Ishamael (from The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan)

Foremost of the thirteen who formed the high counsil of the Shadow's forces was Ishamael, or 'Betrayer of Hope' in the Old Tongue. Also known as Ba'alzamon, Heart of the Dark, and Soul of the Shadow, he was assuredly the Dark One's top captain-general despite the fact that he never held a direct field command. Believed to be the most powerful of the Chosen in the use of the One Power, he was equaled by none but Lews Therin Telamon himself.

As Elan Morin Tedronai, he was one of the foremost philosophers of his time, possibly the foremost. His books (among them 'Analysis of Perceived Meaning', 'Reality and the Absence of Meaning', and the 'Disassembly of Reason'), while too esoteric for wide popularity, were extremely influential in many areas beyond philosophy, especially in the arts. No copies survive, and perhaps the world is better off for it, considering the circumstances. Some particles that have survived of his writings from after he went over to the Shadow - probably letters - indicate that it was his belief that the war between the Shadow and the soul of Lews Therin had gone on since the creation, an endless war between the Great Lord of the Dark and the Creator using human surrogates. According to him, Lews Therin had succumbed to the Dark during other turnings of the Wheel and become the Great Lord's champion. During the war, he fought as hard to turn Lews Therin to the side of the Shadow as he did to defeat him.

Elan Morin certainly was among the first to pledge himself to the Shadow, possibly the first. His public announcement of this, coming from a world-respected figure at a time when famine, plagues, and massive riots were racking an unprepared world, in the middle of a conference called to discuss dealing with the crisis, sparked even greater riots. It was Elan Morin who at the same time first announced to the world what it was that they faced. He called for the complete destruction of the old order - indeed, the complete destruction of everything.

When the Dragon led the final strike against the Dark at Shayol Ghul, Ishamael may have been in some way only partially trapped by the seal on the Bore, leaving him aware and able to touch the world while the others slept within the seal - this according to a recently discovered torn manuscript attributed to Aran son of Malan son of Senar (born circa 50 AB). The manuscript, which was apparently incomplete at Aran's death, is based largely on letters and diaries which Aran attributes to Aes Sedai who lived during the Breaking itself. These writings (unfortunately represented today only by small quotations within the manuscript) claim that there were sightings of, even encounters with, Ishamael after the Bore was sealed, in fact pherhaps as much as forty years after. In no case were the sightings by the woman who wrote the diaries, but Aran apparently trusted them implicitly.

Such claims might be though ridiculous except that Aran is known to have been a writer of strict honesty, one who never cited a source that he could not verify (though both his sources and their verification are long lost to us). He speculated (citing other lost sources) that it may have taken some years for Ishamael to be drawn fully into the trap with the other Forsaken. If this was so, it seemed possible that Ishamael might well be thrown out of the prison holding the others and drawn back again on some regular cycle. During his lifetime Aran made observations based on cycles of various multiples of forty years without discovering any indications that one of the Forsaken was loose in the world at those intervals.

The last pages of the manuscript suggest that Aran had become doubtful of his own thesis, but we have evidence that he may have been right. Interviews with imprisoned Darkfriends revealed that a number of them received instructions from Ishamael long before the other Forsaken were freed (an event generally agreed to have occurred in 997 or 998 NE, and to have been caused by the gradual weakening of the seals). Some claim to have received instructions from him as early as 983 NE, when plainly the seals were still strong enough to hold the others.

It seems entirely likely that Ishamael could have been free in still earlier times, and that the cycle was merely longer than Aran could observe. Certainly two periods of the greatest upheaval humanity has known since the Breaking, the Trolloc Wars and the War of the Hundred Years, would be likely times for one of the Forsaken to be free and working his malevolence. During the Trolloc Wars the name Ba'alzamon, later claimed by Ishamael, was used by a paramount leader, and later by other Dreadlords. No such connection exists during the War of the Hundred Years, but it is hardly impossible given the other evidence. Perhaps some future researcher will determine whether Ishamael was in fact responsible for these two disasters to humankind.

Further evidence of this possibility comes from recent accounts by those who claim to have seen Ishamael before his death. He is said there to have forgotten his true name, and to be more than half-mad and less than half-human, a condition which could be at least partially accounted for by Aran's theory. He was usually dressed all in black with flame in place of eyes and mouth. Whether this was a trick of the Power or the result of his entrapment is unknown. He was killed by Rand al'Thor in the Stone of Tear in 999 NE, but with the Lord of the Grave, death is not always final.

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