What ultimately caused the taint?

[Dreggs Morlock]

What caused the taint?  Now, I know the Dark One was responsible; but was the "Dark one's Backlash" caused by the Dark One actually lashing out, or was it caused by Saidin coming in contact with the Dark ONe/Dark One's Prison?

 

The reason I ask this is simple:  if, like I always thought, the Dark One did it consciously as a counter strike...why didn't the Dark One just put it back in place after Rand cleansed the Source?

[Aredeis]

My understanding has always been that it was a conscious act by the DO made possible only by the fact that saidin was in direct contact with the Bore/DO.

[Suttree]

Interview: Dec 9th, 2002

Wotmania and Dragonmount Q&A

Question

Is there a reason the Dark One could not or would not re-taint saidin?

 

Robert Jordan

The conditions would have to be exactly right. Those conditions were set up while the seals were being placed on the Bore. The chances that exactly those conditions would occur again are fairly small. And that is saying that it was a volitional act rather than a side-effect of trying to stop the seals from being placed. After all, if the Dark One could taint saidin at will, why could he not taint saidar as well, and why would he not have done so?

 

 

[herid]

To add to the above answers LTT also made it  clear that this happened right at the moment when saidin touched the DO during the sealing.

 

It didn't work, Lews Therin whispered. We used saidin, but we touched it to the Dark One. It was the only way! Something has to touch him, something to close the gap, but he was able to taint it. The seal was weak!

--tGS, ch 22

As RJ's quote that Suttree gave says if the DO could have done it at other times he definitely would have. In another interview RJ also said that if saidar was used along with saidin in the sealing then both saidin and saidar would have been tainted.