Registered just for this.

Upon close observation, I see what I think to be an extraordinarily major error in the timeline of the book. She opened her mouth to speak, and the sun went out. Elayne froze, looking upward with shock. The clouds had parted above them they oft en did when she was near, one way the bond with Rand manifested and so she d been e xpecting an open sky and light for this battle. The sun still shone up there, but occluded. Something solid and dark rolled in f ront of it. Pages 440 - 441, in chapter 24 To Ignore The Omens. This seems to be the same total solar eclipse that starts shortly after Rand and his companions enter the Pit of Doom, which Aviendha sees from Shayol Ghul in p age 425 and Lan from somewhere in Shienar in page 439. This would put the start of the Battle of Cairhien in the same day Thakan'dar is invaded by Ituralde's troops. This is significant, because the battle of Cairhi en is something that lasts only one day or maybe one day and a half. OTHER BATTLEFIELDS From Sharan Arrival to Retreat to Merrilor Sharan Army *Bao the Wyld/Demandred -Infantry: "Thousands". -Ayyad (female channelers): "Hundreds". -Male channelers: 1+ Sharan Arrival Day (SAD) -Sharans arrive through an absurdly gigantic gateway formed right behind the Aes Sedai base camp. Sharan channelers devastate the camp, while the entire army de ploys and puts Egwene's forces between the Kandor Trolloc Horde and themselves. Egwene manages to escape by hiding for over an hour with Gawyn's Warder cloak. Later, parts of Egwene's Army manage to retreat through gateways to a new positi on in Arafel, east of the river border. Survivors of the day include slightly ov er half of the conventional troops and around 250 Aes Sedai, with 120 or so Aes Sedai lost in combat. Confirmed casualties of the day include Romanda. -Egwene and Gawyn try to escape from the former Aes Sedai camp, witness Demandre d arriving through True Power Travel and hear him proclaiming his identity. Lean e also turns out to be still alive and is discovered by Demandred who decides to use her to send LTT a message, challenging him to a duel. Eventually, Egwene an d Gawyn make their escape with help from Leilwin and Bayle Domon during the nigh t, Skimming to Tar Valon. Invasion Day -1 (possibly same as SAD) Rand sends Min to Egwene and reveals that he asked the Seanchan to deploy near t he Aes Sedai forces out of a feeling that the Kandor front would prove critical. *Lyrelle, an Aes Sedai sent to the Black Tower to bond forty seven Asha'man as a result of previous agreements, is allowed entry into the Tower to bond voluntee r. This happens after being denied entry for days, bubbles of evil (three), Dark friend murder attempts (two) and Egwene sending word of Taim's true allegiances.

The channelers Land got as reinforcements were Aes Sedai of her group and only a few stayed behind to keep an eye in the Black Tower. Finally, an undetermined n umber of days after Perrin's removal of the dreamspike and the victory of Logain 's faction, the Asha'man decided to honor the agreement and, despite their warin ess, Lyrelle summoned a group of 30-37 Aes Sedai to do the bonding (including My relle, Seaine, Faolin and Theodrim). It is noted that Logain is not well, but that he is expected to make a complete recovery within the next couple of days. These events happen during SAD or the next couple of days. The arrival of the Sh aran army is known, but no clear details are available. *Graendal is seen messing around in Ituralde's tent in the TAR equivalent of Mer rilor, so this might be the night of ID -1. Lanfear claims that she has spent a week (10 days) watching Perrin in TAR. Timeline placement not entirely certain. Invasion Day -Rand goes to Shayol Ghul. See relevant post for more details. -Lan's army continues its retreat across Shienar with sporadic fights with the t rollocs that have resulted in tens of thousands of dead Shadowspawn in exchange for thousands of human casualties. In spite of the Borderlander Army being almos t completely cavalry and the scorched earth tactics used in the retreat, the tro llocs seem to be catching up. The eclipse seen after Rand's entry to the Pit of Doom is witnessed. -Elayne's army has managed to make it to Cairhien just ahead of the Cairhien Tro lloc Horde thanks to the combination of gateway travel and quick marching (thoug h at the cost of exhausting into uselessness the Kin channelers). Also, though h er army is somewhat numerically greater than the Cairhien Horde, the troops are noted to be exhausted. Shortly before the start of battle, the eclipse is witnes sed. Two hours from sunset, the same day, fighting continues and Elayne is taken to c amp after collapsing from exhaustion. Her army has managed to resist the charge of the Cairhien Horde and Aiel have encircled the shadowspawn from behind, leavi ng them trapped. However, at this point, the Caemlyn Horde is seen to the south of Cairhien coming fast. When Bashere hears news of this, he starts proposing unworkable plans as a resul t of the Compulsion and it is revealed that he has been messing with the reports of the scouts. Believing him a Darkfriend, Elayne relieves him from duty and co mmands that the artillery and archers be redeployed to bombard the Caemlyn Horde as it approaches. The Cairhien Horde is eventually finished and the bulk of the troops starts re-d eploying for combat with the Caemlyn Horde, which has already engaged the Ogiers /Wolf Guard/Legion of the Dragon (forces sent to shield the archers and artiller y), but as a result of hours of heavy combat the troops are exhausted and defeat seems certain. Finally, when the day seems just about lost, Logain shows up with over one hundr ed Asha'man and reveals that the Shadow had intended the pincer attack for a lon g time, according to documents found in the Black Tower. Elayne initially wants to retreat through gateways thinking that a hundred channelers cannot possibly s top a hundred thousand Trollocs on their own, but gets a miracle when Androl use s a circle of twenty six channelers to open a gateway a hundred feet wide that c onnects the battlefield with the magma chamber of Dragonmount and which drops se veral metric craptons of lava in front of the trollocs, followed with a couple m ore for good measure. This gives them a few hours that Elayne intends to use to regroup, recover and t hen destroy for good the Caemlyn Horde.

