Ranking all 13 of the Forsaken from the Wheel of Time, from worst to best

The Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan (and finished by Brandon Sanderson) are a hallmark of the fantasy genre. They span 14 novels in the main series, a prequel novel, and now two seasons of one of Amazon Prime’s highest budget TV shows. The Wheel of Time has a fan base of millions around the world that is only growing as more people are exposed to the story through the TV show.

Central to both versions of The Wheel of Time are the villainous group of channelers known as the Forsaken, all of them channelers able to tap into the One Power and perform impressive feats of magic. Servants of the chief enemy of the world, the aptly named Dark One, the Forsaken travel the world of The Wheel of Time doing the Dark One’s bidding as well as serving their own nefarious ends, often ensnaring each other in their self-serving plots.

The Forsaken were all trapped by the previous Dragon before Rand al’Thor, Lews Therin Telamon, at the end of the Age of Legends, only to be released thousands of years later to fight the Dragon Reborn and his new cohort of heroes. There are 14 Forsaken in the novels. While only three have appeared so far on the TV show, the showrunners have indicated that more (but likely not all) will turn up before the series runs its course.

Below, let’s rank all 13 Forsaken from The Wheel of Time novels. Beware book SPOILERS!

13. Asmodean

Asmodean’s arc is as tragic as the melancholy songs he sings while posing as Rand’s court bard. Asmodean is brought in disguise to Rand by Lanfear, who hopes that he can teach Rand to channel and help turn him to the Dark One. Increasingly frustrated by Rand’s lack of interest in his tales of glory, Asmodean attempts to steal one of the access keys to the most powerful sa’angreal ever made to be wielded by a man. Caught in the act and captured by Rand, Asmodean is forced by Rand with Lanfear’s help to spend the last weeks of his life teaching Rand to channel under duress before his ignominious end at the hands of one his fellow Forsaken.

One down, 12 to go. Click the button below to meet the rest of the Forsaken:

12. Mesaana

A capable administrator that spends many novels working quietly from the shadows to orchestrate a civil war among the Aes Sedai, Mesaana is one of last Forsaken to fall before the Last Battle. She is one of the weaker of the Forsaken and sometimes thought of by her fellow villains as second-rate. However, her infiltration of the White Tower is successful, and she manipulates the Aes Sedai very effectively using the sisters of the Black Ajah as her secret weapons. Her scheme to destroy the Aes Sedai with a bloody civil war nearly comes to fruition but is foiled at the last second by Egwene al-Vere, the incredible Amyrlin Seat that Mesanaa had once helped instate as a pawn.

Still in the bottom ranks of the Forsaken, Masanaa nonetheless goes out in one of the better climactic moments of the last few books, battling Egwene across the World of Dreams. It is likely that Mesaana has been cut from the TV adaptation.

11. Be’lal

Known as “the Envious” and “the netweaver,” Be’lal is one of the more mysterious Forsaken. Serving as a villain in The Dragon Reborn, he is killed by balefire, one of the few things in The Wheel of Time universe that can destroy a Forsaken so completely that they can’t be resurrected.

Be’lal successfully takes over the nation of Tear from the inside, posing as one of its high lords and using his powers to manipulate the others. His schemes in the third novel in the series are extremely effective as he captures Rand’s friends Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve and uses them as bait, along with the legendary sword Callandor, to draw Rand into a trap. Rand falls for the trap and is nearly defeated, only for his advisor Moraine to suddenly appear and slay Be’lal.

As once observed by his fellow Forsaken, Be’lal’s greatest weakness is that he wants “the world in a day” and takes massive risks to get it.

Next: Cut but not forgotten

10. Balthamel

Hideously scarred by the passage of time during his long captivity since the Age of Legends, vain Balthamel hides his face under a shroud when he first debuts at the climax of The Eye of the World, the first book in the series. He quickly falls in combat, but that isn’t the end of his story.

