A Memory of Light Read-Through #9: Chapter 6—A Knack

By Linda

Perrin POV

Egwene and Rand’s spat went on long enough for Moiraine to arrive and gauge the meeting.

Perrin’s positive thoughts are really noticeable after Egwene’s negativity in the last chapter. For instance, he is proud and impressed that Mat freed Moiraine. When he sees Mat riding through the countryside, he wonders where Mat is going—to Ebou Dar, as it happens—but doesn’t judge. With his abilities, Perrin’s POVs represent truth or accuracy in a situation. Perrin is likely the most reliable of the narrators.

Rand is stunned into disbelief that Moiraine is back. She gives a philosophical explanation as she has so often in the past: “The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills”. But then, Nynaeve and Min are also shocked. Min had given up on her viewing that Moiraine still had essential deeds to accomplish:

She had not really lied when he asked her what viewings she had kept back. Not really. What good to tell him he would almost certainly fail without a woman who was dead and gone?

- A Crown Of Swords, Into The Woods

Min sighed regretfully, but it was not as if she had really expected Moiraine to turn up alive. Moiraine was the only viewing of hers that had ever failed.

- A Crown Of Swords, Into The Woods

—and now Moiraine is about to do one of these essential deeds.

Egwene gives Moiraine a formal greeting as Amyrlin, which Moiraine doesn’t take very seriously. Moiraine has less strength in saidar than previously—which means by tradition she should have been much meeker around the Amyrlin—but more in everything else. She points out that she gets credit for discovering the Amyrlin, and by implication reminds Egwene that she owes a lot to Moiraine. Then Nynaeve, in turn, shocked Moiraine by hugging her. Moiraine is not used to physical demonstrations in public, and has typical Cairhienin reserve. Nynaeve has very mixed feelings about Moiraine, but from this point on, the two women work together quite well.

Darlin may be thoughtful at Moiraine’s return because his wife-to-be is Moiraine’s cousin. Also he maybe have heard of things about her from Caraline.

Egwene informs Moiraine—complains, really—that Rand is exacting a price for his sacrifice. She puts a negative spin on it, as she did all the previous chapter. After reading the treaty herself, Moiraine responds by quoting the Karaethon Cycle, including prophecies already fulfilled that she relates in a new way. When Egwene and Gregorin protest Rand’s conditions and plans, she counters them with prophecy.

"'He shall slay his people with the sword of peace,' " Moiraine said, " 'and destroy them with the leaf.'…'The unstained tower breaks and bends knee to the forgotten sign . . .' "

A Memory of Light, A Knack

The first prophecy was about Rand breaking the Aiel, but now also the other nations, with peace. Rand’s peace is twofold: that from victory over the Shadow certainly had a lot of bloodshed, but that between the nations will hugely alter the Aiel and Seanchan, if not the other nations. In the second prophecy quoted above, the White Tower will bow to Rand and his wishes more than once. Not what Egwene wanted to hear. Moiraine doesn’t perhaps yet know the full story of the aftermath of Dumai’s Wells, but we do.

A few people offer Rand constructive criticism. Saerin is complimentary about the treaty, but says the Seanchan need to be included in it. Elayne notices the lack of any conflict resolution procedure. Both are sensible points. The treaty will be void if the Empress does not sign. Then Aviendha says that the Aiel must be included in the peace, which is quite ironic considering other nations are complaining about being pressured into it. Quite a few rulers want to expand their nations at the expense of others. Perrin sees that the Aiel could be the enforcers of the peace, since they need to be doing purposeful things. Other nations think that the Aiel can be manipulated their way.

Rhuarc fears this will be an end to the Aiel. Rand says it is a beginning. Privately, however, he remembers what Aviendha told him; that some Aiel believed that Rand would completely destroy the Aiel:

". . . your dream now . . . when you wake from this life, we will be no more . . ."

-A Memory of Light, A Knack

As mediators of peace—sworn to be via the treaty—they will have a variation of their old role in the Age of Legends, serving and helping the Dragon.

Cadsuane is very approving. So is Elayne.

Moiraine makes Rand see that he can’t oversee the battles. He has the wrong attitude for winning military battles. Rand is against the Amyrlin being the general—and Egwene doesn’t protest this, even though it was her aim to win this role for the Tower. Moiraine seems to have made her reconsider. Moiraine then tells Egwene that she will break the Seals, and leads her to understand her dream of Rand walking to Shayol Ghul on shards (of the Dark One’s prison):

Him walking toward a burning mountain, something crunching beneath his boots. She stirred and whimpered; the crunching things were the seals on the Dark One's prison, shattering with his every step.

-Lord Of Chaos, A Pile of Sand

The shards are the broken Seals—that “what men made shall be shattered”. Moiraine makes Rand give the Seals to Egwene and Egwene promise that she will break them.

As an Accepted, Moiraine studied philosophy, and she really shows this in this chapter. Perrin doesn’t follow Moiraine’s philosophy of trusting the Pattern to make things happen right. He believes in making his own way, and not relying on the Pattern. For all that wolves are supposed to be fatalistic, Perrin isn’t:

Moiraine always had believed in following the weave of the Pattern and bowing to the Wheel's turnings. Perrin didn't see it that way. He figured you made your own path, and trusted in your own arms to do what needed to be done. The Pattern wasn't a thing to depend on.

A Memory of Light, A Knack

Perrin has been far less trusting of the Pattern since he learned how the good and bad were mixed within it. In his eyes this made it far from a masterwork, and therefore not to be relied upon.

Rand gets Egwene to sign first. Faile sees that Rand brought all who supported him, and relied on Egwene to bring and unite the waverers and outright opponents. Then he only had to get her to sign—and the rest had to follow. Elayne is the last to sign and Rand gives her the leadership of the armies as an incentive.

Faile then wonders about the damane the Seanchan have taken and the nations also. Rand considers damaging their forces if they don’t sign—yet all will be needed in the Last Battle. Of course the Empress considered not participating in Tarmon Gai'don and standing aside to take advantage of the weakened world after. This is selfish and short-sighted, since the Seanchan’s participation ensured victory.

The mainlanders assume the Empress will hold to the treaty if she signs it. For all that other Seanchan take pride in honouring all oaths they take, Fortuona signed and then considered breaking the treaty. Mat was the one who insisted she keep her oath and shamed her into it.

Rand decides publicly that he will allow the Seanchan the captives that they have taken because they have done good with the bad. Balance.

Rand asks that the generals send some forces to save Lan’s army first. This is the reverse of his dark pronouncements that he would let Lan distract the Shadow and strike elsewhere without sending any forces to aid Lan.


Lan POV

Lan is pleased that Kaisel of Kandor accepts the realistic outcome of their battle. The Malkieri are proud to go down in one last charge.

Lan realises that everyone deserves the choice of fighting for the Light. Like Rand, Lan did not want the responsibility of leading others to their deaths. He never learned how to bear the responsibilities of kingship in practise by watching his parents. Compare this with Faile instructing Perrin:

"Perrin, my father says a general can take care of the living or weep for the dead, but he cannot do both."
"I am not a general, Faile. I am a fool of a blacksmith who thought he could use other people to help him get justice, or maybe revenge. I still want it, but I don't want to use anyone else for it any longer."
"Do you think the Trollocs will go away because you decide your motives are not pure enough?" The heat in her voice made him raise his head, but she pushed it back to the pillow almost roughly. "Are they any less vile? Do you need a purer reason to fight them than what they are? Another thing my father says. The worst sin a general can commit, worse than blundering, worse than losing, worse than anything, is to desert the men who depend on him."

The Shadow Rising, Among the Tu’atha’an

Part of the compact between noble and commoner, ingrained in Faile from her birth, was that nobles provided safety and security. And a part of giving security was to remind people that evil times were not forever. If today was bad, then tomorrow would be better, and if not tomorrow, then the day after. She wished she could be certain of that herself, but she had been taught to give those under her strength even when she had none herself, to soothe their fears, not infect them with her own.

Lord of Chaos, Prologue

Lan knows he must be responsible for his soldiers; he just didn’t want to have any soldiers with him to be responsible for.

By pulling slowly out of the Gap, Lan’s forces unknowingly enabled their reinforcements to join them very easily. The timing is perfect. The Wheel weaves.

Lan never had conventional childhood and development and had not previously sworn the Malkieri oath to defend. Andere insists Lan show pleasure at their rescue and victory and he laughs. Rarely, if ever, has Lan laughed in the series until now. It’s nice to end a chapter with joy.

Towers of Midnight Read-through #56: Chapter 49 - Court of the Sun

By Linda

Aviendha POV

Aviendha's visions in the previous chapter had references to the "Vale of Tears"; the ones in this chapter don't; they're more about how and why the Aiel were "punished" for their sins in the Fourth Age. "We have to go to war because it's all we are good at and the other side are nasty" is not really a justification. To reverse a saying, the Aiel are definitely more "sinning" than "sinned against".

In Ladalin's POV the Seanchan have the upper hand, and the Aiel are greatly reduced. There are now only five clans, led by three clan chiefs and two Wise Ones. Rhuidean, so long under siege, has been captured. However the Aiel haven't developed an alternative method for choosing leaders.

The Aiel are still Aiel here, unlike in the previous chapter, but their customs have changed. They no longer take gai'shain because they don't fight the other clans, after making peace with each other in front of Rand, and being focussed only on war with the Seanchan. Each person has little choice of whether to be a warrior or not. Gai'shain now means "without honour", which is what dat'sang used to mean, and show the low status of those who don't fight (except for blacksmiths who provide fighting tools). Their social structure is narrowing to an economically unsustainable degree, I suspect. Hence the repeated "requests for aid" from the Wetlander rulers and the envy of others' beautiful possessions.

The Aiel are living on the edge. They have no time or resources for anything but the essentials. They are fighting for survival but don't acknowledge this until towards the end of Ladalin's POV when the leaders are forced to accept that they have lost the war.

Mora thinks the clans should retreat to the Waste and seek penance for not following the Dragon's Peace.

"The Dragon left us!" Takai said.

Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

But he left everybody - all the nations, not just the Aiel. Not being under the umbrella of the peace treaty, the Aiel broke the Dragon's wishes.

Ladalin advises retreating to the Waste to build up resources, rather than as a penance. However resources are more limited in the Waste, and the Aiel can be boxed in there.

War has decimated the Aiel. Collaring their channelling Wise Ones is worse than killing them because it increases the strength of the Seanchan enemy at the expense of the Aiel. Ladalin wishes she could channel, yet if she could she would likely already be collared and using the Power against her people.

Once the other nations joined the war - deceived by the Aiel - the Seanchan were justified in attacking them. Male channellers can't be leashed, and also weren't included in the treaty; therefore the Seanchan kill them. So the Asha'man have to continue fighting the Seanchan.

According to Ladalin, the Seanchan gained cannon, presumably by conquering Andor, or by buying the technology or knowledge of its manufacture, after Oncala's POV. They have all the nations under their control, now. Except the Aiel.

Ladalin thinks that fighting in secret would be dishonourable, although

Of course, what did honor matter now?

Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

The Aiel no longer consider honour much--or responsibility, either. But unfortunately they stopped thinking about responsibility far sooner.

"This is his fault," Takai said, still looking sullen. "The Car'a'carn could have led us to glory, but he abandoned us."
"His fault?" Ladalin said, understanding perhaps for the first time why that statement was wrong. "No. Aiel take responsibility for themselves. This is our fault, and not that of my distant greatfather. We have forgotten who we are. We are without honor."

Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Taking responsibility is honour and that's something they haven't done for decades. They even blame their lack of honour, too, on the Dragon.

"Our honor was taken from us," Takai said, sighing as he stood. "People of the Dragon indeed. What is the good of being his people? We were crafted to be a spear, the legends say, forged in the Three-fold Land. He used us, then cast us away. What is a discarded spear to do, but go to war?"

Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Yet we see in the next POV that they were responsible for tossing honour away. The Aiel are the ones who see themselves only as spears. These people need to transform themselves: widen their function and sense of purpose, not whine that Rand didn't lead them to glory, or left them without a role. Rand's peace wasn't intended to make the Aiel happy; it was for the good of the world. The Aiel felt they were a special people and therefore entitled accordingly.

For a different reason, the Seanchan also remained outsiders.

Her hatred of the invaders ran deep. Perhaps that hatred had destroyed the Aiel.

Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Indeed, hatred of the Seanchan did destroy the Aiel.

Honour doesn't equal war. Aiel are obsessed with ji, and claim that they have been robbed of it, but don't consider toh, obligation, the other side of the equation. Aviendha thinks war with the Seanchan is pointless. The Aiel went to war because it was apparently all they knew. War and hate. They never bothered to learn anything from the other nations. Aviendha - the bridge between the Aiel and Rand/Wetlanders, as the Wise Ones put it - needs to teach them this. But first she has to be less parochial.

Oncala is announced by a banner. Aviendha's Dragon-lineage children are given honour that no Aiel has been granted before, and it has done little good. Oncala is very arrogant, and tends to insult people.

She knew she was not good with people. When she spoke, insults were too common.

Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

The Aiel were a meritocracy, not an aristocracy. A guard of two thousand seems an excessive amount of honour even for the Dragon's granddaughter. Oncala and Hehyal displayed this honour while abandoning honour with their deception. Oncala sneers at the Seanchan for having no honour, then deliberately lies by omission to the Andoran monarch to bring the Andorans into the war. This is a betrayal of trust - by the embassy, and of a cousin at that.

Aviendha's granddaughter intends to marry the guy who killed the most Seanchan in his society. Hehyal has not actually gone to Rhuidean to be tested because the Seanchan are besieging it, preventing the Aiel from promoting leaders. The Aiel never develop an alternative way of proving leadership qualities. Potential leaders won't be tested in future--this future. (Instead Aviendha changes the future here by viewing this and resolving to do something about it.)

Oncala thinks she should fight in her youth, because that's the time to do so. At this time the Aiel are not fighting out of necessity, whereas later they must keep fighting to maintain their stalemate with the Seanchan and later still just fight to survive.

