What do the Seanchan do in villages that they conquer/occupy?

Question

In The Great Hunt, it's mentioned, such as in here, that in many (implied to be all?) villages visited by the Seanchan that they left a burned/scorched patch of ground that village residents were afraid/unwilling to remove. It's further mentioned that Hurin scented violence at the first patch he encountered, and it was extreme enough to cause him to vomit and refuse to discuss what actually happened on that spot.

So what did they actually do? The book includes a number of concrete examples of Seanchan cruelty, but as far as I can tell nothing specifically relatable to what they did in these villages. Does a subsequent book reveal what sort of atrocities they actually commit?

And mildly related, do the burned patches have anything to do with the similarly-described swaths of burned countryside that Rand encountered periodically while in the portal-stone world? I assume not, since Hurin was there for those as well, and did not react strongly to the burned patches in that other world?

Answer 1

From my recent re-read, there is a direct mention of them executing mayors and other similar people, probably using the damanes' "One Power as a weapon" methods.

There are also hints that when the locals are asked to swear the Seanchan oaths about the Return, it is a "swear or else" situation, so the executions are examples of what happen if people struggle instead of swearing.

The Bayle Domon POVs provide most of the information regarding the villages.

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I don't think there is any relation to the Portal Stone alternative reality, in which the Shadow won the Trolloc Wars and ravaged the land to the point of sterility. The damage in that world is also Power-related, but the scale and the causes are very different.