This theory revolves around the Trolloc attack on Rand and co. in Knife of Dreams, and around one main point -

SLAYER WAS THE CAUSE OF THE TROLLOC ATTACK.

To some, this theory may seem a bit out there, and it is, but I want to see what you think.

Before I go into the development of my theory, I will briefly describe Slayer's origin. Slayer is a merge of two people, Isam and Luc, much like Fain and Mordeth.

EotW, Chapter 47 - More Tales of the Wheel

"Lain died in the Blasted Lands with most of those who followed him, men Malkier could ill afford to lose, and Breyan blamed the King, saying that Shayol Ghul itself would have fallen if al'Akir had led the rest of the Malkieri north with her husband. For revenge, she plotted with Cowin Gemallan, called Cowin Fairheart, to seize the throne for her son, ISAM. Now Fairheart was a hero almost as well loved as al'Akir himself, and one of the Great Lords, but when the Great Lords had cast the rods for king, only two separated him from Akir, and he never forgot that two men laying a different color on the Crowning Stone would have set him on the throne instead. Between them, Cowin and Breyan moved soldiers back from the Blight to seize the Seven Towers, stripping the Borderforts to bare garrisons."

From this quote we see that Isam was the son of the woman who helped bring about Malkier's fall.

EotW, Chapter 47 - More Tales of the Wheel

"Breyan fled with her infant son Isam, and was run down by Trollocs as she rode south with him. No one knows their fate of a certainty, but it can be guessed. I can find pity only for the boy."

tGH, Chapter 7 - Blood Calls Blood

"Luc came to the Mountains of Dhoom. Isam waited in the high passes. The hunt is now begun. The Shadow's hounds now course, and kill. One did live, and one did die, but both are. The Time of Change has come. Blood feeds blood. Blood calls blood. Blood is, and blood was, and blood shall ever be."

To summarize the two preceding quotes, Trollocs took the fleeing Breyan and Isam. We do not know what happens next, but Isam comes out a Darkfriend, maybe he already was so he was spared. In the last quote, we learn that Luc came and hunted Isam, that one of them died, but both of them are - living in the same body.

That's the summary of Slayer's origin. Now onto the theory.

BUILD UP

KoD, Chapter 3 - At the Gardens

"Moridin's jaw tightened. "I don't know," he said at last, reluctantly. He never liked saying that. "But they sent a hundred Myrddraal and thousands of Trollocs ino the Ways."

In this chapter, we learn that someone posed as Sammael and sent a lot of Shadowspawn into the Ways.

KoD, Chapter 20 - Vows

"Trollocs," he breathed. That was what it was, thousands of Trollocs in black, spiked mail spilling out of the trees at a run with scythe-curved swords raised, shaking their spiked spears, some carrying torches. Trollocs as far as he could see to left and right. Not thousands. Tens of thousands."

And in this quote, we find where all those Trollocs were sent. Now to how and why I think Slayer sent them.

HOW DID SLAYER POSE AS SAMMAEL?

I have 2 ways that I came up with that could work for how Slayer posed as Sammael.

The first way I came up with was that using his skill in Tel'aran'rhiod, Slayer was able to "pull" one or more (most likely more) Myrddraal or Trollocs into Tel'aran'rhiod and gave them their orders there. Trollocs and Myrddraal DO sleep and when that happened, he pulled them into the Dream World.

tDR, Chapter 36 - Daughter of the Night

"Great Lord," one of the men muttered, "where is this place?" He looked around once, flinching at his image cast back at him many thousandfold, and held his eyes forward after that. The others huddled around im seemed even more afraid. "I was asleep in Tar Valon, Great Lord. I am asleep in Tar Valon! Where is this place? Have I gone mad?

In this quote we see that this person went to sleep and was pulled into Tel'aran'rhiod.

It would then be easy for him to change his appearance to that of Sammael, as I'm sure that working for the Chosen would have given him a glimpse of Sammael.

WH, Chapter 22 - Out of Thin Air

"Here, he could be who he wanted to be. He chuckled at the thought."

(Slayer)

With the Trollocs and Myrddraal thinking that he was a Chosen, they would obey him.

The other way that I came up with was based on a series of quotes that I found.

tSR, Chapter 56 - Goldeneyes

"Goldeneyes! Lord Perrin! Goldeneyes!" From the thick branch of a leafy oak on the edge of the Westwood, Ordeith stared at Emond's Field, a mile to the south. It was impossible. Scourge them. Flay them. Everything had been going according to plan. Even Isam had played into his hands. Why did the fool stop bringing Trollocs? He should have brought in enough to turn the Two Rivers black with them! Spittle dripped from his lips, but he did not notice, any more than he realized that his hand was fumbling at his belt. Harry them till their hearts burst! Harrow them into the ground screaming! All planned to pull Rand al'Thor to him, and it came to this! The Two Rivers had not even been scratched. A few farms burned did not count, nor a few farmers butchered alive for Trolloc cookpots. I want the Two Rivers to burn, burn so the fire lives in men's memories for a thousand years!

