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"Think of them like bubbles that sometimes rise up in a bog, only they are rising from the Dark One as the seals weaken, and instead of rotten smells, they are full of...well, evil. They drift along the Pattern until they burst, and when they do, anything can happen. Anything. Your own reflection can leap out of the mirror and try to kill you. Believe me."
   —Rand al'Thor, Lord of Chaos, Chapter 3

Bubbles of evil were first mentioned by Moiraine Damodred, who speaks of the Dark One's evil in the form of "bubbles rising from the things rotting on the bottom of a pond."[1] The bubbles attach themselves to threads in the pattern and burst causing supernatural and typically deadly events to occur. Moiraine thinks perhaps ta'veren will tend to attract these bubbles more powerfully than others do.

“As the seals holding the Dark One’s prison weaken,” she said after a time, “it may be inevitable that a … miasma … will escape even while he is still held. Like bubbles rising from the things rotting on the bottom of a pond. But these bubbles will drift through the Pattern until they attach to a thread and burst.”[1]

Most bubbles of evil cause some form of bizarre, unnatural destruction that takes place in a short amount of time, a matter of minutes or perhaps hours. A strange exception to this happens in Hinderstap, where the bubble of evil acts like a lasting curse.

It is indicated in A Memory of Light that bubbles of evil are actually the effects, propagated backwards in time, of the Dark One's final onslaught against Rand al'Thor at the end of Tarmon Gai'don.[2]

WoT German7

Perrin's axe lodged into the wooden door

Known Bubbles of Evil[]

  • The air turns solid and forces Rand upon Lan's practice sword, wounding Rand.[3]

The following three occur at roughly the same time:

  • Perrin and Faile are attacked by Perrin's axe in the Stone of Tear[1]
  • While gambling in the Stone of Tear, the images on Mat's playing cards come to life and try to kill him. [4]
  • Rand's reflections in the mirrors and polished surfaces in his room in the Stone of Tear come to life and try to kill him.[1]
Bubble of evil

Perrin's axe almost killing Faile.

  • Mat witnesses a town full of the images of the dead. A peddler enters, and though Mat realizes what he saw, his warning was too late. The peddler and the town sank into the ground.
  • As they leave Rhuidean after their first visit, Rand and Mat are attacked by creatures formed from dust and sand.[5]
  • In Salidar, the Little Tower and its environs are beset by animated objects with murderous intent. [6]
  • A young clerk in a Seanchan-occupied village coughs up beetles until he literally becomes deflated[7].
Rand After The Bubble of Evil Attack

Rand holding Callandor after an attack by his reflections.

  • A fog in the Rahad neighborhood of Ebou Dar kills people.[8]
  • In the White Tower, while Egwene is visiting Leane, the iron bars and the stone begin to melt.[9]
  • A man named Adrin spontaneously combusts and ignites the building he's in.[10]
  • Romanda Cassin's tent in the rebel Aes Sedai camp fills with Sharan four-spined roaches.[11]
  • The people in the town of Hinderstap enter a murderous frenzy every night, yet wake up unharmed and alive the morning.[12]
  • The tents in the rebel Aes Sedai camp come to life and try to lash out and strangle people, killing an Aes Sedai and two others.
  • The weapons in Perrin's camp became animated and began attacking their owners. The only way to stop them was to throw dirt on them[13].
  • A corridor in the White Tower is transformed in a pool of blood[14].
  • A patch of the Blight has transplanted into the middle of Ghealdan, along the Jehannah Road [15]
  • A neighborhood in Tear called All Summers is completely frozen in place; when touched, everything from paving stones to buildings to people disintegrate into dust. A gust of wind blows the entire section of the city away. There are no survivors.[16]
  • A hundred trees die and dry up overnight.[17]
  • All metal in an army camp on the outskirts of Caemlyn turns to mush.
  • Huge crystals rise from the Travel ground outside of Tar Valon, stabbing many people; Berisha, while opening a gateway, is distracted by the event and the people that are going through to go to Merrilor accidentally travel to the Blight with the Horn of Valere.

Rumors[]

There are rumors floating about of strange occurrences, the description of which make them likely instances of bubbles of evil:

  • Two-headed calves talking.[18]
  • Men smothered by swarms of flies.[18]
  • All children in a village disappearing in the middle of the night.[18]
  • People struck dead by something unseen in broad daylight.[18]
  • A man died with centipedes crawling out from him.[7]

Unclear events[]

  • The duel between Rand al'Thor and Toram Riatin outside of Cairhien is interrupted by the arrival of a Mashadar-like mist and apparent monsters hiding within it. It is unclear whether it was actually one of Padan Fain's doing, or something entirely else. The glossary entry for Daved Hanlon in The Path of Daggers says that the White Lions were destroyed by a "bubble of evil" and Daved Hanlon is present before the duel takes place. Although it remains unclear whether that particular event destroyed the White Lions or not.).[19][20] The Wheel of Time Companion White Lions article only mentions that "Daved Hanlon commanded them as mercenaries to serve the rebels against Rand in Cairhien until most of them were destroyed by a bubble of evil there."[21] Which might indicate another bubble of evil in Cairhien.

Notes

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