Oncala envies the Andoran queen's property, and thinks it is only still there because Aiel are defending it. Yet the Seanchan are not at war with the Andorans at this stage, only the Aiel, so why do the Andorans need defending? Further questions arise when Oncala thinks the Aiel will destroy the Seanchan and then intends for the Wetlanders to "pay" for their lack of tribute to the Aiel. Apparently the Aiel are getting payment for protection, or is it protection money, or even charity? The Wetlanders are not at war with the Seanchan, so do they actually need protection from them? Are they actually paying the Aiel to stay away?

By Aiel custom, someone important should have come out to meet Oncala and Hehyal to show them respect; they are being treated as supplicants. This is justified because they have asked for aid on previous visits. The aid may be monetary since Oncala thinks of making the nations "wish they had been more generous" (Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun). If the nations gave military aid, this would be a violation of the peace treaty with the Seanchan.

The battle lines have not changed since the Last Battle, so victory is by no means assured. Yet if the Aiel are better fighters now than they were at the Last Battle, as Oncala claims, then they are only just holding their own. Oncala is kidding herself. Hatred, ambition and envy have corrupted her. She refuses to acknowledge that the Andoran nobility are her equals. In her, Aiel parochialism has become overweening arrogance. There is nothing good to be said about this woman.

Apparently the Andoran palace gates are kept closed, but were left open for Oncala and Hehyal. Oncala resents to the point of hatred that the the Aiel can't beat the Seanchan without help from the Andorans (despite her earlier posturing). She corrupts the Andorans by leading them to violate a treaty. Of course, they could have refused to do so, but they trusted the Aiel, and not the Seanchan. The Andoran Queen picked the wrong side.

The Queen's Guard checks the proffered papers for physical danger, but ironically the danger is from both what is written in the text and what is omitted. The Andorans are distrustful; the Aiel's hostile feelings for them are obviously evident. Oncala hypocritically complains that they are treated like assassins. Yet their lies will result in continent-wide subjugation of states and people and the enslavement or deaths of hundreds of thousands. They assassinated world peace.

Hehyal repeats the misleading passage in the Seanchan prophecies that Rand's bowing to the Empress was an act of obeisance when in fact it was a courtesy designed to shame her (see Essanik Prophecy article); this will occur in A Memory of Light, Older, More Weathered. The Empress acknowledged the Dragon as her equal but Hehyal (and Talana) believe the Seanchan think the Empress was above him. They may well do so now - the passage of time changing remembered history is an important theme in the Wheel of Time. The Empress is an absolute monarch and acts like she can't be constrained by anything. In A Memory of Light, To Ignore the Omens, Tuon didn't consider her oath to Rand binding until Mat pressed her. On the other hand, she also believes in law and order.

Once the two deceivers scent victory, Hehyal has second thoughts about whether they should have done it. Oncala thinks their honour is intact because they lied by omission; the sort of sophistry everyone despised the Aes Sedai for. Aes Sedai are an example of the "sinners who cannot lie" trope, part of the contradictory aspects of carnival, which was an expression of chaos. (The Dark One is against order and tries to disrupt and weaken the Pattern by unleashing chaos. More practically, if Aes Sedai are untrustworthy, then the lies of the Black Ajah are less obvious.) Deception by omission or false implication is still a betrayal of trust. Oncala thinks it's OK because she is blinded by her ambition to rule a Dragon empire. She justifies this as making a pre-emptive strike against an enemy who would undoubtedly attack in future.

When the Aiel say they are "holding off" Seanchan for the Andorans and other nations, I wonder if this is how the Seanchan see it. Have they prepared contingency plans because they know the Aiel have repeatedly tried to get the Andorans to break the peace pact, and believe the Andorans are likely to be persuaded to do so sooner or later?

A griffin is a lion-eagle cross, so the Pact of the Griffin refers to the Andoran/Two Rivers alliance. The Court of the Sun would include Cairhien. Cairhien and Andor may be held by different rulers now, if they are in different alliances (each probably descendants of Elayne.)

It is forty years since the next POV and some 57 years after the Last Battle, but Talana is Elayne's granddaughter and is forty or so. Elayne should still be alive, but then so should Aviendha. What happened to them? Were they collared? Or are they dead?

At this time the Seanchan already have cannon:

The descriptions of Andor's military forces, suggestions on how to use gateways and dragons to attack Caemlyn, the very plot to assassinate Queen Talana-these had been drawn up only in case Andor entered the war.

Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Ladalin's early childhood was soon after Seanchan attacked Aiel's Arad Doman camp and fought at Almoth Plain. Yet Ladalin says the Seanchan gained cannon twenty years earlier. She is an old woman and the Almoth Plain strikes (early stage of war) happened when she was a young child. The inconsistency may be an error, or may show the confusion, and resulting loss or corruption of knowledge, of these times.

All of Aviendha's four children have channelled since childhood. This is the something odd that Min saw about them.

Min wondered whether to tell her [Aviendha] what she had seen while they were all together. Aviendha would have Rand’s babies, too. Four of them at once! Something was odd about that, though. The babies would be healthy, but still something odd.

Winter’s Heart, A Lily in Winter

Padra says she holds the One Power constantly - but another way of looking at it is that she cannot release it, and, forgetting what it is like to be without it, has become arrogant. She takes her power for granted and looks down on those without it. In a way, she has been consumed by it, by her belief in her own strength and invincibility. Yet she will be gone in less than 110 years (40 years of war and the 70-odd years of Ladalin's life). Padra is now less than 17. Neither she nor her sister were present or mentioned in Ladalin's POV, another two disappeared channellers. Her siblings' disparate descriptions hints of genetic links to Moridin's body, since Rand and Aviendha had similar colouring to each other.

Rand's survival appears to be unknown still, yet he and Aviendha must have been together for a while soon enough after the Last Battle that everyone thinks he fathered them before he apparently died. His children don't know him. He may be dead; certainly lost. How/why is Aviendha gone? Her children wouldn't be raised so high so young if she were still around. Did she "follow after" Rand? Abandoning duty would be out of character for her.

Padra believes in a meritocracy and in her own superiority due to inherited abilities. She doesn't believe in aristocracy (although she might believe in royalty due to superior genetic lines). This is not an earlier Aiel belief.

The Aiel show Padra deference, which is not traditional. It is interesting that the Aiel, who are so resistant to social change, make such bad changes and have worse ones forced upon them. In the camp, Padra "dismissed her spear-sisters," yet she's 16-17 years old at most. Traditionally, Maidens are still junior at this age. All four siblings give advice to the clan chiefs, yet in earlier times clan chiefs were resistant to advice from the (much more experienced) Wise Ones. The Aiel revere Rand's children because they are all they have left of him. They followed Rand - and continue to in the form of his children. This meeting of clan chiefs and Rand's/Aviendha's children has no Wise Ones, even non-channelling ones. Marinna is in training (apprentice), being 16-17. The Taardad clan chief is young if he is only 10 years older than Padra. Even if he is a skilled an intelligent man. The Last Battle left its scars on the AIel and killed so many experienced and potential leaders.

The Aiel want to fight - be warriors. It's the main way to earn honour. The clans are angry that the Seanchan won't give the Wise One damane back, so they resolve to take them by force. Many years passed since Tuon was Empress - therefore she was gone within a few years of the Last Battle. As with Aviendha, her fate is unknown; she may be dead, but she may have been collared. A damane is dead to human society. Yet the Seanchan speak of Rand bowing to the Empress. It is hard to reconcile this with an Empress being enslaved and un-personed for channelling. Perhaps Tuon chose to suicide for the good of the Empire once she channelled. Tuon is a Nemesis figure and it was always likely that she would be her own Nemesis and channel.

As for the Seanchan, they too are morally grey. The Aiel were wronged by the Seanchan's harsh customs/laws. The possibility that Aviendha was one of those collared a few years after the Last Battle really brings this home to us, because we know and like Aviendha. It was curious that Aviendha doesn't wonder at the way she and all her channelling friends vanished so young in her visions of the future; I guess she was too stunned and overwhelmed at the magnitude of the disaster shown here, or assumed they all died in the Last Battle.

The Aiel don't want to raid each other after being at peace all these years (17 of them). They see this as pointless, but other fighting as not pointless. Like Oncala will do, they justify their plan to attack the Seanchan by saying that the peace won't hold between the nations. (Yet it did for a further 40 years until it was broken by a misplaced trust in the Aiel). However it is under considerable pressure due to no enforcement or mediation provisions. This is what the Aiel should be. Rand was not Aiel, and did not feel close to them. He did not plan for them, out of respect.

Ronam is right that returning to the Waste will destroy the Aiel.

"Some say we should have returned to the Three-fold Land," she said. "No," Ronam said. "No, that would have destroyed us. Our fathers knew nothing of steamhorses or dragon tubes. Were the Aiel to return to the Waste, we would have become irrelevant. The world would pass us by, and we would vanish as a people."

Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

He does not know if the Aiel should go to war, but believes it is what Aiel do. And it is an opportunity to earn honour.

Again there is much talk about honour, but none about obligation in this more traditional society. Yet both were equally important in Aiel society. Aviendha's children were the first to abandon obligation, due to being shown great honour without earning it.

When it is all over, Aviendha sits in middle of the glass columns as they power down. The vision feels destined to her, unchangeable, but she has to try to change it. Her line is responsible for the decay of the Aiel, the ultimate dishonour. She is desperate to know how it happened but the columns are switched off, unresponsive. It's all up to her.

She had come to Rhuidean seeking knowledge. Well, she had received it. In more abundance than she had wanted.
She opened her eyes and gritted her teeth. Aiel took responsibility. Aiel fought. Aiel stood for honor.

Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

It is one thing to gain knowledge, and another to use it honourably or to fight as a result of knowledge. Aviendha is determined to do her duty and save her people. Knowledge is useless if it is not used for decisions and actions.

Here are some pointers for Aviendha to consider. Not that it's her fault, but her children know nothing of their father, and not enough of their mother, either. Her children should not be revered or allowed to become arrogant. The peace treaty needs people to act as mediators and also enforce it.

This chapter fulfils the "he will take you back and (italics mine) he will destroy you" Aiel prophecy--in a bad way. Not that Rand directly destroyed them, except by not making them a part of the treaty. As it turned out, the prophecy was fulfilled in a positive manner as at the end of A Memory of Light. He did tie the Aiel together - to each other, and to the Wetlander nations. The Aiel have to keep following Rand's wishes, or else...

The chapter also follows the Wheel of Time theme of the effect a few people can have on history - if other people take note of them.

Towers of Midnight Read-through #55: Chapter 48 - Near Avendesora

By Linda

Aviendha POV

Aviendha thinks that she's the first to go through the glass columns in Rhuidean since Rand's advent. She and Rand are perhaps the two most important visitors to Rhuidean and the columns.

The remaining ter'angreal have been taken away from the plaza where Avendesora grows. While Aviendha assumes Aiel took them, it may have been Moridin, considering his large hoard and recently acquired items. Avendesora is the World Tree:

There stood an enormous tree, branches spread wide like arms reaching to embrace the sun. The massive tree had a perfection she could not explain. It had a natural symmetry-no missing branches, no gaping holes in its leafy upper reaches. It was particularly impressive since, when she'd last seen it, it had been blackened and burned.
In a world where other plants were dying without explanation, this one healed and nourished faster than ever should have been possible. Its leaves rustled soothingly in the wind, and its gnarled roots poked through the ground like the aged fingers of a wise elder. The tree made her want to sit and bask in the simple peace of the moment.
It was as if this tree were the ideal, the one after which all other trees were patterned. In legend it was called Avendesora. The Tree of Life.

Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

Chora trees are a construct, and therefore not natural. In this case they are more than natural—much more—rather than less than natural, as the Shadow’s constructs are.

Sheltered by Avendesora, Aviendha ruminates on the knowledge from her ancestors that she knew she would gain. Mat, too, ruminated under Avendesora prior to going through the redstone doorway, and was hung on the tree after gaining ancient memories, a reference to Odin, Mat's parallel, who hanged himself on the World Tree to gain knowledge. Aviendha did learn one new thing:

She'd anticipated a noble decision, where honor overcame the inferior lifestyle dictated by the Way of the Leaf.

Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

but everything else was as expected. The decision was not a noble one. In fact, it is surprising that she thought it would be a noble decision when by Aiel standards it can't be noble if it involves breaking oath. Pragmatic, perhaps, but not noble. Aviendha is comforted that the Aiel’s previous lapse could be redeemed by meeting their toh at the Last Battle.

The Jenns' decision to take up a weapon was an impulse, not a decision. Because Aiel society knows only fighting, they see it as honourable, and many of those who want to achieve or earn status in Aiel society do so through battle. Therefore there is an underlying desire to battle even when there is no reason to fight, as she will see in columns, which can lead to corruption. Despite being in the wetlands for some time, Aviendha still is parochial, which shows the depth of Aiel prejudice, due to the nation not having regular peaceful contact with other societies. It is this attitude, plus continuation of warfare as a way of life which will potentially lead to the Aiel’s downfall.

More and more, she was coming to believe that tradition for the sake of tradition was foolishness. Good traditions-strong, Aiel traditions-taught the ways of ji'e'toh, methods of survival.

Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

Until now, the Aiel have fought to survive. But what if gets in way of survival? What if it becomes disruptive to society? The Aiel need a mechanism to deal with conflict or aggression that doesn't involve warfare.

Probing the ter’angreal shows Aviendha that the glass columns are receptive:

Indeed, the pillars seemed . . . alive, somehow. It was almost as if she could sense an awareness from them.
That gave her a chill. Was she touching the pillar, or was it touching her?

Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

so that they know each Aiel visitor's ancestral line and therefore what scenes and POVs from the past to replay, and, as it turns out, the most likely future. The ter’angreal can read both ways along the Wheel. Not surprisingly they are too profound or complex for Aviendha to read. As she walks away she sees a scene from the distant future. Aviendha thinks she may have re-set the ter'angreal when she tried to read one. She has faith the columns show what the Aiel need to know, that they grant wisdom as well as knowledge.

