The Dark One attempting to break into the world of man.
The Dark One is an immensely powerful being assumed by the characters of the series to be the oldest and most powerful force of evil in existence. In addition to simply being malicious, his actions and goals seem to portray him as a personification of chaos, with the big exception of the willingness to organize. The Dark One seems only to seek to destroy creation, but his true goal is to break the spirits and hearts of whatever sentient beings he can influence. His influence is revealed to be an integral part of human free will, as his existence still affects the Pattern even without the presence of a Bore. If destroyed, humans (and likely other sentients) become completely incapable of evil, violence, or selfishness in any respect. He is said to have been imprisoned by the Creator at the beginning of time in a separate dimension outside of normal reality, and has sought ever since to break free of his prison and break the Wheel of Time and remake the world according to his image and purpose. He is currently imprisoned.
True name
His true name is Shai'tan, (pronounced: SHAY-ih-TAN) but speaking that name is believed by most people to bring misfortune on the speaker, so there are many alternative names for him:
- Father of Lies
- Sightblinder (used by the Aiel)
- Lord of the Grave
- Lord of the Twilight
- Shepherd of the Night
- Heartsbane
- Soulsbane
- Heartfang (used by the wolves)
- Old Grim
- Grassburner
- Leafblighter (used by the Aiel)
- Father of Storms (used by the Atha'an Miere)
- Caisen Hob ("Old Hob", used by the Seanchan)
- Lighteater (used by the Seanchan)
In addition, his own followers consider it blasphemy to speak his name directly, so they most commonly refer to him by more flattering epithets:
- Great Lord of the Dark (or simply 'the Great Lord')
- Lord of the Grave
- Lord of the Evening - a name used in the Prophecies of the Shadow
The name Ba'alzamon (meaning "Heart of the Dark" in the Trolloc language) was used by Ishamael before his death; humans learned it and assumed that it was the Trolloc name for the Dark One, leading to the assumption for the duration of the first three books and for much of the world's history that Ishamael was actually the Dark One himself - a falsehood which he did nothing to repudiate.
Power
When encountered by Rand during the final assault on Shayol Ghul, the Dark One is decribed as being powerful beyond measure; a universe-spanning force of evil that is both incomprehensible in its nature and infinite in its being. His presence is described as being beyond space, size, and time, and his essence is said to be utterly empty, yet infinite. Though the Dark One is beyond the concept of time, he is constrained by it in his interactions with the Pattern simply because it is an integral part of reality. It is described as being akin to an artist's imagination exceeding the limits of the material they have to work with. It is for this reason that he cannot save souls that have ben burned from the Pattern by balefire; time does not exist for the Dark One, but it does exist for the soul in question. For a soul that dies by virtually any other means however, the Dark One can retrieve that soul and place it into a new body. Besides balefire, being consumed by Mashadar may also place a soul beyond his reach, as Sammael was never reborn after being killed in this manner. However, no direct evidence is given beyond Sammael's death to validate this, as the Dark One seems to have neglected to resurrect Aginor after his second death by conventional means. Another power that is beyond the Dark One is giving someone the ability to channel, or changing the amount of the One Power that a particular individual can draw on.
Verin Sedai has noted the Dark One is the "embodiment of paradox and chaos, destroyer of reason and logic, breaker of balance, the unmaker of order". It is he who placed the taint on saidin at the end of the War of Power, and he has promised power and immortality to all who follow him. She also states that, while she believes she understands the Forsaken, she has no idea what the Dark One's goal is or why he does what he does. Moridin has stated that the Dark One's eventual goal will not be to destroy reality and remake it, but rather to simply destroy everything. However, the Dark One's goal is later revealed to be control over Creation. He has no particular desire as to how the world would exist after his victory, and presents possibilities from a completely tortured, ruined world and people to a world where he has simply removed from sentient beings the ability to feel compassion. The concept of simply destroying creation however, is also stated to be something that he would be pleased with. He seems to have a sense of humor, laughing at the end of Lord of Chaos at Demandred's unknown news. He has given strict orders that Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn and his greatest foe, is not to be harmed in any way by his followers. This is later revealed to be because he wishes above all else to break his foes, and that destroying them is not necessarily part of his plans. As the cosmic embodiment and source of all evil, he is incapable of understanding concepts like nobility and compassion, and is also evidently incapable of performing or experiencing anything that could be considered good. Additionally, despite his unfathomable power, it is possible to kill the Dark One by bringing him into the Pattern. This is due to the fact that time exists within the Pattern, and as such, things can be brought to an end within the Pattern.
The Dark One is capable of warping reality to certain degrees within the Pattern without being able to actually touch it. Around and within the area of Shayol Ghul, he is capable of changing the height of the stalactites on the ceiling of the tunnel that leads to the Pit of Doom without actually seeming to make them move. He can also warp distances and perceptions within Shayol Ghul. How he does this is not known, but Rand al'Thor demonstrated the ability to counter this meddling through force of will combined with his ta'veren nature. Additionally, the lands around Shayol Ghul, at least those lands that aren't completely devoid of life, are filled with unnaturally deadly creatures and plant life, much of which is in an accelerated state of decay. If one is actually within the Pit of Doom, one can hear the Dark One's "voice" as it were as a telepathic projection of immense power. With the possible exception of Ishamael/Moridin, the Dark One is not capable of directly communicating with anyone in the Pattern unless they are present at the Pit of Doom. Why Moridin seems to be exempt from this may be due to his continual, high level use of the True Power. The Dark One's ability to manipulate the Pattern has grown as the patch over the Bore has weakened. This has been the cause of numerous destructive, chaotic events that seem to occur at random over time, but increase in frequency as the seals weaken;
- The Forsaken began to escape, starting with Aginor and Balthamel.
