Padan Fain is a character in The Wheel of Time portrayed by Johann Myers.
Fain is the main peddler who frequents the isolated region of the Two Rivers, trading items and delivering news from the outside world.
History[]
Early life[]
Padan Fain was born in Murandy.[1] At some point, Fain became a Darkfriend, and pledged his soul to the Shadow. He made a living as a peddler, and regularly frequented the Two Rivers, as the Dark One was drawn to the extraordinary presence of five ta'veren in Emond's Field: Rand al'Thor, Mat Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al'Vere, and Nynaeve al'Meara.[2]
Over the years, Fain became well known in the Two Rivers as a main source of information and trade with the rest of the world. During his regular visits to the region, he came to regard Mat as his "best and poorest customer."[3]
Season 1[]
On the morning of Bel Tine, Padan Fain arrives in Emond's Field. He whistles as he drives his wagon and laughs as he's greeted by many excited children asking for sweets. He sets up shop near the Winespring Inn, and is approached by Mat, who Fain jokes is his "best and poorest customer." Mat offers him Danya's bracelet as a trade. They negotiate, with Fain claiming it's fake gold, and when Mat counters, Fain asks if he'll be able to sell the bracelet in town, indicating that he knows Mat has likely stolen the bracelet. The two haggle briefly, but Padan Fain settles on half a mark, and directly gives Mat three lanterns for the Bel Tine celebration in exchange for the bracelet. Mat begrudgingly accepts and calls him a bastard. That night, Padan Fain is still in town when the dancing begins outside the Winespring Inn. When Shadowspawn begin to attack the village, he quietly departs.[3]
In Tar Valon, Fain sees Mat and Rand enter the Light's Blessing Inn. Later, while Mat is sitting on a balcony to watch the procession of the Aes Sedai and Logain Ablar, Fain laughs when he sees him and slips away.[4]
Fain follows Moiraine and the party through the Ways from Tar Valon to Fal Dara. He is briefly seen at the time a Trolloc attacks Egwene and Rand, and he later emerges from the Waygate and heads to Fal Dara. Perrin Aybara spots Padan Fain walking through the city, and tells Nynaeve al'Meara that he saw him, but Nynaeve is sure that Padan Fain is dead, as he was in the Two Rivers during the attack on Bel Tine.[5]
While a Shadowspawn army attacks Tarwin's Gap, Fain strikes at the palace in Fal Dara. Fain speaks the passcode to the keep, getting the guardswomen to open the entrance, and his Fades behead the guardswomen. Fain and the Fades enter the palace and attack Uno Nomesta, Lord Yakota, and Loial as they are retrieving the Horn of Valere, and Fain stabs Loial with a ruby-hilted dagger. Perrin confronts Fain but doesn't attack, and Fain tells Perrin that he's been visiting the Two Rivers for years to watch Perrin and the other ta'veren for the Dark One. Fain then leaves with the Fades and the Horn of Valere.[2]
Season 2[]
After the attack in Fal Dara, Fain attends an important Darkfriend meeting. He and twelve other disguised Darkfriends meet with Ishamael to discuss the implications of Rand al'Thor being the Dragon Reborn. However, the meeting is interrupted by Niko, the daughter of a Tuatha'an Darkfriend. Fain lowers the hood to reveal his face when Niko and Ishamael leave the room, with the peddler grinning in a sinister manner.[6]
Meanwhile, Lord Ingtar Shinowa has been leading a party that is tracking Fain. They have had a near miss with Fain in Watch Hill, and Uno half-jokingly blames the others for losing the Darkfriend here. When Lord Ingtar's party reaches a clearing in Arad Doman, Perrin is able to sense events that happened, and can relive the moment when Fain attacked a Tuatha'an woman.[6]
At High Lord Turak's court in Falme, Ishamael has Padan Fain present the Horn of Valere to Turak.[7]
Before the Battle of Falme, Ishamael meets with Padan Fain to give him instructions, so Ishamael might still persuade Rand to turn to the Dark. Fain offers to kill Rand, but Ishamael has Fain work on Mat instead. Fain offers the corrupted ruby-hilted dagger to Mat and leaves Mat alone in a locked room with it to tempt him. As Fain waits outside, Mat carefully wraps the dagger into a spear without touching it to avoid its corruption and uses it to destroy the lock on the door. Fain initially thinks Mat has succumb to the dagger, but when Mat reveals he has not, Fain calls for guards and escapes.[8]
Season 3[]
When he came out of hiding, Padan is with his children of light ranks as a captain, with an army of children, went hunting for darkfriends, in the two rivers. Fain also his squared darkfriends.
Personality[]
He is conniving, devious, and a skilled liar.
Physical appearance[]
Padan Fain is an adult man with dark skin and brown eyes. His hair is short, black, curly/coiled, and starting to grey. He keeps his facial hair trimmed short. He typically wears a long gray coat.
Abilities[]
Padan Fain has shown skill at haggling, tracking, knife-fighting, and tracking evasion. Later, it's reveal that is also good at infiltration and leadership.
