Line #21 NightmareFuel/TheWheelOfTime


1	!!'''''SPOILERS ARE UNMARKED, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!'''''
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5	[[folder:Events]]
6	* While traveling with Elyas in ''The Eye of the World'', Perrin and Egwene get a hands-on view of just how dangerous the flock of ravens tracking them is when it rips apart an innocent fox in seconds. Egwene has to throw up just ''thinking'' about it later.
7	* All of the "[[NegativeSpaceWedgie bubbles of evil]]" in which inanimate objects try to kill you, often accompanied by BodyHorror.
8	* Turning. If you have the right amount of people, in a short time, they can force you to TheDarkSide, ''against your will''. Nynaeve is reduced to screaming helplessly when finding out she, Egwene, and Elayne were being prepared for it near the end of ''The Dragon Reborn''.
9	** We get to see the effects of this in the final book, when Taim and his Darkfriends try to Turn Logain. The latter has will of iron, and he's at his breaking point when saved. He never goes evil, but until the last few chapters of the series, he's unhinged from the experience.
10	* The scenes where Rand is going through the test at Rhuidean. Not because of the revelations themselves (which are {{Tear Jerker}}s), but because of the fact that the Aiel man who got there before him becomes increasingly overwhelmed and unhinged by the revelations, to the point where Rand eventually sees him clawing out his own eyes and chewing up his own tongue. Doubles as a TearJerker when Rand knows he won't be coming back out of the gate and leaves him behind, yet we never learn exactly what happens to him or his body.
11	* Perrin and several Two Rivers folk raid and destroy a Trolloc camp, then one of them gets the bright idea to [[IAmAHumanitarian look inside one of their cookpots]].
12	* The Battle of Dumai's Wells, where the Asha'man - each a walking PersonOfMassDestruction - are unleashed for the first time, turning an already bloody battle into a ''meat grinder''. While it doubles as an awesome moment for some, the narrative makes sure to stress in the aftermath that the horrifying scene was traumatic for just about everyone involved, and that [[PyrrhicVictory the Forces of Light will fracture for good if they continue using such tactics]]. If nothing else, it makes a strong argument for the Aes Sedai oaths by showing just how dangerous it is to have channelers roaming around with [[TheUnfettered no limitations on the use of their power]].
13	* One of Rand's memories from being Lews Therin involved entering a city that had been attacked by the Shadow during the War of Power only to discover that everyone who had not sworn allegiance to the Dark One was tied up and thrown screaming into the fires that had been started at every crossroad.
14	* Mindtraps, which [[MadeASlave force people to do as someone tells them]], or they can be made an EmptyShell on a whim.
15	* Early in ''The Path of Daggers'', Merilille breaks her Aes Sedai calmness and shouts a BigNo when she sees Aviendha trying to undo her Gateway weave as there would have been ''considerable'' repercussions had she made a single mistake. We find out later what that is when a ''sul'dam'' shields Elayne and forces her to drop her weave when repeating the same thing: A MagicNuke that decimates the area on both sides of the Gateway and, despite being far away and on the other side of a hill for cover, all of Elayne, Aviendha, and Birgitte get seriously burned and end up covered in their own blood. If Nynaeve hadn't been nearby for Healing, they would have all died.
16	** The Seanchan spend most of the rest of the series believing the Aes Sedai created the explosion on purpose with a powerful weapon they'd been keeping secret. It shakes them so badly that preventing it from ever being used again is one of the reasons why Tuon orders the raid on the White Tower.
17	* Jaichim Carridin's execution in ''The Path of Daggers''. He had crossed the MoralEventHorizon several books ago, but having brandy forced down his throat until he drowned in it couldn't have been pleasant. Falion Bhoda, recurring Black Ajah sister, being ForcedToWatch and threatened with the same fate earns her a little sympathy as well.
18	* The scene where Aviendha sees the very possible future for the Aiel in Rhuidean: It consists of her children by Rand leading the Aiel into what becomes a very protracted war against the Seanchan, eventually getting beaten down, the White Tower itself falling to the Seanchan, the Aiel clans being either destroyed or reduced to shadows of their former selves, being pushed back into the Aiel Waste and still mercilessly hunted by the Seanchan, and finally reduced to a shattered vestige of their former culture, having totally lost their sense of honor and duty, and all but extinct as they scavenge whatever they can find off travelers in the waste.
