While starting my 8th re-read of The Eye of the World, I was jarred by the lack of knowledge about people that the characters have.
a) No one knows who Thom Merrilin is. Except, of course, for the royal family of Andor. For any ruling family on the continent, the putative lover of the queen of Andor would have been a marked target of gossip. Even after the perhaps 15 years that Thom has been gone from the court, no one remembers his name. Moiraine especially should have known; she was very high in the succession ranks after Laman was killed, and should have been well-schooled in the gossip of the closest neighbor of Cairhien.
b) Ruling families and their courts don't visually recognize each other. In a similar fashion, all of the courts would have seen pictures, perhaps as paintings, and heard descriptions of the important people of lands near and far. Thus, it was surprising that Thom did not recognize Moiraine as a Damodred; even given her "cover" as Aes Sedai, he would have registered her as noble born and given her height and her looks, there were only a couple of people who would fit that description. There is evidence later on that she had the Damodred looks, when Rand was having a picnic near Cairhien.
So, my question is, "Except for plot progression, why did not these people recognize each other?"
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It's a Small World After All
While starting my 8th re-read of The Eye of the World, I was jarred by the lack of knowledge about people that the characters have.
a) No one knows who Thom Merrilin is. Except, of course, for the royal family of Andor. For any ruling family on the continent, the putative lover of the queen of Andor would have been a marked target of gossip. Even after the perhaps 15 years that Thom has been gone from the court, no one remembers his name. Moiraine especially should have known; she was very high in the succession ranks after Laman was killed, and should have been well-schooled in the gossip of the closest neighbor of Cairhien.
b) Ruling families and their courts don't visually recognize each other. In a similar fashion, all of the courts would have seen pictures, perhaps as paintings, and heard descriptions of the important people of lands near and far. Thus, it was surprising that Thom did not recognize Moiraine as a Damodred; even given her "cover" as Aes Sedai, he would have registered her as noble born and given her height and her looks, there were only a couple of people who would fit that description. There is evidence later on that she had the Damodred looks, when Rand was having a picnic near Cairhien.
So, my question is, "Except for plot progression, why did not these people recognize each other?"