Blessed be the name of the Lord Dragon in the Light.
— Benediction from the Prophet in Ghealdan
Masema Dagar (pronounced: mah-SEE-mah) was once a Shienaran soldier who later became the Prophet of the Dragon.
Appearance and personality[]
He was of average size. He had dark, deep-set eyes[1] and a triangular scar on one cheek.[2][1] As a Shienaran soldier, he wore his hair in a topknot.[1] As the Prophet, he kept his head shaved.[1][3]
He was generally unpleasant. He has no apparent sense of humor.[4] As a soldier, he was prone to scowling and sneering. As the Prophet, he was mentally and emotionally unstable[3][5] and quick to denounce anyone who did not live their life in devotion to the Lord Dragon in the manner he thought right.[6][3]
He considered Tinkers to be "useless cowards."[2] He despised Aiel.[7]
Activities[]
The Great Hunt[]
When he first met Rand al'Thor, he regarded him with barely disguised contempt due to Rand reminding him of the Aiel he faced at Ankor Dail.[7] Shortly after the Amyrlin Seat arrived in Fal Dara, Ragan informed Rand that he couldn't leave the keep due to the order passed to him by Uno, but implied that Masema's presence was the reason he wouldn't allow Rand through.[4]
Masema was one of the Shienaran soldiers selected to accompany Ingtar in the pursuit of the Horn of Valere.[8] Masema and Ragan swam across the river Erinin to retrieve the ferry near where the flayed corpses of Changu and Nidao were found.[7] When Ingtar's party encountered the Aielman Urien, Masema immediately charged at him along with three other lancers until ordered to hold by Ingtar.[9] When Rand, Ingtar, and the others visited Stedding Tsofu, Masema was left just inside the stedding with most of the Shienarans.[10]
After Rand transported the party to Toman Head via a Portal Stone, Masema wept openly, presumably because of alternate lives lived.[11] Masema witnessed Rand's fight with Ishamael at Falme and started treating Rand with religious fervor.[12][13][14]
Becoming the Prophet[]
Following the Battle of Falme, Masema and the other Shienarans accompanied Moiraine, Rand, and the rest of their party to the Mountains of Mist.[2]
After the Shadowspawn attack on their camp, Moiraine sent the Shienarans, including Masema, to Jehannah to meet with a contact of hers.[15][14] After the Shienarans went to Ghealdan and found that Moiraine's contact was dead, Masema began preaching about the Dragon Reborn, triggering civil unrest.[16][6] He eventually attracted a crowd of nearly ten thousand people to hear him speak, who defeated the soldiers sent to disperse them.[17] During this time, he provided the other Shienarans with enough to live on, even though Bartu and Nengar were the only ones who shared his particular fervor.[6][3]
When Nynaeve al'Meara found him in Samara, he had become the leader of a sect, asking his followers to abandon everything and follow the "Lord Dragon" (despite the irony that Masema had not seen Rand since early 999 NE).[3] He exercised control over large sections of Ghealdan, offering both refuge for the masses of displaced persons, and commanding a large body of Dragonsworn. He imposed harsh rules on not only his followers, but everyone he came across, requiring absolute devotion to the Dragon, and rejection of material possessions and worldly desires. He performed mass weddings↗ involving hundreds of (often unintroduced) couples.[3] While he strictly enforced the rules he set for his followers, looting, torture, and murder were common against anyone who was not vocal enough in their support for the Dragon, and for the Prophet. His followers were often described as dirty, wild-eyed, and feral.
By the time of Nynaeve's visit, Masema's influence was strong enough that the Queen of Ghealdan would call on him, rather than him on her, and would discard jewelry at a mere suggestion by Masema.[3] He had had Lord Aleshin Talvaen, a member of the Crown High Council, flogged for "contempt for the word of the Lord Dragon" and nearly beheaded Lady Baelome for a lack of respect when she referred to the Dragon Reborn as "this Rand al'Thor."[3]
He seemed to live in accordance with his teachings, rejecting material wealth, living a modest lifestyle, wearing simple clothes, and eating simple food prepared by a widow from among his followers.[18]
After Nynaeve's visit, both Masema and Galad Damodred independently sought a ship to carry her downriver.[3][18] When the Riverserpent arrived, Galad's Whitecloaks seized the ship. This brought them into conflict with Masema's Dragonsworn. The resulting conflagration grew to envelop Jehannah and the nearby circuses, and resulted in an incursion into Amadicia on Masema's orders.[19]
Rescuing Faile[]
When Perrin Aybara visited Masema in Abila, Masema agreed to go with Perrin to meet with Rand al'Thor.[20][21] Upon learning that Faile had been captured by the Shaido Aiel, he and an army of his followers joined Perrin Aybara's army in their pursuit. He even consented to Traveling to do so, despite his aversion to the One Power being wielded by anyone other than Rand al'Thor.[22]
While in Abila, he had secretly met with Seanchan representatives[20] and was sufficiently aligned with them to receive a letter from High Lady Suroth instructing any who read it to aid Masema.[23]
During the pursuit, Masema secretly met with Masuri Sokawa and Annoura Larisen.[24] The Aes Sedai hoped to use him,[25] but Masema's motives remain unknown.
