Theoryland of the Wheel of Time

TOR Questions of the Week Part II (Verbatim)

In New Spring you mentioned that the Blue Ajah taught Moraine and Siuan secret weaves upon their raising. Do other Ajahs have secret weaves, and if so, what are they? Could you share a few of them with us?

Yes, other Ajahs also have secret weaves, though a few of those secrets are actually known to more than one Ajah, each of which believes that it alone knows. That's always the problem with secrets, isn't it? You can never really be sure that somebody else doesn't know too. I could share, but if I told you, then I'd have to kill you. I may yet use one or more Ajah secret weaves in the books, so I'm afraid the answer here is RAFO.

ajahs, blue ajah, weaves, moiraine, siuan,

Compuserve Chat (Verbatim)

How did the Ajahs originate?

Simply because I needed an organization for the power structure, and it seemed to me that a collective organization was something women were more likely to come up with, rather than something strictly hierarchical.

aes sedai, ajahs, gender,

LOC Signing Report - Pam Korda (Paraphrased)

Did the Ajahs exist in the Age of Legends?

No, they were created a few hundred years in the aftermath of the Breaking.

BWB 9:

Almost nothing is known about the organization of Aes Sedai during the Age of Legends, but it is generally accepted that ajah played an important part, though apparently they were nothing like the present-day Ajah. In the surviving twenty-three consecutive pages of a dictionary from circa 50 AB, ajah, in the Old Tongue, is defined as “an informal and temporary group of people gathered together for a common purpose or goal, or by a common set of beliefs.” In thirty-one pages all in the same hand, located in the Royal Library in Cairhien, which appear to be random survivors of a larger manuscript reliably dated from the same period, the organization of Aes Sedai in the Age of Legends, or perhaps their manner of functioning, is described as “a vast sea of ajah (note: word deliberately left untranslated), all constantly shrinking, growing, dividing, combining, melting away only to be reborn in some new guise and begin the process once more.” In the first centuries after the Breaking, the nature of ajah or Ajah changed. We cannot be sure exactly when the change occurred, but another dictionary (circa 200 AB; 219 surviving random pages) defines Ajah as “a sisterhood of Aes Sedai,” and no lowercase form is listed.

ajahs, age of legends, aes sedai, the breaking,

ACOS Signing Report - Erica Sadun (Paraphrased)

Have any Aes Sedai ever been refused admittance to any Ajah?

QUESTION

ROBERT JORDAN

ajahs, aes sedai, accepted,

ACOS Signing Report - Erica Sadun (Paraphrased)

How are the Ajahs funded?

Too complex to answer. Joint funding and contributions from Ajahs to full Tower.

ajahs, white tower, aes sedai,

ACOS Signing Report - Erica Sadun (Paraphrased)

Info re: Ajahs?

In the illustrated guide will be information revealed about how they came about that affects the books not at all.

ajahs, aes sedai, bwb,

Barnes and Noble Chat (Verbatim)

Hi Mr. Jordan, thanks for doing this. I've read the new book (and enjoyed it). I found it very surprising that the Red Ajah would have the largest membership, could you expand on why that's so? The numbers of male channelers have been dwindling prior to the events of the story, and Aes Sedai from other Ajahs seem to be willing to help capture and gentle men. Do the Reds have another role in the Tower, or is there some other reason for their numbers?

Some faces of being Aes Sedai are being carried out by all Aes Sedai. That is, a Blue sister might dig out an old manuscript and old knowledge. A Brown sister might take on a man who can channel. And a Red sister might engage in political manipulation. But the fact is to the world at large—one of the primary functions of Aes Sedai is to protect the world from men who can channel. That means that a fair number of young women who go to the White Tower, go thinking that this will be one of their major functions as Aes Sedai. So the Red Ajah and the Green Ajah are the two largest.

bwb, red ajah, white tower, ajahs, aes sedai, green ajah,

TPOD Signing Report - Rick Moen (Paraphrased)

A reader asked when the term "Ajah" came to have the meaning it has in Rand's time.

