WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Wheel of Time Episodes 1-4, available now on Prime Video, and for the books by Robert Jordan.
In Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, the Dark One is a malevolent force that exists in a shadow realm that desperately wants to infect the world with his foulness and reimagine it in his own image. Fades, Trollocs, Gray Men and other Shadowspawn act as a virus bound to his will, weakening the world and preparing it for his parasitic assimilation.
But there are also men and women who willingly take up the Dark One's cause for a variety of reasons. Some are promised power, while others are promised wealth and simply want a seat at his table so that they may feel elevated within the sight of a thing so loathsome it is blind to all but destruction. Their number can be counted among Aes Sedai, ministers, pilgrims, queens, carpenters and thieves, and they are known as Darkfriends. Thom Merrilin killed one, a barmaid named Dana, in the third episode, "A Place of Safety," but the show has already introduced a man with a lot of blood on his hands and an oath to the Dark One resting on his soul.
Padan Fain has been a Darkfriend most of his life. Promised immortality, Fain has advanced the ambitions and goals of the Dark One with zeal and competence. Born in the nation of Lugard, Fain has used his occupational travel and interactions with wide swaths of people as a peddler of wares to great effect in the Dark One's cause. Two years prior to the Bel Tine celebration featured in Episode 1, "Leavetaking," a Fade collected Fain and took him to Shayol Guhl, a mountain in the Blasted Lands that was the nexus of shadow in the world. There, Fain met a man that goes by many names who set him on a new path.
When he was a living man, his name was Elan Morin Tedronai, but when he swore himself to the Dark One, he became known as Ishamael before later taking on the name Ba'alzamon and being one of the first among the Shadow's servants. There, in the Blasted Lands, Fain was remade into a "hound" through the power of Ba'alzamon's talent with the True Source to find the whereabouts of the Dragon Reborn. Once transformed, Fain would hunt with new purpose trying to find the new incarnation of Lews Therin so that he could be turned to the Shadow or destroyed.
After an elongated visit to the Two Rivers in the year after becoming a hound, Fain returned to Shayol Guhl and had his person-to-person encounters divined through Ba'alzamon's power, and there, the Shadow's first found evidence of individuals who affected the Pattern in unique ways. This information did not reveal the Dragon Reborn's identity, but it did narrow it down to less than a handful, all concentrated in the same village. Ba'alzamon instructed Fain to lead a warband of Trollocs and a Fade to Emond's Field to capture or destroy the potentials, but Fain failed.
He tracked them all the way to Shadar Logoth, the cursed city, where even one of the Eyeless would usually dare not tread. Fain followed them inside and encountered the evil that lay within. It is important to note that this sentient vileness was separate and apart from the Dark One and could actually be considered a rival. Created by the mass insanity that captured a city, the emotional energy coalesced into a being of pure hate after all life within its walls was snuffed out, with the exception of one man, a counselor named Mordeth who was ultimately responsible for the fall of Aridhol and the creation of Shadar Logoth. Mordeth remained trapped in the city as an undying prisoner until he could piggyback onto another soul -- his only company was the creature formed of hate and appeared as mist, called Mashadar.
Mordeth required someone to accompany him to the city's walls so he could then consume their soul and find some sense of freedom in the lands beyond as wraith wearing the skin of his last meal. After failing to convince or consume Mat, Rand and Perrin, he attached himself to Fain, who because his soul already belonged to the Dark One could not be wholly consumed. Instead, he became a hybrid of two forms of evil sheltered in one mad body sharing a twisted soul, an abomination to the Light and the Dark. Fain's powers, especially his tracking ability, increased along with his mania. And he eventually became almost as great a threat to the Dragon Reborn as the Dark One himself.
Given how many of the circumstances from the show and the books have splintered after just four episodes, there is no guarantee that the Fain of the adaptation will follow all of the same footsteps of his literary counterpart, but his inclusion in the cast at all suggests that he will be a figure of dread import. His nonchalant demeanor during the slaughter in Emond's Field would seem to suggest that he was involved in the slaughter that took place that night, though it is still unclear if it will be to the same degree as it was in the books. It's likely that, much like Nynaeve's flashback episode, seeing how she escaped from the Trolloc could also serve as the vehicle to show Fain enter Shadar Logoth.
Since the show is also creating a mystery around the Dragon Reborn's identity, he could also be used as a red herring to lure fans unfamiliar with the precedent to think that Mat is indeed the Dark One's ultimate adversary, because of Fain's connection to the dagger as an artifact of Shadar Logoth. The showrunners have already sprinkled some uncertainty there with both Mat and Nynaeve, establishing them as undeclared False Dragons, in these first few episodes, so it stands to reason that this kind of false trail will continue with Padan Fain as its own narrative hound.
To witness Fain's story for yourself, The Wheel of Time is now streaming on Prime Video, with new episodes releasing on Fridays.
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