Was Corianin a Darkfriend? *spoiler*

Corianin was the last known Dreamer in the Tower before Egwene, she lived 473 years before Egwene came to the Tower. She studied ter-angreal, among them sleepweaver ter-angreals.

We discover that Verin is a darkfriend at the end of the book. Verin gave Egwene a sleepweaver ter-angreal that she had found, which Corianin had studied. Corianin also left notes regarding the sleepweaver. However, the notes weren't in the official Tower records. Verin found the notes and the ter'angreal, and when Verin gave Egwene the sleepweaver, Verin kept some of the notes to herself.

Here's my questions: Did Verin keep some of the notes to herself because they gave clues about the dark? Why did Corianin keep the notes from the Tower records? How did Verin come across the notes, when it seems that Corianin had them hidden for close to 500 years?

I always kinda thought she was a darkfriend, I think it would be interesting if she was the same type of darkfriend that Verin was, where she just became one so she could study it from the inside. I like to think that Verin found her notes on the subject and decided to continue her work and thats how she came to be Black Ajah herself.

You could be right. Corianin may have found a loop hole around her oath not to rat out the Black Ajah by hiding the notes very well instead of destroying them.

You think of the most interesting questions, Arecias. :arch

If Corianin was a darkfriend, maybe she curbed the Tower away from finding and training more Dreamers? It sounds like a darkfriend-y thing to do, keeping Tel'aran'rhiod and its secrets and knowledge out of the Tower's hands. Good thing Egwene had the Aiel.

Don't they say that she disappeared suddenly? I'm not sure if I remember reading about people talking about her death, I know that they say a lot of things were last studied by her but with no official designation as to what her findings were. I'm thinking either she was a drkfriend and kept her findings from the Tower for her own use, or a Black Ajah from her time discovered her notes and kept them secret for the Black Ajah's use. I must do some more studying on this mystery

Do we know Corianin's ajah? I do not remember it ever being mentioned, I am wondering if she was a Brown like Verin. Otherwise, to devote 50 (at least) years to studying Ter'angreal could be seen as an odd behaviour.

If the Black Ajah knew to steal the exact 13 Ter'angreal that they did for the purposes of entering Tel'aran'rhiod (which we assume they must have known), it would stand to reason that they gathered that information somewhere. More intriguing is the note attached to most of the items they stole - "Use unknown, last study made by Corianin Nedeal." It seems like the Back Ajah knew the uses before they stole them, which makes it seem that they had notes denied to the rest of the sisters in the tower.

Which leads me to another question - was Corianin an dreamer at all, or did she simply make use of these Ter'angreal without letting any other sisters know? Verin says she barely deserved the title of dreamer, and the twisted stone ring was her secret, kept from everyone else in the tower. If she discovered the use of entering Tel'aran'rhiod, she could access it as easily as say Elayne or Nynaeve, neither of whom are dreamers. And if Corianin was Black Ajah as has been suggested, she would easily be able to lie and say she never discovered the uses of these items. This would make her seem like a dreamer, giving her (presumably) some measure of prestige in the tower, more than she would have had without it at any rate. I feel like this would be useful for the Black Ajah, and something a darkfriend might do.

But the black ajah had the forsaken to help them. They could have told them which ter'angreal to steal.
There are also other options. If I remember correctly Verin said she had to choose between joining the black ajah or die, basically. So it's possible that the black ajah killed Corianin for her research (seeing as they use TAR often as a safe place to scheme and stuff. Maybe they were there before and were threatened by her or that they saw the potential and she gave them the start of TAR). When Verin started researching, they came after her, and she chose to join.
It's all speculation at this point, of course.

I don't think there's been any evidence to suggest that the Black Ajah used TAR prior to the books? Aside from being pulled into it by Ishamael, perhaps. Feels most likely that Mesaana instructed the Black Ajah in which ter'angreal to steal and that that's how they knew.

A non-Brown studying ter'angreal isn't all that unique, either. Elayne, anyone?

I don't really like the notion of Verin having discovered Corianin's research and Corianin having had the same purpose as Verin. Makes Verin feel less special. I interpreted things as Verin having collected all of her research on her own, having worked with it for a veeeery long time. My very personal guess/speculation is that she was always one of those people who believed that the Black Ajah existed, and that she wanted to find out. So she went digging, pretended to show interest in it, enough to draw the attention of the BA as a potential candidate. So they approached her, and gave her the choice.

A lot of Aes Sedai keep things to themselves, whether they're Black or not. That Corianin would keep her research to herself isn't all that odd - especially if she died prematurely, or in some form of accident based on her research. When Martine Janata was burned out by studying ter'angreal, the White Tower locked up everything she worked with, and they did not know which ter'angreal had burnt her out. Which indicates that she didn't exactly keep meticulous notes. Hiding things and concealing the truth a fundamental part of being Aes Sedai, despite their Oath. A looot of Aes Sedai hide weaves, for instance, even though these could greatly benefit everyone. Ajahs hide weaves as well. Information is not shared for the sake of spreading knowledge, but hoarded for various reasons.

For all we know, Corianin always intended to publish her research (so to speak), but died before she was finished and thus, her notes were just stored away with the rest of her belongings in some basement. Or she was just curious and saw no reason to involve anybody else. Verin could have stumbled upon her records by mere chance. Or Corianin's research was locked away and declared dangerous, if she was killed by it. Which I imagine is something that would've sparked Verin's interest ...