In the fictional world of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time fantasy series, Darkfriends are followers of the Dark One. Darkfriend in the Old Tongue is Atha'an Shadar, which translated more directly to "People of the Dark".
Darkfriends may or may not have any true loyalty or allegiance to the Dark One; some only desire the power and immortality promised, and some of the most powerful Chosen, such as Lanfear, have even suggested that they desire to overthrow the Dark One and take his place.
Being a Darkfriend is considered a crime throughout the Westlands and presumably also in the Seanchan Empire, and in many places is a capital offence. Secrecy is therefore a paramount concern among Darkfriends, and they have devised a number of strategies to limit any Darkfriend's knowledge of the identities or plans of his or her fellow Darkfriends. This ensures that even questioning under torture will produce little useful information to a Darkfriend's captors. To avoid discovery, Darkfriends often commit other, more prosaic crimes, such as Hadnan Kadere, who murdered his sister once she discovered that he was a Darkfriend.
Among Darkfriends, an elaborate system of rank and authority has been established. This hierarchy bears no relation to position or social standing in society. Among Darkfriends, beggars can and do outrank kings and queens. Generally, a higher-ranking Darkfriend has very wide power to give orders and administer punishments to those under his or her command. This power may be extended or circumscribed by others of still higher rank, and so on all the way up to the Chosen.
As the series progressed, and more and more of the Chosen became free, some Darkfriends began receiving direct orders from one or more of the Chosen. Because of the great authority and power of the Chosen, a Darkfriend who is directly instructed by one of the Chosen will typically take those orders very seriously indeed. Failure or disobedience almost always have painful or even fatal consequences, to the Darkfriend himself or to some other person or people he cares about. Because the Chosen work sometimes with and sometimes against one another, a Darkfriend may find himself receiving two conflicting sets of orders; it seems, however, that most Darkfriends try to minimize risk by following their most recent instructions.
Most Darkfriends only follow the Dark One indirectly, as most have never communicated with him directly; very few swore their oaths at Shayol Ghul. Ba'alzamon, a supposed name for the Dark One, is actually an alias of the Chosen Ishamael, for example.
Darkfriends refer to the Dark One as the Great Lord of the Dark, instead of his true name, Shai'tan. Rand al'Thor asks Lanfear why they do this and she replies, "It would be blasphemy."
A Dreadlord is a person who can channel and is in the service of the Dark One. Although they can channel, they are not considered to be "Chosen." Their function is either like the sul'dam and damane in Seanchan armies or as the commanders of the Shadow's armies under the Chosen. The Dreadlords originated in the Trolloc Wars.
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