19	** Not helped by the [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything (deliberate) parallels]] between the present-day Aiel and some Native American cultures...
20	* It's a one-off line as Rand prepares to face Moridin, but Shaidar Haran's final fate is terrifying. He's already NightmareFuel, now imagine his withered husk of a corpse.
21	* Rand's battle with the Dark One. We see a world where everyone is a slave and Nynaeve is a Forsaken. Then we see a world without Light where everyone has no conscience. And finally, we see a world without Shadow. At first it looks like a utopia, but then Rand looks into Elayne's eyes and realizes [[BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood just how]] [[EmptyShell wrong things are]].
22	* Poor ol' Perrin? While it was one of the most necessary deaths there was, crushing Lanfear's neck with his bare hand while being ''compelled'' to love her is decidedly horrible... He's explicitly stated to be weeping over her body. [[spoiler: According to Brandon Sanderson, it perhaps was AllForNothing. She survived!]]
23	* Balefire: A DangerousForbiddenTechnique that not only renders its target DeaderThanDead, but messes with the Pattern to the point of rewinding time as it causes its target to die before the actual moment of impact. Overusing it is quite capable of ''destroying the Pattern itself,'' something even the Dark One couldn't do. It's one of the few things even ''Cadsuane'' is afraid of and she expresses that by ''slapping Rand'' and warning him to never use it again. ''Winter's Heart'' reveals that it's the only thing the Forsaken fear more than someone losing control of the Choeden Kal and destroying the world.
24	* The Dark One's increasing hold over the world as the series progresses, beginning with the unseasonably long winter followed by an endless summer a year later for the first half of the series until the retrieval and usage of the Bowl of the Winds. Afterwards, an unnatural famine takes hold of the world's food supply as, revealed in ''Crossroads of Twilight'', insects that should be dead in the winter cold are thriving among harvests and it only gets worse until the end.
25	* Perrin and his entourage encounter a man who is coughing pretty badly and several wonder why he's working at his station when he's so sick. Moments later, the man begins to repeatedly vomit ''streams of live beetles'' and his body is described as "deflating like a balloon." Appropriately enough, Perrin can smell nothing but terror from everyone around after they witness that.
26	* The True Power, the Power wielded directly by the Dark One, is so terrifying to the voice of Lews Therin inside Rand's head that he considers Rand being collared by the male ''a'dam'' and forced to murder Min as the ''lesser'' of the two evils in that situation!
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30	* How Seanchan treat ''damane.'' Women who can instinctively channel have collars locked on their necks, which can inflict many kinds of suffering upon the wearer; at one point while she's collared and still defiant, Egwene was made to feel as if her body were being plunged into boiling hot water, even though she's physically unharmed. ''Damane'' are treated like animals by the Seanchan, being denied any rights or agency and often not even allowed to keep their old names; Seanchan ''damane'' are raised from birth believing that channellers are not human and they must be enslaved for their own safety, while women taken as ''damane'' after the Seanchan invasion are physically and mentally tortured until their minds and wills break and they accept their fate. And worse, the ''damane'' [[UsefulNotes/StockholmSyndrome often end up liking it]]. To take just one example: Sheraine Caminelle was captured and collared by the Seanchan when they arrived at Falme and refused to cooperate, trying to kill herself by refusing to eat or drink. Tuon muses:
31	--> The ''der'sul'dam'' all had despaired, saying she would not live long, but now Mylen smiled up at Tuon and leaned forward to kiss her hand even before she reached to stroke the ''damane's'' dark hair. Once skin and bones, she was becoming a trifle plump. Instead of rebuking her, Catrona, who held her leash, let a smile crease her usually stern black face and murmured that Mylen was a perfect ''damane''. It was true, no one would believe now that she had once called herself Aes Sedai.
32	** Another Aes Sedai, Ryma Galfrey, is held captive at the same time as Egwene and begs the girl to remember her name as she's beginning to break under the Seanchan treatment and will forget it. The next time she turns up in the story she's answering to Pura and speaks of herself in the third person, having become a true ''damane;'' Mat, watching the ''sul'dam'' treat her as a favoured pet, thinks of her as [[ThatManIsDead 'the woman who had been Ryma Galfrey'.]]
