#liuane

Part 1 : Proving the content of Liuan off-screen talk and plan

I claimed that the person who helped Lan with Moiraine's powers was Siuan all along and not Verin like many seems to think is the most logical and probable explanation.

Well, it's true that Verin being trusted enough to know the truth about Moiraine being stilled that them staying with them for the last 6 months makes it hard to imagine anything else.

But,we were wrong, we got fooled by the writers. As we weren't supposed to realise that there were multiple plans unfolding DURING Daes dae'Mar but only after. A lot of us did not even know what to expect or suspect with the title. I for one did not question the ep until after I went on twitter and learned that the title suggested it.

We've been shown this already thanks to episode 8. They did not want us to see the betrayal coming nor did they want us to know that Bayle Domon knew Lanfear as Selene; Knowing this, It is safe to assume that everything that seems to be the obvious answer when it comes to these plans are debatable. They did hinted at the truth throughout the season though, we just did not pick up on them.

Simple instance of this, that must now seem to stick out like a sore thumb to everyone is that in E01, when Bayle Domon comes and talk to Mo :

When did this come into your possession? [DOMON] Couple of months back. [MOIRAINE] Where? [DOMON] Outside Cairhien. The old moon dial there shattered one night this spring. I know you have men following me. I want them gone, too. I don't take kindly to unwanted company. [MOIRAINE] Your enemies are your own. It seems there's something written on this. [DOMON] Aye. The whole dial was covered in a poem when they found it. Written in blood. Old Tongue. I have a copy, actually. […] Ah, serves me right, I suppose. [MOIRAINE] These men you say are following you, what do they look like? [DOMON] Only caught a glimpse from a distance, once, when we, uh, left the dock at Whitebridge. Two men in black cloaks on horseback. [MOIRAINE ] Did you see their faces? [DOMON] No. Their hoods covered them.

Moiraine's reaction after towards Bayle Domon was an indication, there's a mention of Cairhien which we know is where Rand is, most only realised that something was off with Selene or though that she would be Lanfear (for book readers) but how many made the connections thought that the fades, Bayle Domon going to Moiraine with crucial pieces of information followed by them but never attacked and them only attacking Moiraine once he's left and given her the poem was part of some plan before episode 8 ?

Now that this is established, let's provide the proof.

Remember when I asked that you take a mental or physical note of Lan mentioning the Tower Records ?

Well, this is the show telling us implicitly that he has been working with Siuan, and misleading us into thinking that surely what would explains his knowledge on these matters when he info dumps to Moiraine about the Forsaken was that he worked with Verin, a brown sister with whom he was living with for the last 6 months or so.

It is also a really good way of diverting our attention from the incoherence this assumption would cause, like the simple fact that Lan never learned that Verin knew about the Dragon Reborn before he got separated from Moiraine and that Verin couldn't have known about his and Siuan's plans that most of us thought was about Rand, the Dragon Reborn and not about Moiraine. How would she know (if she was in on it) about something unexpected even for Lan and plan an escape for it in advance?

This lead us to assume that after Lan told Siuan about Mo's stiling she decided to go to Cairhien mostly because of Rand, to meet him and then decided ALONE to finally start following the tower rules after meeting him. No matter that they had showed before that Moiraine and Siuan's dynamic regarding their mission did not rely on having a leader even though dominance naturally oozes out of her and in spite of her position in the Tower as Amyrlin seat.

Even book readers fell for it, outraged and worried that the show was turning Siuan into Elaida. ( still not a book reader, just I obviously constantly spoil myself anything related to Liuane ( Mo, Lan, Siuan) ) but it's normal, even for book readers.

As this little piece of information is a specific Aes Sedai/ White Tower part of the lore of The Wheel Of Time.

To instantly pick up on this you'd have to have memorised it or been obsessed with the Aes sedai's when you read the books and even then, you'd have to be looking for it to catch it. So, obviously, I went looking for it.

After digging into WoT WT laws, customs and systems. I can now assure that the show itself (apart from the writer saying that they planned "a sort of intervention" for Mo in the bonus) already confirmed my theory about Liuan having a plan for Moiraine.