Later, the Dark One brings Balthamel back to life in the body of an unbelievably beautiful woman like those he so often desired in his former life. Being born again as a woman but still having access to the male half of the One Power, Balthamel – now going by the name Aran’gar – goes on a covert murder spree which long goes undetected. Aran’gar grows to enjoy their new life and infiltrates the camp of the Aes Sedai rebels and works their way into a position of influence.

9. Aginor

Not a soldier or a general but instead a maker of nightmares, Aginor was the most inventive of the Forsaken, using the One Power to create the creatures that would serve in the Dark One’s armies for over three millennia. The faceless myrdraal, the twisted trollocs, the vampiric draghkar, and the unstoppable gholam all number among his unnatural creations.

In his original body, Aginor dies alongside Balthamel facing the Dragon Reborn at the Eye of the World in the climax of the first novel. He is later resurrected as Osan’gar and sent to infiltrating Rand’s group of male channelers, only to be chosen unknowingly by Rand to serve as the head of his bodyguards. Surviving several novels in his second body, he is eventually felled in the battle around Shadar Logoth while Rand cleanses Saidin.

Whether he is dead or alive Aginor haunts heroes, soldiers, and citizens across the land with his monstrous creations. Aginor’s ranking in the lower half of the Forsaken is mainly due to his poor battle performance. Since neither he nor Balthamel showed up in the first season of the show, it’s likely they’ve been cut.

Next: Softly, softly, from the shadows

8. Moghedien

The “spider” Moghedien is one of the longest lasting villains in The Wheel of Time. She makes her debut in the fourth novel, The Shadow Rising, where she battles Nynaeve and hunts the protagonists by observing them in the world of dreams. She lasts through the end of the series without being killed or resurrected.

One reason for Moghedien’s long survival is her insidious nature and her preference for indirect manipulation over outright conflict. In one amazing scene, Moghedien reveals her identity to a group of Black Ajah after posing as their servant for weeks, humbling each unbelieving Aes Sedai in turn with the One Power and bending them to her will.

Moghedien is at one point captured by Nynaeve and forced over her long captivity to impart knowledge from the Age of Legends to the Aes Sedai, making them more powerful. However, when she is eventually freed, she is once again a thorn in the heroes’ side and a danger lurking always in the dark.

In the Amazon Prime series, Moghedien is introduced with bone chilling creepiness in the season 2 finale, played by Laia Costa.

7. Sammael

A man so filled with anger and resentment that he refuses to heal the scar across his face that was given to him three thousand years ago, Sammael is a blunt and uncompromising general of great skill. Known as one of the best commanders during the Age of Legends, Sammael had previously fought against the Dark One’s armies beside the Dragon before succumbing to jealousy of Lews Therin and defecting to the other side.

Sammael is one of the main villains in the first half of the novels, launching raid after raid upon Rand in hopes of finally killing his reincarnated enemy. Sammael rules the nation of Illian in secret and successfully rallies its military in his war against Rand, causing the deaths of thousands. He nearly kills the Dragon Reborn on several occasions including one deadly strike that kills dozens of Maidens of the Spear, elite female warriors from the Three-fold Land. Rand’s campaign to defeat Sammael is a multi-novel arc that comes to a head in the seventh book, A Crown of Swords.

6. Rahvin

Rhavin takes control of Elayne’s mother Morgase, the greatest queen alive, gaining in a single stroke the resources of Andor, one of the largest nations in The Wheel of Time. While he corrupts Andor from within and sends off the queen’s men to conquer foreign lands, he beds Morgase and makes her whip and estrange her closest friends and allies. Posing as the queen’s lover, he humiliates her openly by keeping half a dozen other lovers within her palace and sending his men out to find more.

Defending his capital with an intricate series of traps, Rhavin ambushes Rand when he arrives and engages Rand in one of the most epic battles of the series, dueling with him across the Andoran capital and the World of Dreams.

5. Semirhaage

Easily the scariest of the Forsaken, Semirhaage works on the periphery of the main plot lines for the first half of the series before emerging in all her dark glory. A sadist without equal, Semirhaage once tortured an entire city by having its residents break each other’s wills one at a time just to prove she had the power to do so. Later, she impersonates a high-ranking Seanchan official, thereby gaining a position of influence in the greatest empire in the world. When the Dark One demands that his minions create chaos, Semirhaage obeys in spectacularly over-the-top fashion, murdering the Seanchan royal family and half the imperial court and leaving their bodies in the throne room. She even (beware huge spoiler!) manages to put a collar on Rand and gain control of him until she is betrayed by one of her peers.

