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1.3.6: Are the Seals connected to the Taint?

Are the Seals the source of the Taint on Saidin? Will the Taint go away when all the Seals are broken? Here's why the answer might be "yes."

The idea that the Seals are what allow the DO to Taint Saidin, and that the Taint will vanish when the Seals break is based upon the following facts:

The Taint appeared when the DO was Sealed away at the end of the War of Power.
The Seals are made purely of Saidin; the Taint only affects Saidin.
Rand asked the *finn about purifying Saidin. He then discussed the answer with Herid Fel.
Herid Fel's note said "Belief and order give strength. Have to clear rubble before you can build." Then he was killed by a Gholam before he could explain what he meant by that.
Taim, who may be Demandred, appeared to be upset when Rand looked like he was about to break one of the Seals.
Rand's idea of how to remove the Taint is "very dangerous." [TPOD, 14, Message from the M'Hael, 306]

From these facts, we can construct the following idea: The only connection the DO has to the world is the Seals (in the same way that a wall is a connection between two rooms). Thus, if the DO was to affect the world in any way, it would have to be through the Seals. The Seals are made of Saidin. They provide a connection from the DO to the male half of the True Source. This is what causes the Taint. It stands to reason, then, that if the Seals are all broken, the DO's direct contact with Saidin will be broken, and thus the Taint will go away.

There are problems with this. First, it supposes that the Taint must be continually replenished in order to remain active. However, this needn't be the case. It's possible that the DO did the Tainting just before/as it was being sealed, and the Taint perpetuated itself, afterwards. Fel's comment about clearing rubble was incredibly vague, and could have referred to anything. Furthermore, even if he was referring to breaking the Seals, it needn't have been connected to the Taint. It's pretty obvious that the old Seals must be removed before the DO can be re-Sealed.

Another problem with the scenario for the Seals causing the Taint is that it doesn't explain why LTT and the Hundred Companions went insane on the spot. It also doesn't explain why the Taint appeared full-strength at the moment of Sealing. If the "leakage from the DO" scenario were true, one would expect the Taint and its effects to build up gradually, over time. On the other hand, if the Tainting was a specific, one-time action on the DO's part, the instant effect on the male channellers fits better.

When Rand was talking about cleansing Saidin in [TPOD: 14, Message from the M'Hael, 306], he was thinking that his plan would require lots of the OP (he was hoping to be able to use Callandor, and when he discovered the problem with the Sword that Ain't, he concluded that he'd have to use the two Giant Sa'angreal). Later, in [TPOD, 21, Answering the Summons, 414], he thought that he'd need to talk to Nynaeve about it (he may need her to use the Giant Female Sa'angreal). We know that the Seals are very fragile; the foci (and thus the true seals) could be broken by hand. There would be no need to use the OP at all, let alone the large quantities that the Giant Sa'angreal produce. However, Rand's plan may be to use the Giant Sa'angreal to make a "shield" over the Bore, as Latra Posae wanted to do during the War of Power [Guide: 4, The Fall Into Shadow, 45].

Another thing to consider is the description of how the Seals "feel" to people who come near them. In [TFOH, 52, Choices, 627], Rand thinks, "the two cuendillar seals, packed in wool now that they were no longer unbreakable. He felt the Dark One's taint strongly here; it almost seemed to come from the casks, a faint miasma as from something rotting in a hidden place." In [TFOH, 50, To Teach and Learn, 588], when the Seal from the Panarch's Palace is found broken, Elayne comments, '"We didn't look at it... or touch it more than we had to. It felt filthy, evil" It no longer did. Carlinya had made them each hold a piece, demanding to know what evil feeling they were talking about.' This evil feeling coming from the seals is clear evidence that the Dark One can touch the seals. Furthermore, the "evil feeling" from the seals is described by Rand as "the DO's taint" (although not "the DO's Taint"). The evil feeling could be the Taint. However, it could also just be that the Evil Seals Feeling and the Taint are similar because they have the same source, namely the DO. Furthermore, the Seals didn't feel "evil" until they started to seriously disintegrate. If the Evil Seals Feeling was directly related to the Taint, wouldn't it have always been present?

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