He said that until at least 500 years after the Tower was founded, it meant a temporary association for a specific purpose, and was a lower-case noun. Its proper-noun sense arose afterwards, supplanting the earlier usage after the Trolloc Wars.

ajahs, aes sedai, white tower,

Barnes and Noble Chat (Verbatim)

Hi, Mr. Jordan, I have been an avid reader of your books since I first read The Eye of the World about a year ago. I was wondering how did you choose the colors for the Ajahs; i.e., why are some colors such as orange left out and gray is in? Thanks for answering my question.

I stuck with what you might call basic colors, and orange is not a basic color.

ajahs,

tarvalon.net Q&A (Verbatim)

Are all the Aes Sedai shawls identical, or are they unique to the individual?

They are unique to each woman. The only mandatory parts are the white flame of Tar Valon, and the Ajah colored fringe.

ajahs, aes sedai,

tarvalon.net Q&A (Verbatim)

Would you be willing to tell me what the titles are for the Heads of the Blue and Brown Ajahs?

Nah. I used to tell people stuff like that casually, but lately I think that it's better just to read these things as they are mentioned in the books.

ajahs, aes sedai, blue ajah, brown ajah,

Bridlington Today Interview (Verbatim)

How do you keep track of all the story lines and characters? Do you have a fantastically-detailed and organised character/plot filing system, post-it notes all over your office or a 400GB brain? Has your mental capacity been used up by the Wheel of Time to the extent that everyday life becomes somewhat of a muddle? It would for me!

My wife would say that everyday life is somewhat of a muddle for any writer, and since she has been an editor for most of her life, she might have some insight. For the rest, I have copious files on characters, nations, history, just about anything that I might need to know. Some of these are quite large. The file listing every Aes Sedai living or dead along with every novice and Accepted along with physical descriptions of each woman, the dates of her birth and her coming to the White Tower, how long she spent as novice and Accepted, character traits and a lot more runs to about 2.5 megabytes. The general file on White Tower, containing such things as the layout of the Tower and the Tower grounds, Tower law, Tower history, Aes Sedai customs, Ajah customs etc., also runs about the same size. I'm not saying that the files are exhaustive—I frequently need to invent something new—but they list not only all of the information given in the books but also information that hasn't been used as yet. The story line itself has always been exclusively in my head until it was time to begin a new book. Then I sit down and figure out how much of the story from my head I can get into the book. Until recently, I had been proven wrong on that every time. I could never get into a book as much of the story as I thought I could. So what began as an imagined six-book series has expanded. Now I've reached the last book, and the rest of the story is sketched out on paper for the first time. Well, paper digitally speaking.

harriet, rj on life, rj's notes, aes sedai, white tower, ajahs, plotting, how many more books?,

TGS Book Tour, NYC Stormleader Dinner - Ted Herman (Paraphrased)

Stated that the Ajah Heads in the White Tower conspired to send Sitters to Salidar who would speed up reconciliation, but not draw suspicion due to being supporters of Elaida previously. They chose young Sitters in the Tower as placeholders. However some of the Sitters who left the Tower went of their own accord.

The Ajah Heads for the reunited Ajahs will likely be the ones who led their Ajahs before the split. Will be determined quietly and is Ajah business only.

white tower, salidar, aes sedai, ajahs, sitters,

TGS Signing Report - Old (Peter) Salt (Paraphrased)

The next question was about the criteria that the Ajah Heads used to determine which sitters they sent to the rebels in Salidar.

Basically the Ajah heads had a small selection pool to start with. Their primary criteria were: a) loyalty to the Ajah Heads, would they do as they were told? b) would they be acceptable to the Aes Sedai in Salidar? c) finally did the Ajah Heads think they could be persuasive?

A comment was made about age, Brandon’s answer was to reiterate the limited nature of the Ajah Heads selection pool, the fact that most of the Aes Sedai Sitters that were sent were young was coincidental. He did go on to mention that the “too young Sitters” was a completely different matter.

He then went on to say which Sitters remain in power after reunification will be dealt with quietly. The most likely default will be who was Sitter/Head before the split.

None of the Ajah plants in Salidar were notably young; this seems to have been a matter of confusion on the part of the questioner.

white tower, hall of the tower, ajahs, salidar, aes sedai,