Ironically, considering that the Whitecloaks were set up to preach against Darkfriends, they end up mirroring their behaviour in so many ways. I think RJ was taking aim at some of the clowns of the US Military-Industrial Complex, with the Whitecloaks. As he was taking aim at the Christian Zionists and other such fundies, with the Darkfriends.

The Coplins and the Congars generally get very little respect, but nobody either assaults them, or is assaulted by them - the only exception being their general bootlicking behaviour when the Whitecloaks turn up and they collaborate with them.

in TGH at the end, Rand finds himself fighting against Baalzamon above Falme, where a legion of Whitecloaks engage in battle against the Seanchan occupation. His Sheathing the Sword occurs after he realizes that his battle with Baalzamon mirrors the battle below in him Falme, and saving Egwene from a lifetime of slavery to the Seanchan depends on him being willing to sacrifice himself. When I was much younger, I read a story about King Arthur and someone else, where King Arthur and the other person are playing a game of chess (or near-enough) while their forces are fighting, and the game of chess reflects the battle outside. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_Rhonabwy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ywain As always, the Matter of Britain provides still inspiration for authors.

She's also Mierin Sedai, back when one of Rand's ancestors Charn, was in service to her. I suspect Mierin derives in some way from Latin: mare; French: mer = sea, as the one thing on the earth that people can see is changed by the moon.

Epstein shadar logoth, you mean? Or Trump shadar logoth, Duke Dorkshit himself? Anyway, there are probably other correspondences between Indian mythology and RJ's work - he was an avid reader.

For what it's worth, it's the reasoning behind suicide bombers and kamakazi attacks and sailors volunteering for sailing fireships into enemy harbours. And a US army vet makes it the pinnacle of a warrior's combat, taking out the enemy just as he thinks he's taking you out.

I'm getting into Yet Another Re-Read, and am enjoying it.

RJ succeeded with making the Aelfinn and Eelfinn something other than merely "people in funny suits" which bugs me about the likes of the Dragons of [Autumn/Winter/Spring] trilogy and other series in that wider series, and other fantasy novels. A lot of those sorts of elfin creatures are taken from Tolkien without the writer taking the trouble to find out the behaviour of the elfish/trollish creatures in the myths Tolkien used for his fantasy, which, as I say, they wind up being "people in funny suits". I'm afraid I don't care for "people in funny suits" - once when I was a kid, in the Papua New Guinean bush, and going through some section of the bush that the locals didn't use, I was told by a local who saw me, "Bai masalai i kaikaiim yu!" - the local woodland spirit will eat you! And that guides my reading of everything that involves woodland spirits, house spirits, water spirits, and the like. Of course, Tolkien "baptized" the woodland spirits and made them into "natural Catholics" - it's good that RJ "unbaptized" them, so they are closer to their original style, but the problem I find is that they're "semi-technocrats". I would recommend reading https://www.oocities.org/thslone/masalai.html and likewise https://www.amazon.com/One-Thousand-Papua-Guinean-Nights/dp/0971412715

Actually, if you want references to religion in The Wheel of Time, look at the Darkfriends. And the human equivalent to the Myrdraal, the Whitecloaks. When the Whitecloaks catch some actual Darkfriends in their Citadel of Light, the Darkfriends are reciting a credo and a catechism. And they talk about The Great Day of Return - now what is one of the most "popular" religions in the US at this current moment, with televangelists understandably drawing the mockery of others - remember that 80s movie Pass the Ammo, starring Tim Curry as the hypocritical televangelist whose hand is always out for the poor folk's money? My guess is that RJ saw what was going on when he was demobilized/discharged, with books like The Late Great Planet Earth in circulation, and televangelists raking in the dough while wallowing in their depravity, and it ate at him until he turned it into a story, just to get it out of him, so he could stop thinking about it.