Seanchan - what happens next?

[suchmadness]

Aiel could never be the enforcer within the empire because Seanchan collared channelers. They're like the UN peacekeepers in that they have an overriding objective and a set of philosophy which goes against the grain of Seanchen culture. This is why Aviendha tried to change the future of the Aiel as she does not want the empire to prevail and risk the future of her children and the world as she knows it. The only way Aiel could be enforcers of the empire is for the nature of the empire to change completely which is possible given the influence of the new land and the insidious machination of the Aes Sedai. This is more than likely given that Min has become more or less Toun's conscience. Anyway Seanchen as an empire is completely overstretched and would be too busy taking care of internal matters to think of conquering new land for the empire, that or fall. 

[Rhienne]

Min really does have a good position of power with the Seanchan in some ways.  Once she's given Tuon a series of successful viewings over the course of a few years, it wouldn't be too hard for her to start having 'viewings' of disaster if the Seanchan didn't change their ways.  The Seanchan are very superstitious which makes them somewhat prone to manipulation from this angle.

[jack of shadows]

@rhienne,

"min does have a good position of power with the seanchan in some way."

true.but why would min stay in seanchan court?

rand did survive the last battle,and managed to disappear from shayol ghul,

so what's stopping min from following him?

actually nothing!

in my opinion,this is exactly what she is going to do.follow rand.

rand was always min's first priority,heck,he was her only priority,and min is just an

andoran commoner,i cannot imagine her dressed all fancy and playing politics

with a bunch of lunatics.

[Maurelle]

Things do evolve once cultures touch and it seems that the Seanchan have done that as well (I doubt that the nail painting and shaving of heads was popular in Hawkwing's time). I also strongly doubt that Min would willingly stay with Fortouna. She is the most likely to drop everything and go after Rand.

[suchmadness]

I think that it is insulting to just dismiss Min as just a commoner as you can say that about most of the main characters except for Elayne. She followed him because she thinks that what he did was important and she hadn't find her purpose yet. But then she started to study philosophy and she was the one that discovered the flaw in callondor and how it could be exploited, granted it was at Rand's instigation. Beside Toun would not let her go that easily and to paraphrase Mat once she got you in her clutches she won't let go.

Anyway Min knows that she can't be with Rand exclusively. He'll be like a time share holiday apartment shared between Aviendha and Elayne convenient when they needed a holiday and a bit of romance.

[jack of shadows]

@suchmadness,

min did follow rand because she loved and cared for rand the person,not rand the dragon reborn.

from the very beginning,min knew she would have to share rand with two other girls,and it never

stopped her from following him,so why stop now when according to aviendha the three of them

reached an off-screen agreement about rand?

i do not dismiss min at all,out of the three she is my favorite,but she is not a ruler or a warleader

or a channeler or an head of an institute(e.g. white tower) she is just...min,a commoner from

baerlon.what's wrong with that?

the seanchan empress can be rigid,controlling and possessive so what?min doesn't have any moral

or ethical obligations not to mention loyalty towards her,so back to my original question,what's

stopping min from doing another disappearing act?

the forces of light did win the last battle,rand achieved his primary goal and even managed to stay

alive and disappear.min can do the same.

by the way,elayne is not the only one with royal blood,lan and rand are too,and moiraine is certainly

not a commoner either.(i am not including nynaeve,perrin and mat,they are royalty by marriage).

[suchmadness]

What I mean by commoner is someone from a humble beginning and I only consider Elayne because she was of Rand's peer group instead of a mentor like Lan and Morraine.What I object to is the inference that Min has no other goal and desires other than following Rand around like a devoted dog. She does love him but she also wanted to be more than being Dragon Reborn's woman. The overall feeling that I get at the end is that she feels overwhelmed by her new role but at the same time realising that she could be more useful here. She more or less become Toun's conscience which is all to the good.

[Rhienne]

What I mean by commoner is someone from a humble beginning and I only consider Elayne because she was of Rand's peer group instead of a mentor like Lan and Morraine.What I object to is the inference that Min has no other goal and desires other than following Rand around like a devoted dog. She does love him but she also wanted to be more than being Dragon Reborn's woman. The overall feeling that I get at the end is that she feels overwhelmed by her new role but at the same time realising that she could be more useful here. She more or less become Toun's conscience which is all to the good.

