Padan Fain

Padan Fain
Biographical Information
Nationality	Murandy
Current status	Dead
Physical description
Gender	Male
Weight	Gaunt
Eyes	Dark
Chronological and political information
First mentioned	TEOTW 1
First appeared	TEOTW 2
Last appeared	AMOL 47 (as Shaisam)
Affiliation	Darkfriend

Padan Fain is a peddler and Darkfriend from Lugard who made regular visits to the Two Rivers and Emond's Field. He has since become far more than a simple peddler and is a secondary antagonist for most of the series.

Appearance

Fain is pale and skinny with gangly arms. He has a large beak of a nose and wide ears.

Activities

Peddler and Darkfriend

Padan Fain became a Darkfriend in his twenties for the promise of immortality. Continuing his work as a peddler, he came to Emond's Field every spring and loved being the center of attention. Unknown to anyone in the town, he had also been a Darkfriend for more than 40 years and was the "Dark One's Hound," searching for the Dragon Reborn.

Dark One's Hound

Sometime in 996 NE, he was chosen for a special task: to seek the Dragon Reborn. He journeyed to Shayol Ghul and met Ba'alzamon who gave him dark powers to aid in his hunt. In 997 NE, he journeyed back to Shayol Ghul, and his mind was "distilled" of his findings. By 998 NE, given the special ability to track the ones he was seeking, he had narrowed his search to three boys from Emond's Field: Rand al'Thor, Matrim Cauthon, and Perrin Aybara. With this certainty in mind, he brought Trollocs and Myrddraal to Emond's Field on Winternight.

Fain with the ruby dagger portrait done by Seamas Gallagher

Escape

After the failure of that attack, he was forced to join the Trollocs in the hunt for Moiraine Damodred and company. When they hid in Shadar Logoth, he managed to escape the Myrddraal only to be trapped by Mordeth, the ancient spirit which had caused the downfall of Aridhol (now Shadar Logoth). Mordeth had at last found the vessel he needed to command, so he could escape the damned city, but because the Dark One had touched and changed Fain's soul, Mordeth could only merge with Fain, not overtake him.

Padan Fain arrives in Emond's Field

The resulting entity was considered a maverick by the forces of the Shadow. Mordeth's hatred of the Shadow combined corrosively with Fain's resentment of the changes forced upon him. After this merger, his compulsion to hunt Rand, Mat, and Perrin grew even stronger, aided by the fact that he could already sense where they were. He blamed the boys, on some level, for causing what had happened to him. Following them to Fal Dara in Shienar, he was captured and arrested. While imprisoned, he was able to remove his ties to Ba'alzamon, renounced his Darkfriend vows, and claimed to be a changed man; in fact, any changes wrought made him more dangerous and evil, not less. In the chaos of the attack against Fal Dara, he escaped with Mat's dagger and the Horn of Valere.

Rand and Loial took the dagger and horn from Fain and his Trollocs and went to Cairhien. Darkfriends stole the dagger and horn back and set fire to the inn just before Ingtar arrived.

Padan Fain and the dagger

While traveling in the Ways, Fain was caught by Machin Shin, the Black Wind of the Ways that devours souls, be they human or Shadowspawn. The screaming voices of the Wind greeted him as a friend and feared him. In fact, the Wind fled from him. (This was the first time Machin Shin had grasped something living and let it go.) It is unknown whether this had any real effect on Fain, but the Wind appears to have picked up Fain's compulsion to hunt Rand. The Wind was next seen trying to force itself out of the Ways to devour Rand in Cairhien. This, too, is a first because it is assumed that the Wind cannot leave the Ways and had never before sought specific people. Fain seemed to be unaware that, after having been grasped by the Wind and then released, Machin Shin has acquired Fain's own compulsive desire to hunt after Rand.