- Bubbles of evil, likened by Moiraine to a miasma in a swamp, emanate periodically from the Dark One, twisting reality in the Pattern to lethal effect, especially near ta'veren.
- The Dark One often uses the environment against his enemies. In The Eye of the World, he attempted to cause widespread starvation through prolonged winter. The unnatural winter was broken by Rand al'Thor, as he unintentionally uses the store of pure saidin at the Eye of the World. He also causes unnatural heat but this is also stopped by Elayne and Nynaeve when they use the Bowl of the Winds. Currently, the world is shrouded in perpetually overcast skies, but it is unknown if the Dark One is responsible for this most recent abnormal weather.
- Images of the dead/ghosts have begun to appear as the Last Battle approaches.
- The world in general dying and decaying; plants going into hibernative, death-like states, food spoiling, animals hibernating, etc.
The Dark One is the source of the True Power, which is analogous to the One Power. However, one can only draw on the True Power with the Dark One's blessing. Use of the True Power creates saa; little flecks of black that move horizontally across the eyes of the wielder. Furthermore, it is much more addictive than either saidin or saidar, and it is believed that not even the strongest willpower can fight the desire to use it once the saa have begun to manifest. The more a channeler uses the True Power, the more saa are seen. Saa doesn't affect the channeler's vision. The True Power is demonstrated to be centered around death and destruction; for example Moridin uses it accidentally to crush the life out of a servant. It is also highly destructive to its user, the saa will eventually be replaced by caverns of fire where the mouth and eyes of the channeler would be. This is a highly advanced stage of True Power usage and the user will die soon after unless they have been granted immortality by the Dark One. This power is given to only the Dark One's most favored servants, and in quantities reflecting the particular individual's favor. Rand al'Thor later discovers the ability to access the True Power by means of a link that he and Moridin accidentally created between their souls. Using Callandor, it is possible to use the True Power against the Dark One himself, as it is a True Power sa'angreal, and the Dark One can't immediately cut off access to the True Power if one is wielding it in such large quantities.
Etymology
The name Shai'tan is likely taken from Shaitan the Hebrew word for the adversary, later translated to Satan, or Sheytaan, the Arabic word usually referring to "devil".
Possible Cosmological Function (speculative)
The purpose of the Creator in bringing the Dark One into being is an issue that is occasionally pondered by a few of the characters in the series, due mostly to the widely perceived idea that the Dark One seems to serve no obviously functional purpose in the grand scheme of Creation. however, it is shown by Rand al'Thor during his metaphysical conflict with the Dark One during the Last Battle that the Dark One functions as the sole enabler of any sentient tendency towards selfish behavior of any kind. Given that fact, and given the fact that the Creator seems to have at least some interest in safeguarding his Creation (assuming that the disembodied, telepathic "voice" that Rand heard twice outside of Shayol Ghul was in fact the Creator), it is possible that the Creator made the Dark One specifically for the purpose of allowing his creation to have free will.
It is also commonly believed that the Dark One' prison being breached by humanity is a cyclical, inevitable part of the Wheel of Time and the Pattern. Ishamael in particular, who was an extremely accomplished philosopher and theologian, believed that the Wheel of Time continually provided the Dark One with opportunities to be freed throughout history because of the Pattern's requirement for balance. However, particularly given the extra-realistic nature of the Dark One, there is evidence to suggest that the cyclical inevitability of this event might be wrong, or at least might not be as regular an event as Ishamael believed it to be.
After Rand sealed the Bore permanently, he came to realize that the havoc that the Dark One was able to wreak on the world was ultimately all facilitated, enabled, and carried out by human beings; that the Dark One was, ultimately, not the true enemy in the sense that humanity's collective suffering is always entirely due to the decisions of some of it's people. With regard to human behavior, the Dark One ultimately had no more power inside the Pattern, even with the presence of the Bore, than humanity allowed him to have. As to the more direct influence of the Dark One through the Bore, the balance of the Pattern was shown to intrinsically counter the extra-realistic meddling of the Dark One through various mechanisms. Additionally, the negative elements of the world that the Pattern might require to balance itself can be seen to insert themselves into reality without requiring any direct influence from the Dark One. For instance, Rand believed that because the world government during the Age of Legends seemed unwilling to admit that the "utopian" society of the time had a considerable number of problems, that a societal collapse of one kind or another may have been inevitable even without the drilling of the Bore. Such a collapse and descent into war would have provided the disastrous destruction necessary to balance out the achievement of the Age of Legends without requiring the Dark One's prison to be breached. Also, as the Dark One exists outside of the Pattern, his direct influence may not be considered to be a part of the "balance" that the Pattern inevitably weaves into itself.