Jeeral Mordeth

[nolirion]

I have been rereading the Eye of the world and something struck me several time , either when Moraine explain Shadar logoth , or when Aginor speak about the evil of the dagger

"He guided us ." the hand that pointed to Mat was old and shriveled to scarcely human, lacking a fingernail [...] " An old thing, an old friend, an old enemy. But he is not the one we seek,"

A meeting at the eye . The eye of the world

Well I am not sure if he refer to Mat or the dagger , but I don't think it is Mat forsaken knew nothing of the importance and the nature of Mat and Perrin at the time beside Ishamael .

More to the point , I can't find anything from the background of Mordeth all that we know of him are the effect he had on aridhol , but who or what was it before . Aginor may refer to the simple nature of the evil of shadar logoth but forsaken had little knowledge if none to speak of when they were free .

In fact I wonder if it was simple suspicion and fear that corrupted Aridhol or something else , if that is the case why did the children of the light not become the same way?

[Durinax]

it was something else, in one of RJ's quotes he said that mordeth found something, which was a different evil than the DO's (DO's is typically selfishness) and mordeths evil is more hatred. Although it could be assumed that Aginor and Balthamel both could see what was happening in the world, they could just not influence it, afterall they where affected by time, where none of the other forsaken where (at least not to the same extent).

[Suttree]

Durinax is right. It was something else. Aridhol adopted the slogan of "The victory of the Light is all" and decided to use the tactics of the shadow to fight the shadow. Mordeth's power came from seeking out evil things in the world.

 

Interview: Nov 21st, 2009

 

Driving Mr. Sanderson - Matt Hatch

Matt Hatch

 

 

Ok. You mentioned that Mordeth was a man that had "power". You are reported as saying that his power was that "which he got by seeking out all of the evil things that weren’t related to the Shadow"...

Brandon Sanderson

 

 

He was seeking things that were related to the Shadow. I think that that might be a misquote. He was looking into the power of the Shadow in order to defeat it, was his goal. He was looking into everything. He was looking into things that were not necessarily related to the Dark One as well. He was looking for everything that he could get...

Matt Hatch

 

..previous to him arriving to Aridhol?

Brandon Sanderson

 

...Yeah...

Matt Hatch

 

...before he went to the King and became the counselor, Mordeth was this guy that went around searching for Power?

Brandon Sanderson

 

Yeah, he wanted to defeat the Dark One and he felt that he could find other ways to do it [...] He originally was good. He did not...he wasn’t this terrible person to begin with but he was looking to defeat the Dark One, to find a way to defeat the Shadow. And he looked into a lot of things he shouldn’t have looked into. There are evils that are not necessarily directly related to the Dark One, though everything evil kind of has...just as there are goods that are not related necessarily to the One Power...we are talking much as Perrin runs with wolves. This is a thing older than...there are other evils things that are old in a similar way...

Matt Hatch

 

...is the assumption then that he found one of these?

Brandon Sanderson

 

He did.

Matt Hatch

 

He found one or multiple?

Brandon Sanderson

 

He found many things of darkness. There is one in specific that is driving him but he knew too much. He found things he should not have gotten into and that is what turned him into...when he got there he was already corrupt. He still thought he was doing a good work. He still thought we are going to raise this Kingdom up and it is going to become this bastion against the Shadow, but he was already by then corrupted.

Matt Hatch

 

Is this same corrupting influence what corrupts everyone through the dagger itself?

Brandon Sanderson

 

Yeah. Through him, yes. And even through his presence.

MATT HATCH

 

[Hah—Maybe I should have asked if Mordeth was under the influence of the Finns...or at the very least if they were one of the powers he found in his quest... ]

[nolirion]

Oh thanks , I was very curious about that .