Cadsuane Melaidhrin
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[edit] Appearance
She has very dark eyes and has gray hair, which is always done up in a bun. She has many hair ornaments attached to her hair which are actually angreal and ter'angreal.
[edit] History
Years ago, fairly soon after she had just attained the shawl she suffered a humiliating lesson from a toothless wilder named Norla, who lived in the Black Hills.
She was the strongest Aes Sedai in the One Power for 1,000 years before the discovery of Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara, and Elayne Trakand. Although of the Green Ajah, over the years she has confronted and captured more men who could channel than any other living sister, including those of the Red Ajah; a little known oddity is that the men she brought to the White Tower tended to live much longer after being gentled than those brought by other sisters. She had a hand in capturing Logain Ablar, Mazrim Taim and Emarin.
Cadsuane regards as one of her two bitterest failures not learning "what Caraline Damodred's cousin had been up to in the Borderlands until the knowledge was years too late to do any good." [1]
[edit] Back from the dead
Cadsuane Melaidhrin shows up in Canluum where she tells Larelle Tarsi and Merean Redhill to look after Moiraine Damodred until she has bonded a Warder (Moiraine was in Kandor searching for the Dragon Reborn). The two sisters are shocked to see her as they assumed she was dead by now.
[edit] Cairhien
Years later she shows up in Cairhien, and attempts to assert herself with Rand al'Thor, but fails to get through to him immediately. She seems disgusted with the sisters who swore an oath of fealty to Rand, and drills Merana Ambrey, Annoura Larisen, Bera Harkin and Kiruna Nachiman on events that have happened recently.
Cadsuane later assists Rand in escaping from a "bubble of evil" outside of Cairhien and helps him get back to Cairhien. As of late, she has taken the place of Moiraine Damodred as one of Rand's primary advisors. Her ultimate motives are unclear, beyond a promise made with Sorilea - the strongest in personality of all the Wise Ones- to make him "remember laughter and tears." To show faith on her part of the deal, Sorilea teaches Cadsuane how to Travel.
[edit] Cleansing of saidin
She blackmails three Asha'man; Jahar Narishma, Damer Flinn and Eben Hopwil, into accepting Warder bonds from some of the Aes Sedai she leads. She also holds in captivity for awhile Shalon din Togara Morning Tide and blackmails her into finding out what the Sea Folk want with Rand. She then takes Alanna Mosvani with her to find Rand and goes to Far Madding to meet him there. While in Far Madding Cadsuane meets with Aleis Barsalla and the rest of the Councils and bullies Aleis into letting her and her group stay at her premises. She later confides with Verin Mathwin, that Min Farshaw's revelation that Rand needs her, and that she intends to teach him laughter and tears again. After Verin meets Rand randomly on the streets of Far Madding, she is sent to ask if Cadsuane will be his advisor. When Rand is captured by the Far Madding guards, Min and Alivia run to tell Cadsuane about it. From there she gathers the Asha'man and walks in on a meeting of the Councils. Aleis has Rand prisoner and intends to hand him over to the White Tower. She is forced to break Aleis, in order for her to release Rand.
They then leave Far Madding and Travel to just outside Shadar Logoth where Rand and Nynaeve begin to cleanse saidin. She organizes the defenses for the Battle near Shadar Logoth. She stays by Rand and Nynaeve and uses one of her hair ornaments to hold a shield dome above them while they are defenseless. She uses another to detect where any of the Forsaken may be channeling and guides Elza Penfell where to point callandor and 'fire'.
[edit] Rand's advisor
After the Cleansing of saidin the group Travel to Tear and stay in Algarin Pendaloan's house until Rand can recover.
Rand finally begins to use her as his advisor and asks her opinion on his planned truce with the Seanchan. She at first isn't happy with it until Rand also tells her of his answer from the Aelfinn and the land having to be divided. She participates in the fight with the Trollocs when they attack the mansion. When Logain reveals that Rand is drawing as much as he can from the source, she turns to Min and asks how he's feeling. Min refuses to answer. She also seems to rub not only Rand, but all other Asha'man the wrong way, when she gets the chance such as hassling Logain about him losing his small strip of land when he became a false Dragon. She seems to respect Rand when he bites back and gives her the condition of not threatening Min or any of his other friends again.
She seems surprised with Rand when he hands over Verin's letter to her when Verin decides to leave Tear by herself. She is one of the six to accompany Rand to his meeting with the Daughter of the Nine Moons. One of her ter'angreal reveals the Daughter of the Nine Moons to actually be Semirhage in disguise.
| Spoilers: Information ahead comes from The Gathering Storm; please be careful if you have not read that book yet! |
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| After Semirhage's capture, she was put in charge of interrogating the Forsaken, but was told not to torture her under any circumstances. After days of getting nowhere, Cadsuane realized that to break Semirhage, she had to tear down the woman's status as a legend. When Semirhage refused to eat what was brought to her, Cadsuane spanked her and made her eat off the floor. When Semirhage escaped, she stole the male a'dam hidden in Cadsuane's room and used it to collar Rand al'Thor. In the aftermath, Rand blames Cadsuane for this slip up, and exiles her, telling her that if he ever saw her face again, he would kill her. Cadsuane realized she had misjudged on how to treat Rand, and feared that he might be able to kill her with a thought, as he had previously claimed. In a last effort to help Rand, Cadsuane had Tam brought to Tear. When Rand found out that Cadsuane sent Tam, he only got more angry, nearly killing Tam. That sent Rand on a very abbreviated journey of self-discovery during which he considered destroying the pattern with the Choedan Kal, but turned the sa'angreal on itself, destroying it. Then he laughed. As a result, Cadsuane could be said to have succeeded in teaching him to laugh and cry. |
[edit] Hair ornaments
Cadsuane owns a set of hair ornaments consisting of an angreal and various ter'angreal, in the form of "small dangling golden fish and birds, stars and moons", dating from the Breaking of the World. Semirhage reveals that the collection of hair ornaments to be something called a "paralis-net"[2].
Of the ornaments:
- A bird that looks "a little like a shrike" is an angreal [3]
- The hummingbird is a Well [4]
- One representing intertwined golden crescents, goes cool when flows of saidar are handled around her - perhaps operating along the same lines as Mat Cauthon's foxhead medallion [5]
- An eight-pointed star vibrates in the presence of men who can channel, more so with increasing numbers [6]
- A swallow detects the One Power being channeled and in which direction, though does not indicate distance.[7] Priority is given to the detection of pure saidin over saidar and linked users of the One Power.
Three other ornaments, two fish and one moon, have purposes that Cadsuane does not know.
The circumstances under which she acquired the set remain somewhat unclear. She was given them by a "toothless wilder" called Norla who resided in the Black Hills. It seems that Cadsuane's encounter with her was pivotal in her development as an Aes Sedai. How this woman came into possession of the ornaments and why she passed them on to Cadsuane is unknown.
[edit] Viewing
One of Min's viewings shows that she will teach Rand and all the other Asha'man something they have to learn and that none of them will like it.
- ↑ Winter's Heart, Chapter 37
- ↑ The Gathering Storm, Chapter 22
- ↑ Winter's Heart, Chapter 35
- ↑ Winter's Heart, Chapter 34
- ↑ The Path of Daggers, Chapter 12
- ↑ Crossroads of Twilight, Chapter 23
- ↑ Winter's Heart, Chapter 35
