[ Introduction | Contents | Administrivia | Information | World | Trivia | Prophecies | Publishing | Credits ]
Padan Fain was a Lugard peddler, who moonlighted as a Friend of the Dark. When it came time for the Dragon to be reborn, Fain was taken to Shayol Ghul and made into the Dark One's Hound, to search out the Dragon Reborn. Followed the boys to Shadar Logoth and had a run-in with Mordeth. Mordeth tried to devour Fain's soul, but couldn't, because of the hold the DO had on him. So Fain became part Mordeth, part minion of the DO. This is basically what the books tell us.
Roy Navarre and Tony Z came up with a theory that Fain is actually the avatar of the DO. Roy says: First, if you check the glossary, you will see that the DO is described as the source of all evil. Hence Mashadar must flow from the DO or the glossary is wrong. (We had pages and pages of discussion on this in the past). Next, Myself and Tony Z presented detailed evidence suggesting that Fain is the avatar of the DO. With each broken seal, Fain gets stronger. Thus, the DO has been in our midst all this time but we just didn't know it. At first only a trace of him in Fain, but growing stronger and stronger until now his presence in Fain seems unmistakable. (Survey Says)
Eric Ebinger counters:
Fain no longer exists. Padan Fain was summoned to Shayol Ghul, was broken
and reformed into a bloodhound for the DO, as part of which he was imprinted
by the DO. This happened twice at Shayol Ghul and once in a dream.
Padan Fain/DO bloodhound went to Shadar Logoth and fell prey to Mordeth.
Normally, Mordeth would just destroy the existing "soul/personality", but
Padan Fain's having been "remade" by the DO seems to have changed things
sufficiently so that there was a slow gradual merging of *all* of the
different personalities (Fain/Mordeth/DO's imprint). The most accurate
term for the combination is the name that he took: Ordeith. Over time, the
Mordeth portion has gained more and more control over the gestalt. The DO's
imprint has given Ordeith the unreasoning hatred of Rand, Perrin, and Mat.
There doesn't seem to be much of anything of Padan Fain left. As the
Mordeth fragment has gained more complete control of the gestalt, Ordeith
has increased in power. The seeming relationship between the breaking of
the Seals and Ordeith's power is due only to the fact that as time passes
Ordeith gets stronger and as time passes the Seals break. The same
relationship is evident with Rand, Perrin, Mat, Elayne, Egwene, Aviendha
and Nynaeve.
What is he up to now? Not much, for somebody who is supposedly as dangerous as the Shadow. He went to the Fortress of the Light and the White Tower to sow seeds of dissension, and make sure Pedron Niall and Elaida would never join Rand. He seems to be currently involved in causing Rand trouble, in little instances which could, admittedly, build up. He instigated a failed assassination of Rand by his ex-WCs in Caemlyn. He might also have been responsible for the attack on the Brown AS in Caemlyn which ended up driving a rift between Rand and the Salidar AS, and sending him into the hands of Elaida's AS in Cairhien, but this could just as easily (and more probably) have been part of some Forsaken's plot, or a plot by the Tower AS & the Shaido to alienate the Salidar AS from Rand. At the last sighting, he was hanging with Toram Riatin (a Cairhienin rebel) and calling himself "Jeraal Mordeth." As far as we know, he still has his pet myrddraal.
[ Introduction | Contents | Administrivia | Information | World | Trivia | Prophecies | Publishing | Credits ]
This page was last modified on 24-Aug-1996, 15:51. Illustrations © 1989-1996 by Tor Books.