Ishamael
What We Know of Ishamael
name: Elan Morin Tedroni
occupation: philosopher
"Analysis of Perceived Meaning"
"Reality and the Absence of Meaning"
"Disassembly of Reason"
aka: Betrayer of Hope, Ba'alzamon, Heart of the Dark, Soul of the Shadow
Elan was "one of the foremost philosophers of his time," but he was certainly one of the earliest to pledge himself to the Dark One. He served as the Dark One's top general, yet held no direct field command. He was also sealed off within the Bore, but not to the same extent as the other Chosen.
According to some texts, it is believed that not all of Ishamael was sealed away, leaving him able to touch the world at times throughout the years. Some hold that he had some part in both the Trolloc War and the War of the Hundred Years, but to what extent remains a mystery.
What is known is that Ishamael, the strongest of the male Forsaken (perhaps equaled only by Lews Therin himself), was driven at least partially mad from his use of power (both from his stature and from sai'din). Some say that he was "half-mad and less than half-human."
Ishamael was killed by Rand al'Thor in the Stone of Tear.
Clues from the Text
[TGH: 15, Kinslayer, 203]
A shadowy figure drew nearer through the mist. Behind it, as if the shadow's shadow were vast, the fog darkened till it was blacker than night... Closer the figure came, until it resolved into the shape of a man, clothed and gloved in black, with a black silk mask covering his face, and the shadow came with it. His staff was black, too, as if the wood had been charred, yet smooth and shining like water by moonlight. For an instant the eyeholes of the mask glowed, as if fires stood behind them rather than eyes...
[TGH: 15, Kinslayer, 205]
The mask came away. It was a man's face, horribly burned. Yet between the black edged, red crevices crossing those features, the skin looked healthy and smooth. Dark eyes looked at Rand; cruel lips smiled with a flash of white teeth... For a moment, eyes and mouth became doorways into endless caverns of fire.
The Chosen Speak
[TSR: 46, Veils, 524-5]
"All his pride at being half-caught, whatever, the price--there was less human left in him than any of us when I saw him again; I think he half-believed he was the Great Lord of the Dark--all his three thousand years of mechinations, and it comes to an untaught boy hunting him down."
--Moghedien
<[LoC: 6, Threads Woven of Shadow, 133]
Sammael was neither philosopher nor theologian, yet Ishamael had been both, and he claimed to have divined secrets hidden in that fact. Ishamael had died mad, true, but even when he was still sane, back when it seemed they surely would drive Lews Therin Telamon to defeat, he claimed this struggle had gone on since the Creation, an endless war between the Great Lord and the Creator using human surrogates. More, he avowed that the Great Lord would almost as soon have turned Lews Therin to the Shadow as have broken free.
Updated 06/28/99