The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 5 is titled “Damane.” It’s a word that might mean nothing at first to folks who have only ever watched the Prime Video show, but anyone who’s ever read Robert Jordan’s second Wheel of Time book, The Great Hunt, will likely feel a chill going up their spine. This week’s episode is when The Wheel of Time really delves deeper into the horrors represented by the strange invading people known as the Seanchan. We’ve seen these oddly armored invaders with a distinctly Southern drawl enslave girls and brutally murder fan favorite Uno (Guy Roberts) for refusing to kneel, but The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 5 “Damane” is when we finally get to grasp their dark, ultimate goals — and it ends with a horrifying scene for our beloved Egwene (Madeleine Madden).

But who exactly are the Seanchan? What do they want? How will they potentially affect our favorite Wheel of Time characters like Perrin (Marcus Rutherford), Nynaeve (Zöe Robins), and Elayne (Ceara Coveney)? And how should book readers expect the Prime Video show to change the iconic events about to unfold in Falme? From what a marath’damane is to what the High Lady Suroth (Karima McAdams) is doing cozying up to the Forsaken Ishamael (Fares Fares), here’s everything you need to know about these new villains on The Wheel of Time….

The Seanchan are a foreign invading force who have come to conquer the lands our heroes call home in The Wheel of Time. They come from a continent conveniently called “Seanchan” that lies thousands of miles west, across the Aryth Ocean. The Seanchan believe they have the right to conquer the whole world because they trace their culture back to the legendary king Artur Hawkwing, who sent his son Luthair on a mission to explore the world.

Luthair’s descendants are known as “the Blood” and they believe that one day they must return to conquer their homelands to defeat the Dark One. Because they’ve been cut off from their homes for so long, their culture has evolved in different ways…and their accents are decidedly not British or European sounding.

Wheel of Time star Marcus Rutherford told Decider that he thought giving the Seanchan “Southern” accents “was a really cool decision” in an interview conducted before the SAG-AFTRA strikes.

“I think people still have like this sort of northern Europe medieval kind of mindset [in fantasy], but I think this culture has come from a complete distant faraway land so I think that accent works so well,” Rutherford said. “And it’s completely jarring and a bit unnerving.”

We first officially met the Seanchan in the final moments of The Wheel of Time Season 1. We watched as their ships came across the horizon and unleashed the One Power to create a tsunami to kill the innocent civilians (as epitomized by a young girl looking on) living on the shoreline.

In The Wheel of Time Season 2, Perrin, Loial (Hammed Animashaun) and the Shienaran party looking for Darkfriend Padan Fain (Johann Myers) and the stolen Horn of Valere find themselves captured by a small force of Seanchan led by High Lady Suroth. They are forced to kneel, swearing their oaths to the invaders, or die. Perrin is only saved when fellow Wolfbrother Elyas (Gary Beadle) breaks him out of captivity.

**Spoilers for The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 5 “Damane,” now streaming on Prime Video, ahead!**

In The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 5 “Damane,” we learn that the High Lady Suroth wasn’t supposed to attach the village where Perrin and company were staying. Indeed, she is in trouble with her commanding officer, the High Lord Turok (Daniel Francis), for going against his orders. Her punishment is the shortening of her long fingernails — which is a symbol of power in Seanchan culture. So why did Suroth do this? Because she is a Darkfriend in the service of Ishamael.

To make it up to Suroth, Ishamael has another Darkfriend, the Aes Sedai Liandrin (Kate Fleetwood), bring her “gifts.” These gifts? Only the most powerful novices the White Tower has seen in ages: Nynaeve and Egwene. Nynaeve manages to escape the Seanchan’s clutches with Elayne, but Egwene is captured and collared as a “damane.”

So far, we’ve been told that women who can harness the One Power are invited to train to become Aes Sedai at the White Tower, men who can harness the One Power are doomed to go mad and must be gentled, and that Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) is the reincarnation of the Dragon, aka the most powerful male channeler who ever lived and he will determine the fate of the world in the Last Battle to be waged against the Dark One.

Well, the Seanchan totally upend that philosophy about channelers of the One Power.

Instead of honoring women who can channel, the Seanchan enslave them with collars attached to leashes. A woman who is so bound is called a damane. She has no access to her power. Instead, another woman, expertly trained by the Seanchan, holds the leash and controls the damane. These “trainers” are called sul’dam. A damane who is not collared is called a marath’damane and they are considered dangerous by the Seanchan. Note, this is what Suroth calls Liandrin in their face-off.

The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 5 “Damane” ends with poor Egwene collared by the Seanchan. She’s clearly in abject pain and Wheel of Time stars Madeleine Madden and Zöe Robins teased Decider that the situation will only get more dire in next week’s The Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 6…

“It’s really horrifying to see the way the Seanchan army operates. And I think in our adaptation, we lean into the brutality of it more. It’s much more darker,” Madden said in a joint interview conducted with Zöe Robins before the SAG-AFTRA strikes. “I think that’s right. Zöe, do you agree?”

“I think so. Even though I haven’t seen Episode 6 yet, I think Episode 6 is going to be magnificent, because of someone on this Zoom call who’s an incredible actress,” Robins said, hyping up Madden’s performance next week. “I think people can expect even more world building, a lot more action, a lot more destruction.”

Marcus Rutherford also told Decider that witnessing the Seanchan’s brutality is transformative for Perrin, who has been questioning the morality of violence from the start.

“This new kind of culture and tribe that come in are very horrific from the start,” Rutherford said. “And I think that’s where Perrin starts to stand up for himself.”

So while Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) might be concerned with the arrival of at least two Forsaken to the board, The Wheel of Time is not messing around when it comes to the threat the Seanchan pose for our heroes.