Ravens

[Sila Darklover]

I'm midway through CoT, so perhaps this comes up later, but it seems odd to me that ravens are Imperial symbols in Seanchan and hated spies of the Shadow in the rest of Randland. Are raven-spies nonexistent in Seanchan or something?

[Tenshin_Xo]

Trollocs and thus Fades are extinct on the seanchan mainland. They have a blight but its much less potent than the one in the westlands.

 

Ravens have to report information to be spies, and it would seem they have little or nothing to report to.

[algspkr]

Most people south of the Borderlands do not like ravens, but they do not fear them; they just view them as filthy birds, not evil.

[PrinceOfRavens]

maybethe ravens are a thing introduced by ishy? As advisor to Hawkwing he could have done it :?

[Tenshin_Xo]

The seanchan refer to the previous natives that Hawkwings decendants conquered as the Armies of Night. We've seen evidence that for the most part they(the hawkwing armies) were more or less subsumed into the society as the leaders ending with a society closer to the native culture than to westland culture. After that occured around second convenant the seanchan exterminated all of the shadowspawn they laid thier hands on. This left a 'lesser blight' barely worthy of the name, and no trollocs or shades to speak of. With nothing to report to there would be no prejudice against ravens. Look at how disbelieving non-borderlanders were at how bad raven spies were, then think of an entire continent where there were no shadowspawn at all, and how disbelieving they would be. There are a few points where seanchan soldiers openly disbelieve tales of the blight, thinking it can't actually be that bad.

[Sila Darklover]

So is it just coincidence that the Seanchan adopted raven as a revered symbol? Sorry, I don't know my Seanchan history!

[Guest LurkingFadeFetcher]

PrinceOfRavens

maybethe ravens are a thing introduced by ishy? As advisor to Hawkwing he could have done it

I think that is a good point. and its easy to believe that changing the Seanchan prophecies is only one of the things he may or may not have done. 8)

[Tenshin_Xo]

I'm not convinced that Ishy is responsible for the raven banner or the seanchan prophecies.

 

Raven banner: Artur's banner was a golden hawk in flight. Luthair's (Artur's son who led the armies in seanchan) banner was similar, a golden hawk on a field of blue. Ishy's influence according to all reference was at Hawkwing's court so he would have had no time to influence the seanchan at least at that point in time. Also it couldn't be a corrupted version of Hawkwings banner because Turak or the Corenne used a banner nearly identical to Luthair's and knew it for what it was.

 

Seanchan Prophesies: I think this one's still out. All we really know is that they had some knowledge of the Karatheon Cycle, but we don't know if it was complete or not. We also don't know if there were any prophecies already on the continent pre Luthair, or if any new one's we're made after the damane were instituted.