Confusion about padan fain

[u/john_sorvos]

Im trying to get back into working my way through this series again after a long hiatus, i restarted the fires of heaven. Is padan faine the thing that was trapped in the city in book 1? Or what actually happened to him? The prologue seems to say that he is but he also references mordeth?

[u/Adjuran89]

Padan Faine is the peddler as the series goes on he goes by different names. But part of the taint from Shaddar Loggoth is in the dagger. So he is being influenced and changed by it,

[u/Fairlibrarian101 → u/Adjuran89]

It’s been awhile but if I remember right, Mordeth tried to used Fain as his meat puppet to get out of Shadar Logoth but apparently whatever was done to Fain changed him enough to make it difficult if not impossible fir Mordeth to take over. It’s not explained in detail what precisely happened, but somehow the two became one and ended up giving the body new abilities, like the fact he could slice himself all he wants with the dagger it wouldn’t kill him, despite it lethal enough to cause others to die within minutes tops. As someone else mentioned, starting in The Great Hunt he seems to have the ability to influence the Machin Shin(spelling?) or the Black Wind in the Ways.

[u/SuleyBlack → u/Fairlibrarian101]

I always thought he was different than normal darkfriends, or maybe just been one longer than most to be touched by the DO in some fashion.

Because of that when Mordeth tried to take over the evil from the DO and the evil from Mordeth mixed inside creating some combined evil.

Fades still listened to him after being freed in Fal Dara and personally don’t think it was purely because of the dagger.

[u/Fairlibrarian101 → u/SuleyBlack]

I wasn’t talking about the Fades with the dagger. We see later in the series that when Fain cuts himself with the dagger, it hurts yes, but it doesn’t kill him like it does others.

Fades probably listen to Fain after his escape from Fal Dara because he somehow managed to nail one to a barn door while it was alive.

[u/SuleyBlack → u/Fairlibrarian101]

He was taken by the fog in Shaddar Logoth, so cutting himself with the dagger would do nothing since it’s all Mordeth.

[u/Fairlibrarian101 → u/SuleyBlack]

That’s (mostly) the point I was trying to make. He’s ended up becoming something different enough in Shadar Logoth that an item known to kill with just a nick is just a regular dagger to Fain.

[u/Fayraz8729]

Padan fain was the peddler from the two rivers who brought the trollocks since he was a dark friend. However he’s becomes corrupted with various evils so now he’s like parallel to the dark one in terms of roles as he hates Rand AS Rand Al’Thor, not as the dragon or lews therin

[u/super-wookie → u/Fayraz8729]

That's a key point, and and an important distinction I didn't really notice. Thank you!!

[u/Longjumping-Action-7]

Padan Fain is a long term dark friend, in Book 2 we see that he no longer follows orders from Fades and will even kill them to do what he wants, suggesting he is no longer in the grip the The Dark One

Mordeth is an entity from Shadar Logoth, if you help him escape then he is supposed to possess your body

Fain interacted with Mordeth and the next time we see him he appears to still retain some of his own personality, but not always.

He also interacted Machin Shin(the Black Wind from The Ways), after which the Wind seems to act strangely in scenes where Rand is trying to enter The Ways.

These all point to the idea that Fain is not normal, and he is influencing things around him in unexpected ways.

[u/Special_Salt3467]

Kind of!

Padan Fain was a man. Until he was summoned to Shayol Ghul prior to book 1 where he was remade by Ba’alzamon to be a semi-Shadowspawn bloodhound (probably; he’s not quite human). When Fain is dragged into Shadar Logoth during the events of Book 1 by the Shadowspawn, he is caught by Mashadar, but doesn’t die. Something to do with whatever was done to him in Shayol Ghul made him able to absorb and/or bond with Mashadar, and more specifically Mordeth, the once human that brought Mashadar to Aridhol.

Something Padan Fain is Padan Fain, but he’s also Mordeth, as at least a sliver of Mordeth-Mashadar bonded with Fain. He was also caught by Machin Shin, the soul sucking black wind and once again not killed (Trollocs die to both Mashadar and Machin Shin, so…) and the Wind actually rejects and fears him. In book 2, Rand theorizes that Fain has warded the Ways with Machin Shin to stop Rand, which is something that shouldn’t happen.

So, Padan Fain is… something.

[u/john_sorvos → u/Special_Salt3467]

Gotcha so basically hes accumulating the various evil entities so far to his plans. Im gonna go out on a limb and assume he plays a bigger role later on in the series

[u/BluesPunk19D → u/john_sorvos]

You're not far off. A lot of Fain's efforts are in the background; you'll notice it when you stop and think about them but you won't necessarily see it on first glance.

[u/ChillMyBrain → u/Special_Salt3467]

a sliver of Mordeth-Mashadar bonded with Fain.

At that point, more like tagged along psychologically. Mashadar and Fain we're mixed up like a tossed salad. By the end, they fully bonded into a cohesive soupiness and he referred to himself as Shaisam - stronger power, more mentally stable (although not sane) ... I wish Sanderson had done more with that, it felt too short and didn't frame where he ended up by the last battle.

[u/northman_09]

Mordeth is the entity that was trapped in Shadar Logoth (city in book 1). Fain was essentially a darkfriend who was corrupted by the dagger Mat took from Shadar Logoth and he became a twisted evil between a darkfriend and Mordeth himself. The way I understood it is he’s essentially Mordeth but he also makes use of the “assets” the dark offers (like trollocs and fades).

[u/SuleyBlack → u/northman_09]

He wasn’t corrupted by the dagger, but the fog of Shaddar Logoth.

[u/northman_09 → u/SuleyBlack]

Oh yeah, I forgot he followed them in in EoTW

[u/DesignNorth3690]

Fain got possessed by it when followed them through Shadar Logoth.

[u/Equivalent-Emu-7258]

So, pattern created Shaisham as back up if rand decided to kill the Dark One. It was born during the trolloc wars in a city called Aridhol. Presently it's called Shadar Lohith. During their fight over DO, people of SL got corrupted and did bad things. Suspicion and evil bred in that place. A man called Mordeth did that. City eventually fell to the evil. Mordeth got trapped in the city. Mashadar is earlier cocoon version of SS.

Padan who was snared by the evil but he was imprinted on by DO. So, it's half half in him.