Malidra is pretty much at the end of Aviendha's line—she may even be the end. The girl is a fearful scavenger who thinks, like most who lack knowledge of science, that the Seanchan’s technology is magic.

Aviendha’s viewings in the glass columns compare and contrast strikingly with Rand’s experiences in The Shadow Rising. Malidra is a mirror to Rand’s ancestor, Rhodric, who didn't believe in snow, and had experienced only drought.

Malidra had heard stories of a place beyond the distant mountains, where the land was green and food grew everywhere.
She didn't believe those lies.

Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

Malidra follows the Lightmakers, whereas Rhodric followed the Jenn Aiel and the Aes Sedai. However the Lightmakers gave her nothing; they killed her for trying to take, as she would have killed them for their belongings, whereas Rhodric helped the future Cairhienin and also served the Jenn.

“We guard the Jenn,” Jeordam said. “It is they who travel with Aes Sedai.”

The Shadow Rising, The Road to the Spear

Aviendha debates the significance of Malidra’s scene and dares to go into the columns twice (which is forbidden) to gain knowledge. As it turns out, the Aiel will destroy themselves if she does not. Rand’s ancestor, Mandein, and all other Aiel leaders, had to go to Rhuidean because otherwise the Aiel would destroy themselves (The Shadow Rising, The Road to the Spear).

She is pleased that Da'shain had honour and respect:

The Aiel in the Age of Legends had been peaceful servants, respected. How could they have started as scavengers?

Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

Aviendha thinks it is better to die than become a scavenger. The Da'shain Aiel would rather die than be violent or kill.

The Aiel have been choked off economically as well as physically. Due to social disruption, they have lost knowledge on surviving in the Waste. Shaving in the desert is a sign of high standards. In Malidra’s time, the Aiel folk are bearded, a sign of their greater decay, not being able to spare the water, tools and time to shave.

In the next POV, Rowahn was charged to maintain Aiel customs:

Her father had inherited his clothing from his grandfather, along with a charge. Follow the old ways. Remember ji'e'toh. Fight and maintain honor.

Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

- the few customs that are remembered. Likewise the Jenn were charged to follow the Way of the Leaf:

“The Trees of Life.” When he still looked at her blankly, she shook her head. “Three little trees planted in barrels. They care for them almost as well as they do for themselves. When they find a place of safety, they mean to plant them; they say the old days will return, then. They. I said they. Very well. I am not Jenn anymore.” She hefted the shortened spear. “This is my husband now.” Eyeing him closely, she asked, “If someone stole your child, would you talk of the Way of the Leaf and suffering sent to test us?”

The Shadow Rising, The Road to the Spear

and accept suffering as a test of faith. Rowahn looks on the Aiel’s trials as a punishment which they must endure:

"We must rebuild," her father said, surveying the wreckage.
"Rebuild?" said a soot-stained man. "The granary was the first to burn! There is no food!"
"We will survive," her father said. "We can move deeper into the Waste."
"There is nowhere else to go!" another man said. "The Raven Empire has sent word to the Far Ones, and they hunt us at the eastern border!"
"They find us whenever we gather!" another cried.
"It is a punishment!" her father said. "But we must endure!"

Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

Once the settlements are abandoned, and the Aiel scattered, they are doomed as a people.

Aviendha’s descendant, Tava, returned the child to the grateful mother and then helped gather sand and dirt, just as Rand’s ancestor, Jeordam, helped the Jenn retrieve a daughter and other womenfolk.

Aviendha moves backwards in the future as she progresses. Forward, and back, as Rand did.

Rand’s feet moved of their own accord. Forward. And back in time.

The Shadow Rising, The Road to the Spear

Unwillingly, Aviendha realises that the Ravens and Lightmakers are Seanchan. The Far Ones would be the Sharans.

Rand saw the corruption of the Da'shain Aiel, Aviendha sees the corruption and decay of the Aiel. Da'shain would be just as upset to see their people abandon the Way, as Aviendha is to see the Aiel abandon ji'e'toh and lose honour.

This sub-thread has real world parallels in the displacement and destruction of North American indigenous peoples (and of those of other countries) by invaders with more advanced technologies, and to the Trail of Tears in particular. It also is a reverse Exodus, since the Aiel have strong parallels with the Israelites, showing what happens if the Aiel do not follow the spirit of the Dragon’s peace pact and leave the promised land of the Wetlands that he led them to, isolating themselves in the Waste.

Towers of Midnight Read-through #46: Chapter 39 - In The Three-fold Land

By Linda

Aviendha compares the appearance and dangers of the Three-fold Land to that of the Westlands to the latter’s discredit. Yet both have hidden dangers: for all that Aviendha thinks the snake’s den is obvious, she has personally seen five people fall to such a snake’s ambush, and there would be many more killed that she did not see. As other characters say, there are no safe places. It’s a matter of the dangers one knows:

It was always preferable to face the enemy or the danger you could see than to fear the one that hid behind the faces of lying wetlanders.

Towers of Midnight, In The Three-fold Land

She has been afraid in the Westlands because a) she doesn’t understand Westland society well enough to recognise the dangers, particularly Darkfriends, and b) she left the Three-fold Land soon after Rand’s advent brought Darkfriends out of hiding, so she associates the Westlands with the horrors of the Last Days and the Three-fold Land with comparative stability and safety.

While Aviendha is parochial, she is honest with herself that, for all its unfamiliarity, she has enjoyed life in the Westlands. However she sees this as a weakness for luxury. Running to Rhuidean to follow custom has reminded her of Aiel ways and brought out her insular side. She is determined that all Aiel should return to the Three-fold Land, to become strong again with their traditions reaffirmed. At this stage she hasn’t considered that she could live in the Westlands without luxury if she wished. Too much hanging about in palaces recently.

The approaching end of Aviendha’s apprenticeship has “brought her honour back”. While she was an Apprentice and not a Maiden she felt low in status. Once she goes through the glass columns and is fully initiated as a Wise One Aviendha feels that she will have enough status to be Rand’s equal partner, and therefore can propose to him without being the lesser of the two.

And now for Aviendha’s meeting with the mysterious Nakomi. When Aviendha closes her eyes, I think she falls asleep and reaches Tel’aran’rhiod. The rest of the chapter is in Tel’aran’rhiod, although Aviendha is unaware of this. She didn’t hear Nakomi approach because in Tel’aran’rhiod Nakomi can just will herself at a place. The fire was warmer than it should be, according to the amount of tinder Aviendha put on it, and it had more coals than it should have, which is further evidence of Tel’aran’rhiod. Nakomi willed the fire hotter so it could cook tubers, and the roots cooked faster than they “should” – in the time it takes to make tea! Moreover the food tasted better than expected, so much so that it amazes Aviendha, who has dined royally recently, again indicative of Tel’aran’rhiod. Aviendha nearly doubted her taste test, but quickly rationalised that this was evidence of the superiority of the Three-fold Land. I smiled when the fourth wall of Aviendha’s dream was nearly broken here, but parochialism won the day. Nakomi vanishes – Aviendha can’t trace her – and so do her belongings once Aviendha leaves them and Nakomi thinks of them as gone.

So why was Nakomi hanging about in Tel’arna’rhiod? We haven’t seen any Dreamwalkers dream “across time”, as it were. So she either dwells in Tel’aran’rhiod or has reached it from the contemporary world. Nakomi may be a Hero of the Horn waiting for her rebirth or for the Horn of Valere to call her to the Last Battle. Her conversation with Aviendha is reminiscent of Birgitte’s contact with Perrin, Elayne and Nynaeve in Tel’aran’rhiod in the early books. When Nakomi appeared in the real world at Thakan’dar and spoke to Rand, the Horn had been blown and Heroes were still abroad in the waking world.

Aviendha queried Nakomi on where she is from, and got a cryptic answer:

"I am far from my roof," the woman said, wistful, "yet not far at all. Perhaps it is far from me. I cannot answer your question, apprentice, for it is not my place to give this truth."

Towers of Midnight, In The Three-fold Land

Nakomi's home and people are far from her and unreachable because she is dead, yet still feels tied to the Aiel. Looking further, Nakomi is far from the main world, yet not. Tel’aran’rhiod surrounds the waking world, yet as a shade, Nakomi cannot touch it. By the precepts, those dwelling in Tel’aran’rhiod can’t speak to someone who knows they are in Tel’aran’hiod, but then Aviendha doesn’t know. To tell Aviendha that she is a dead Hero would be to make Aviendha aware she is in Tel’aran’rhiod, and so, violate the precepts. It might also make Aviendha more doubtful of what Nakomi says.

Nakomi was able to track Aviendha’s thoughts very well, as an Aiel would. She tested Aviendha about her opinion of Rand and the Westlands, and made sure Aviendha believes Rand’s revelation. Aviendha’s negative opinion of the Westlands and her belief that they are supposedly weakening the Aiel earned Nakomi’s disapproval. Nakomi’s favourable opinion of the Westlands, emphasising their beauty and lushness, is as though they are familiar to her, as they would be if she had roamed about Tel’aran’rhiod long term and had cut ties with the Three-fold Land. She would be unlikely to feel this way had she remained in the Waste or only left it recently; recent contact with the Westlands would inspire the kind of wariness or alienation expressed by Aviendha.

Nakomi deftly drew out Aviendha’s concerns about the Aiel being weakened, and the effect of Rand’s revelation that the Aiel are Oathbreakers and no better than the despised Cairhienin. It is the bleakness resulting from this shame which has broken the Aiel – their hypocrisy and oath-breaking – not the Westlands themselves. Aviendha does not yet accept this.

Following the Dragon and fighting in the Last Battle will redeem the Aiel and meet their toh and thus restore their honour. Nakomi emphasises that serving the Dragon was the whole point of their time in the Three-fold Land and it is now time to move on.

The effect of their encounter is to make Aviendha more pro the Waste - where food tastes better than that in a palace - but also disturbed that old ways of violence may not have any purpose, let alone honour. Nakomi wants the Aiel to stop their violence and join the other nations. The Aiel need to embrace the Fourth Age as well as modern ways; right now they are too tribal and traditional. What Aviendha sees next will show her their degradation if they don’t.

Aviendha does not see that toh being met means the Aiel are free of the Three-fold Land, raiding and violence; just as the Sharans are free of the Pattern after playing their adversarial part in Last Battle. Nakomi makes her point and leaves; she doesn’t want to overdo it, or argue with Aviendha, but just nudge her in right direction. And, of course, there are the precepts, too.

Nakomi’s name is reference to Nokomis, the grandmother of Nanabozho/ Manabozho, the trickster figure of the Ojibwe Nation. She is in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem The Song of Hiawatha:

By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest.

In fact, in the Ojibwe language, the language of the traditional tale on which Hiawatha is based, Nokomis means “my grandmother” (see Character Names N article for further discussion of Nokomis/Nakomi and Hiawatha/Rand).

Nakomi is not literally Rand’s grandmother although she is wise and knowledgeable. Bair said her name was ancient, and recognisably Aiel, so it is likely she is a Hero who was an Aiel from the distant past in one of her recent births, particularly considering her legendary name.

Winter's Heart Read-through Post #3: Sevanna the Noble Savage

By Linda

Many of the westlanders deride the Aiel as savages; in Sevanna we have a noble savage - although not quite in the usual sense of the term.

From Winter’s Heart, until her capture, Sevanna wore only silk – dark grey silk skirts divided for riding, white or cream silk blouse laced very loosely and red or blue silk headscarf with or without a circlet of gems upon it – plus a crimson cloak, red boots and large quantities of looted necklaces, bracelets and finger rings. Laundering of luxury fabrics like silk is arduous and requires a lot of water, hardly acceptable to a semi-nomadic desert warrior society.

Red symbolises blood and fire and this is echoed in Faile’s thought that Sevanna had:

painted her name across the sky in blood and fire.

- Winter’s Heart, Offers

It is not a colour that Aiel wear everyday. Red fabric is expensive to produce, more so than almost all other colours, as well as conspicuous. But then that’s what Sevanna was trying to be. Sevanna’s red cloak is lined with white fur, yet the other Aiel won’t even add white to their cadin’sor for winter camouflage because it is a colour reserved for gai’shain. Neither do Aiel wear finger rings. Finger rings, especially in large quantities, reduce or limit the work capacity of the hands wearing them, which is why many people remove their rings for rough or messy work.

Since her clothes are impractical and expensive and violate the Aiel values of work and hardiness, Sevanna was the first Aiel noble.

Further support for this is that, contrary to Aiel custom, Sevanna intended her children to inherit her rank:

The wetlander notion of handing down rank to your children, and their children, for instance

- A Crown of Swords, Prologue

and had her gai’shain – slaves, in reality – refer to her as ‘the Lady Sevanna’ (Winter’s Heart, Offers).

These excessive numbers of gai’shain, all formerly of considerable wealth or rank, were dressed in white silk robes and elaborately jewelled gold belts and collars/torcs (Winter’s Heart, Offers) as a humiliating reminder of their fall, and, intentionally or not, as a mockery of the gai’shain and the Da’shain ideal as well as a semblance of a personal livery. Perhaps Sevanna was tempting fate wearing white fur. Under her leadership huge numbers of Shaido were made da'covale, exactly in the way the Shaido's wetlander captives were to be permanently gai'shain.

By Winter’s Heart, Sevanna’s feet were no longer good enough for transporting her, and she took to riding a horse – although it did keep her silk skirts out of the snow. It also literally raised her above the other Aiel. Since horses are often a symbol of saidin, riding one reflects Sevanna’s intention to control and use Rand. It is impressive how consistent the layers of symbols are in the books.