Ordeith from the CCG

Ordeith

Padan enticed Rand, Mat, Perrin, Verin Sedai, and Ingtar Shinowa to Falme where he lost the dagger and the Horn. Calling himself Ordeith (wormwood in the Old Tongue, pronounced: OHR-deeth), he changed strategies from force to manipulation, convincing Lord Commander Pedron Niall of the Whitecloaks, as well as Elaida do'Avriny a'Roihan, Amyrlin Seat of the Aes Sedai, to oppose Rand. He also convinced Niall to send Whitecloaks to the Two Rivers, hoping it would draw Rand out. Unfortunately, he got Perrin instead, and the future Lord Goldeneyes of the Two Rivers broke him of his Whitecloak affiliations.

Padan Fain after becoming Ordeith.

Padan was one of the most dangerous creatures in the known world, as dangerous as any Forsaken. He could corrupt people by just being in their presence. He could sense fear and tension and could recognize a Darkfriend on sight. He had also developed a way of inflicting pain by touch, from levels of "merely" harmful to deadly. Eventually, he recovered the dagger (his primary interest) in Tar Valon; feeling complete with it. He was very likely insane and was wanted by the Shadow. Slayer was sent to the Two Rivers to kill him but failed when Perrin interfered.

Jeraal Mordeth

Padan changed his name to Jeraal Mordeth and sought out Toram Riatin, leader of the Cairhienin rebellion against Rand, whom he advised. When Rand showed up to neutralize the rebellion, Padan was able to wound him with the dagger from Shadar Logoth, which - but for the frantic efforts of both a Yellow Ajah Sister Samitsu Tamagowa and the Asha'man Damer Flinn - would have resulted in al'Thor's death.

Fain portrait done by Jeremy Saliba

Then Padan showed up in Far Madding with Toram Riatin, where, after killing some renegade Asha'man, he lured Rand and Lan into a trap; however, the trap failed, leaving Toram dead and Fain injured and fleeing. He also appeared to show a new ability to produce ghosts or mirages of dead people.

Fain then walked through the Blight. He had become so dangerous that he could kill Jumara with just his dagger. He also appeared to have become both completely insane and almost inhumanly psychotic. He came across a group of Trollocs and a Myrddraal and attacked them with Mashadar. His Mashadar was so powerful that the Myrddraal died instantly instead of remaining alive until sunset. The mist had a strange effect on the Trollocs, corrupting them and raising them as almost zombie-like slaves that Fain believed would fight even more viciously than they did before he enslaved them. He finally decided to stop the hunt and kill al'Thor.

Fain, as he appears during the Last Battle, illustrated by Paul Bielaczyc

Shaisam

Padan was on the battlefield at Thakan'dar calling himself Shaisam. He spread Mashadar by consuming the souls of Trollocs and Men and appeared to believe the Fain part of him was his only weakness, which he decided to eliminate as soon as he re-establisheds himself in a new location. He touched Mat who appeared to die. Shaisam (Padan) found Mat lying on the ground, pretending to be dead. Mat rose up, surprised him, stole the dagger, and rammed it into Shaisam's heart, finally killing him.

Parallel

Fain is a parallel to the character Mordred out of Arthurian legend whose name is similar to Fain's alias, Mordeth. Mordred was a traitor to King Arthur, and, during their last battle, he fatally wounded Arthur. This is similar to the way that Mordeth left Rand with a never-healing wound during one of their encounters.

He is also a close parallel to Gollum from The Lord of The Rings. His relentless pursuit of a character, his addiction to a corrupting artifact, and his "transformation by evil" are the main similarities.

Together with Aram, Fain's name comes from Padan Aram, a kingdom in Mesopotamia.

Trivia

• Padan Fain was nearly named Nikel Fain until his name was changed by Robert Jordan while editing his test manuscript for "The Eye of the World".

  

  Padan Fain's name Changed from Nikel to Padan

Original Eye of the World Manuscript from The James O. Rigney Jr. Papers at the College of Charleston

In the television series

• In the TV series, Padan Fain is played by actor Johann Myers .