I didn't really get the impression that she did want anything other than to be Rand's woman.  Yes, she wanted to help him, but she didn't want anything for herself other than to be his lover.  While her becoming Tuon's Truthspeaker and Doomseer felt a bit out of left field and too late in the story to be introduced, I like that it gives her a purpose, and hope that she carries on with it as I believe she has a chance to do some good things there.  Its not like staying with the Seanchan would mean being apart from Rand - with Travelling she could live in Seandar for the rest of her life and still have Rand pop in every day to see her.  I don't think it would be a healthy relationship for her to just follow Rand around permenantly with no purpose of her own.

[Kai Arnold]

I believe the Seanchan empire will evolve away from its current culture.  Two points that support this:

 

1) a huge hint about the future of the Seanchan was dropped in Egwene's bargain with Fortuona - the one where they agree to an exchange program of sorts, where sul'dam would be allowed to advertise themselves at the White Tower, and women would be given the choice to either leash themselves, or become stewarded by the Aes Sedai.  Fortuona, in her typical overconfidence, claimed that all women with the ability to channel would gladly offer themselves over to be leashed.  This will prove to be a great error on her part, and exposure to free channelers in the Aes Sedai accepted and novices will eventually turn around the Seanchan's opinions on the matter.

 

2) The Seanchan strategy for dealing with male channelers has been outflanked.  They will have to face a world where male channelers - once feared, but now heroes of the Last Battle - become an accepted force as strong as the White Tower.  Since they don't have a practice of leashing men, they will eventually be inundated with a force of both local and foreign male channelers that will further erode their barbaric and outmoded views on the nature of people who can channel.

 

So, I think the inevitable intermixing of Randland ideals into their borders will cause the unjust treatment of channelers to come to a turning point.  A good outrigger novel would explore a Seanchan civil war that parallels the U.S. one, where culture starts to slowly shift over a tipping point.  

 

Also, given how leashed damane constitute so much of the power base in Seanchan culture, the inevitable move away from the practice of leashing would cause a global shift in power.  Man, I'd read the shit out of a 2-3 novel set that explored this.

[Rhienne]

If Tuon holds to her bargain with Egwene then yes, some attenuation of the Seanchan culture may occur.  We see from Egeaning and Tylee that the Seanchan people can get on well with the Randlanders.  I think the only problem is that Tuon is not an honourable or trustworthy person.  Seconds after making the bargain with Rand she thinks about not honouring her end of the bargain, and if it weren't for Mat might not have done.  She might use Egwene's death as an excuse not to do her bit, or when she sees that few Randlanders want to be leashed, she might just change her mind.

[Paul H]

I believe the Seanchan empire will evolve away from its current culture.  Two points that support this:

 

1) a huge hint about the future of the Seanchan was dropped in Egwene's bargain with Fortuona - the one where they agree to an exchange program of sorts, where sul'dam would be allowed to advertise themselves at the White Tower, and women would be given the choice to either leash themselves, or become stewarded by the Aes Sedai.  Fortuona, in her typical overconfidence, claimed that all women with the ability to channel would gladly offer themselves over to be leashed.  This will prove to be a great error on her part, and exposure to free channelers in the Aes Sedai accepted and novices will eventually turn around the Seanchan's opinions on the matter.

 

2) The Seanchan strategy for dealing with male channelers has been outflanked.  They will have to face a world where male channelers - once feared, but now heroes of the Last Battle - become an accepted force as strong as the White Tower.  Since they don't have a practice of leashing men, they will eventually be inundated with a force of both local and foreign male channelers that will further erode their barbaric and outmoded views on the nature of people who can channel.

 

So, I think the inevitable intermixing of Randland ideals into their borders will cause the unjust treatment of channelers to come to a turning point.  A good outrigger novel would explore a Seanchan civil war that parallels the U.S. one, where culture starts to slowly shift over a tipping point.  

 

Also, given how leashed damane constitute so much of the power base in Seanchan culture, the inevitable move away from the practice of leashing would cause a global shift in power.  Man, I'd read the shit out of a 2-3 novel set that explored this.

 

Great post, and you make a good argument.  I definitely can see this as a plausible scenario, though I still am more pessimistic than you are, regarding the future of the Seanchan.

[Suttree]

 Also, given how leashed damane constitute so much of the power base in Seanchan culture, the inevitable move away from the practice of leashing would cause a global shift in power.  Man, I'd read the shit out of a 2-3 novel set that explored this.

 

There were planned Outrigger novels set in Seanchan before RJ passed away. Alas there was no material beyond a few sentences for those works.