The Shadow Knows - Part 1

Author: Brynden Blackfyre
Published: March 19 2021 Tar Valon Times Blog Link

The Shadow Knows is an ongoing series about things Dark as seen by a mysterious Friend of the Night. As such, they are written from a certain point of view and cannot be taken as the absolute truth. These articles are intended to be entertaining, and at times might contradict accepted canon. Viewer discretion is advised.

Part 1: A hole in the world

In the later days of what would become the Age of Legends, two of the greatest minds of their time theorized that there was a power beyond saidar and saidin. They believed that this new power could be used by both men and women, and that it would transcend the limitations inherent in both. It was a controversial idea, and it was only given serious consideration due to the stature of its advocates.

The two visionaries were a man named Beidomon, and a woman named Mierin Eronaile. They both worked at the highest levels of the Collam Daan, the most prestigious institution in the world. There are people who would kill for a position there – and in at least Saine Tarasind, a person who would commit uncountable atrocities – because she did not. The Collam Daan was a breath-taking series of architectural feats, and floating above it all was the alabaster moon that was the Sharom.

The Sharom was an essay in “because we can.” It was not connected to the ground in any way. There were no elevators. It was not meant to be casually accessed. The people that mattered could use gateways and the people who did not had to fly there. The journey alone reaffirmed the traveler’s place in the grand scheme of things. Both Beidomon and Mierin were enormously powerful. They would have to be, to make their dreams come true. In time, they came to believe that the power they sought was not inherent in, for lack of a better word, our reality.

In order to reach it, they compressed a knot in space and time, and using a truly reckless amount of saidar and saidin drilled a hole right through the Pattern itself. What they found there would change the world. You see, they were both quite right. There is a third power that can be used by men and women, but it cannot be taken or seized. It can only be given as a gift by the being they had just set free, the Great Lord of the Dark. The backlash from his arrival would destroy the Collam in an explosion of black fire. But that was only the beginning.

Coming Soon, Part 2: Knowing is half the battle

>> Go To Part 2