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1.1.2: Who is Mesaana, in the Tower?

[Tony Zbaraschuck, Marc Zappala, Pam Korda]

In LOC, we find out that Mesaana is hiding out in the White Tower [LOC: 6, Threads Woven of Shadow, 138]. Naturally, this leads to the question of who she is pretending to be. Some folks think that she has taken the Rahvin/Sammael/Be'lal/Graendal route, and is posing as a high-ranking AS in the Tower. ACOS and TPOD make it very clear that Mesaana is NOT Galina or Alviarin, by letting us see their thoughts. (Not to mention, Alviarin talks to Mesaana, and Mesaana would not have had the lack of skill that led to Galina getting captured by Sevanna.) It is unlikely that Mesaana is anybody that anybody knows. None of the Forsaken (except possibly Demandred) have copied an already-prominent identity. Rather, they take a little-known or unknown identity and then promote themselves rapidly. This is probably because supplanting someone is not easy, requiring a total control of oneself, and the ability to copy the tiniest habits. This is especially true in the Tower, where Aes Sedai can doubtless read meaning in the tilt of an eyebrow or the tapping of a finger. For example, the head of the Red Ajah would be someone well-known to a lot of Reds, and Alviarin was also an influential White (she convinced her Ajah to side with Elaida). There's no real easy way to replace either one.

In [ACOS: Prologue, Lightnings, 41], Alviarin thinks "She [Mesaana] must be one of the sisters; surely she was not among servants, bound to labor and sweat. But who? Too many women had been out of the Tower for years before Elaida's summons, too many had no close friends, or none at all." Thus, Mesaana could be posing as one of the long-gone sisters, somebody who'd been gone so long that differences in personality, etc. would not seem too amiss, or one of the AS who is not known very well. Note that Danelle, the Brown who assisted in Elaida's coup, is one of the latter (no friends, see [ACOS: Prologue, Lightnings, 38]).

Alviarin's opinions notwithstanding, it is possible that Mesaana is posing as a maid or some other servant.

It has been suggested that Tarna, the Red emissary to Salidar, is Mesaana in disguise. There's not a lot of evidence for this, except that in the chapter where Tarna talks to Ny and El [LOC: 13, Under the Dust, 232] the chapter icon is the Forsaken icon, and there is no other obvious candidate in there to be Forsaken. Of course, the chapter icons don't always apply 100%, but every other chapter in the books with that icon has a Forsaken, or reference to one, in it. Tarna is good friends with Galina [LOC: 13, Under the Dust, 237], a known BA and head of the Red Ajah, so this could be an extensive way to control the Tower with a Red Amyrlin. There are arguments against this, too-- why would Mesaana run her own errands? The problem of a previous history raises its head, here, too.

In [ACOS: Prologue, Lightnings, 41], Alviarin notes that Mesaana taps her lip with her finger while thinking. This is not a useful trait in identifying Mesaana, since numerous Aes Sedai do this, among them Leane, Alviarin herself, Nesune [LOC: 27, Gifts, 395], Theodrin [ACOS: 11, An Oath, 210], Moiraine, and Vandene.

In a similar vein, in [TPOD: 25, An Unwelcome Return, 497] when Alviarin is groveling before Mesaana, she catches a glimpse of Mesaana's skirt: "Seizing the hem of Mesaana's dress, she rained kisses on it. The weave of Illusion...did not hold completely, with her frantically shifting the skirt's edge. Flickers of bronze silk with a thin border of intricately embroidered black scrollwork showed through." Alviarin thinks she could use this info to identify Mesaana in the Tower. Readers have tried to use the clue to find Mesaana, as well. However, this is about as futile as using lip-tapping as an identifier. Some people wearing bronze or bronzish dresses are Romanda and one of the Tower Brown Sitters named Shevan (her dress was "dark gold") [TPOD: 25, An Unwelcome Return, 489]. Given the habit of so many AS to wear clothes which color-code their Ajah, the bronze skirt could point to any Yellow or Brown sister.

A caveat about the skirt, as Dennis Higbee notes: "Am I the only person who thinks Mesaana, who was a researcher/ teacher, would know enough about the weaves she was using to take some precautions about her disguise? All she has to do is take a few seconds to change into the gaudy dress that Alviarin sees, and she has another level of disguise and another way to test her loyalty: If Alviarin is searching too hard for the dress in question, Mesaana knows she's disloyal and can zorch her at leisure."

If the bronze silk dress is actually Mesaana's, it is a point against her being disguised as a scullery (maid), or some other menial servant. She could still be some sort of higher-level non-AS-type, such as a secretary. We know that AS can have non-AS secretaries; Halima is accepted as Cabriana's ex-secretary, and as Delana's secretary, without comment.

Another important thing to note is that if Mesaana is masquerading as an Aes Sedai, there must be a way for channellers to disguise their channelling ability, that is, to appear to be a weaker channeller than one really is. Otherwise, Mesaana's super strength would be a dead giveaway that she wasn't who she claimed to be. (The same applies to Lanfear, who disguised herself as Else Grinwell to move about the Tower [TDR: 24, Scouting and Discoveries, 224-225].) In fact, John Nowacki reports that RJ said, at a post-POD booksigning in Washington, DC, that a channeller can hide strength as well as ability to channel, but added that few people know how to do it and the AS don't even know these tricks are possible.

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