Ciceronian, on 10 February 2011 - 05:09 PM, said:
In the opening of tCG, Paran is once more standing over everything - the battlefield before him, his troops below him, the burning throne in the courtyard behind him (maybe it's more significant thematically than as a plot device - Laseen's dead, order has dissolved, etc) - and presumably about to descend into it at some point in what's to come. Only now he's alone.
s would fit well with hetan et al's comments that there is an amazing amount of foreshadowing throughout the entire series