33	** Renna, the ''Sul'dam'' who collars Egwene in ''The Great Hunt''. She presents herself as a friendly mentor figure, [[FauxAffablyEvil which is a rather thin facade]]. She tortures Egwene multiple times within the first chapter she's introduced, and the narration notes that her "kindness" is the kind one shows to animals. She's even worse in the audiobook, where she generally talks in a breezy, condescending tone, but the few occasions where she drops the act have her sounding borderline psychotic. Her treatment of Egwene is so horrendous that, as soon as she's free, the utterly traumatized girl wants to return her suffering with interest and Nynaeve has to physically stop her from torturing Renna to death via the ''a'dam''.
34	** ''Damane'' are explicitly stated to be noticeably stronger than Aes Sedai, and it's implied that the channellers of the Nations are effectively breeding themselves into both rarity and weakness due to the Aes Sedai snapping up every girl they can find, 'gentling' male channelers which usually leads to the distraught men committing suicide, and very rarely having children. Sul'dam and der'sul'dam don't seem to be generally family oriented, unlike the Aiel Wise Ones and the Sea Folk Wavemistresses. Are the ''damane'' being [[BreedingSlave bred]]? Similar things have happened in real life. And, considering that they're regarded as animals by the Seanchan population, who are the men who take part in what they would regard as bestiality? Are they ordered, forced, volunteers?
35	*** It's heavily unlikely that they are being bred. It's seen as equivalent to bestiality, male channelers are killed on sight, and most ''damane'' don't seem to know what sex even is, as seen with Alivia.
36	* Slayer, a ProfessionalKiller for the Shadow who specializes in people and wolves, and is composed of two identities: Isam Mandragoran and Lord Luc Mantear.
37	** Which wouldn't be too bad, a killer with a (really) twisted soul. But get this: he can get to you wherever you are, if he knows where you are, and he can even kill you in your dreams if you dream vividly.
38	* The sheer horrific level of what Forsaken have done are terrifying. Lanfear was known for her hobby of driving people to suicide using [[DreamLand Tel'aran'rhiod]]. Graendal brainwashed many people, mostly nobility, to adore and love her, making them like animals, then killed their children, boasting about her kindness. [[TortureTechnician Semirhage]]... well, read below. Ishamael, with his manipulations leading to the destruction of the biggest empire in the world (and the rise of [[TheEmpire another one]]) also counts; and it without mentioning his goal of destroying existence altogether. He also drove [[WeUsedToBeFriends Lews Therin]] to suicide by revealing him that he killed his own family when he went mad. Mesaana conditioned children to be bullies and killers, and they were so notorious that they were remembered ''millenia'' after being destroyed. Demandred destroyed whole cities, if there was ''someone'' who had disrespected him. Feeding people to Trollocs, which was possibly done by all of them. The sheer level of their insanity and pettiness is ... unnerving, to say the least. [[ButForMeItWasTuesday And it's not even breakfast!]]
39	* There's some stiff competition, but Aginor might take the cake among the Forsaken. While the series doesn't go into too much detail, there are enough implications about the creation of the Shadowspawn to give anyone nightmares. Just one example is the Trollocs, which were made by crossing humans and animals [[YouDontWantToKnow somehow]]. To feed them, Aginor set up what were essentially giant concentration camps used to breed people to maintain a steady supply of human victims for the armies. Yikes.
40	** Unlike most of his colleagues, he continued to impact the world after being sealed at Shayol Ghul--the Trolloc Wars are the most glaring example, but the things he created have posed a constant threat along the Blightborder for ''three thousand years'', and have probably killed millions over that period. Oh, and he was also the one who developed [[EldritchAbomination jumara/"Worms"]], as well as the ''[[ImplacableMan gholam]]''.
41	* Semirhage, undisputed master of torture. Back in the day, she so terrified her ''jailers'' that they smuggled her to freedom themselves. Some of the atrocities committed by the other Forsaken and Darkfriends also qualify. Her captives desperately tried to commit suicide so not to fall in her hands. Even her fellow Forsaken are afraid of her!