"ISAM!" The guttural roar rose like thunder, and Trollocs appeared, each half again as tall as a man and twice as wide, trotting into the fields to halt beyond bowshot, a hulking, black-mailed mass, deep and stretching the length of the village. Thousands of them packed together, huge faces distorted by beaks and snouts, heads with horns or feathered crests, spikes at elbows and shoulders, scythe-curved swords and spiked axes, hooked spears and barbed tridents, a seemingly endless sea of cruel weapons. Behind them, Myrddraal galloped up and down on midnight horses, raven-black cloaks hanging undisturbed as they whirled their mounts.

tSR, Chapter 56 - Goldeneyes

"He let himself drop to the ground, and scrambled onto his horse before looking at his companions. His hounds. The thirty or so Whitecloaks remaining no longer wore their white cloaks, of course. Rust spotted their dull plate-and-mail, and Bornhald would never have recognized those sullen, suspicious faces, dirty and unshaven. The humans watched Ordeith, distrustful yet afraid, not even glancing at the Myrddraal in their midst, its slug-pale, eyeless face as bleakly wooden as theirs. The Halfman feared Isam would find it; Isam had not at all been pleased when that raid on Taren Ferry let so many escape to carry away word of what was happening in the Two Rivers. Ordeith giggled at the thought of Isam discomforted. The man was a problem for another time, if he still lived."

Using these quotes I could judge that Slayer, having ordered many Trollocs through the Ways already and being able to scare Myrddraal, had ordered them to go through the Ways to where Rand was with strict orders to give the name Sammael to anyone who asked, for his own purposes.

I myself prefer the first way.

HOW DID SLAYER KNOW WHERE RAND WAS?

You could question that Slayer couldn't have know where Rand was as he had been jumping around a lot, but remember, we don't know the full extent of his powers.

WH, Chapter 13 - Wonderful News

"Mesaana is absent again?" Moridin said instead of answering. "A pity. She should hear what I have to say." Plucking the rat from his shoulder by its tail, he watched the animal wave its legs futilely. Nothing except the rat seemed to exist for him. "Small, apparently unimportant matters can become very important," he murmured. "This rat. Whether Isam succeeds in finding and killing that other vermin, Fain. A word whispered in the wrong ear, or not spoken to the right. A butterfly stirs its wings on a branch, and on the other side of the world a mountain collapses." Suddenly the rat twisted, trying to sink its teeth into his wrist. Casually, he flung the creature away. In midair, there was a burst of flame, something hotter than flame, and the rat was gone. Moridin smiled."

We can see that Fain, the rebelled Hound of the Shadow, is being hunted by Slayer. Perhaps after Fain rebelled, Slayer was transformed by the Dark One to the new Hound of the Shadow, sort of like a version 2, with better and badder abilities - to work as an assassin and to hunt down Fain.

tGH, Chapter 3 - Friends and Enemies

"Fain stood at Egwene's approach, not shielding his eyes or even blinking at the light. He smiled at her, a smile that touched only his lips, then raised his eyes above her head. Looking straight at Rand, hidden in the blackness behind the light, he pointed a long finger at him. "I feel you there, hiding, Rand al'Thor," he said, almost crooning. "You can't hide, not from me, and not from them. You thought it was over, did you not? But the battle's never done, al'Thor. They are coming for me, and they're coming for you, and the war goes on. Whether you live or die, it's never over for you. Never." Suddenly he began to chant."

Taking that quote into account, and believing that Slayer is a new Hound of the Dark, its only logical to believe that Slayer has a link to Rand, and maybe Perrin and Mat as well.

This would explain how Slayer would find Rand.

MOTIVES

I can already see people saying how the theory can't be true because why would Slayer hide something like that from Moridin or the other Chosen.

Well, he could be starting to act independently, or he could be acting on the Dark One's secret orders, but I think that to come to a conclusion, you need to see these two points.

1. Moridin/Ishamael gets ANGRY

CoS, Prologue - Lightnings

"She had risen because Ishamael killed her predecessor in his wrath at discovering what Jarna Malari had begun, yet it had not ended for another two years, after the death of another Amyrlin. She often wondered whether Elaida had had any hand in the death of that one, Sierin Vayu; certainly the Black Ajah had not."

-(Alviarin)

Slayer would probably be feeling a bit anxious with Moridin's temper for failing to kill Perrin in the Two Rivers, failing to kill Fain, and failing to kill Rand. He's probably getting quite worried, especially since, if he really was the second Hound of the Dark, he knows that he is not indispensable and that the Dark One could replace him if he was incompetent.

2. Akin to Fain

Slayer, if he was a second Hound of the Dark, was ANYTHING at all like Padan Fain, who spends all of his time obsessing on Rand, he would want Rand dead as well.

I know for Fain it just eats away at him and that he really wants to kill Rand, so why couldn't Slayer be the same. Although he isn't so obsessed about killing Rand himself because he knows he's got to kill him soon, and needs to obey orders.

And why Sammael? Maybe because Slayer thought that would keep Moridin's mind off of him for the moment with puzzling out if Sammael is back or not. That would give him more time to finish his jobs.

COUNTERPOINTS

Other main characters that people have thought sent the attack were Padan Fain and Demandred.

I don't think it would be Padan Fain as he has been stewing so long, his obssession has grown beyond control - he's gotta kill Rand himself. Especially after the end of Winter's Heart -

WH, Chapter 33 - Blue Carp Street

"I told you he's mine!" the bony man screamed, dancing away from Rand's cut. With his face contorted in fury, his big nose and ears that stuck out made him seem something contrived to frighten children, but his eyes held murder. Teeth bared in a snarl, he looked like a weasel wild with killing fury. A rabid weasel, ready to savage even a leopard. With that dagger, he could kill any number of leopards. "mine!" Padan Fain shrieked, leaping back again as Lan rushed into the room. "Kill the ugly one!"

And I also doubt that another Forsaken would pose as Sammael in case something leaked out to Moridin -he seems to know a lot of things going on. As well, I don't know how they would know how Rand was there.

All in all, I believe that Slayer ordered that Trolloc attack, so go ahead and give your opinions on my thoughts.