Shadow al’Mere was born in the Two Rivers, in a quiet household on the outskirts of Emond’s Field, several years after the birth of the Dragon Reborn. While others of his generation grew restless as they came of age, drawn by stories of war, prophecy, and service to the Light, Shadow was content to remain at home. He worked the land, repaired what broke, and planned a life measured in seasons rather than songs. He did not dream of glory. He dreamed of continuity. When the call to leave finally came, it was not one he sought.
He discovered he could channel as a young man, old enough to understand what it meant and young enough that refusal was impossible. He accepted the truth of it with resignation rather than fear or excitement. The life he wanted was no longer available to him as duty had replaced choice. He met it as he met most things: quietly.
He entered training at the Black Tower not with hunger for power, but with the conviction that structure and service were the only safeguards against the dangers of saidin. He proved methodical, patient, and unusually resistant to emotional excess. Where others struggled against the taint with force of will or denial, Shadow built routine. He trained his body as rigorously as his mind, discovering an aptitude for the sword that soon drew notice.
It was on this merit alone that he was sent to the White Tower for advanced instruction with master swordsmen. There, Warder training was not an ambition but an extension of discipline, another means of control. He learned endurance, restraint, and the value of stillness under pressure. It was during this period that a novice named Lythia first took notice of him. Not because he stood out in a crowd because he rarely did, but because he smiled easily when no one expected it, because he listened when others postured, and because he treated those around him with a quiet courtesy that felt increasingly rare. Plus, he was handsome.
Their connection grew naturally, first in companionship, then in trust. When they bonded as Aes Sedai and Asha’man, their partnership became foundational to both Towers. Together, they returned to the Black Tower, where Shadow’s calm authority and Lythia’s presence helped shape generations of channelers. They trained men to wield both saidin and saidar with discipline, teaching cooperation where rivalry had once ruled.
When Mazrim Taim was exposed and removed, the Black Tower passed through uncertainty before settling under new leadership. Shadow al’Mere eventually rose to the position of M’Hael, not through ambition or intrigue, but because stability followed him wherever he stood. As M’Hael, he ruled with absolute authority but little drama. Orders were clear. Expectations were enforced. Discipline was consistent. The Tower flourished under his leadership, entering a rare period of growth and cooperation with the White Tower, due in no small part to Lythia’s efforts.
It was during this time that saidin was cleansed.
To those who served under him, Shadow’s rule was remembered as the Tower’s most stable era. To those closest to him, it was also the beginning of a quiet distance. The pressures of leadership weighed heavily, and Shadow grew increasingly reserved, his presence thinning even as his competence remained unquestioned. He spoke less. He withdrew from moments of intimacy. He seemed, at times, to stand slightly apart from the world, as though holding himself in place through effort alone.
Lythia believed the change was the cost of command. She did not know that the taint, long resisted through discipline and structure, had begun to exact its price in subtler ways. Shadow was not losing his mind. He was losing ease of connection. Remaining present required constant focus. Emotional closeness became tiring. Distance felt safer. And he was struggling to stay anchored to his own identity.
He never relinquished his duties. He never faltered in command.
Stability ended abruptly with his assassination on Black Tower grounds. Poison weakened him first, and a Gray Man’s blade finished what the poison began. He died in Lythia’s arms, beyond her ability to Heal. The identity of his assassin was never discovered, though the truth would later be known to few: the Dreadlord Arikan had infiltrated the Tower and struck at its heart.
In death, Shadow and Lythia became known as the first double-bonded channelers, their bond legendary for the way they fought and sensed one another as one. Though they never married, Lythia would later say she had never been happier than during the years she lived beside him among their brothers.
Shadow al’Mere is remembered as the most competent of all the M’Haels who led the Black Tower. He did not fall to madness. He did not betray the Light. That he did not live to see the future he founded remains one of the Tower’s quiet tragedies.
Rebirths
1st Age: Karim al’Shaidis
5th Age: Baal Hadad
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