And even Faile was amazed at Sevanna’s new bathing routine:

The water for Sevanna's morning bath—she bathed twice a day, now!—had not been hot enough…

- Knife of Dreams, As If the World were Fog

especially considering that they are living in a crowded camp. Bathing twice daily would be unheard of in our world in the 17th and 18th centuries (see Private Lives article). Faile, too, thinks it decadent.

Sevanna was almost Graendal-like in her desire for servants - or rather, slaves - who were formerly of high rank (she just used different methods of coercion) and the trouble she takes over dressing:

Sevanna gathered the rich, the powerful and the beautiful, simply taking them if they were gai'shain to someone else…once she [Sevanna] did rise, all her talk had been of what clothes and jewels she would wear, especially the jewels. Her jewelry chest had been made to hold clothing, and it was filled to the top with more gems than most queens possessed. Before putting on any garment at all, Sevanna had spent time trying on different combinations of necklaces and rings and studying herself in the gilt-framed stand-mirror.

- Knife of Dreams, Something Strange

By Aiel standards, Sevanna was as decadent as Graendal, too, and both wanted to enslave Rand. Sevanna thought she would be able to bind Rand with a ter'angreal from Sammael, marry him, collar him, and use him as a puppet. Graendal said she would like to make Rand one of her pets – her most prized pet, to be the centrepiece of every display (Lord of Chaos, Threads Woven of Shadow). I guess this makes the austere, threatening and sadistic Therava an equivalent of Semirhage.

Ironically, while the Aiel have been regarded as savages for many years by westlanders, they have been a strictly ordered society with strong values. However under Sevanna the Shaido became closer to living up, or maybe down, to the insult than any Aiel previously.

A Crown of Swords Read Through#3: Shadowy Shaido

By Linda

It is no coincidence that the name Shaido sounds like Shadow. They were directly manipulated by two Forsaken: Asmodean and then Sammael (with Graendal aiding him).

Sevanna tossed aside custom and tradition, but the Shaido’s honour went with it. She had thirteen Wise Ones, her own coven, execute a fellow Wise One to provide cause for the clan to attack the Aes Sedai holding Rand and capture him for themselves. It is likely that some of these Wise Ones are Darkfriends, and helped Sevanna persuade the others to do something so dishonourable, indeed criminal, as killing a Wise One, just as Black sisters helped depose Siuan and raise Egwene and Elaida.

Sevanna believes that getting her Wise Ones to take part in battle was the biggest change in custom that she made. And it was a very big change. Dumai’s Wells may be the only time that Wise Ones fought in battle in the entire Third Age – until the Last Days and perhaps the Last Battle. (Although I have a theory that at least some Aiel will adopt the Way of the Leaf before the Last Battle). Apart from rescuing Rand, Perrin’s group of Wise Ones battling Elaida’s embassy could be seen as participating in a police action to punish the Aes Sedai for violating the rules of embassies and kidnapping their chief, Rand, under a parley, just as the Aiel regarded the Aiel War as a punitive action against Laman Damodred. This would have been validated in Aiel minds when Rand assigned the Aes Sedai to the Wise Ones. Rand probably doesn’t realise how important that action was for quelling the Aiel’s mutterings against Wise Ones in battle.

Wise Ones fighting Wise Ones was a different matter, and it may be that neither side did much of that with good reason. We know some on Sevanna’s side were reluctant, even those she corrupted most:

"They are Wise Ones," the other woman said in a flat tone, and Sevanna understood bitterly. Joining the dance of spears was bad enough, but Wise One attacking Wise One was more than even Rhiale would countenance.

- A Crown of Swords, Prologue

Since Wise Ones take no part in battle, and are not touched by blood feud, they have some similarities with gai’shain and hence to the Da’shain in the Age of Legends. However, Wise Ones do punish violently, so they fall quite short of the Way of the Leaf.

But was Aiel fighting Aes Sedai actually an even bigger change still? Interestingly, Therava had no qualms about killing the Shaido Wise One Desaine but was worried about the prophecy warning against failing the Aes Sedai:

As though Desaine's doubts had infected Therava, she began muttering, only half to herself. "What is ill done is going against Aes Sedai. We served them before the Breaking, and failed them; that is why we were sent to the Three-fold Land. If we fail them again, we will be destroyed."

- Lord of Chaos, Prologue

This fear soon wore off as the Shaido easily looted where and as they willed. After the battle of Malden Therava realised what a high price the Shaido paid for their actions in following Sevanna. Some Shaido early on wondered if Sevanna was ill-fated because she was the widow of two chiefs:

And let those who muttered that she carried bad luck choke on it.

- A Crown of Swords, Prologue

They were right. And some might well have choked on it too. The ‘bad luck’ Sevanna brought the clan includes:

• no clan chief,


• septs dispersed,


• social order destroyed,


• warriors of some septs wiped out and most non-combatants made gai’shain, and


• many of the channelling Wise Ones made damane.

Even if the Shaido make it back to the Waste what will they find there? Will the place be as it was? Rhuidean certainly isn’t. What of the Shaido’s own lands? The Shaido are regarded as having dishonoured themselves:

"Are we Shaido, expected to make gai'shain from wetlanders?" Her [Amys’] tone left little doubt as to what she thought of both Shaido and the idea of making wetlanders gai'shain.

- The Gathering Storm, The Ways of Honour

and violated custom to the extent they are barely Aiel. How will this affect their trek through the lands of other clans to their own? No sept except the Jumai has a channelling Wise One until they meet up with Therava’s group.

For all the Aiel pride themselves on how carefully their leaders are chosen, with testing of vetted candidates at Rhuidean after long years of experience for men and apprenticeship for women, Sevanna managed to circumvent the system easily in a very ‘conventional’ manner. At sixteen she married power in the form of a much older man:

Suladric, clan chief of the Shaido, fell to her at sixteen, and when he died, she chose out those most likely to succeed…

As wife of a clan chief she had been wielding power at an age when a Maiden was barely trusted to carry a spear or a Wise One's apprentice to fetch water. And now she had it all, Wise One and clan chief, though it would take some doing yet to have that last title in truth.

- A Crown of Swords, Prologue

She is now in her mid to late twenties; still “well short of her middle years” (The Shadow Rising, A Breaking in the Three-fold Land); a classic example of too much power unearned. Once the Car’a’carn was declared, it was her ambition to marry him and found the first Aiel dynasty.

Women as well as men were manipulated by Sevanna. Even before convincing thirteen Wise Ones to dishonour themselves by killing a fellow Wise One, she was able to get them to declare her a Wise One. It might have seemed to the Wise Ones merely a convenient step at the time, but without that declaration, giving her the roles of clan chief and Wise One, and therefore more power and influence than either role alone has, Sevanna could not have forced such changes and decisions on the clan. Therava’s group later realised their error, and tried to claw back power by no longer referring to Sevanna as a Wise One and treating her as proxy chief only so they could have meetings without her, but it was too little too late.

Sevanna wanted to remain apart and watch the battle at Dumai’s Wells like a clan chief but the other Shaido leaders insisted she participate in the battle herself and risk her life alongside them. She was nearly killed. Once the Shaido were routed, Sevanna worried about herself and her Wise Ones being chained outside Sorilea’s tent. By all accounts in The Gathering Storm, A Place To Begin, Shaido Wise Ones were ‘chained’ outside Seanchan tents – at least that is how it appeared to the Aiel. How ironic that about two hundred Shaido Wise Ones were collared, when Sevanna planned to put a collar on Rand al’Thor (Lord of Chaos, The Feast of Lights).

One can see why careful limits have been set on Aiel raids and fighting:

• No one who is vital to the future of a clan, such as mothers of the young, blacksmiths or Wise Ones, can be captured (made gai’shain);


• warriors usually don’t fight those of the same society,


• there is a firm time limit for captivity, and


• a conventional limit to the number of captives if only for practicality, since too many gai’shain leads to idleness and too great a population density.

This ensures the Aiel didn’t destroy any of the clans or the Aiel as a whole, and inadvertently prevent the fulfilment of the Prophecy of Rhuidean and the advent of the Car’a’carn, as well.

The Shadow Rising Read-through #13 - A Map of the Aiel Three-Fold Land

A Map of the Aiel Three-Fold Land

by Dominic

The Three-Fold Land is one of the more mysterious regions in the series. Technically, we are told it is unmapped territory - if the Aiel have mapped it or parts of it, none of these maps have ever made it into the hands of Westlands scholars and printers. Contrary to the assertion in The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time (written from the perspective of in-series scholars rather than from a neutral and all-knowing perspective) it is possible that such maps exist: at the battle of Cairhien the Aiel clan chiefs show familiarity with the planning of battles on maps. However, Cairhien was for them foreign territory - unknown territory to many (only four clans have taken part in the Aiel War), and it's not impossible they rely strictly on their intimate knowledge and memory of the terrain for battles and raids in the Waste.

In any case, we know the 'Wetlanders' themselves have no map of the Aiel Three-Fold Land they call 'The Waste' - which for most in the Westlands is Terra Incognita, like Shara and Seanchan. The mysteries surrounding the exact geography of the Waste is reflected in The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, which has two rudimentary maps on which the Aiel Waste appear (the map of Shara and the world map) but on which no geographic feature described in the books is identified. In keeping with this theme, it's possible no precise map of the area is included in Harriet's Encyclopedia (Jordan reputedly wasn't in favour of including maps of the world, Shara and Seanchan in the Guide, it's his publisher who convinced him to allow them)

Through the events in the series (mostly in The Shadow Rising and The Fires of Heaven) we know of several locations in the Waste: Rhuidean in the valley below Chaendaer; Imre Stand - a very small watering hole on Taardad land; Cold Rocks Hold, the home of Rhuarc's sept in a canyon; Alcair Dal (from the O.T. Al'Cair Dal, ie: The Golden Bowl), a circular, bowl-like canyon ('not golden' at the time the characters visited it, but it may appear so at sunrise or sunset) at which meetings between clans are often held - perhaps because the great acoustic properties help keep the various participants at safe distance from each other - as well as the names of several sept holds. We are given precious few clues to locate any of them on a map, in most cases none at all.



The location we learn the most about (and the only one I took a guess at positioning on the map) is Rhuidean. We know Rhuidean is situated in the valley below the mountain Chaendaer. Chaendaer is not part of a chain, but the valley is surrounded by various jagged chains in the distance. The mountain is located West of the city- we know this, notably, from descriptions by Nynaeve and later Rand: from Chaendaer, the sun can be seen rising behind the city, over jagged peaks:

"Between one step and the next she was suddenly on a mountainside, with a harsh sun rising over more jagged mountains beyond the valley below, baking the dry air. The Waste. She was in the Waste." (The Shadow Rising, A cup of Wine - Nynaeve POV)

The way out of the valley and into the heart of the Waste is to the North West. The clan that live closest to Rhuidean is the Taardad. Imre Stand, a watering hole, is located less than a day's travel from Chaendaer - so perhaps up to 10 leagues, probably less - maybe much less (it's fairly tricky to evaluate the speed of travel in the Three-Fold Land, harder than to average travel on horses, from various clues that introduce variations in the distance they can cover each day: how many days in a row they travel, if they have plenty of rest and food, if they are on roads or cross-country etc.). Aiel are fast walkers, but they had peddlers wagons progressing on tricky terrain to account for etc. Cold Rocks Hold is located in the same direction from Rhuidean (North West), eleven days from Imre Stand. Alcair Dal is three to four days North from Cold Rocks Hold in high jagged mountains that can be seen over a day afar. Travel from Rhuidean to the Jangai Pass took thirteen to fourteen days, at fast speed. There are many more mountains and rock formations in the Waste - Rand often describes it as crisscrossed with sharp and rocky hills, broken rock formations and mountains; Aiel holds are often hidden in them. Those formations would trap winds and offer a bit more moisture, and water holes. The Aiel Waste is more similar to areas in Arizona, the Grand Canyon or parts of Tunisia than to the deep desert like the Sahara (that would be, presumably, more like the Termool area).

The location of Rhuidean on the map is thus very approximate - based on the length it took to travel (at pressing speed as they hunted after Couladin) from there to the town of Taien at the opening (on the Three-Fold Land side) of the Jangai Pass, and on the description of the area. The map of Aiel Waste in The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time (one of the few not done by RJ's regular map artist Elisa Mitchell, but rather by John M. Ford) is however imprecise in its depiction of the mountain ranges and distances).

The lands of Tardaad lay closet to Rhuidean, to the North West. The Jindo sept of the Taardad lives beyond the Nine Valleys' land, and the lands of the Shaido clan are farther away in the same direction. Two septs of the Chareen, the White Mountain and the Jarra, are the closest enemies of the Taardad from Imre Stand. The Goshien lands are next, somewhat farther, enough to make Aviendha doubt they could have been responsible for the attack at Imre Stand. The Nakai's lands are the ones farthest away from this general area of Taardad lands, Alcair Dal and Rhuidean, though we don't know in which direction.

To the South, above the coast, is the Termool (probably old tongue, for 'The Waterless Sands') a totally desert area, so barren, desolate and dry even the Aiel do not travel it according to the Guide. They must travel very near, however (perhaps close to the Spine of the World), as we know they go South to Stedding Shangtai (home of Loial), located in the mountains above the Drowned Lands of the peninsula on which the city-state of Mayene stands. Beyond the Termool is the Sea of Storms. An archipelago of Sea Folk Isles lay at about equal distance from Mayene and Shara, several hundred leagues South - just above the equator line. It is one of the two (major) Sea Folk archipelagoes that have never been named anywhere.

