The 5 Great Captains of Daes Dae'mar

[Bromo Sapien]

I'm gonna keep this simple and just be blunt: Who are the five best Daes Dae'mar players in WOT? In the same vein as the Great Captains, I'd like to limit it to Light-side characters since 4000+ years of manipulation from Moridin is just too much to beat.

 

My list is pretty straight forward:

 

Thom

Moiraine

Egwene

Rand

Verin

 

I'm including Verin post-death since I'm going full series, not current to ToM, but everyone can make their own judgement call on that. If not for Verin, I would probably go with Siuan, though that does feel like placing Egwene Jr. on the list.

 

Thom and Moiraine are self-evident, I believe. They're easily the most dominant political couple this side of the Clintons.

 

From the moment Egwene steps into the Salidar camp in LoC, she begins manipulating and conspiring and dominating the inventors of Daes Dae'mar themselves and she never stops. And when she becomes a POW and gets demoted to Accepted, she gets even more badass in the Game, utterly destroying the White Tower Aes Sedai in the Game. Even Egwene haters (who, admittedly, I don't understand, as you can probably tell) have to admit she dominates in the Game.

 

Rand is one of the people I'm a little unsure about in my own list. He manipulates Cairheinin and Tairen nobles, both of which are immersed in the Game up to their necks. But a lot of that seems to come purely from his power as the Dragon Reborn. But then again, when he needs it, he can be subtle and intricate in his political weavings. Plus, while precision and manipulation are more important, strength still helps a lot and Rand uses everything to the best of his abilities.

 

Verin dominated not just Aes Sedai but Aes Sedai who guarded a deadly secret allegiance, who killed on suspicion of knowing about them, and did it for most of her AS career. Ya, she qualifies. Plus she's awesome.

 

Anyone else? Elayne for her work in Caemlyn? Faile? Morgase? Bueller?

[LeeM.Erickson]

I'd definitely add Siuan. She was a competent Amyrlin, and also controlled the Blue's network of eyes-and-ears (information gathering is important to the Game, as well as separating fact from rumor). She was also instrumental in teaching Egwene how to handle the complex intricacies in the AS power structure. The way she played Sheriam's group, and also the way she adapted to her new position in the AS hierarchy after being Healed shows her adeptness at playing the Great Game.