Ishamael

Ishamael appears in the prologue of The Eye of the World, the very first scene of The Wheel of Time. In the Age of Legends he is Elan Morin Tedronai, a philosopher and theologian of towering reputation, accounted by some the mightiest Aes Sedai of the age after Lews Therin Telamon himself. His treason is remembered as a philosopher's treason. He reasons that the war between Shadow and Light has been fought across every turning of the Wheel, and that the Dark One's victory must come in the end, and he goes over to the Shadow not from appetite but from conclusion. The name the world gives him for it, Ishamael, is Old Tongue for Betrayer of Hope, and he stands first among the thirteen Forsaken in power and in dread. The catechism holds that he lies bound with the rest at Shayol Ghul, one more name mothers use to frighten children, though his is the one spoken most quietly.