Okay, so all we basically know at this point is that there are a bunch of freaky ghosts wandering around in So Habor. Obviously a few other small facts like the bit about Lord Cowlin.


""I find it difficult to lie, Lord Perrin," Seonid said dryly when he expressed doubt, but her tone quickly became as serious as her face, and her eyes were so intent that they alone began to make Perrin feel uneasy. "The dead are walking in so Habor. Lord Cowlin fled the town for fear of his wife's spirit. It seems there was doubt as to how she died. Hardly a man or woman in the town has not seen someone dead, and a good many have seen more than one. Some say people have died from the touch of someone dead. I cannot verify that, but people have died of fright, and others because of it. No one goes out at night in so Habor, or walks into a room unannounced. People strike out at shadows and surprises with whatever is to hand, and sometimes they have found a husband, wife or neighbor dead at their feet. This is not hysteria or a tale to frighten children, Lord Perrin. I have never heard of the like, but it is real. You must leave one of us here to do what we can."

Nowhere does it state that Cowlin actually killed her, only that she died suddenly. Now, instead of murder, say she had died in one of those brief, glancing visits to TAR? We know people can, and have, died in TAR.


"People who died unexpectedly in their sleep had often dreamed their way in Tel'aran'rhoid and in truth died there" (tSR, What Lies Hidden).

So its a definite possiblity that his wife died in her sleep, and her actual ghost (which we know CAN exist) came back to haunt him and other people. If this could be possible, could it also be possible that ALL of the spirits in So Habor are the souls of those who died in TAR?

We never find any concrete information about the other ghosts we see, all we know is they are definitly there. So if So Habor is somehow blurring the lines between TAR and the real world, or for some reason dead souls are coming out in TAR, then there is certainly some circumstantial evidence to support that, especially convincing because there is no factual evidence to support where these apparitions are coming from.

I think the biggest circumstantial support for this theory over those that claim these are the souls of those eaten by Mashadar or some such thing is that we KNOW that TAR can hold souls in limbo. So why shouldnt the people who died in TAR have their souls kept in the place of death. Those who are killed by Mashadar have no such receptacle to be held in. And Machin Shin doesnt kill.

So, I think it's fully possible that a causeway between TAR and Randland (the latter exit point being So Habor) has opened and souls are coming through, and with more consistency than they would were they a bubble of evil.

As a side note, anyone who has read that series, like "the Golden Compass", a similar thing happens there. When gateways are opened between worlds, the souls of the dead either escape out of the world, or into it. Can't remember.