If Semirhage is cut from the show, the only excuse is that they don’t want to portray some of her darker scenes.

4. Demandred

Demandred is the Dragon Reborn’s crueler, paler shadow. Nearly equal to Lews Therin Telamon in both skill and power, Demandred had the unfortunate fate of being born in the same year as the Dragon during the Age of Legends. While he accomplished many great feats fighting for the Light, he always fell just a hair short of Lews Therin’s accomplishments and was driven to the Dark One’s side out of envy. He even desired Lews Therin’s wife for his own.

In the modern age, Demandred goes to the land of Shara and fulfills the prophecies of its people, becoming their leader and champion in a way that mirrors what Rand al’Thor did in other places. During the Last Battle, Demandred’s leadership decimates the forces of good even as he duels champion after champion in single combat and defeats them.

3. Graendal

A villain of many facades, Graendal poses as a hapless hedonist who fills her palace with hundreds of the world’s most beautiful people, all enthralled to her will and dedicated to her pleasure. The scenes that take place within Graendal’s domain border on the depraved and obscene. They also make her an instant fan favorite.

Beneath her façade, Graendal is cold, calculating, and deadly. She weaves some of the best plots of the entire series, ensnaring hero after hero in her schemes. One of her more notable achievements is sparking a war between the nation of Arad Doman and the Seanchan, a war that leaves hundreds of thousands dead. She is as deadly to her peers as to her foes, once killing one of her fellow Forsaken just to make her deception more convincing.

2. Lanfear

The most beautiful woman in the world and the most powerful female channeler to ever live, Lanfear appears in disguise in the second novel The Great Hunt and remains a fixture for the rest of the series. Determined not just to be the greatest of all the Forsaken but also to rule the world beside the Dragon Reborn, Lanfear flits in and out of Rand’s life, sometimes as a help and sometimes as a hindrance.

Lanfear had been a lover of Rand’s predecessor Lews Therin and became enraged at being set aside; she is determined to make up for it in this new age. An excellent schemer and manipulator, Lanfear helps trap her fellow Forsaken Asmodean so that Rand can learn to channel and survive the trials that await him.

If Lanfear has one flaw, it is undoubtedly her temper, which she loses on more than one occasion, once killing dozens in an attack on Rand when she learns that he slept with another woman. Her miscalculation leads to her temporary fall from grace, but her skill allows her to rise again.

1. Isamael

It should come as no shock to fans that Ishamael tops this list as the greatest of the Forsaken. Throughout The Wheel of Time books, Ishamael frequently acts as a human stand-in for the Dark One. In the early books he goes by the name Ba’alzamon and impersonates the Dark One. He duels Rand on multiple occasions, once dealing him a wound that is never able to fully heal. After finally being killed by Rand in the third novel The Dragon Reborn, Ishamael is brought back by the Dark One under the name Moridin (death) and made the chief of the Forsaken for his loyal service.

One of the world’s greatest philosophers, Ishamael’s fall to the Dark One in the Age of Legends was precipitated by his reflections on the meaninglessness of life in the universe and a desire to bring it to a final end, breaking the cycle of rebirth and reincarnation under which humanity lives. Even his fellow Forsaken think Ishamael is more than half mad.

On the show Ishamael is played by Fares Fares. If Ishamael returns as Moridin, which we don’t know will happen on the show, he may be played by a different actor.

The Forsaken are undoubtedly one of the most entertaining aspects of The Wheel of Time novels, bringing life and charisma to the otherwise ineffable villains. Their schemes against one another help keep the story alive over thousands of pages. Whether you’re a book-reader hoping to see a familiar face or a show-only watcher looking forward to the unknown, fans of The Wheel of Time have a lot to look forward to in the coming seasons!

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