Aridhol

A similar entry appears in the Wheel of Time Companion confirming the information available in the main story arc.

Author: Atarah al'Norahn

Geography

The nation of Aridhol was located in what is now largely unclaimed territory, near the northern half of the Mountains of Mist. To the north was Jaramide, with Aramaelle to the northeast, Coremanda to the southeast, Manetheren to the south, and Safer to the west.

Cities, Towns and Villages

The capital city of Aridhol was also called Aridhol, and was located where Shadar Logoth stands today. There was a Waygate in the city of Aridhol.

Other cities in Aridhol included Abor'maseleine and Cyrendemar'naille.

Formation, Government, and Nobility

Like the other nations in its time, Aridhol was formed sometime after the Breaking of the World.

The ruler of Aridhol who signed the Compact of Ten Nations was Queen Doreille Torghin.

At one point during the Trolloc Wars, Aridhol was ruled by King Balwen Mayel, also known as Balwen Ironhand.

Before the Trolloc Wars

Nothing is known of Aridhol before the Trolloc Wars.

The Trolloc Wars

Like the other nations of the Compact, Aridhol stood against the Shadow.

During the Trolloc Wars, Aridhol feel from within. Following is an excerpt from TEotW, Ch. 19 regarding the fall of Aridhol.

"Once it was called Aridhol," Moiraine replied, "and was one of the Ten Nations, the lands that made the Second Covenant, the lands that stood against the Dark One from the first days after the Breaking of the World. In the days when Thorin al Toren al Ban was King of Manetheren, the King of Aridhol was Balwen Mayel, Balwen Ironhand. In a twilight of despair during the Trolloc Wars, when it seemed the Father of Lies must surely conquer, the man called Mordeth came to Balwen's court."

"The same man?" Rand exclaimed, and Mat said, "It couldn't be!" A glance from Moiraine silenced them. Stillness filled the room except for the Aes Sedai's voice.

"Before Mordeth had been long in the city he had Balwen's ear, and soon he was second only to the King. Mordeth whispered poison in Balwen's ear, and Aridhol began to change. Aridhol drew in on itself, hardened. It was said that some would rather see Trollocs come than the men of Aridhol. The victory of the Light is all. That was the battlecry Mordeth gave them, and the men of Aridhol shouted it while their deeds abandoned the Light.

"The story is too long to tell in full, and too grim, and only fragments are known, even in Tar Valon. How Thorin's son, Caar, came to win Aridhol back to the Second Covenant, and Balwen sat his throne, a withered shell with the light of madness in his eyes, laughing while Mordeth smiled at his side and ordered the deaths of Caar and the embassy as Friends of the Dark. How Prince Caar came to be called Caar One-Hand. How he escaped the dungeons of Aridhol and fled alone to the Borderlands with Mordeth's unnatural assassins at his heels. How there he met Rhea, who did not know who he was, and married her, and set the skein in the Pattern that led to his death at her hands, and hers by her own hand before his tomb, and the fall of Aleth-loriel. How the armies of Manetheren came to avenge Caar and found the gates of Aridhol torn down, no living thing inside the walls, but something worse than death. No enemy had come to Aridhol but Aridhol. Suspicion and hate had given birth to something that fed on that which created it, something locked in the bedrock on which the city stood. Mashadar waits still, hungering. Men spoke of Aridhol no more. They named it Shadar Logoth, the Place Where the Shadow Waits, or more simply, Shadow's Waiting.

"Mordeth alone was not consumed by Mashadar, but he was snared by it, and he, too, has waited within these walls through the long centuries. Others have seen him. Some he has influenced through gifts that twist the mind and taint the spirit, the taint waxing and waning until it rules ... or kills. If ever he convinces someone to accompany him to the walls, to the boundary of Mashadar's power, he will be able to consume the soul of that person. Mordeth will leave, wearing the body of the one he worse than killed, to wreak his evil on the world again."

After the Trolloc Wars

By the end of the Trolloc Wars, the nation of Aridhol had been destroyed. The ruins of the city of Aridhol could still be seen at Shadar Logoth up until Rand cleansed saidin, destroying Shadar Logoth.

According to the maps, the nation of Masenashar and part of Oburun, and later the area near the northern half of the Mountains of Mist, grew out of the ruins of Aridhol.