To the South East is The Great Rift, atop of which begins the land most commonly called 'Shara' in the series (the various names are probably those of regions or provinces - or even cities - on this continent). To the North East is another mountain range, delimiting the border of the Three-Fold Land and Shara: the Cliffs of Dawns. To the North, the Aiel Waste is bordered by the Mountains of Dhoom and beyond them the Blight. The Waste is named by Shadowspawn Djevik K'Shar, The Dying Ground in the Trolloc tongue. To the West, of course, is the Spine of the World - mountains with no counterpart in the real world (Jordan once described them as how the Himalayas might be, if they were still only 3000 years old, not up to 50-70 millions years old). We know of at least two passes between the Aiel Waste and the mainland: the Niamh Passes at the South-West border of Shienar, and the Jangai Pass leading into Cairhien below the Kinslayer's Dagger mountain range and the river Gaelin. There remain two Cairhienin towns in the Jangai Pass, remnants from the period extending from 566 NE to 976 NE, during which the Cairhienin were granted by the Aiel a right of passage through the Waste to reach Shara, a way dubbed The Silk Path (the right was a gift to honour the memory of the Cairhienin's distant ancestors sharing their water with the Da'shain Aiel on their way to the Waste): Selean is located at the western end of the pass and Taien at the eastern end. Both towns are small, with few inhabitants and both suffered the ravages of Couladin's Shaido as his warriors took the Jangai Pass into Cairhien. Rand brought the refugees to the city of Cairhien with him, meaning those towns are now abandoned. The RPG book 'The Prophecies of the Dragon' had this bit of back story that House Mecandes' domains were in this area and their wealth based in the silk trade, before the House fell apart as a result of the Aiel War. Robert Jordan rejected this as erroneous: there is no such House in Cairhien, the blue sister Cabriana Mecandes was rather, as the name made obvious, Tairen.

The trajectory followed by the Silk Path is unknown, beyond it's beginning in the disused road that still leads from Cairhien to Selean, following the Gaelin. The most likely arrival point in Shara would be in the more accessible, lower area between the Cliffs of Dawn and the beginning of the Great Riff. Nowadays, only the Aiel themselves trade there, and only for their own needs. The Sea Folk take care of all trade between Shara and the Westlands.

About the Map:

The map is based on layouts for the 'Big Map' by Elisa Mitchell and the map of Shara by John M. Ford. The chronology information follows the priceless Wheel of Time chronology site, Steven Cooper's Tellings of the Wheel

The Shadow Rising Read through #12 - Forward and Back

Forward and Back

by Linda

In Rhuidean, Rand entered the glass columns ter’angreal and experienced important episodes of Aiel history: hundreds of years compressed into two chapters. (For more on the function of this ter’angreal see the Glass Columns ter’angreal article.) This is some of Jordan’s best writing: economical but engrossing and extremely informative vignettes showing from the onset of the Collapse to the founding of Rhuidean.

Rhuidean was built about 200 AB (after the Breaking), based on the family tree Jordan gives us as well as events mentioned. The Aes Sedai made the decision to build Tar Valon in 47 AB and commenced it in 98 AB (The World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time) . From Rhodric, who was 20 when he heard of their decision to found Tar Valon, to Mandein, who at age 40 saw Rhuidean nearly complete, is four generations, or about 120 years. (Comran was Rhodric's grandson and Mandein was Comran's grandson.)

The Jenn Aiel searched long for Rhuidean and built it originally as a refuge for their people and culture, items of the power and the chora. They may also have believed the Dragon Reborn would be their descendant. However, the Jenn dwindled and died out, while the Aiel throve in the Waste. The symbolism is apt: the gentle and dedicated Jenn cannot exist long-term with evil touching the world and making it harsh and desolate. Their Covenant is too perfect for these times.

Only two Aes Sedai are left when Rhuidean is opened to Aiel, one of them very similar in appearance to Deindre and also able to Foretell, since she informs the Aiel that they will have a unifying chief in the future:

“That one will come later,” she said. “The stone that never falls will fall to announce his coming. Of the blood, but not raised by the blood, he will come from Rhuidean at dawn, and tie you together with bonds you cannot break. He will take you back, and he will destroy you.”

- The Shadow Rising, The Road to the Spear

Mandein feels the Aes Sedai marked him out before anything was said. He is the first chief to volunteer to go to Rhuidean and one of the few who appreciated the Jenn on their own terms. The first Maiden, Morin, another of Rand’s ancestors, is able to Dream, and is older than she looks, so she might also be able to channel. Many of Rand’s ancestors were crucial in some way: important leaders or visionaries.

Mandein is of the 13th generation after the drilling of the Bore. According to the World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel Of Time and The Eye of the World Prologue, the Collapse lasted 100-110 years, the actual War 10 and the Breaking 239-344 years. Yet the day the Bore was Sealed Coumin said the war was old before he was born and doesn’t believe there was a time in living memory before there was war (even though his great grandfather informed him otherwise). I guess Coumin doesn’t distinguish the violence of the Collapse from the War proper.

We have a brief glimpse of the gentleness and the high living standards of the Age before the world lurches into increasing hostility, violence, chaos and danger by a single disastrous act of hubris. The Bore was drilled due to ambition and curiosity. Mierin, as Lanfear was then, had no third name him (Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time) and this project would have been her attempt to earn it (see Lanfear essay for mythological parallels of her act). In some very apt symbolism the technological marvel, the Sharom (Sharom being very similar to the Hebrew word for ‘Peace’) is broken apart and darkness spreads across the sky swallowing the sun. As well as peace, shalom has connotations of wholeness, safety, welfare, health, prosperity, tranquility, contentment and friendship. It typifies the Age of Legends and what was lost.

The ground and the air rippled, in spreading waves, when the hole was made in the Dark One's prison. The Pattern itself was breached. In Knife of Dreams we saw a similar ripple occur over the world now that the seals have weakened to the point that the Dark One's prison is almost open. Interestingly the soldier’s helmets in the War of Power looks like insect heads, just as those of the Seanchan do.

The Song (or more properly, one type of Singing) is shown. It is more a technique than one single song and there has been enough foreshadowing to indicate it will need to be regained before the end of Tarmon Gai’don. The Song of the Da’shain Aiel that the Tinkers search for to bring back the peace and safety of the Age of Legends could be found by Perrin (Min’s viewing of trees flowering all around Perrin in The Eye of the World, Strangers and Friends) or Rand (in a link back to Lews Therin, who welcomed all to take part in the Singing which regularly occurred at his house (The Eye of the World, Prologue)), although the bronze statue library ter’angreal (see Statues and Figurines Ter’angreal article) from the Ebou Dar cache may also play an important part.

The Nym vanish first, the chora dwindle to one tree before our eyes and the Ogier and Jenn are a remnant of what they were. However, the Ogier find their stedding, their safe place, albeit at the cost of dependence; but for the Jenn, their safe place becomes a necropolis lasting three thousand years.

The Da’shain Aiel (Children of the Dragon) once served all Aes Sedai, not just the Dragon. By the time of the Breaking, they keep the name a secret because people react to Lews Therin's memory badly. Those Aiel who have been through the columns secretly keep the name as a memento of their Da’shain ancestry.

There were far more Dreamers or Dreamwalkers in the Breaking and early in the Third Age than there are now. This is consistent with Talents weakening and knowledge fading through this Age.

The Jenn look down on the Aiel, yet without the Aiel guard, the Jenn would perhaps not have survived to build Rhuidean, even allowing for the Aes Sedai with the Jenn, who would have to violate their ethics to defend the Jenn with channelling. The Aiel are a remnant of the Da’shain.

The Shaido and Brotherless have abandoned Aiel ways just as the Aiel abandoned the Da’shain Covenants. Variations on the theme of covenants and breaking of vows permeates the history of these people. The septs of those Aiel chiefs who did not come and agree to learn the history of their origins and accept their breach of promise died within three generations. The Jenn kept the faith yet died out. Those who broke it to a smaller or greater degree survived. Will the Shaido be the remnant of Aiel that survives the Last Battle? Or will it end differently this time, and the loyal followers will be rewarded for their service and not become extinct?

In 2004 I wrote an essay for Wotmania which summarised what is known about life in the
Age of Legends and into the Third Age, and some possible real life influences on Jordan's ideas about these times and events. It is now released here in the Reference Library.

The Shadow Rising Read-through #7 - What Lies Hidden.. and what might the Wise Ones Know About It?

What Lies Hidden.. and what might the Wise Ones Know About It?

by Dominic

Another aspect of The Shadow Rising I like is as the characters become more knowledgeable, Jordan began expanding in greater and more precise details fundamental elements of the series like the One Power (which appeared until book four a lot more "magical") and tel'aran'rhiod. Another factor that probably contributed to this "expansion" is that Robert Jordan developed the "first trilogy" over a decade but in parallel, going through several drafts (as I pointed out, it became three books only a some point in the creative process, it started as one book), all the while refining his ideas and concepts for the rest of the series. When he began writing the fourth book, the first he had nothing written for after the publication of the previous volume, his concepts and ideas for it had matured for many years.

In What Lies Hidden, we get our first "real" visit of tel'aran'rhiod – in the sense that it's (debatedly) the first time the World of Dreams is presented in full the way it would be from now on, devoid of the unexplained or more approximate/elastic elements of the earlier books, as Egwene herself discovers more about her Talents and the rules of tel'aran'rhiod, including how much she doesn't yet know.

Robert Jordan introduced a little recap about the ring and Corianin Nedeal. While this is the last time (IRRC and The Wot Encyclopedia didn't miss a reference) she will be mentioned by name in the series, but Jordan has insisted quite a lot on her in the early books. Are there secrets from Corianin Nedeal that are yet to come? How does the discovery of her diary factors (or not) in Verin's plan? Corianin has gone down in the chronicles as a Dreamer of limited talent. Is this the truth or a misconception she fed herself? Has she hidden her most important prophetic dreams in her diary, not revealing them to anyone but the woman who would find her. What does the diary contain that Verin decided not only never to reveal its content to other sisters but also decided after some hesitation not to show it to Egwene, letting what need to happen happen. Personally, I expect we aren't done with Corianin's secrets, I suspect her diary didn't contain so much secrets about her Talent and tel'aran'rhiod but some sort of 'The Nedeal Prophecies' she wished to keep secret from the Shadow. Verin, much more rapidly than Moiraine, seemed to puzzle out what Perrin and Mat are meant to do – and I often wonder if Corianin didn't mention another Dreamer to come... I'm quite eager to discover what Verin's plan is, and what were her real motivations for giving the Ring to Egwene.

In this chapter, we also discover that a Dreamer can develop the skill to read the weave of the Pattern – past, present or future – into the Unseen World itself. It is a skill Egwene has not really used "on-screen" so far (though perhaps Perrin's "windows/visions" are an example). We know the Wise Ones know how, it's likely Egwene has learned it by now, but she has not use it. As she roams Tanchico, however, we may have gotten an example of how the World of Dreams may be twisted to reflect some truths about the present. This happens after Egwene concentrated on looking for dangers in the city:

"She pulled herself back to why she was there. What would be a sign of the Black Ajah? Or of this danger to Rand, if it existed? Most of the white buildings were plastered, the plaster chipped and cracked, often showing weathered wood or pale brown brick beneath. Only the towers and the larger structures – palaces, she supposed – were stone, if still white. Even the stone had tiny fissures, though, most of it; cracks too minute for the eye to catch, but she could feel them with the Power in her, spiderwebbing domes and towers. Perhaps that meant something. Perhaps it meant Tanchico was a city not looked after by its inhabitants. As likely that as anything else."

First, it should be noted all these fissures are not described at all in scenes set in the real world. They seem to be obvious signs that Moghedien's will is on the city – Moghedien who is described as a venomous spider who likes to hide in dark cracks and fissures. There is also an ongoing civil war. These signs readable in TAR are useless to Egwene, who doesn't know the city or the woman. Amys later in the scene will do a little better: she can also sense a feeling of evil Egwene missed, and mentions the city is dying, eating itself out. But that's all – she doesn't know Moghedien (or the Black Ajah) either – nor the city, and she points this out to Egwene. It seems that much can be read in the subtle differences between the real world and the reflection in tel'aran'rhiod – but a knowledge of the location is necessary to make much out of this. It's notable that Egwene's attention was attracted to the odd 'spiderwebbing' fissures after using a method similar to 'Need' – this may be an indication on her talent's strength. Perhaps it was possible through strength of will to get TAR to show more, though I suspect that method could be deadly.

While we're on the topic of spiders, I'll point out something else which is 'classic Jordan'. This is far from the only reference to spider and webs he has used during scenes set in Tanchico or scenes involving Moghedien. Elayne will point Thom and Juilin's spiderweb of contacts in the city, for example. It's another way in which he loved to use symbolic elements and metaphors. There are several in this chapter, notably animal symbolism. Egwene will 'fly free like a falcon' (a common allusion to Faile's characters), she will sees many flies in Tanchico (the spider's preys), she will see a pack of lean feral dogs hunting the streets (darkhounds will hunt the streets of Rhuidean) – and the most interesting one: she will see an hidden lion (most often pointing to Rand or Elayne) looking at something far away she can't see, and closer a boar-like creature that doesn't see the Aiel woman about to throw a spear at it. Later in the scene, the boar-like creature will charge at her and she's barely escape. The boar symbolism points to Gawyn. He will soon be threatened by women, by Elaida who will try to have him killed in LOC – Galina decided it would be by Aiel. There is of course the viewing of Gawyn that he might be either a threat or a saviour to Egwene.

We also get our fist glimpse of Birgitte in TAR, and through Egwene's comments, the confirmation that the characters are not aware the Heroes are always reborn as Heroes under new names and appearances, and awaiting in TAR between these incarnations – they only know, from the legends, that the Heroes are tied to the Horn and will come back from the dead at its call.

The chapter ends with the meeting of Egwene and Amys. Amys's decision to teach Egwene has always puzzled me. We see in this chapter that the Aiel oral tradition has kept track of the Tower's dreamwalkers. She knows it's been a long time since the last one. Has Corianin been strictly observed by the Wise Ones, or did she have contact with them? Did she mention them in her diary? Is this what so interested Verin when she met her first Aiel and tried to make them talk of the Wise Ones and the fact they could channel? Did she give the Ring to Egwene because of the obvious connection between Rand and the Aiel, in the hope Egwene would meet the Aiel dreamwalkers?