*Mat, Tuon and the Seanchan forces gathered in Ebou Dar receive word of the crus hing defeat suffered by the White Tower's armies at the hands of the Sharans, th anks to to'raken scouts sent ahead. Might happen during SAD or the next couple o f days. *Min arrived with Rand's letter at some point between SAD and SAD + "few days" SAD + "few days" Seanchan make their presence known by putting to'raken scouts in the sky. Egwene returns to the front-lines. Her army is redeployed in the southeastern ti p of Kandor and holding a ford that gives access to Arafel. The army has been fo llowed by the Sharans, who have been giving time for the Kandor Trolloc Horde to catch up, but there have been no major engagements yet. *Lan fights the trollocs when Dreadlords appear, only for his channelers to try to strike directly at them. Action seems to continue from the battle he was invo lved in during Invasion Day, probably same day even. He also sees a mistake in t he orders when two different units try to close a gap in the battle lines. An undisclosed time later (but likely the same day), Lan starts figuring that th e mistakes follow a pattern that is likely to leave the Borderlands Army exposed to total destruction and goes to confront Agelmar, altering some orders at a cr itical time. It is noted that Lan has been fighting for "weeks" (20+ days) with the Malkieri of the army of the Golden Crane. Agelmar is relieved of duty and Lan's orders prevent a total collapse destructio n of the Borderlands Army when a previously unengaged Shadowspawn force appears from the east. In spite of this, the army is cornered and faces overwhelming odd s, making it clear that the campaign is lost and that they will suffer massive l osses during the retreat. Among others, Queen Tenobia of Saldaea dies. *Egwene meets with Tuon. They reach a precarious agreement to collaborate during the battle and further define the Seanchan situation under the Dragon's Peace. Happens during SAD + "few days" or shortly after it. *Gareth Bryne, now reinforced by an undetermined number of Seanchan damane, stil l holds the ford and thinks that everything is more or less going according to p lan, surprisingly enough. Because of a temporary lack of cavalry, he has to send Min to the Seanchan camp to ask for reinforcements. This happens a week (10 day s) or more after Min's arrival to Egwene's camp, which makes it Invasion Day + 9 or later. As a result of this, Min becomes Tuon's Truthspeaker and Doomseer. Same day, a cavalry charge that was supposed to assist Aes Sedai defensive posit ions ends in disaster when the cavalry runs into a bunch of pike-armed Trollocs and the Sharan cavalry exploits the resulting gap to tear the enemy infantry a n ew one. The Aes Sedai gate away and some time later come back for a heavy duty c hanneling bombardment. Little later, Mat (who has gone check the battlefield himself) finds the Seancha n cavalry they had provided earlier unused and with a big hole in the left flank of Egwene's forces, leads himself a cavalry charge to patch the situation as be st as possible. So he charges, wrecks the Sharan heavy cavalry, captures a chann eler and upon returning to the Seanchan lines realizes that the battle is about to be lost through what seem deliberate bad choices of Gareth Bryne. He decides to claim immediate command of both armies, no objections wanted. Towards the afternoon, Egwene decides to send a messenger to Elayne who was supp osed to fight her battle in Cairhien (timeline discrepancy!!!) and, after gettin g news of Bashere's arrest as suspected Darkfriend, confronts Gareth Bryne who a dmits to make mistakes he shouldn't be making. He is removed as commander of the armies and it is decided to send word to Lan and Thakan'dar in case the other g reat captains are also affected. Realizing that any replacement could also fall prey to Compulsion, Egwene eventually agrees to putting Mat in joint command.

Afterwards (possibly the same day), Mat commits additional Seanchan forces and o bserving the battle from above through use of horizontal gateways, determines th at the position in the ford has become untenable, making a withdrawal advisable. He arranges for a meeting through gateways with the Aes Sedai leadership who ha ve since learned of the status of the other great generals. Lan is reported to h ave lost nearly two thirds of his troops, Elayne has relocated her troops to ass ist in the defense of Shienar and Ituralde is reported lost in battle.

-Hasta start chapter 27