Alinur Sarin Drenai

The Second Age

Alinur was born into a world cradled in privilege yet haunted by the omnipresent specter of human suffering. From his earliest days of the Second Age, his intellect towered above his peers, an insatiable curiosity about the nature of existence driving him. Particularly, his fascination with the concepts of infinity and the cyclical patterns of time hinted at a mind that sought to unravel the Wheel’s most profound mysteries. The beginning of his intellectual career was marked by profound new revelations in mathematics, where he devised ways to account for derivations with infinite limits. His first notable contribution to knowledge was through a method to determine the number of turnings of the Wheel and the rebirths of a given soul. This quantification of eternity and the nature of time boosted his prestige and earned him his third name very young. 

Soon, however, the limits of mathematics reached its end. His mind already naturally gravitated toward the abstract, but he found himself forced to broaden his considerations beyond quantifiable reason and reach into the realm of philosophy. For what was the purpose of calculating infinity if eternity itself is a mere construct? His journey from mathematical prodigy seeking to prove the correctness of his own theories to servant of the Dark One was already in progress by the time the Bore was opened. 

This quest for understanding led Alinur to Elowen Marena, whose inadvertent opening of the Bore became the catalyst for his transformation. In the Bore’s dark whispers, Alinur found confirmation of his theories on time and rebirth, viewing the revelations within it not as temptations but as truths that validated his superior intellect. His arrogance swelled, and with it, his conviction that he was destined to play a pivotal role in the grand tapestry of the Pattern. The truths that the Dark One shared with Alinur led to his second Enlightenment, this time of such profound awareness in the context of his former studies of the nature of time and the futility of eternity, his convictions were cemented. He swore his soul to the Dark One and became the Forsaken, Eshamir. 

Eshamir

Eshamir’s philosophy, rooted in a cold logic that embraced the end of existence as liberation from suffering, drew to him a legion of followers. These acolytes, blinded by fanaticism, saw in Eshamir not a man but a messiah who promised an end to the eternal cycle of pain. Yet, for all his talk of ending suffering, Eshamir’s actions—or lack thereof—betrayed a deep-seated narcissism. He was a man who believed he bore the weight of the world’s salvation, yet in truth, he sought only to validate his own beliefs and superiority.

The Dragon alone embodied the hope Eshamir sought to extinguish. In the Dragon, Eshamir saw not only a foe but a cosmic rival, one that the Great Lord of the Dark revealed he was fated to oppose in an eternal struggle. Eshamir argued that his victory was a statistical inevitability, one that he only needed to win once to achieve his vision of peace. Yet, the Dragon’s unwavering resistance stood as a testament to the power of hope and the flawed nature of Eshamir’s logic. 

When the Dragon and his Companions attacked Shayol Ghul, and the other Chosen were imprisoned, the bars of Eshamir’s prison were held in place differently. His legacy was sealed in infamy, remembered as the Betrayer of Hope and the Father of Lies, yet, even in apparent defeat, his belief in his eventual freedom and vindication remained unshaken, testament to his unyielding conviction in his own righteousness. 

In the wake of his fall, Eshamir’s name became a byword for betrayal and deception, his philosophical musings twisted into cautionary tales. Yet, beneath the scorn and vilification, whispers persisted—secret followers of the Shadow who saw in Eshamir’s fall not a failure but a martyrdom for a misunderstood truth. 

Following his sealing away, the world believed it had seen the last of Eshamir, the Betrayer of Hope. Yet, the Pattern, with its indifferent march through time, had other plans. Unlike the other Chosen, Eshamir’s imprisonment bore the unique curse of temporal freedom—a cruel irony that allowed him brief sojourns of influence across the millennia. This peculiar fate rendered him an agent of despair, reappearing through the centuries to sew chaos and destruction.

During these ephemeral periods of freedom, Eshamir’s influence was catastrophic. With each thousand-year cycle, he returned to walk the world, his power undiminished, his intellect sharpened by centuries of communion with the Great Lord of the Dark. He summoned forth legions of trollocs from the depths of the Blight, razed Hawkwing’s kingdom to ashes, and toppled empires with the precision of a chess master orchestrating the fall of kings and queens. His name, whispered in fear and loathing, became a legend that transcended generations—a boogeyman of the darkest sort, a specter of doom: Eshamir, Betrayer of Hope, will come for you.

The Father of Lies

Three millennia after his imprisonment, Eshamir’s chains were finally broken. Freed fully, he found a world still vulnerable to his machinations. Eshamir dedicated his newfound freedom to his ultimate goal: the liberation of his master, the Dark One. His efforts to reopen the Bore were not just attempts to fulfill a dark ambition but were also driven by a twisted sense of loyalty and the belief in his prophesied role in ending the cycle of suffering. He moved through the world like a shadow, rallying dark forces, manipulating events and people as if they were pieces on a board game, all in pursuit of his final, apocalyptic vision, one he would win.

Two years after his release, he faced the Dragon Reborn once more. It was in this epic battle that he was vanquished, but while Eshamir was gone in body, his spirit would return.

Mordred

Upon his resurrection, the Forsaken formerly known as Eshamir returned as Mordred, a being of unparalleled power and dark wisdom. This rebirth was not merely a second chance at life but a profound evolution that crystallized his role in the cosmic drama between Light and Shadow. Mordred retained the memories of his life as Eshamir, imbuing him with a deep, unshakable conviction in his cause and a bitter understanding of the stakes involved in the eternal pursuit of freeing the Lord of Darkness.

Armed with the True Power—Mordred set about orchestrating the final stages of his master’s liberation. This power, granted by the Dark One, was not just a tool but a symbol of the trust and favor shown to him. It was a force that, unlike the One Power he wielded as Eshamir, tapped directly into the essence of the Dark One, offering destructive capabilities beyond imagination and a direct link to his master’s will. He was Nae’blis, now, and his mind tuned to a single purpose.

