The Advent of the Dragonsworn

After tales of The Lord Dragon Reborn engaging a flame-faced evil – Ishamael – in the sky above Falme, and the expulsion of the bulk of the Seanchan's local force, spread to the ears of the impressionable, men and women across the Almoth Plain, across Tarabon, across Arad Doman declared The Dragon reborn.

Riots quickly started, and spread as thieves and the ambitious took advantage of this rising of the militants. Meanwhile, a former soldier started preaching of The Dragon. Styling himself as The Prophet, he gathered much of the militia and held certain areas in an iron grip. His fanatical rule outlawed channelling by any but The Dragon – for he, as he preached, was Light incarnate – as blasphemy; and theft would be punishable by branding on the first offence, and the loss of a hand on the second.

Tough though many of his laws were, thugs and unscrupulous denizens thrived in his rabble, where torture and brute force were used liberally on those who opposed The Prophet's words: or at least, those of whom it could be suggested that they opposed them. While lacking their military precision, their brutal methods of torture mirrored those of the Hand of the Light. If they said so, their subjects were guilty.

A few other minor clerics rose in various areas, 'prophets', although few claimed the title in case the most prominent should be displeased. The turbulence spread, deposing several Ghealdan monarchs in sequence, until the Children of the Light decided to take action. The Seanchan taking the Whitecloak's Fortress of the Light the next day cut these efforts short, however, and the Dragonsworn were allowed to rally unabated.

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