And what truly motivated a secretive Wise One like Amys to take the stunning, and as far as we know unprecedented, step of inviting suddenly an Aes Sedai to come to the Wise Ones, to discover secrets they have kept from the sisters for millennia? Was it strictly because Egwene had a natural talent and was in danger for her life if it remained untrained? Or does the Wise Ones know something about a Tower Dreamer to come? Later, on Chandaer – Amys will say that they had seen nothing about Egwene coming to Rhuidean with Rand, but that's not the same as saying they knew nothing about Egwene. The Wise Ones still have many secrets – they obviously know something about the possibility Aiel return serving the Aes Sedai – but what they know about this, and how it may come about, is a secret they have so far managed to keep. It's interesting that Egwene, if she has her way, looks like she'll be the one tying the Aiel to the Tower again. Do the Wise Ones suspected it all along? Are there prophecies related to this we don't know about?

It's interesting how little Jordan was able to reveal about the Wise Ones. We have learned about LTT from Rand, we have learned much about the Tower's secrets from the fact Egwene became Amyrlin, and once Nynaeve and Elayne became Aes Sedai. Mat has given us many bits from earlier times. But by not making Aviendha a full Wise One yet, we have no main character who can give us full insight into the Wise Ones. Among the 'secrets' we still have no idea if the Aiel female line holds secrets only the Wise Ones and not the clan chiefs see in the Glass Columns – and what they could be. Has Jordan waited so long to make Aviendha return to Rhuidean a second time because important pieces of the puzzle will be revealed in those scenes, by showing her trip to the Columns, or simply from what she'll witness around as she returns to the city? There were many Tuatha'an in the Waste around the time of TSR, and the chiefs said many Ail taken by the bleakness have joined them. It's very possible, even likely that those Tinkers have been told about the Aiel's past by now, and how this past was revealed (the Wise Ones, once the secret was revealed by Rand, saw no point in not telling those who asked them what the Aiel's past was). Will there be Tinkers in Rhuidean? Rand was stunned by the state of the city when he very briefly (and pseudo-secretly) went in Winter's Heart. Has he missed details, or has it changed even more by now, could Aviendha find the Aiel and Tinkers there already re learning Singing?

Aiel Prophecy

By Linda

This article discusses all Aiel prophecy including the Prophecy of Rhuidean, the Aiel Dreamwalkers’ dreams and Aviendha's visions in the glass columns ter'angreal.


The Prophecy of Rhuidean

It is prophesied that a child born of a Maiden will unite the clans and return to the Aiel to [sic.] the greatness they knew during the Age of Legends.

- The Eye Of The World: Glossary, Far Dareis Mai

Rand is the child of a Maiden, Shaiel of the Chumai Taardad; he has united the clans apart from the Shaido; and the Aiel are certainly very well-known in the lands he holds. In the Age of Legends, the Da’shain Aiel were revered; now as Aiel, they are feared. What the Aiel were known for in the Age of Legends, when public service was highly valued, was the purity of their service to the Aes Sedai. Aviendha’s trips through the glass columns showed her that the Aiel need to do something other than fight after the Last Battle, and the Aiel Wise Ones insisted Rand include them in his peace treaty. They will be the peace-keeping force, a new take on the Way of the Leaf, which the Age of Legends Aes Sedai asked them to keep.

"When the Trollocs come out of the Blight again, we will leave the Three-fold Land and take back our places of old…One of the old prophecies says that if ever we fail the Aes Sedai again, they will slay us…We will know him when we see him, for he will be marked. He will come from the west, beyond the Spine of the World, but be of our blood. He will go to Rhuidean, and lead us out of the Three-fold Land. Under this sign [the ancient Aes Sedai symbol] he will conquer."

- The Great Hunt, A New Thread In The Pattern

The Trollocs came out of the Blight to attack the Two Rivers in the first few chapters of the series, and the Aiel followed not so long afterwards. "Take back our places of old" is an indication that the Children of the Dragon will continue to serve the Dragon just as they once served all Aes Sedai in the Age of Legends. This time it will be by upholding his peace treaty.

Rand is of their blood, his father being an Aiel clan chief, although he was brought up west of the Spine of the World. He did go to Rhuidean and led the Aiel out of the Waste. In an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy, he adopted the ancient symbol of Aes Sedai knowing prophecy said he would conquer under it:

Under that sign he would conquer, the Prophecy of Rhuidean said, and perhaps it would not frighten the world so much as the Dragon Banner

- The Fires of Heaven, Jangai Pass

It was the two dragon markings that proved to the Aiel that Rand was He Who Comes With the Dawn.

"Prophecy says when the Stone of Tear falls, we will leave the Three-fold Land at last. It says we will be changed, and find again what was ours, and was lost."

- The Dragon Reborn, A Different Dance

After Rand took the Stone and went to Rhuidean, large forces from all the clans left the Waste, some with Rand, some ahead of him. The Aiel were changed by the discovery of their true history and by the bleakness, and a lot of their customs have been changed also: by Rand, by Sevanna, by being out of the Waste and by events. They will change still further. "What was ours, and was lost" is the honour the Da’shain Aiel had in the Age of Legends due to their service. The Aiel will again have places among the nations, tasked as peace-keepers and arbiters of disputes arising from Rand’s treaty.

Aiel prophecy says he was born of Far Dareis Mai. "Blood of our blood mixed with the old blood, raised by an ancient blood not ours."

- The Dragon Reborn, Threads In The Pattern

Rand was the child of a Maiden. His father was an Aiel ("blood of our blood"), and his mother an Andoran (old blood) Far Dareis Mai and he was raised by descendants of the people of Manetheren ("raised by an ancient blood not ours").

"The stone that never falls will fall to announce his coming. Of the blood, but not raised by the blood, he will come from Rhuidean at dawn, and tie you together with bonds you cannot break. He will take you back and he will destroy you."

- The Shadow Rising, The Road to the Spear

The Stone of Tear, which had never been taken before, fell to Rand and the Aiel. He is half-Aiel by blood, and his mother was adopted Aiel, but he was raised by Tam and Kari al’Thor in the Two Rivers. He came back from Rhuidean at dawn, and brought the Aiel clans together. The "bonds you cannot break" are perhaps those they take to serve as keepers of Rand’s peace treaty; plus clans that had blood feud have now sworn water oath: for instance, due to his presence Jheric of the Shaarad and Bael of the Goshien settled their blood feud and made water oath, which is a pretty unbreakable bond. Rand has taken the Aiel back to the wetlands, to work with the nations to win the Last Battle and keep his treaty. He also destroyed the Aiel: the Shaido are renegades, many Aiel were taken by the bleakness and many died in battle, and he changed their purpose as well as their customs.

Rand performed a Moses-like role in leading the Aiel out of the Waste (see Rand essay). One of the many parallels the Aiel have to the Israelites (see The Age of Legends article) is that their ancestors the Da’shain were in service to the Aes Sedai, just as the Israelites were slaves in Egypt and they made their first exodus at the onset of the Breaking at the behest of Aes Sedai (whom they failed when they abandoned their Covenants). They have wandered since those times, not just until they found the Waste, but in the Waste too, since they led a semi-nomadic life there. The Aiel are prophesied to take back their places of old, a parallel of the Israelites being promised fertile lands in Canaan. After following Rand out of the Waste into the Wetlands, their “Promised Land,” some Aiel want to return to the Waste, just as many of the Israelites following Moses on the Exodus wanted to return to Egypt, even though they had been slaves there.

Those Aiel who don’t follow Rand will not be saved, just as God told Moses that the Israelites would have to wander the wilderness for forty years until all those who refused to enter Canaan had died, and then their children would settle there:

"In this case, the whole truth, the truth known only to Wise Ones and clan chiefs before this, is that you are our doom. Our doom, and our salvation. Without you, no one of our people will live beyond the Last Battle. Perhaps not even until the Last Battle. That is prophecy, and truth. With you...'He shall spill out the blood of those who call themselves Aiel as water on sand, and he shall break them as dried twigs, yet the remnant of a remnant shall he save, and they shall live.’”

- The Shadow Rising, He Who Comes With The Dawn

Bair paraphrases part of the Rhuidean prophecy in which Rand is crucial for the Aiel’s survival, and then quotes the next part. Aiel will be killed in great numbers—though so are all peoples. If they do re-adopt Da’shain vows and swear to do no violence, they will be very vulnerable and they won’t be able to save themselves. Hence Rand doing so. The Aiel themselves are a remnant—of the Da’shain. The Wise Ones tried to make the remnant of a remnant as large as possible.

In his notes on the Shaido, Jordan wrote that Sevanna interpreted "taking them back" to mean that the Shaido are to "take back" the wetlands, and “breaking them” to mean breaking and discarding worn-out customs. Her interpretation of “breaking them” was partly right, in that Rand has irrevocably changed the Aiel, and broken some Aiel in the process as well as some Aiel customs, but it falls short of the sum of it. As for her other interpretation, it is typical of those who interpret prophecy in a way that is self-seeking and justifies their ambition or desires.


Wise Ones’ Dreams

Just as Egwene does, the Dreamwalker Wise Ones have prophetic Dreams, and a few of them are mentioned. They can also read Tel’aran’rhiod to determine what is happening now, or may in the future.

"We did not see Egwene or Mat Cauthon at all. It was no more than an even chance that the young man who calls himself Rand al'Thor would come. If he did not, it was certain that he would die, and the Aiel too. Yet he has come, and if he survives Rhuidean, some of the Aiel at least will survive. This we know. If you (Moiraine) had not come, he would have died. If Aan'allein had not come, you would have died. If you did not go through the rings...

- The Shadow Rising, Beyond the Stone

So if Rand had not come to the Waste, and had not gotten the Aiel to follow him and guard him, he would have died. By going to Rhuidean he obtained the access key to the Choedan Kal with which he cleansed saidin, thus also preventing his early death. The Aiel would have been wiped out, as well, perhaps by famine due to the seasons remaining fixed when Rand’s friends did not find or use the Bowl. Rand survived Rhuidean, so some of the Aiel will survive—a "remnant of a remnant" as it has been put. If Moiraine had not come, then Rand would have died on the docks in Cairhien or become Lanfear’s slave. If Lan hadn’t come, Moiraine would have died at some point, perhaps in one of the Shadowspawn attacks. If Moiraine hadn’t gone through the rings, then she wouldn’t have known how to remove the threat of Lanfear and Rand would be enslaved or dead. Nor would she have known how to get aid from Mat and Thom.

"Melaine and Bair dreamed of you [Rand] on a boat with three women whose faces they could not see and a scale tilting first one way and then the other. Melaine and Amys dreamed of a man standing by your side with a dagger to your throat, but you did not see him. Bair and Amys dreamed of you cutting the wetlands in two with a sword. All three had this dream, which makes it especially significant. Rain, coming from a bowl. There are snares and pitfalls around the bowl. If the right hands pick it up, they will find a treasure perhaps as great as the bowl. If the wrong hands, the world is doomed. The key to finding the bowl is to find the one who is no longer."

- Lord of Chaos, Matters of Toh

Rand on a boat is almost certainly related to the "three on the boat, and he who is dead yet lives" of Nicola’s Foretelling. The three women are Elayne, Aviendha and Min. The scale refers to the uncertainty about whether Rand wins against the Dark One and therefore whether this dream occurs. It is of events after the Last Battle.

The man with a dagger could be Taim, whom Rand long discounted the threat of, or Isam, who tried to kill Rand while he fought the Dark One. This might fit with a part of the Karaethon cycle mentioning "serpents nestle in the bosom".

Rand cutting the wetlands in two with a sword refers to Rand holding the east and north, and the Seanchan the west and south. This would fit again with Nicola’s Foretelling of "the land divided by the return", and the Karaethon Cycle’s "the north shall he tie to the east, and the west shall be bound to the south."

The bowl with the rain is, of course, the Bowl of the Winds, which brought the weather back to a more normal state. The "snares and pitfalls" probably refer to the difficulty Elayne and Nynaeve had getting aid from the Kin, Sea Folk and Aes Sedai, the two lots of Darkfriends also after the cache and the threat of the Seanchan invasion. The right hands are them, naturally, and the treasure they found with the Bowl was the Kin’s stash of angreal and ter’angreal, and the Kin themselves (see Ebou Dar cache article). The wrong hands were presumably Moridin, Moghedien and Sammael. Even with the seasons restored, famine and pestilence were widespread. If the Forsaken had gotten hold of the Bowl, and the seasons had remained as they were, the death toll would have been much worse and there would have been no defense against the Dark One’s storms in the Last Battle (A Memory of Light, To Ignore the Omens). Plus the Forsaken would have gotten hold of some other very useful items: the angreal, the jewellery defense systems, the Shadow-warding knife, the Age of Legends library, and the communications devices. As for ‘the one who is no longer’, this is Setalle Anan, who is no longer an Aes Sedai (see Importance of Setalle Anan article): Setalle has admitted she was an Aes Sedai, which is why she believed she could be a sul’dam, knew too much about slowing, and her voice was recognised by Joline Maza; and the Kin themselves who are no longer Accepted and novices.

"This Masema Dagar is a danger to the Car’a’carn. He must die…The dreamwalkers have told us, Perrin Aybara…They have read the dream. The man must die."

- The Path of Daggers, Tangles

Masema was a tool of a Forsaken, probably Lanfear/Cyndane, and he convinced Aram to kill Perrin. Moridin ordered the Forsaken to kill Mat and Perrin, and Cyndane was very much at Moridin’s mercy, otherwise she would have preferred Perrin be left alone, since Perrin was a tool of hers. If Masema had not been killed, at the least he and his Dragonsworn would have damaged Rand’s standing with the Seanchan, non-aligned groups and even Rand’s allies leading to nations withdrawing their support or attacking Rand.

From Knife of Dreams, the Dreamwalkers had trouble reading the dream to determine the likely future of their people and the Dragon:

"Sightblinder is too close to the world now," said Melaine. "The Pattern has been twisted somehow. In the dream we still see many things that may or may not happen, but there are too many possibilities; we cannot tell one from another. The fate of our people is unclear to the dreamwalkers, as is the fate of the Car'a'carn once he spits in Sightblinder's eye on the Last Day. We do not know the truth of what Aviendha saw."

