Masema

[Aduiavas Ida]

I am reading through the books again Or technically I am listening to the books on Audible.

Anyway, I am currently somewhere in Fires of Heaven, and have just encountered the Prophet, Masema. And I wonder, what is his deal? Is the under Compulsion, or is it Fains influence somehow? I seem to recall that Masema somtimes sees Rand, or a person claiming to be Rand, come and give him orders. Is this Fain, or one of the Forsaken? Moridin maybe?

 

[Ilverin Matriam]

really? I thought he was just insane... he supposedly got crazy after seeing Rand and Ishamael in the sky above Falme right?

Also Perrin mentions almost all the time that he "smells" insane.

 

[Elania al'Manir]

Based on what I remember, I was more inclined to think crazy. Although I just went and looked him up, and we get an answer in Knife of Dreams.

Spoiler

Masema talks about a vision of Rand telling him to kill Perrin. A fan asked Brandon Sanderson if the "vision" had the soul of a male or female, and he said it was a female. So the fan theory is that it was one of the female forsaken manipulating him the whole time. http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=537#3

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

Elania, this is the book 1-14 forum, no real need for spoiler tags

And yes, it is of course a chance that the guy is just nuts But the fact that someone is giving him orders of some kind, and that his insanity is kind of contagious leads me to think that there must be something more behind it...

 

[Elania al'Manir]

Well, yes it's that forum, but since you mentioned you were on book 6 of a re-read I wasn't sure if you wanted "spoilers" for stuff you couldn't remember or hadn't gotten to yet.

 

[Aduiavas Ida]

I have reread these books so many times, I remember quite a lot
But as you can see, I discover something new every time

 

[Dovienya el'Korim]

Wow, I always just assumed he was insane. I never thought to look deeper.

But now that I think about it, his last thoughts were very strange in the context. He was asking his father if he "did alright", or something along those lines. It just never quite fit in my mind. Perhaps it could be tied in to this, somehow.