His resurrection had afforded him insights into the fundamental structures of reality, insights that he used to manipulate events, alliances, and the very fabric of the Pattern to his advantage. Despite the increase in his power and wisdom, Mordred’s transformation also intensified his existential despair. More than ever, he was aware of the futility of the endless cycle of time and the suffering it wrought. This awareness fueled his determination to break the Wheel, not just as a means to end his suffering but as the ultimate proof of his ideology and his superiority over those who opposed him.

Nae’blis

Alinur’s work, having engaged deeply in the study of past lives, the cyclical nature of time, and the essence of souls, caught the attention of Alethea Sayre Maelsouvra, a fellow researcher at Collam Daan, renowned for her studies in souls, dreams, and memories. Despite the divergence in their ideologies, Alethea harbored a profound professional respect and admiration for Alinur. Her fascination with his theories and the man himself laid the groundwork for a complex bond that would echo through the Ages.

Alethea’s prophetic paintings, a secret shared only with Eshamir, became a tool in his arsenal, a hidden well of knowledge that he exploited for his own ends. The destruction of these artworks, save for those he kept for himself, ensured that no one else could glean the secrets of the future they held. These paintings, a legacy of Alethea’s gifts, offered Eshamir insights spanning eternity. Such paintings inspired him to nurture Artur Hawkwing into power, for instance. But most significant were the ones that unfolded the tale of the end of the Wheel, where the Last Battle would be fought for the last time.

Three thousand years later, the cycle of rebirth saw Alethea reborn as Miraseia Breakwater, carrying within her soul an intrinsic loyalty to Eshamir though she was unaware of it. This loyalty, dormant yet potent, promised a resurgence of their complex relationship when Eshamir uncovered her identity in this new Age. Miraseia Sedai, having vanished after the battle of Tar Valon, remained a mystery, her whereabouts unknown even to those who once might have claimed her allegiance. 

However, Miraseia’s manipulation by the Forsaken, Gaemori culminated in the murder of her closest friend—a betrayal that sealed Gaemori’s fate at the hands of Mordred, whose plan was to continue to manipulate Miraseia through her connection with Rosene—wove another thread into the intricate tapestry of Eshamir’s connections. This dark history, known to Mordred alone, hinted at the possibility of rekindling her soul-bound powers, should he choose to seek out Miraseia, now a ghost of her former life, hidden away from the eyes of the world.

The End Game

This turning is the closest that the Pattern has ever come where the Last Battle may be lost and the Dark One freed to break the Wheel. It was a painting by Alethea that inspired Eshamir to explore the Finn’s powers as a conduit for how he might achieve his aims. Furthermore, there were two beings that he leveraged to turn to the Shadow during the first War of Power, both with soul-level connections to the Finn. The first was Samóch who was already a student of Alinur’s prior to his conversion into Eshamir. A fascinating man with an ability to read the nature of the thread of lives, it was Samóch who informed Mordred that one of the keys to the winning of the Last Battle was dormant within the combined powers of Asristin Kyrineas Somneus and Alethea, but the mystery lay within the fact that their current lives must end and both would need to be reborn and reunited during the Last Battle for it to manifest. It was Eshamir who gifted the Rod of Souls to Merihem, a weapon of his own design based on his studies of endless rebirths, and taught her how to use it. In doing so, she ensured that Asristin would remain soul-bound to the Shadow upon his next rebirth. Eshamir intended to capture Alethea’s soul in the same way, but she got herself killed before the plan could be carried out.

For this reason, Eshamir located Arikan, the reborn Asristin, as a youth and made sure he was controlled by the Shadow to protect his mind from the taint before his power manifested. It was Eshamir himself who taught him to channel and led Arikan to believe that he killed his own trainer so that he was unaware of the manipulation. It was also Eshamir who sent Beldragos to Arikan to mentor and monitor him and ensured that none of the other Chosen ever met him face to face in order to avoid discovering that he was the infamous Asristin reborn. Following Arikan’s defeat at the Battle of Tar Valon, it was Mordred’s intercession with the Dark One that allowed Arikan to go unpunished, convinced that he was a key to winning the Last Battle. 

Similarly, Eshamir nurtured and guided the path of Miraseia so that she would swear herself to the Shadow. She was entrusted into Gaemori’s care once the Forsaken were freed, and thus, when Miraseia’s stability was threatened by the loss of Rosene, combined with Gaemori’s other failures in Bandar Eban, she was dutifully punished and resurrected into Hessalam, who is fully under Mordred’s control. Miraseia was lost to him after the Battle of Tar Valon, and he searches for her still. 

The second individual connected to the Finn was Ashtaroth whose thread being knotted inserts massive instability and chaos into the Pattern during Ages in which he is born. This disrupted weaving increased the statistical likelihood of winning the Last Battle, and for this reason, Ashtaroth needed to remain alive but inactive in the war against Light and Dark. Eshamir ordered Evelara to ensure that happened, which was how he ended up in the chains of the Dragon Reborn. One of the final signs of the approaching Last Battle was the breaking of Ashtaroth’s chains, and Mordred will be pleased to learn this has happened.

Finally, Eshamir was convinced that in order to win the Last Battle, the battle itself must be significantly delayed in order to allow the nurturing of all these key ingredients. It was Mordred who placed the wish ter’angreal in the path of Rikela Sedai that she may use it to make her deal with the Finn that strengthened the Seals. It was Samóch’s duty to rediscover this lost ter’angreal and alter it so that it would fall under Mordred’s influence, and upon Rikela’s entrance through it, her deal with the Finn was corrupted. 

Now, all his plans are coalescing. The Last Battle approaches, and he is convinced he will win it.