- Haggling - As a peddler, Padan Fain is skilled at haggling. He takes a gold bracelet from Mat and gives him only three lanterns in return, which is a deal that favors Fain and leaves Mat disgruntled.[3]
- Tracking - Through season 1, Padan Fain successfully tracks Moiraine's party from the Two Rivers to Shadar Logoth, and continues tracking Rand and Mat to Tar Valon, and later to Fal Dara.
- Knife fighting - Padan Fain is skilled with fighting with a dagger. He injures or kills multiple people with the ruby-hilted dagger.[2][6]
- Evasion - In season 2, Fain is able to evade the Shienaran search party led by Lord Ingtar for months.
- Infiltration - In season 3, Padan has managed to infiltrate the Children of Light, who claim that they can never be infiltrated by a darkfriend.
- Leadership - Padan has shown himself to be a great leader for Fades and his darkfriend, Squirt.
Appearances[]
Padan Fain appears in the following episodes:
| The Wheel of Time appearances | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 episodes | ✔ | X | X | X | ✔ | X | ✔ | ✔ |
| Season 2 episodes | ✔ | ? | ? | ? | ✔ | ? | ? | ✔ |
| Season 3 episodes | X | X | X | X | X | ✔ | ✔ | ? |
Although Fain doesn't directly appear in season 1 episode 2 Shadow's Waiting, his whistling is heard in Shadar Logoth.
Quotes[]
- Mat
- Padan Fain
- — 1.01 Leavetaking
Pleasure as always.
- Perrin
- Nynaeve
- — 1.07 The Dark Along the Ways
The peddler? Perrin... Padan Fain is dead. He was there on Bel Tine when the Trollocs came.
- Padan Fain
- Perrin
- Fain
- — 1.08 The Eye of the World
You're ta'veren. All five of you, focal points for the Wheel. Usually there's only one, maybe two in a generation, but... five of you in one village. That's what Moiraine saw. What my Lord saw. That's why we sent the Trollocs, not to kill you. To bring you to him. We need the Dark. We need balance. Balance means that you will turn to the Shadow, some of you. Maybe all of you. Today isn't the end. It's the beginning.
Gallery[]
Season 1 images[]
Season 3 images[]
Behind the scenes[]
A whistle is associated with Padan Fain's appearances throughout season 1. In the first episode, he arrives in the Two Rivers while whistling. In the second episode, he isn't seen, but Mat wakes to the sound of whistling in Shadar Logoth, which suggests that Fain is following the group. In the fifth episode, a whistle is again heard when Fain watches Mat and Rand enter the Light's Blessing Inn in Tar Valon. In episode 7, Egwene wakes to the sound of whistling in The Ways, and Fain is briefly seen in The Ways behind them.
Showrunner Rafe Judkins said that they wanted a "creepy iconic whistle" to be associated with Padan Fain, and that composer Lorne Balfe came up with the whistle while in the bath:
- Question
- Rafe Judkins
- — Q&A with Dragonmount, November 15, 2021[9]
This question is great because the answer is hilarious. We always knew we wanted a creepy iconic whistle for Padan Fain, and we tried so many times until this particular tune was actually whistled (and recorded) by our composer @Lornebalfe while he was in the bathtub one day.
Changes from the book series
Padan Fain is an adaptation of character of the same name 
(book spoilers!) from the book series.
- Rafe Judkins stated that the character would be made more mysterious in the television series.[10]
He still thought of himself as Padan Fain—Padan Fain was the core of him—but he had been changed, and he knew it. He knew many things, now, more than any of his old masters could suspect. He had been a Darkfriend long years before Ba'alzamon summoned him and set him on the track of the three young men from Emond's Field, distilling what he knew of them, distilling him, and feeding the essence back so that he could 'feel them, smell where they had been, follow wherever they ran. Especially the one. A part of him still cringed, remembering what Ba'alzamon had done to him, but it was a small part, hidden, suppressed. He was changed. Following the three had led him into Shadar Logoth. He had not wanted to go, but he had had to obey. Then. And in Shadar Logoth. . . .—Padan Fain, The Great Hunt
Appearance
- In the books, Fain is "pale" and has a "massive beak of a nose."[11]
Relationships
- Mat: In the books, Fain had not taken notice of Mat until his last visit prior to the visit preceding the Winternight attack.[11]
Personality and character
- Composure and madness: Within days of the Winternight attack, Fain had been reduced to wearing a "bundle of rags."[12] By the time the main characters arrived in Fal Dara, Padan Fain had been driven to obvious madness and was so filthy his tears didn't reach the "bottom layer" of dirt on his face.[13] By contrast, in the show Padan Fain is well-groomed and converses coherently with Perrin during the theft of the Horn of Valere.
- Allegiance: Early in the second book, Fain ceased to be loyal to the Shadow and instead sought his own goals with no regard for their alignment with the Shadow's.