He reported to Perrin on a large quantity of grain found in So Habor.[26] He was with the Shaido prisoners when Perrin arrived and chopped off a prisoner's hand, looking for answers on Faile Bashere.[27] Even he seemed shocked by Perrin's actions.[27]
After Perrin formed a temporary alliance with the Seanchan, Masema aided Perrin in defeating the Shaido and rescuing Faile at Malden.[28] However, he also instructed Aram to kill Perrin.[29] Afterward, most of Masema's army was dead or wounded due to a severe disadvantage against trained Aiel.[29] He managed to survive and flee with about one hundred followers.[29][5]
After he escaped Perrin's camp with his men, Masema planned to flee north and rebuild before returning to kill Perrin as ordered by one of the female Forsaken disguised as the "Dragon Reborn,"[30] when "he" appeared "glowing in the air" the night before the battle. This strongly suggests Masema was at least partially manipulated by one of the Forsaken throughout his establishment of the Dragonsworn. He also began to question how he could have lost so many men. By this point he was fully insane, as evidenced by his internal monologue full of constant self-contradictions, such as believing his followers were both his precious, most loyal brothers, but also that they had failed him because they were cowards. He was killed by Faile and Cha Faile before he could follow through with his plans to escape.[5][31]
Aftermath[]
In the wake of Masema's death, the Seanchan and the Crown High Council are re-establishing order in Amadicia and Ghealdan, respectively.[32]
Parallels[]
The name Masema bears resemblance to the Islamic false prophet "Musailma" and bears a resemblance to Musailma in the sense that they were both self-proclaimed prophets; just as Musailma was never a true Prophet of Islam, Masema too was a false prophet of Rand al'Thor.
Masema's hillside speech to a crowd of nearly ten thousand in Ghealdan bears some resemblance to Jesus' sermon on the mount↗ and other similar events.
The mass weddings↗ performed with religious fervor is similar to the Blessing↗ practice of the "Moonies↗."
In the television series[]
In the television series, Masema Dagar↗ was played by Arnas Fedaravicius↗
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 The Wheel of Time Companion - Masema Dagar
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 The Fires of Heaven, Chapter 39
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Great Hunt, Chapter 3
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Gathering Storm, Prologue
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 The Fires of Heaven, Chapter 38
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 The Great Hunt, Chapter 10
- ↑ The Great Hunt, Chapter 9
- ↑ The Great Hunt, Chapter 28
- ↑ The Great Hunt, Chapter 35
- ↑ The Great Hunt, Chapter 37
- ↑ The Great Hunt, Chapter 49
- ↑ The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 2
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 6
- ↑ The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 5
- ↑ The Dragon Reborn, Chapter 34
- ↑ The Shadow Rising, Chapter 47
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 The Fires of Heaven, Chapter 40
- ↑ The Fires of Heaven, Chapter 47
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 The Path of Daggers, Chapter 30
- ↑ Winter's Heart, Chapter 1
- ↑ Winter's Heart, Chapter 6
- ↑ Crossroads of Twilight, Chapter 6
- ↑ Crossroads of Twilight, Chapter 5
- ↑ A Memory of Light, Chapter 44
- ↑ Crossroads of Twilight, Chapter 7
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 Crossroads of Twilight, Chapter 27
- ↑ Knife of Dreams, Chapter 29
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 Knife of Dreams, Chapter 30
- ↑ Theoryland Interview #537: Orem Library Signing Report - Matt Hatch, 2010 September 21 - Q3↗
- ↑ The Wheel of Time Companion - Faile
- ↑ Knife of Dreams, Glossary - Prophet, the