- A Memory of Light, By Grace and Banners Fallen

Due to the distortion of reality, the Dreamwalkers could not verify Aviendha’s visions in the glass columns in Rhuidean.


Aviendha’s visions

Aviendha’s second traverse of the glass columns showed a future for the Aiel. (Her re-setting of the glass columns ter’angreal is discussed in the Ter’angreal article.) Is it the future, one that will definitely happen, and thus like a Foretelling, or a likely future according to attitudes and conditions at the time, as a prophetic dream is? Aviendha fears the former and so does Amys. Bair refuses to believe that the glass columns would do anything so unhelpful, but must be providing a warning (A Memory of Light, By Grace and Banners Fallen). Whichever is the case, all Wise Ones agree that this future must be avoided somehow.

When the Dark One touched the world strongly—after Crossroads of Twilight—he was able to alter the Pattern:

The viewings and prophecies that occurred before the loosening of the Pattern are very valid. But those that occurred at, or after, the loosening have a higher chance of not coming true.

- Robert Jordan at a Knife of Dreams booksigning

However after his epiphany, Rand might be able to counter this effect to a degree and keep the Pattern more stable (especially in his near vicinity). Aviendha’s visions occurred before Rand’s epiphany. This alone means that they won’t definitely come true.

Bair advises Aviendha to name one of her children differently so that the future shown in the vision is altered:

"Change one of their names," Bair said. "Never speak of the name that child was called in the vision, not even to us. Then you shall know. If one thing is different, then others may be different as well. Will be different. This is not our fate, Aviendha. It is a path we will avoid. Together."

Aviendha found herself nodding. Yes. A simple change, a small change, but full of meaning. "Thank you, Bair."

- A Memory of Light, By Grace and Banners Fallen

Names have great power, and in this case even more so, since Aviendha’s children play such a crucial role in the future of the Aiel.

The visions will be discussed in order of viewing, with the most distant future first.


Malidra

Malidra is a scavenger following travellers who fossick and trade in the Waste. She and the other Folk will kill unwary merchants for food. A traveller shoots her when she raids their garbage.

Malidra’s crawling in darkness is symbolic of literally how low she has become—unenlightened, little more than an animal. She is uncomprehending of technology, which seems like magic to her, and is ignorant and destitute. The Aiel have no society. Malidra doesn’t mention other family besides her dead sisters. Aiel were falsely accused of being savages, but Malidra truly is and there is nothing noble about her to respect, or fear, either. How many generations have passed since Norlesh is unknown; it may only be a couple. Norlesh had knowledge of outside the Waste but Malidra barely believes there is anything beyond the Waste:

Malidra had heard stories of a place beyond the distant mountains, where the land was green and food grew everywhere. She didn't believe those lies. The mountains were just lines in the sky, jagged teeth. Who could climb something so tall?

- Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

Not a people who are starving, that’s for sure.

The invaders are building a railway cutting across the continent from Shara:

She had heard—in the hushed, broken communication of Folk—that in the east, the Lightmakers were creating a massive roadway. It would pass directly through the Waste. It was made by laying down strange pieces of metal.

- Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

The Lightmakers regard the remnant Aiel, the Folk, as vermin raiding the garbage.


Norlesh

Norlesh and her family approach a group of fossickers to trade some ore for food, but are rejected because trade with Aiel is forbidden by the Seanchan. The group faces starvation.

In the time of Norlesh, the second generation after Tava, the Aiel still know what outside the Waste is like, but romanticise it:

How could rocks be so valuable that they would live on this side of the mountains, away from their fabled land of water and food? Away from their buildings where light shone without candles and their carts that moved without horses?

- Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

The Aiel now know nothing about obtaining metal from ore, or presumably working metal, yet once they prized blacksmiths and silversmiths.

The outlanders are allies of the Seanchan:

"The Raven Empress, may she always draw breath, forbids it. No trading with Aiel. We could be stripped of our charter for talking to you...It isn't worth trouble with the Ravens. Go on your way. We don't want an incident."

- Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

The Seanchan are confining the Aiel, squeezing them dry and letting them decay. They won’t let them cross the mountains and so by Malidra’s time the Aiel will believe the mountains cannot be crossed.

The sequence of visions parallels the disastrous and tragic effect that Europeans had on the American First Nations cultures as they moved into their lands. The Seanchan from the “American” continent are doing the “return version” of this.


Tava

Tava’s clan attempted to build a secret hold remote in the Waste but it is destroyed by the Seanchan, who break apart any gathering of Aiel. The clan shatters.

The aerial attack has guns, the first seen by the Aiel. It has taken the Seanchan a while to acquire the technology even though they have had cannon (“Andoran war machines”) for a few generations.

A few Aiel warrior societies still exist and the Stone Dogs are one of these.

Tava wonders how this hold was discovered:

This hold was to have been different, secret, deep within the Waste. How had their enemies found them?

- Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

This would not be difficult for aerial patrols (something Tava cannot appreciate, not having flown or undergone warrior training) and obviously the Seanchan are using their patrols to locate as well as destroy Aiel groups.

Tava’s father is one of the few Aiel keeping traditions and customs, when he could be killed for it:

Tall—even for an Aiel—with striking red hair, he wore the old clothing of brown and tan, boots tied high to his knees. That clothing marked one as Aiel, therefore many had abandoned it. Being known as Aiel meant death.
Her father had inherited his clothing from his grandfather, along with a charge. Follow the old ways. Remember ji'e'toh. Fight and maintain honor.

- Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

The trouble is, the Aiel’s honour was already lost a few generations earlier through fighting. Fighting when everyone else had a pact for peace dishonoured the Aiel.

Rowahn’s cry:

"It is a punishment!" her father said. "But we must endure!"

- Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora

looks back to the Breaking of the World, when the Da’shain Aiel said that they had to enduring adversity as a test of their faith:

“We must accept what comes. Our sufferings are sent to test our faithfulness. We accept and endure! We do not murder!

- The Shadow Rising, The Road To The Spear

Rowahn admits the Aiel deserve punishment. The Aiel are being forced not to fight. They are indeed being punished for inciting others to war and breaking Rand’s peace pact. It seems apt.

At the beginning of the Third Age when the entire world was Breaking, it was right for some Da’shain to fight and survive so that at the end of the Age they would serve the Dragon, first by protecting him and fighting for him and then perhaps in other ways. (If Rand had not gone to Rhuidean, he would have died, as the Wise Ones said above. He needed the Aiel for his own safety). At the beginning of the Fourth Age it is right for the Aiel to stop fighting, otherwise they won’t survive.


Ladalin

Ladalin attends a meeting of the few remaining clan chiefs and Wise Ones—three chiefs and two Wise Ones. Five Aiel clans remain (including the Taardad, Goshien, and Miagoma), and one of those has nearly disintegrated. The Aiel had a Council of 22 comprising the clan chief and senior Wise One of all 11 clans. Rhuidean was recently captured by the Seanchan. The Aiel are losing against the Seanchan in this generation. They refuse to surrender and retreat to the Waste to rebuild. Gone is the arrogance of Oncala’s day.

This is the last time in which channelling—and it is the lack of the ability—is mentioned. It is also one generation since there were gai’shain. The term has now come to mean cowardice rather than honourable service. All women fight before they are married.

The Aiel have no comforts, only essentials, and within a couple of generations there will be no essentials to carry.

Tear was taken by the Seanchan during Ladalin’s adulthood, Illian and Cairhien were razed and the White Tower has just fallen.

Mora says:

"We must retreat into the Three-fold Land," Mora said in her soft, matronly voice. "And seek penance for our sins."
"What sins?" Takai snapped.
"The Dragon wanted peace," she replied.
"The Dragon left us!" Takai said. "I refuse to follow the memory of a man my greatfathers barely knew. We made no oaths to follow his foolish pact. We—"

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Takai denies that staying out of the peace pact was a sin. And it might not have been; Rand was not going to ask them to join it. Nor would they, if they were not the ones to insist on it, spurred by Aviendha’s report of their doom if they don’t. (Breaking the pact was the real sin, if they would but admit it.)

The Seanchan’s threat to hunt the Aiel and destroy any place where they gather has been carried out. It is too late for penance. There is now only surrender or extinction.

The Aiel still revere the Dragon’s descendants even though they have been disastrous for their people. Of the four lines from each of Aviendha’s children, only one remains and it has few members living.

The Dragon Blooded were separate to the Wise Ones:

Though the Wise Ones and Dragon Blooded used the One Power in battle, it was not enough. Those cursed a'dam.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

The a’dam are still used so the knowledge that sul’dam could learn to channel did not shake the Empire as Elayne and co believed it would.

Once the Aiel tricked other nations into breaking the peace pact, the Seanchan turned on the nations and broke them. Then they used their channellers:

The real turning point in the war had been the entry of the other nations. After that, the Seanchan had been able to seize wetlander peoples and cull more channelers from their ranks.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

so the Aiel’s efforts were totally counterproductive. Renegade channellers from conquered nations don’t join the Aiel.

The Seanchan got Andoran cannon 20 years earlier, which is before they conquered Andor, because their contingency plan to take Andor in Oncala’s POV included dragons.

Some senior Aiel are blaming Rand for their predicament, saying he could have led them to glory:

"This is his fault," Takai said, still looking sullen. "The Car'a'carn could have led us to glory, but he abandoned us."
"His fault?" Ladalin said, understanding—perhaps for the first time—why that statement was wrong. "No. Aiel take responsibility for themselves. This is our fault, and not that of my distant greatfather. We have forgotten who we are. We are without honor."
"Our honor was taken from us," Takai said, sighing as he stood. "People of the Dragon indeed. What is the good of being his people? We were crafted to be a spear, the legends say, forged in the Three-fold Land. He used us, then cast us away. What is a discarded spear to do, but go to war?"
What indeed, Ladalin thought. The Dragon had demanded peace, thinking that it would bring happiness to the Aiel. But how could they be happy, when the Light cursed Seanchan were in the land?

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Note that they believe Rand need not have died/left them (as he appears to have done). As Ladalin realises, the Aiel are responsible for their own actions and the consequences of these. It is these latter that they are reluctant, understandably, to accept. Takai thinks the Aiel’s honour was taken from them—but in reality they threw it away when they used fraud to incite other nations to break the peace pact.

The Aiel are mistaken in their belief about what they were crafted to be—a weapon—and it is this that Aviendha has to realise. Their title of the People of the Dragon signifies they should serve him and follow his wishes. Rand wished for peace…

Living so long in the harsh Waste, the Aiel became both aggressive and insular, a dangerous combination.


Oncala

It is 40 years since the Last Battle, and Aviendha, Elayne, Padra and Tuon are not around. They have been killed or collared with an a’dam.

Oncala and Hehyal, full of hatred and arrogance, falsely claim hypothetical Seanchan plans to invade Andor are actual plans in order to incite the Andoran Queen to break the peace pact so she will ally with them to fight the Seanchan:

If Andor entered the war, the other nations would as well, particularly those in the Pact of the Griffin and those in the Court of the Sun. They looked to the Andoran Queen much as the other Aiel clans looked to Oncala. The blood of Rand al'Thor held much weight.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

We don’t know these alliances. One of these is likely the alliance that Elayne made in Towers of Midnight. A griffin is a mythological creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle; the white lion is the symbol of Andor and the eagle of Manetheren. On the other hand, Cairhien has the Sun Throne. Maybe Andor is a member of both alliances, which would account for its influence on both.

The first indication that the Aiel have changed for the worse is that Oncala has an attendant who carries a banner to mark Oncala as a direct descendent of Rand.

She strode through the streets of Caemlyn, her near-sister carrying the banner of the Dragon to announce her lineage.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Not an unusual custom for an inherited monarchy, but the Aiel have not traditionally been a monarchy or an aristocracy, but a meritocracy:

Aviendha herself found it peculiar; how could strength in the Power, something you were born with as surely as your eyes, weigh more heavily than the honor that years could bring?

- The Path of Daggers, To Keep the Bargain

and who your family is does not necessarily have any bearing on your merit. Aiel have never used banners at all before. Oncala’s guard of honour numbers two thousand. Again, atypical and excessive. For all that Oncala despises Wetlanders she has adopted some of their ways—and not the good ones.

Oncala is arrogant:

The banner of the Dragon flew here, too, a reminder that the Andoran royal line also carried the lineage of the Car'a'carn. One more reason for Oncala to hate them. The Andoran nobility thought themselves her equals.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

And why would they not be her equals?

They needed these soft wetlanders. And that was the final reason Oncala hated them.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

She hates them because they are more equal than she wants to admit. Oncala has had too much influence too young.

The Seanchan’s capital is Ebou Dar. The Seanchan learn weaves from the channellers they collar. Oncala claims the Seanchan’s attack on Rhuidean is without provocation, but that is not the case. Hehyal has been undermining Seanchan probity for years:

How much could the Seanchan be trusted? Hehyal's agents had spent a great deal of time over the last decade seeding that very question among the great courts of the world. He was a wise man. Even before he had become chief, he had realized that this war could not be won by the Aiel alone.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

This corrupt pair undermine a world-wide peace pact; that could explain why the Seanchan besieged Rhuidean. The Seanchan have a good spy system and likely were aware of what Hehyal was doing.

And they do it again on the Andoran Queen:

"The Dragon's Peace—"
"What care do they have for the Dragon?" Hehyal asked. "They are invaders who forced him to bow to their Empress. She is considered above him. They will not keep promises they made to an inferior."

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Rand bowed to the Empress; but it was a courtesy and not that of inferior to superior.