Ruby-hilted dagger
- In the books, Mat took the ruby-hilted dagger from Shadar Logoth to Fal Dara and Fain stole it during his "rescue." In the show, Fain brought the dagger to Fal Dara, apparently from Shadar Logoth.
- In the books, Fain's attachment to the ruby-hilted dagger was obsessive. During the flight from Fal Dara to Falme, he gave more thought to the dagger than the Horn of Valere. He later visited Tar Valon to recover the dagger, killing an Accepted and confronting the leader of the Black Ajah in the process. By contrast, in the show, Fain abandoned it when threatened by Mat.
Knowledge
- Fal Daran passphrase: The passphrase used by Fain to induce the Fal Daran guardswomen to open the door in the keep was, in the books, a line of poetry quoted by Lan while the party was being treated to Agelmar Jagad's hospitality.
- Observing Two Rivers ta'veren: In the books, Fain was sent to the Two Rivers as part of a scheme by the Shadow to locate Rand, Perrin, and Mat. However, it is not established that Fain knew they were ta'veren or even took specific notice of the boys prior to a year before the Winternight attack. Fain did not show any particular interest in Nynaeve or Egwene, despite the latter frequently visiting him during his Fal Daran captivity.
Activities
- In the books, Fain brought news of Logain and Mazrim Taim to the Two Rivers,[11] which had not otherwise heard of the two false Dragons since no soldiers or anyone else would pass through the Two Rivers on their way to Ghealdan (or anywhere else).
- In the books, Fain did not visit Tar Valon until after the events at Falme.
- In the books, Fain had made contact with Rand once (and nearly twice) before the main characters arrived in Fal Dara.
- Rather than being spotted by Perrin walking the streets of Fal Dara, he was instead apprehended by the city's guards while trying to enter the city, and was brought to Moiraine.[13]
- Being a prisoner in Fal Dara at the time, Fain was not present at the "Darkfriend social
(book spoilers!)," the inspiration for the Darkfriend Social. - Padan Fain was not in any position of authority or power among Shadowspawn prior to a shift in power following the theft of the Horn of Valere.[14] Rather, he was mercilessly treated almost as an animal by the Fades pursuing Rand and the others.[14] Even after this shift, wherein he brutally killed a Fade, Fades only submitted to him after much coercing.[15] In the show, he was accompanied by two Fades seemingly as his underlings when he arrived at the Fal Daran keep.
- In the books, Fain was not considered the primary target of the Shienarans hunting those who stole the Horn of Valere until about the time Rand temporarily recovered the Horn.
- In the books, Fain went his own way and ceased to be aligned with the Shadow following his "rescue" from Fal Dara. He made occasional use of Shadowspawn and Darkfriends, but not by the will of the Dark One or any of the Forsaken.
- After leaving the Two Rivers following the Winternight attack, Padan Fain did not return until accompanying the Whitecloaks after the Battle of Falme. In the show, he visits Watch Hill after the theft of the Horn and before the Battle of Falme.
- In the books, Fain brought the Horn of Valere to High Lord Turak of his own initiative and for his own purposes.
- In the books, Fain worked with Whitecloaks for a time and had some authority among Dain Bornhald's command, but was never a Whitecloak himself and never held an official rank within their command structure.
- In the books, Fain killed far more of Perrin's family than Perrin did.[16][17]
Balance
(book spoilers!) to the Shadow.
[]
| Characters |
|---|
        Padan Fain • Liandrin Guirale • Alanna Mosvani • Logain Ablar • Maksim • Ihvon • Min Farshaw • Loial • Siuan Sanche • Leane Sharif • Ishamael • Verin Mathwin • Lanfear • Anvaere Damodred • Dain Bornhald • Aviendha • Gitara Moroso • Moghedien • Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan • Faile Bashere • Season 1 characters • Season 2 characters • Season 3 characters • see all |
References[]
- ↑ Bonus content for season 1, episode 5: Creating the Look, Part 1.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Wheel of Time, season 1 episode 8: The Eye of the World.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Wheel of Time, season 1 episode 1: Leavetaking.
- ↑ The Wheel of Time, season 1 episode 5: Blood Calls Blood.
- ↑ The Wheel of Time, season 1 episode 7: The Dark Along the Ways.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 The Wheel of Time, season 2 episode 1: A Taste of Solitude.
- ↑ The Wheel of Time, season 2 episode 5: Damane.
- ↑ The Wheel of Time, season 2 episode 8: What Was Meant to Be.
- ↑ https://twitter.com/rafejudkins/status/1594769965474893826
- ↑ Rafe Judkins on Twitter. September 12, 2018.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 The Eye of the World (book spoilers!), Chapter 3 (book spoilers!)
- ↑ The Eye of the World (book spoilers!), Chapter 15 (book spoilers!)
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 The Eye of the World (book spoilers!), Chapter 47 (book spoilers!)
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 The Eye of the World (book spoilers!), Chapter 48 (book spoilers!)
- ↑ The Shadow Rising (book spoilers!)
- ↑ Leavetaking
- ↑ The Shadow Rising (book spoilers!), Chapter 31 (book spoilers!)
