Shaidar Haran

[TPoD: 12, New Alliances 266-7]

  • "I am Shaidar Haran... When I speak, you may consider that you hear the voice of the Great Lord of the Dark... I am his hand in this world,... When you stand before me, you stand before him."

    • What We Know of Shaidar Haran

    Clues From the Text

    The Chosen Speak

    [LoC: Prologue, The First Message, 14]

  • Demandred turned slowly--how dare a Halfman address him in that tone--but the quelling words died in his mouth. It was not the eyeless stare of its pasty-pale face; a Myrddraal's gave struck fear in any man, but he had rooted fear out of himself long ago. Rather, it was the black-clad creature itself. Every Myrddraal was the height of a tall man, a sinuous imitation of a man, as alike as though cast in one mold. This one stood head and shoulders taller.
  • Halfmen's names were always in the Trollocs' tongue-wrenching language. "Shaidar Haran" came from what people now named the Old Tongue. It meant "Hand of the Dark."
    --Demandred

    [LoC: Proloque, The First Message, 61]

  • The Halfman did smile then. It was like seeing death smile.
    --Osan'gar

    [LoC: 6, Threads Woven of Shadow, 141]

  • The summons to Shayol Ghul had resulted in a warning from the Great Lord. WHEN YOU OBEY SHAIDAR HARAN, YOU OBEY ME. WHEN YOU DISOBEY SHAIDAR HARAN... However much the warning nettled, there had been no need for more.
  • It flowed across the hallway in that eye-wrenching way, ebon cloak hanging in denial of motion. One moment it was a statue ten paces away, the next it loomed over her so she had the choice of backing away or craning her neck to look up at that dead-white, eyeless face. Backing away was out of the question.
    --Semirhage

    [ACoS: 25, Mindtrap, 412-3]

  • ...and a Myrddraal came to her in its dead black garb, like a slug-white, eyeless man, but taller, more massive than any other Halfman. It regarded her arrogantly, and gave its odd name unbidden, and commanded her to come; these were not things Myrddraal did with the Chosen...
    --Moghedien

    [ACoS: 25, Mindtrap, 416]

  • Shaidar Haran chuckled, a rasp of dried, cracked leather. That was another difference about this Myrddraal. Far more cruel than Trollocs, who were merely bloodthirsty, Myrddraal were cold and dispassionate in it. Shaidar Haran often showed amusement, though.
    --Moghedien

    [TPoD: 12, New Alliances, 266]

  • She gaped at the Myrddraal standing there, pale and eyeless and clothed in black deeper than the ball [of darkness], but larger than any she had ever seen. It had to be the reason she could not sense the Source, but that was impossible! Except... Where had that strange sphere of black light come from if not from it? She had never felt the same fear others did at a Myrddraal's gaze, not to the same degree, yet her hands rose on their own, and she had to snatch them down to keep from covering her face. Glancing toward Moghedien and Cyndane, she flinched. They had adopted the same pose as her servants, crouching on their knees, heads to the floor toward the Myrddraal.
    --Graendal


    Updated 06/28/99