The Fires of Heaven (Chapter 38): An Old Acquaintance

Dusty

February 29

Welcome back to my re-read, recap, and reaction to Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. This post will only have spoilers through the current chapter.

You can find my previous chapter recaps HERE.

Chapter 38: An Old Acquaintance

NOTE: The following chapter summary comes rom wot.fandom.com

Point of view: Nynaeve al'Meara

Nynaeve finally catches up to Uno while he watches the s'redit Cerandin has performing for the crowds. He finally recognizes her from Fal Dara and Toman Head and they move outside the menagerie area to talk. He plans to take her to see Masema, to help her out of whatever situation she is in that has her performing at the menagerie. He stumbles as he walks when he finds out the tightrope walker he just saw was Elayne. Nynaeve mentions they would like to find a boat to take down the river and he expects Masema can make that happen one way or another. Uno informs her that Masema is the Prophet for the Dragon Reborn.

REACTION:

There's something pretty funny about Nynaeve complaining internally about how tight Luca is with money, particularly when you remember every single "money" interaction between Elayne and Nynaeve since Book 2 and the circumstances of how they met Luca the first time. Some people only learn to see their own flaws when they experience that same flaw inflicted upon them by another person. Of course, as it relates to traveling with Elayne, being tight with money is probably a good counter-balance for the worldview of the Daughter-Heir. In that context, I struggle to actually view Nynaeve's actions re: Elayne as a flaw. They, in fact, do not have endless gold. (Yes, I am in denial of Nynaeve's need for character growth in this area. Am I something like The Prophet of the Wisdom? Maybe. My mob definitely won't riot, though. She wouldn't like that.)

This chapter is primarily a brief reintroduction and infodump. Remember all the way back in the beginning of The Dragon Reborn? Moiraine sent the Shienarans who had sworn allegiance to Rand to Ghealdan after Rand left for Tear on his own. They are still here. Good old character conservation by Mr. Jordan.

Noteworthy: As Nynaeve and Uno walk together, she sees that the other menageries do not have as many people milling about as their own. The spolight on Luca will be brighter. Luca also has a lady archer who is brilliant. If Moggy doesn't find them within a few hours, they'll be extremely lucky.

We learn in this chapter that Masema is "The Prophet of the Dragon." We do not exactly know how that came to be, as he is the same character who *despised* Rand when he was in the story previously because Rand looked Aiel. Perhaps seeing someone fighting the Dark One in the sky - and winning - changes perspectives.

If I saw someone I knew fighting a fire-faced demon in the sky, and appearing to win, I'd probably have a higher opinion of him/her after.

Masema is presented as something of a cult leader. Inasmuch as everyone believes in "the Creator" and lives with implied rules about morality, there is no official practice of religion that we've seen - no churches, temples, rituals, etc. The Whitecloaks use the veneer of belief as a basis for political and militaristic expansion, but even they don't worship. I think the closest thing we've seen to worship is the Shienaran prayer said when someone is buried.

I guess it fits then that if Shienar is the place where we've seen some semblance of religion that a Shienaran would become the leader of Randland's first introduced cult. I don't really see even the Darkfriends as a cult, at least not as we've met them. It's more of a secret political society.

One big difference between the world of The Wheel of Time, and ours, is that the supernatural is much nearer and more accessible. Perhaps the spiritual societal order which the practice of religion helps to keep in place is not as necessary in a world wherein the earth literally shakes if you say the Dark One's actual name, and wherein there is a cultural memory of the Dark One being loose, unleashing monsters, etc. The provable existence of The Dark One and the fact the world survived him once already seems to be sufficient proof of this universe's spiritual order.

So there is no atheism in Randland. Everyone is kind of born (over and over) into being a follower of the Creator, or they're the Randland version of a Satanist. On one hand, that seems a lot easier spiritually. It's a lot harder for your free will to trip you up. Mankind isn't exactly fallen automatically... you have to choose to fall by overtly joining the other side. On the other, though, our world has never been in imminent danger of being overrun by actual monsters. Randland has faced that fate three times in three thousand years. The story doesn't really get into it, but I would imagine "you will not eaten by trollocs / sexually assaulted by a myrddraal / murdered in your sleep by one of the Forsaken" could be a strong recruiting tool for the bad guys. So that might override one's sense of free will in Randland.

Anyway... Nynaeve is on her way to meet Masema and to maybe be given a boat.