Shadar Logoth

Shadar Logoth, (Old Tongue: Place Where the Shadow Waits, or simply The Shadow's Waiting, pronounced: SHAH-dahr LOH-goth), was once Aridhol, a great city which destroyed itself during the Trolloc Wars by becoming as dark and evil as the Shadow against which it fought. Now Mashadar, a shapeless evil which manifests as a pale white fog, haunts the city. Shadowspawn will only enter at great compulsion, as Mashadar is drawn to things of the Shadow like the attraction between opposite poles of a magnet. The city is lethal to all who enter; any who take even a pebble will be tainted by that evil, and will eventually spread it like an illness. It is said Shadar Logoth is dangerous under daylight, but deadly at night.
==Location==
The characters reach Shadar Logoth by travelling three days along the Caemlyn Road and bearing north to reach the city "before nightfall". The group reach the city after crossing hilly country. We also know that the city is on the southern bank of the Arinelle as Rand and Mat later escape the city by jumping onto the Spray to start their "journey down the Arinelle". 
Shadar Logoth's reputation and it's relative isolation, bordering on the wilderness of the Caralain Grass, means that Andorans rarely would have any motivation to go there. Only the river traders sailing the Arinelle from Saldaea to Illian pass by necessity, and even they try to avoid mooring near the ruins unless the need is great.
==The creation of Mashadar==
Aridhol was the capital of the nation of the same name during the Trolloc Wars. The city and the nation fought valiantly against the forces of the Shadow but the king at the time, Balwen Mayel, was doubtful of the Light's hopes of victory and fell into despair. A mysterious man named Mordeth came to the city at some point during the war and won the king's favour, becoming his most trusted counselor. Mordeth advised that the city withdraw in on itself and that they had to become harder, become as cruel and merciless as their enemies. Corrupted by Mordeth's influence and the King's will, the people changed their battlecry to, "The victory of the Light is all," reflecting the zeal they devoted to the fight against the Shadow to the exclusion of all else, and they uttered it more frequently as their deeds became worse and worse. It soon came to be that the people had become so dark and feared that many would prefer to see the arrival of Trollocs than soldiers from Aridhol.
This descent into darkness continued, and their zeal led to people becoming mistrusting of one another, with families and friends turning on one another for unfounded suspicions. Eventually every man, woman, and child of Aridhol slew each other in a single night. In their demise, they left the vileness of their deeds behind in the very foundations of the city and Mashadar was born, an evil almost as great as the Shadow itself.
In the latter days of the Trolloc Wars, a Shadow army - Trollocs, Dreadlords, Darkfriends, and Myrddraal - camped in the ruins of Aridhol. The next day, they did not come out. Men were sent to find out what had occurred. They found pieces of weaponry and armor, and walls streaked with blood and pleas to the Dark One to save them written in blood in the Trolloc tongue. When they later returned, they found nothing. All the walls had been scoured clean, and the weapons and armor were gone.
After the revealing of Mashadar, men named the city Shadar Logoth, the "Place where the Shadow Waits."
thumb|left|250px|Mat Cauthon taking the ruby-hilted dagger from Shadar Logoth
==Recent history and events==
After the fall of Aridhol, the city fell into ruin and by recent times most of the once-magnificent buildings were derelict and decayed, albeit still retaining a degree of their former grandeur. It was a place that was avoided by merchants and travelers whenever possible. Any who entered in the daylight felt unseen eyes on them, and at night Mashadar emerged, killing most people who were still there. In addition, the advisor Mordeth had survived the fall of Aridhol somehow, and he wandered the streets waiting for people to come to him. When they did, he would try and lure them into accompanying him to the borders of the city so he could devour their soul and walk the earth once more in their body. He succeeded in a way in 998 NE when he fused with Padan Fain, although Fain's soul was too corrupted for him to destroy completely, and what resulted was a twisted fusion of both men that was completely and utterly insane and extremely dangerous. 
Rand al'Thor and others camped in Shadar Logoth in 998 NE to avoid a Trolloc force pursuing them, an ill-fated series of events which led to the group being split up and Mat Cauthon being poisoned by a dagger he had unwittingly taken from a treasure room in the city. It was their presence that compelled Padan Fain to enter the city and thus led to his combining with Mordeth.
===Destruction===
In , Rand al'Thor used Shadar Logoth to cleanse saidin, by siphoning the taint into the city with a weave of saidar, causing Mashadar and the taint to annihilate each other. The enormous amount of the One Power that was needed to do this acted as a beacon for every channeler in the Westlands, attracting many unwanted eyes and causing a battle between Rand's allies and the Forsaken. The city was completely destroyed by this and all that now remains of Shadar Logoth is a great hole in the ground in a perfect hemispherical shape, which may become a lake in the future.
==Errata==
The events of the books and the city's apparent location do not match with the color map on the inside of the hardcover. The road appears to veer around 100 miles or more from the Arinelle, which would be much to far to travel in less than a day, especially over difficult terrain.How far can a horse travel in a day? A horse can reasonably travel 25–35 miles per day, with specially trained endurance horses capable of 50–100 miles in extremity. We should expect this to be reduced because of both the terrain and the fact that most of the horses are not specially trained, being taken from the stables at The Winespring Inn. The best way to resolve this is to move the path of the Caemlyn road further north than it is currently depicted. We are told it "curved around something called the Hills of Absher until it reached Whitebridge". The grayscale map did not originally show this curving and it seems plausible that this was added by curving in the wrong direction for the later color map. The distances on the grayscale map, however, seem more plausible. For reference, the distance between Taren Ferry and Baerlon is approximately 100 miles.
== Interesting facts ==
A fan-made soundtrack features the heroes' entrance of the abandoned city as well as their escape from it. Follow the link to listen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7ExGmUV8gk 
== External links ==
* on 
es:Shadar Logoth
Category:Ruins
 
Category:Historical settlements