Hi, I'm new here and new to WoT for the most part. I have only read the first 3 books so far, so I would appreciate no spoilers about further books in this thread please :-).

 

I have a lingering question from book 2 that won't stop bothering me. A significant portion of the plot was dedicated to Bayle Domon sailing to Falme.

 

1) Who compelled him to go and why? He was basically forced to go west because he found out if he went east he would be killed (I forget all the details). Do we ever find out who was behind this?

2) What was the point (plot-wise) of him even being in Falme? Sure, the girls found him and convinced him to help them escape, but then that turned out to be unnecessary, if I remember correctly.

 

I liked him as a character, but he seemed totally unnecessary to the plot, and the mysterious forces that drove him west never seemed to get explained. Am I missing anything? Will it be explained in a future book? Or is he just a loose end?

 

Thanks!

Edited June 16, 201115 yr by The111

Hi, I'm new here and new to WoT for the most part. I have only read the first 3 books so far, so I would appreciate no spoilers about further books in this thread please :-).

 

I have a lingering question from book 2 that won't stop bothering me. A significant portion of the plot was dedicated to Bayle Domon sailing to Falme.

 

1) Who compelled him to go and why? He was basically forced to go west because he found out if he went east he would be killed (I forget all the details). Do we ever find out who was behind this?

2) What was the point (plot-wise) of him even being in Falme? Sure, the girls found him and convinced him to help them escape, but then that turned out to be unnecessary, if I remember correctly.

 

I liked him as a character, but he seemed totally unnecessary to the plot, and the mysterious forces that drove him west never seemed to get explained. Am I missing anything? Will it be explained in a future book? Or is he just a loose end?

 

Thanks!

 

He had one of the seals on the Dark One's prison on his ship in his collection of cuendillar. That's why the darkfriends were chasing him. Of course, some of the trolloc attacks like the ones that chased Rand and Mat onto the ship were coincedental. He ends up in Falme where he is forced to give Lord Turak the seal. Then Rand shows up, kills Lord Turak, fights Ishy, and ends up with the two seals (Bayle's and the one the Turak had). It seems likely that that was the main reason (whether plotwise or Pattern determined) that he was in Falme, since he didn't actually end up rescuing the girls as you said. That said, without any specific spoilers, this plot does have further ramifications in the future so don't feel that it just gets dropped.

1) Answer to your first question the three men from Cairhien he meets in the bar want him to head East to transport someone from Mayene to Illian, and they give him a note to give to the person he meets in Mayene. Bayle opens the note and finds that it's a death warrent for himself signed by the king of Cairhien, so if he heads East he's a dead man. Bayle believes that it's the seal to the Dark One's prison that he has that they want. So to protect his life he heads West unaware of the coming Seanchan. He's taken by Egeanin's ship off the coast of Toman Head and she brings him to Falme to meet with Turak, the leader of the Seanchan invasion. So yes, we figure out who was behind the hit (King Galldrain of Cairhien) and we figure out why he goes to Falme.

 

2) Read and Find Out. Domon's an important character in the series and there's much more for him to do, the reasons he had to go meet with the Seanchan and be in Falme will be explained as the series goes on.

Great, thanks guys... I'll keep my eye out for Domon in the future books.

The later books do not directly explain, but they do make things a little more understandable.