42	** Her EstablishingCharacterMoment, where she breaks an Aes Sedai by doing...whatever [[PowerPerversionPotential the opposite]] of ColdBloodedTorture is to her [[MindlinkMates Warder]], easily rivals anything involving ''damane'' or Hinderstap (see below) for "creepiest moment in the series." Arguably made worse by the coldness of both her POV and her motive: to obtain information that will allow Aran'gar/Halima to infiltrate the Salidar Tower more easily. Her victims were small pieces in a much larger game, and it resulted in them being snatched up by the Shadow, used, and presumably disposed of without anyone the wiser.
43	* Demandred, on the whole, is one of the less evil Forsaken. He's always calm and composed, ruthless but not particularly cruel, and is the only Forsaken to actually bother to treat his minions with a modicum of respect, who in turn has great loyalty to him. He even seems to believe that if he wins the Last Battle for the Dark One, he'll get put in charge of reshaping the world, and will therefore be able to protect it from the worst of the Dark One's excesses. WordOfGod even calls him a HeroOfAnotherStory in regards to his actions in Shara. There's just one little snag - he ''hates'' Lews Therin Telamon. Hates him more than anyone has ever hated anything, apparently. Hates him so much he's willing to topple empires, move armies, and risk TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt ''all to get at one man''. That level of hate is ''terrifying'', especially as it comes from someone who's nearly a NobleDemon otherwise.
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47	* Shadar Logoth has Mashadar, the FogOfDoom that messes with peoples souls while killing them extremely painfully, though it lacks the voice or preference.
48	* The Ways. Especially Machin Shin, the Black Wind that messes with peoples brains before filleting them, has a VoiceOfTheLegion and LovesTheSoundOfScreaming.
49	* [[GardenOfEvil The Blight]] as shown in ''The Eye Of The World''. [[EverythingIsTryingToKillYou Everything there, even the plants, were trying to kill them.]] There are also these giant worms there that will kill anything in their path and are nigh indestructible. At a mountain pass, they give up the chase because [[TakeOurWordForIt they're afraid of the things that live in the pass]].
50	* The human breeding camps Balthamel set up to provide food for the man-eating Trollocs.
51	** That's not as bad for NightmareFuel as eating normal humans: In a war that lasts hundreds of years, and possible lengths of generations of 13 years or so, the people in the camps would be way more ok with the whole thing than normal, former free people. Still horribly scary to think about, though.
52	*** [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror That's arguably worse.]]
53	* [[DreamLand Tel'aran'rhiod]] and [[YourMindMakesItReal its incarnate nightmares that become real there and attack you inside your consciousness while you sleep]].
54	** One aversion becomes ParanoiaFuel after Moghedien tortures Nynaeve for a while, with the latter eventually waking up and trying to figure out why there isn't a mark on her.
55	** Probably the worst (best?) example is from ''Lord of Chaos'', where Elayne, Siuan, and the leaders of the Salidar Aes Sedai stumble upon a nightmare of a Trolloc TortureCellar. Elayne manages to get everyone to work together to dispel it, at literally the last second (i.e. just before her throat would have been cut).
56	* The sinking village in ''Knife of Dreams''. A perfectly innocent-looking village with a group of peaceful-looking folk. Completely harmless, right? Then Mat spots a huge inconsistency (namely, his implanted memories informing him that there haven't been roofs made like that in several hundred years) and realizes it's a dead village. Then it starts to sink into the ground, with the specters present continuing to act normally. Except that a peddler got caught there as it starts to sink, and Mat's group can only watch in horror as the man screams in terror and sinks with the village, while they're unable either to save him or give him a MercyKill. Even after his head's sucked beneath the earth his arms still wave before they disappear too, and Mat's grimly aware that he probably isn't dead [[FateWorseThanDeath but taken to wherever the dead village went.]] Worst of all, this overlaps with ParanoiaFuel, as the entire group starts to wonder if the peaceful-looking field they next camp on will sink too.
57	* [[AFeteWorseThanDeath Hinderstap]], the village of people who transform into bloodthirsty killers after sundown, and then kill everyone in the vicinity and then each other. And then they wake up alive again in their beds the next morning, remembering it as a vivid dream. And this happens '''every night''', and [[FateWorseThanDeath they can't escape]].
58	** Apparently invoked deliberately. WordOfGod is that Sanderson came up with the concept of Hinderstap after Jordan's widow requested he put something "creepy" into ''Gathering Storm'' to reflect the Dark One's increasing hold on reality. "Creepy" being the understatement of the year...

Context NightmareFuel / TheWheelOfTime