Oncala and Hehyal manipulate the Queen with false information and sell out not only their honour but the Aiel’s future and world peace:

Nothing he had said to the Queen had been untrue. Their honor was unsoiled. However, Hehyal had left out one of the sheets they'd discovered. That one had explained that the other sheets were contingency plans.
The descriptions of Andor's military forces, suggestions on how to use gateways and dragons to attack Caemlyn, the very plot to assassinate Queen Talana—these had been drawn up only in case Andor entered the war. They were meant as a preemptive study on a potential enemy, not an actual plan to attack. It was virtually the same thing.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

A lie by omission is still a lie.

Oncala’s and Hehyal’s corrupt act leads to the corruption of the Aiel, as Aviendha recognises.

Oncala disingenuously asks:

Must they be treated like assassins?

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Well they are killers and assassins in a way. Their treatment was more apt than the Andorans knew. The Aiel leaders attribute their own aggressive ambition to the Seanchan, saying the Seanchan:

would seize Andor eventually, and by then the Aiel might be unable to help. If this war went badly, her people would go to the Three-fold Land and leave the foolish wetlanders to be conquered. The Seanchan would find it impossible to fight the Aiel in their homeland.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Oncala is wrong about all of this.

The Aiel are not doing that well, despite Oncala’s claims. There is stalemate until Andor enters the war.

It was a source of constant frustration that, after decades of war, the battle lines remained nearly the same as they had been after her greatfather went to Shayol Ghul.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

The Aiel have defended Andor and may possibly have been paid for their protection:

It lay safe, basking in the protection the Aiel defense gave them. Well, Andor would see. The Aiel had grown stronger through their fighting. Once, their prowess had been legendary. Now it was greater! When the Aiel had destroyed the Seanchan, the world would see what the Aiel had learned. The wetland rulers would wish they had been more generous.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

which would make them sell-spears.

And what is Oncala’s motivation?

The Seanchan would fall, and the Aiel would take their rightful place. The blood of the Dragon Reborn was in her veins. She deserved to rule.
It would not be the Raven Empire that rose at the end of this all, but the Dragon Empire.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Ambition. It’s also why she is going for a ruthlessly successful man. Oncala leads the Aiel version of the Return; she has the same imperialist and aristocratic attitude as Tuon, believing that because she had an ancestor that ruled these lands, she should rule them also.


Padra

Padra and her three siblings join a full council of Aiel leaders—the clan chiefs and the senior Wise One of each of the 11 clans—17 years after the Last Battle. (The Shaido are not even mentioned—completely written off). They decide Rand’s peace pact does not apply to them and they shall go to war with the Seanchan because they have collared Aiel channellers.

Aviendha’s four children are indeed odd, as Min foresaw (see Min's Viewings article): their appearance is disparate, they began channelling well before puberty, they hold the One Power continually and the Aiel defer to them purely on the basis of their lineage:

Padra strode across the grass, and Aiel in cadin'sor showed her deference. Padra and her siblings, as children of the Dragon, had become...something to the Aiel. Not lords—that concept made her sick. But she was more than an ordinary algai'd'siswai. The clan chiefs looked to her and her siblings for advice, and the Wise Ones took special interest in them. They allowed her to channel, though she was not one of them.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

This is the first time the Aiel abandon their careful and prolonged training of leaders and strict meritocracy. Gaining access to the One Power so early—before responsibility has developed—and on a continual basis has also probably been bad for their characters. The combination of the two has been disastrous. Can Aviendha do anything about her children channelling too young?

Oncala’s character and actions shows that the parenting skills of at least one of Aviendha’s children were inadequate, hardly surprising since they did not know their father at all, and their mother is not with them now either.

This undue influence has led at least one of these teenagers to be arrogant:

She was convinced that no living person understood the One Power as she and her siblings did. She'd been able to weave since she'd been a child, and her brothers and sister were the same. To them, it was natural, and all others who channelled seemed awkward by comparison.
She was careful not to speak that way. Aes Sedai and Wise Ones didn't like being reminded of their shortcomings. It was true nonetheless.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Presumably Aviendha can do something about how her children are treated by the other Aiel.

The Aiel not being bound by the Dragon’s Peace allows them to destabilise everything. Including their own nation:

All eleven chiefs were accounted for, including those who had blood oaths against one another. A meeting like this hadn't been seen in years, not since her father had been preparing for the Last Battle.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

At this meeting the Aiel decide not to fight each other, but the Seanchan.

Aviendha lived a while after the Last Battle (in which she fought) and in this future did not solve the problem of the Aiel’s future role:

But that raised a larger problem, one her mother had often spoken of. What was it to be Aiel, now that their duty to the past had been fulfilled, their toh as a people cleansed?

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

They consider their toh as a people to have been fulfilled with fighting at the Last Battle. Their toh to the Dragon and the Aes Sedai perhaps. However well into the Last Battle the Aiel discover they have toh to the other nations because the male channellers they sent to the Blight became part of the Shadow’s armies. To have made such an error proves they should not hold themselves above the other nations.

The council’s comments reveal various recommendations that Aviendha could make to help the Aiel:

The Aiel should give up the warrior role. There are other roles they could play. They could serve the Dragon as the Da’shain did.

"This peace of the Dragon’s will not last long, anyway," Alalved said. "Skirmishes between the nations are common, though none speak of them. The Car'a'carn required promises of the monarchs, but there is no enforcement.”

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

The Aiel could enforce the peace rather than feel it does not apply to them.

The problem is not just with the Aiel. The Seanchan, too, need to make some major changes. Aviendha could reach an understanding with the Empress over the collaring of Aiel channellers:

The old empress, the one who had ruled during the days of the Last Battle, had been considered a woman of honor by Ronam's father. An understanding had nearly been reached with her, so it was said. But many years had passed since her rule.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

The last few comments in the scene are particularly ironic.

"The Aiel must have a purpose," Janduin said, nodding. "We are useless as we are, and we made no promise not to attack.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

It is because they attack that the Aiel become utterly useless. They soon incite world war in a vain attempt to beat the Seanchan: by inciting other nations to break their covenant for peace, which is an even worse act than abandoning their own covenant as their ancestors, the Da’shain, did during the Breaking.

She felt as if she had set the clans on a path that would change them forever.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

She has—to their utter ruin.

"My father called Rand al'Thor a clever man and great leader, but one who did not know what to do with the Aiel. I remember him saying that when the Car'a'carn was among us, he did not feel like one of us. As if we made him uncomfortable." Ronam shook his head. "Everyone else was planned for, but the Aiel were left adrift."
"Some say we should have returned to the Three-fold Land," she said.
"No," Ronam said. "No, that would have destroyed us. Our fathers knew nothing of steamhorses or dragon tubes. Were the Aiel to return to the Waste, we would have become irrelevant. The world would pass us by, and we would vanish as a people." "But war?" Padra said. "Is it right?"

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

The Aiel are forced into the Waste where the world does pass them by and they do become irrelevant because of this decision. War is not right.

The Aiel would ride to war again. And there would be much honor in it.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

Actually there will be no honour at all.

A large part of the problem is that Rand’s children never knew him. This is the greatest sacrifice that Rand and his family make: Rand’s wives know he is alive, but his father and, in these viewings at least, his children, don’t.

Bair went to Rhuidean to verify whether Aviendha’s vision of the future appears to all Aiel who have traversed the columns previously:

"I saw it just as she did," Bair was saying. "Though it was my own descendants who lent me their eyes. I think we will all see it now, if we return the third time. It should be required."

- A Memory of Light, The Choice of a Patch

It is not yet known what first time visitors to the glass columns see—history or future (see Glass Columns ter’angreal article).


Nakomi and Aviendha

Aviendha regarded the Wetlands as corrupting and dangerous; a place the Aiel should leave in preference for the Waste after their toh is met by fighting at the Last Battle:

Once this was through, her people would need to return to the Three-fold Land. Each day in the wetlands made them weaker; she herself was an excellent example. She had grown soft there. How could one not grow soft in that place? It would have to be abandoned. Soon.
She smiled, settling back and closing her eyes for a moment, letting the day's fatigue melt away. Her future seemed so much more clear. She was to visit Rhuidean, pass through the crystal columns, then return and claim her share of Rand's heart. She would fight at the Last Battle. She would help preserve the remnant of the Aiel who survived, then bring them home where they belonged.

- Towers of Midnight, In The Three-fold Land

At this stage Aviendha is like many Aiel in not wanting to stay in the Wetlands, in their Promised Land and role, that Rand led them to in a Moses-like way. Likewise, the Israelites rejected their Promised Land of Canaan, thinking it not worth the risk of fighting for, and wanted to return to Egypt where they had been slaves:

And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would God we had died in this wilderness!

- Numbers 14: 2

The Israelites were advised not to rebel against the Lord’s wishes (Numbers 14:9). The Aiel had the choice of maintaining their warrior society after the Last Battle for no other purpose than custom, or working alongside the other nations under the peace treaty Rand worked so hard for.

Nakomi plays an important role in Aviendha’s visions in so far as how Aviendha may interpret her visions, or how she may act regarding them. (For Nakomi’s American First Nations parallels see Character Names N article). She nudges Aviendha to think about the wetlands as really dangerous and not as a weakening influence to be fought so the old ways can be kept:

“The wetlands, corrupting our people. Making them soft."
"But the wetlands are part of our destiny, are they not?... But if we had to come here to be forged into something of strength," Nakomi said, "does that not suggest that the tests we were to face—in the wetlands—were as dangerous as the Three-fold-land itself? So dangerous and difficult that we had to come here to prepare for them?"

- Towers of Midnight, In The Three-fold Land

This danger that tests the Aiel is that of greed and violence (as happened to the Shaido) rather than softness. She also mentions that the Aiel broke their vows to do no violence. She is leading Aviendha to see a) that the Aiel should not return to the Waste:

"And so," Nakomi said, handing over a cup of tea, "the Three-fold Land was our punishment. We came here to grow so that we could meet our toh."
"Yes," Aviendha said. It felt clear to her.
"So, once we have fought for the Car'a'carn, we will have met that toh. And therefore will have no reason to be punished further. If that is the case, why would we return to this land? Would that not be like seeking more punishment, once toh is met?"

- Towers of Midnight, In The Three-fold Land

b) they should not continue to raid and kill each other:

"And so," Nakomi said softly, "once Sightblinder is defeated, what is left for us? Perhaps this is why so many refused to follow the Car'a'carn. Because they worried at what it meant. Why continue the old ways? How do we find honor in raiding, in killing one another, if we are no longer preparing for such an important task? Why grow harder? For the sake of being hard itself?"

- Towers of Midnight, In The Three-fold Land

c) since they are the people of the Dragon and should serve him:

"People of the Dragon," Nakomi said, sipping her tea. "That is what we are. Serving the Dragon was the point behind everything we did. Our customs, our raids on each other, our harsh training . . . our very way of life."

- Towers of Midnight, In The Three-fold Land

This fits in with what Aviendha saw in the rings in Rhuidean:

Nakomi's words worried her, unnerved her. They had awakened in her shadows of memories, things from potential futures that Aviendha had seen in the rings during her first visit to Rhuidean, but that her mind could not quite recall, at least not directly.

- Towers of Midnight, A Reunion

although she does not remember seeing in the rings the sort of future for the Aiel and her children that she saw in the glass columns:

She sat down in the midst of the dimming columns. Her...children. She remembered their faces from her first visit to Rhuidean. She had not seen this. Not that she remembered, at least.
"Is it destined?" she asked. "Can we change it?"

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

This was not like the events she had seen when passing into the rings during her first visit to Rhuidean. Those had been possibilities. This day's visions seemed more real. She felt almost certain that what she had experienced was not simply one of many possibilities. What she had seen would occur. Step by step, honor drained from her people. Step by step, the Aiel turned from proud to wretched. There had to be more.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

She believes the visions to be fated, like a Foretelling and not a possible future. Yet Aviendha was not so fatalistic in The Gathering Storm and Rand has never had blind faith in prophecy (see Fate, Free Will and Divining the Pattern article).

Fated or no, Aviendha soon decides her descendants’ disastrous choices that will lead to such brutal consequences for her people must be prevented:

"Show me what I did to cause this! It is my lineage that brought us ruin! What is my part in it?"
She walked into the pillars again.
Nothing. They seemed dead. She reached out and touched one, but there was no life. No hum, no sense of Power. She closed her eyes, squeezing one more tear from the corner of each eye. The tears trailed down her face, leaving a line of cold wetness on her cheeks.
"Can I change it?" she asked.
If I can't, she thought, will that stop me from trying?
The answer was simple. No. She could not live without doing something to avert that fate. She had come to Rhuidean seeking knowledge. Well, she had received it. In more abundance than she had wanted.
She opened her eyes and gritted her teeth. Aiel took responsibility. Aiel fought. Aiel stood for honor. If she was the only one who knew the terrors of their future, then it was her duty—as a Wise One—to act. She would save her people.
She needed to return, to consult with the other Wise Ones. But first she needed quiet, out in the Three-fold Land.

- Towers of Midnight, Court of the Sun

It is symbolic that Aviendha sees Rhuidean being cleared of the scars of fighting so it can “remain a place of peace.” Aviendha wants Rhuidean to remain the sacred centre for the Aiel. She thinks Rhuidean is meaningless except as a place of peace:

Rhuidean might have been deprived of meaning, but it would remain a place of peace.

- Towers of Midnight, A Reunion

Aviendha is realising that the city can no longer serve its traditional purpose:

She worried that Rhuidean would stop mattering very soon. Once, the city's ultimate purpose had been to show Wise Ones and clan chiefs their people's secret past. To prepare them for the day when they'd serve the Dragon. That day had come.

- Towers of Midnight, A Reunion

It could be argued that Rhuidean’s ultimate purpose was to keep this tradition and knowledge alive until Aviendha traversed the glass columns and mused on the city’s role. She and Rand were its most important visitors. So now it has fulfilled its purpose. Bair is keen for the Aiel leaders to visit the glass columns twice, to see how not participating in the peace treaty would have been disastrous.

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Written by Linda, December 2009 and February 2011 and updated May 2013 and July 2017

Contributor: Dominic