The Eye of the World: Prologue

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Author: Dinn da Noor

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Dragonmount


Chapter Icon: Wheel and Serpent

Point of View: Lews Therin

Setting: A destroyed palace and Dragonmount

Characters: Lews Therin Telamon, Elan Morin Tedronai

Outline

Lews Therin realizes he has killed his family while mad and draws deeply on the Power, killing himself and raising Dragonmount, as Elan Morin Tedronai watches.

Summary

Lews Therin Telamon wanders through a palace filled with dead bodies lying everywhere. The palace is smeared in soot and has scorch-marks on the walls, floors and ceiling as a result of the lighting and fires, which killed many. It had once been pretty, with bright murals, colorful tapestries and paintings and finely carved furnishing inlaid with ivory and gold.

Lews Therin calls for his wife, Ilyena without noticing the dead people on the floor. He's wearing what was once a fine cloak, on which is embroidered a circle half white and half black, the colors separated by a sinuous line. When he sees it in a mirror, he remembers that it meant something, but he can't remember what.

The air behind him ripples and shimmers, solidifying a black-clad man who calls Lews Therin 'Lord of the Morning' and says that he has come for him.

Lews Therin asks if he has the Voice, as it will soon be time for the Singing. He then calls for Ilyena to meet the guest, something that makes the man wonder if "the taint already has you so far in its grip".

The man tries to make him remember more, when Lews Therin recognizes the name Shai'tan as a dangerous one that is better left unspoken, but the man says that it isn't dangerous for him.

When Lews Therin asks him who he is and what he wants, he presents himself as Elan Morin Tedronai, the Betrayer of Hope. That's what men named him just as Lews Therin was named the Dragon, but from now on people would call Lews Therin Kinslayer.

As Lews Therin again calls down the ruined hall for Ilyena, Elan Morin says that Lews Therin once stood first among the Servants, wore the ring of Tamyrlin, sat in the High Seat, summoned the Nine Rods of Dominion and once defeated him at the Gates of Paaran Disen. He then says that that he himself was never very skilled at Healing and that he follows a different power now. He then Heals Lews Therin, who screams of the pain while he staggers around. After some time the pain recedes, and he recognizes Ilyena, a golden-haired woman lying among the dead on the floor.

Elan Morin tries to make him serve the Great Lord of the Dark and says that he can make Ilyena live again. Lews Therin says that he will destroy Elan Morin for Ilyena's death, but he responds by reminding him on his futile attack made by him and his Hundred Companions, who tear the world apart as they talk, on the Great Lord.

Lews Therin looks around and sees faces he loved all slain by him. He then reaches out for the tainted saidin and Travels to a flat and empty landscape where he draws deeply of the Source as he remembers how he had believed in his pride, and while he shouts for forgiveness, a bolt of lightning and fire strikes from the heaven and through Lews Therin, making the earth heave while molten rock fountains high up in the air. When the earth's trembling has finished, Lews Therin is gone and where he stood is now a tall mountain.

Elan Morin appears at the mountain where he promises that it won't end that easily for the Dragon.

Notes

Common Themes

Mysteries

Who is Elan Morin?
How is Lews Therin Healed?
Was Ishamael telling the truth that an Aes Sedai could Heal Lews?
What does the Voice/Singing refer to?
What are the Nine Rods of Dominion?

Characters

First Mention

Lews Therin Telamon, Elan Morin Tedronai, Ilyena

First Appearance

Lews Therin Telamon, Elan Morin Tedronai

Spoilers

This section contains Notes on this Chapter which may contain spoilers. Please expand to view.

Mysteries

Who is Elan Morin?

He is Ishamael. While we are not told that Ishamael was the "Betrayer of Hope" until one of the later books, we should know enough from this encounter and some of the things he later says, to at least suspect that he becomes Ba'alzamon.

What did Ishamael mean that he followed a different power?

This could be referring to the True Power

How is Lews Therin Healed?

Can the True Power Heal Taint madness?

Was Ishamael telling the truth when he implied an Aes Sedai could Heal Lews?

From all we know, no one until Nynaeve managed to Heal the Taint and all attempts had failed. He did say it would only be a few minutes of lucidity

Miscellaneous

Ishamael's traveling

This is different to how we later see people Travel, but it is how Traveling using the True Power is described

Lews Therin's claim that the Dark One ravaged the world for Ten Years

The War of the Power was ten years long, but the Bore was almost a century before that, and Ishamael had revealed that the Collapse of society during that time was due to the influence of the Dark One.

After Lews Therin kills himself, Ishamael states "It will not be done until the end of time."

Although most of the Forsaken seemed to want to rule or live forever, we know that Ishamael actually did seek the end of time if he was able to fully free the Dark One.

Other

The description of the people sunk into stone is very similar to what we see later with the Trollocs caught in a trap in the Ways


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