Graendal (GREHN-dahl) (originally known as Kamarile Maradim Nindar) is one of the primary antagonists of the Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan. She is one of the Forsaken.
Kamarile Maradim Nindar, like Nemene Damendar Boann, was a world renowned healer. However, her expertise was the human mind and mental illnesses, something the One Power and other healing methods could not touch. She was one of her Age's most beautiful women, though she was generally not considered as beautiful as Lanfear. She had blonde hair that she styled in elaborate, bejeweled ringlets, and a voluptuous body. However, she was a known ascetic that eschewed worldly pleasure.
About ten years after the drilling of the Bore, Kamarile went through a complete change of mind, becoming the complete opposite of what she was before. She became an extreme hedonist, and started to dress only in the latest fashion and sensual and sexual pleasures came before all else for her. The change was not caused by the Dark One but by her own realization that the world could not live up to her own standards. It is thought that her extreme views on sexuality might have been a way to show the world the contempt she felt for its inability to meet her standards. It is reported that she greatly enjoyed her pleasures, but due to the events happening around in the world at that time, few people took much notice. There is a large volume of evidence that indicates that she was one of the first to discover what the world was facing, and swore her oath to the Dark One about 25 years after the Collapse.
Her new affiliation was not known until she herself declared it. This declaration marked in many ways the beginning of the War of the Shadow. Before the end of the same day of her declaration Devaille had been seized by armies loyal to the Dark One and the first army of Trollocs had been revealed. Both before and after her announcement she proved highly skilled at intrigues; prior to the war, a large part of the civil unrest including countless riots she was credited for having a hand in, as well as strange harmful behavior by people holding high offices and a large series of suicides. She never held any field command but was responsible for a large number of gains and several subversion efforts, a source said:
Graendal conquered territories as surely as any of the Shadow's generals, but her battlegrounds were the enemies mind.[1]
During the War of Power Graendal murdered children before enslaving their parents and called it "an act of kindness."[2]
She made her hiding place in a remote palace in Arad Doman under the disguise of the ailing Lady Basene. She has also collaborated with Demandred, Sammael and most recently, Aran'gar, in opposition of the Dragon Reborn, though none of these plots, thus far, have come to much good. Rand al'Thor assumed that she was killed after his balefire destroyed her palace and all inside; however, it was revealed in Distinctions, the prologue of Towers of Midnight, that she anticipated and avoided the attack.
Moridin gives her a 'ter'angreal dreamspike to use to trap Perrin Aybara and kill him. This plan fails, and in doing so causes the Dark One's avatar Shaidar Haran to confront her and express the disappointment of their master, who blames her for the deaths of three Forsaken: Asmodean, Mesaana and Aran'gar.
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