Semirhage and the Seanchan

[Mr Hindley]

Something I don't think I've ever seen discussed - it obviously made sense for one of the Forsaken to place themselves among the Seanchan, and the Seanchan have certainly been at best a major distraction, at worst a major, unwitting aid to the Shadow by weakening the Light-side forces.

 

However - given that the Seanchan were already landing at Falme around the time, or even before, Semirhage's release, then clearly that was all going to happen anyway long before she turned up. Although Semi claimed to have Tuon under her thumb, I'm struggling to think of anything Tuon has done that she wouldn't have done anyway. Bearing in mind that Tuon herself, and Semi, didn't arrive until, what, WH? It was Suroth who decided to make a second attempt at invading Randland, and there's no evidence that was influenced by Semi.

 

So put it this way - if Semirhage hadn't been with the Seanchan, how would things have played out differently? I can't think of anything, really, but maybe I'm missing something!

[Hael Me]

Semirhage killed the empress, and the entire royal family, except for Tuon. This led to a huge civil war in Seanchan. Let the lord of chaos rule, indeed!

[Mr Hindley]

Semirhage killed the empress, and the entire royal family, except for Tuon. This led to a huge civil war in Seanchan. Let the lord of chaos rule, indeed!

 

Oh dear - embarrassingly, I'd forgotten that bit. Um, ok, well before she completely transformed the Seanchan political landscape, what effect did she have?

 

And for that matter, given that the Seanchan were doing some serious damage in Randland, why handicap them by effectively destroying the empire back home?

[MasterAblar]

Semirhage killed the empress, and the entire royal family, except for Tuon. This led to a huge civil war in Seanchan. Let the lord of chaos rule, indeed!

 

Oh dear - embarrassingly, I'd forgotten that bit. Um, ok, well before she completely transformed the Seanchan political landscape, what effect did she have?

 

And for that matter, given that the Seanchan were doing some serious damage in Randland, why handicap them by effectively destroying the empire back home?

 

Because the Seanchan Empire would be an extremy powerful foe for the Shadow. If Rand and the Seanchan ever finally agree to fight together, then the Shadow has a big problem. So to stop that from happening Semirhage effectively destroyed the Seanchan Empire, leaving only the forces already in Randland to oppose the Shadow. The rest of the Seanchan back across the ocean could be dealt with later.

 

She had influence over Tuon, and presumably if she had not been captured by Rand, she would have made sure to keep him and Tuon enemies. They still are but should they ever agree to work together, she won't be there to screw everything up.

[Eht Slat Meit]

Keep in mind that the Seanchan are a major part of both prophecy and Rand's true answer from the 'Finns, considered key to the Dragon having any chance of winning TG. The damage that Semi did was instrumental in breaking up future relations between the two. With the royal family mostly dead, the people Rand -would- have had to make arrangements for an alliance with are (barring Tuon) out of the way, and I'm sure she intended even more problems by impersonating the Seanchan delegation. Stepped forward a bit too quickly, whether her fault or DOs, and got cut down for her effort.

[TamTam Rapley]

By killing the empress and the royal family, she opened up a power vacuum. If she managed to eliminate Tuon as well, she would of ruled the Seanchan through her proxy Suroth.

[Master of Germs]

There is no evidence that Surot's second attempt for reclaiming Randland was not inspired by Semi. As far as I recall there is nothing to eliminate Semi as the main instigator of the Returning. Of course it was The Empress (may she live forever) who proposed it, and Anath was just recently assigned as Tuon's Truthspeaker, but she was undoubtedly at some high position even before that, so she could play with the Empress (may she live forever) as a puppet on a throne.