Mo'an in the Sun Palace

[LAN] I have a question for you. And I hope someday you'll forgive me for asking it. ( a single question huh ?) After you were stilled by Ishamael, has there been a time… in all these months when you thought about ending it? [MOIRAINE] Killing myself?

According to what I've found, the WT library has a categorisation system in place that hierarchies information. Starting from "not sealed" all the way up to "Sealed to the flame".

When something is “Sealed to the Flame,” it means that by law, it can only be read by the Amyrlin Seat. “Sealed to the Hall” means that it can only be known to Sitters and “Sealed to the Ring” that it can only be known by Aes Sedai. If something is not sealed, it is open for even the newest novice to know (ACoS, Ch. 12).

Lan, thanks to his time spent with Verin only knew that being stilled was like the most brutal form of violation one could endure and that most women died because of it. So, rather vague and general knowledge. Yet, he later tells Moiraine:

[LAN] I read the Tower records. There have only been two women in history who were cut off who didn't. Most did it within the year.

It begs the question : Which level could Tower Records be at? Thanks to my research I learned that :

By Tower law, the official histories of the White Tower are unavailable to all but Aes Sedai (TWoRJTWoT, Ch. 9).

So, I digged a little more as it was too vague to prove anything and looked for something more specific, as I remembered that stilling was apparently something taboo in the Tower ( I read it somewhere on twitter and remembered) I directed my research toward a minimum level of "Sealed to the Hall", as Lan knew specific things about the age of legend and Forsaken but also most importantly he said himself (again a clue we missed):

[LAN] There's a story from the Age of Legends about the Foresaken's powers… a skill that's been lost for thousands of years… to tie off weaves and leave them in place.

I thought there's no way this kind of knowledge is available to any Aes Sedai and so it had to be a minimum of "Sealed to The Hall" to "Sealed to The Flame" and here's what i found :

(About the Keeper of the Chronicles) She has access to the Thirteenth Depository (CoT, Glossary). Included within the Thirteenth Depository are the lists of those who have been stilled and executed (ACoS, Prologue). The Thirteenth Depository, containing secret records of the history of the White Tower, is hidden by law. Even the fact that it exists, and the law that conceals it, are hidden (ACoS, Ch. 11).

So, obviously, if just stilling records are kept in the Thirtheenth Depository, Information about skills that the forsaken used and that most believed to be lost which are actually documented in the Tower Records, surely kept in the Thirtheenth Depository.

If not Siuan, it only could have been Leane as the only other people allowed in there are the Sitters of the Hall, and even then they have to be accompanied by the Keeper otherwise they won't be allowed to access it.

"These are the secret histories, containing information that, by law, on The Amyrlin Seat, the Keeper of Chronicles and the Sitters of the Hall and the librarians who keep the records have access to."

Now that this as been proven, apologise to my client people, thank you.

About me believing she did not need to go back to the Tower to know I just refered to this thing I stumble uppon while researching :

MINOR SPOILER AHEAD (we kind of know this already but some might have not picked up on it when Min prophecised it in S1)

Egwene thinks that Siuan "must have spent a good part of her years in the Tower burying herself in the secret histories," because she "seemed to have every detail at her fingertips" (TPoD, Ch. 16).

Proving that Siuan was the one that made Moiraine gaining her powers possible, also prove that Verin probably turned to the dark at some point, which I believe was when she left with Liandrin but also :

"Compulsion is a weave that forces to do as they're instructed (TSR, Ch. 46). During the War of the Shadow, it was a potent weapon. People were forced to serve the Shadow against their will. Others were converted to undercover agents, to betray the Light at the most damaging times (TWoRJTWoT, Ch. 4)."

Reference :

https://library.tarvalon.net/index.php?title=Tower_Law#Miscellaneous

https://library.tarvalon.net/index.php?title=Thirteenth_Depository

https://library.tarvalon.net/index.php?title=Keeper_of_the_Chronicles#As_Secretary

https://library.tarvalon.net/index.php?title=Compulsion

(Part 2 : Do I really need to prove Lanfear lol ?)

proof : S2E08