Lan Mandragoran
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al'Lan Mandragoran, (IPA pronunciation: [mændræ'gɔrən] [1]) is one of the main characters of the Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan.
al'Lan Mandragoran is the last survivor of the royal line of Malkier; his kingdom was overrun by the Shadow when he was but a baby. Lan is often described as having a face of stone and chilling blue eyes. Few can defeat him in physical combat.
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[edit] Youth
Lan was born in 953 NE, the year Malkier was betrayed to the Shadow. When he was an infant and Malkier was falling, his parents placed the sword of the Malkieri kings in his hands, named him Dai'shan of Malkier, which literally means "Diademed Battle Lord" in the Old Tongue, and swore the ancient oath of Malkieri kings and queens in his name. His mother placed a locket around his neck for remembrance, his father the ring of Malkieri Kings, and twenty of Malkier's best swordsmen carried him to Fal Moran in Shienar. Only five reach the city, all wounded. The surviving men then began teaching the child all they knew, learning weapons and the Blight for a childhood.
At age sixteen, Lan was given the hadori, a thin strip of braided leather holding his hair back, and became a man. He began his one man war against the Shadow that he could not win, with the oath graven on his mind. To stand against the shadow so long as iron is hard and stone abides. To defend the Malkieri while one drop of blood remains. To avenge what cannot be defended. He has nothing left to defend, only to avenge. He will court death itself without a second thought.
Moiraine Sedai, searching for the Dragon Reborn, met Lan in Kandor soon after the Aiel War. He managed to throw her into a pond, after which she dumped the contents of the pond onto him. After a battle with the Black Ajah and losing the last of the men that carried him to Shienar, Bukama, he left Moiraine to continue his never ending battle with the shadow. Moiraine, however, caught up with him and convinced him that his talents would be in better use as her bodyguard, so he joined her quest and became her Warder.
[edit] As Warder
Lan's skills as a Borderland warrior have served him well in service as Moiraine's Warder. He once rode a horse to death, and continued the journey on foot, carrying her to Anaiya Sedai for Healing. During the events of The Eye of the World, he and Nynaeve al'Meara fell in love, but his duty was ever to Moiraine; when Lan and Nynaeve's paths split after Tear, he went with his Aes Sedai to the Aiel Waste, sending Juilin Sandar after Nynaeve to "look after her". This sequence of events led to Moiraine's and Lanfear's apparent demise at the doorframe ter'angreal on the docks of Cairhien.
When a Warder's Aes Sedai dies, the Warder is hurt grievously in some psychological way, and usually goes on a suicide mission to avenge the Aes Sedai's death, but Moiraine prevented this by altering their bond so that, upon her death, it would pass to another; this use of near-Compulsion infuriated him at the time, especially considering his uncertainty regarding his feelings for Nynaeve. Almost the moment Moiraine was lost, Lan set out to find this other, specifically Myrelle of the Green Ajah, who happened to be with the Salidar rebels under Egwene's command. When Egwene found out, she told Lan to go to Ebou Dar, where Nynaeve was hunting the Bowl of the Winds; he did so immediately (what Egwene did to Myrelle is another story entirely). He was in Ebou Dar when Moghedien attempted to kill Nynaeve with balefire (though she missed and instead sliced through the boat Nynaeve was in) and helped to rescue her from the water. After these traumatic events, the two were married before the day's end, aboard the very Sea Folk ship Nynaeve had been headed toward. The Sea Folk have a custom regarding marriage which was imported into their vows: since a husband and wife may change rank in relation to each other many times, the spouse who gives the orders at any given time in public must take them in private. This has resulted in Nynaeve, who is very much used to giving orders, losing quite a bit of her bossiness, and tempering their relationship from being quite so volatile.
[edit] As Tutor
Besides turning Nynaeve's life upside-down, he has also been influential in Rand al'Thor's life: he was the Dragon Reborn's first regular tutor in the use of the sword, and has also passed down a good deal of advice and general wisdom regarding the tough situations that Rand has had to deal with as the Dragon Reborn.
Lan's regard for the Two Rivers' youthful ta'veren has not lessened over the course of the series; he regularly intervenes with his own strong opinions when he feels that they are being pushed along a course not of their choosing. Somewhat contradictorily, Lan also feels that "death is lighter than a feather" while duty has the weight of a mountain; regardless, he sees doing one's duty as paramount, even if some small choices are available along the way (According to him, even if you have no choice in what happens, you can still "face it on your feet").
[edit] Malkieri heritage
The al' on the front of his name is the Malkieri honorific for king; his wife, Queen of Malkier by marriage, is sometimes called "el'Nynaeve" by the same custom. This caused some confusion when Rand al'Thor visited Shienar; in his case, the al' prefix merely meant 'son of'. Lan is greatly respected by citizens of the other nations of the Borderlands, both for his status as the last (and uncrowned) King of Malkier, and for his prowess in combat. It is said that if he ever said the word and raised the Golden Crane of Malkier, an army of Borderlanders of all nationalities would join him in a fight to reclaim lost Malkier from the Great Blight. Knowing this, Lan refuses all efforts to crown him at the head of a dead nation. He will not lead other men to their deaths, believing that if life is to be lost in Malkier's memory, it should be his alone.
Nynaeve remedied this in Knife of Dreams however. Lan felt that Rand didn't pay enough attention to the Borderlands, especially considering that the Last Battle which was coming ever nearer would almost certainly be fought in the Blight. So, Lan decided to ride to Shienar to fight, and Nynaeve made him pledge to take on any who would wish to ride with him. She then sent him to Saldaea on the coast of the Aryth Ocean at World's End, so he would have to travel hundreds of miles to reach his destination. She then travels to village after village in the Borderlands to find the scattered remnants of Lan's Malkieri countrymen, who then leave to join Lan in the ride to the Blight.
Despite his fatalistic streak, Lan keeps several customs of Malkier alive, even at the cost of personal discomfort or endangerment; his wearing of the hadori is just one of these. His coming-of-age according to Malkieri traditions is detailed in the prequel novel New Spring.
Lan is very similar in characterization to Aragorn of the The Lord of the Rings.
