]

Speaking of False Dragons, I think it was a great idea for RJ to have the first sighting of a male channeler in the books be Rand seeing Logain captured in Caemlyn. It showed Rand (and the reader) just how insane male channelers were.

 

...well, minus the prologue to TEoTW, but that could also show the insanity of the taint on saidin.

how did logain show how insane male channellers are? He wasnt mad at all.

 

to me it showed how much male channellers where feared (enough to be respected) when the crowd went silent as logain passed, then becoming louder once he passed

[True Source Creator]

I swear I recall him either laughing or crying while in the age, and furthermore the fact that he was in a cage shows not only that male channelers are something to be feared, but that they're not sane enough to be left uncaged; they're too dangerous.

[XoMeltdownoX]

Logain did laugh in a maniacal way. He explains that later in conversation to an AS (maybe Siuan). From the cage he sees Rand shining like a beacon and thinks this man will shake the foundations of the world. Logain has the talent for seeing ta'veren.

[PsyQuestor]

I did finally come across the part in TDR where Siuann and Verin discuss the death of the third dragon. This and Taim's capture happen at exactly the moment that Rand reveals himself as the Dragon Reborn. Verin says this was because the Pattern no longer needed false dragons, as the true DR had been revealed.

 

Thank you for your help