Mordeth

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Author: Leora Oldessroth

MOOR-dehth

General

Mordeth is a sleek, overfed man with drooping eyelids; he is short and completely bald (TEoTW, Ch. 19).

Timeline

  • During the time of the Trolloc Wars, Mordeth arrived in the nation of Aridhol. He was able to get the king, Balwen Mayel, to listen to him and convinced him to use the tactics of the Shadow to fight the Shadowspawn. His poison spread throughout the city, making people hardened and cruel. Eventually all the citizens of Aridhol died, their suspicion and hate having created Mashadar, a fog that lurks in the city during the night and destroys any flesh that touches it. Only Mordeth is immune to Mashadar. (TEotW, Ch. 19; TWoRJTWoT: 10).
  • Mordeth remained trapped inside the walls of Aridhol/Shadar Logoth for centuries, waiting for a chance to leave (TEotW, Ch. 19).
  • Mordeth meets Rand, Mat and Perrin when they take refuge from Trollocs in Shadar Logoth (TEotW, Ch. 19). He tells them he is a treasure hunter and asks for their help carrying what he has found; he tells them he will let them have a share of their treasure for their help (TEotW, Ch. 19).
  • The boys are about to help Mordeth when Rand realizes that he has no shadow; when he blurts this out, Mordeth attacks the boys (TEotW, Ch. 19). They manage to fight him off but Mordeth escapes (TEotW, Ch. 19). (Mat later notes that the way a gholam escapes, squeezing itself into tiny cracks, is similar to what Mordeth did (WH, Ch. 16).
  • When Moiraine discovers that the boys encountered Mordeth, she makes sure that he didn't touch any of them or give them anything (TEotW, Ch. 19). She then tells the story of how Mordeth corrupted Aridhol and caused the destruction of the once-great nation of Aridhol (TEotW, Ch. 19).
  • When Padan Fain follows the boys into Shadar Logoth, he also encounters Mordeth; the two men merge into one man, probably as a result of Mordeth's inability to completely consume Padan Fain's Soul (TGH, Ch. 3, TGH, Ch. 49).

Quotes

""I am Mordeth." He paused as if expecting them to recognize the name. When none of them gave any sign of doing so, he muttered something under his breath and went on. "I could ask the same question of you. There has been no one in Aridhol for a long time. A long, long time. I would not have thought to find three young men wandering its streets."" ~Mordeth to Rand, Mat and Perrin (The Eye of the World, Chapter 19).

""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."" ~Moiraine telling the Emond's Fielders about Mordeth (The Eye of the World, Chapter 19).

""Padan Fain was the Dark One's creature to the depths of his soul, but I believe that in Shadar Logoth he fell afoul of Mordeth, who was as vile in fighting the Shadow as ever the Shadow itself was. Mordeth tried to consume Fain's soul, to have a human body again, but found a soul that had been touched directly by the Dark One, and what resulted....What resulted was neither Padan Fain nor Mordeth, But something far more evil, a blend of the two."" ~Moiraine to Rand (The Great Hunt, Chapter 49).