Aiel Histories
"The north shall be tied to the east,
and the west shall be bound to the south.
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."
-Aiel Prophecy of the Car'a'carn
The Three-Fold Land:
East of the Dragon wall and west of the cliffs and chasms of Shara lies the Aiel Waste. Called Djevik K'Shar, "The Dying Ground" in the trolloc tongue, it is a harsh, rugged, and all but waterless land that appears uninhabitable. Yet this Waste is home to the Aiel, a race of people as fierce and hardy as their rugged environment. These tall and fair-haied people ar lethal fighters and skilled trackers, with both men and women serving as warriors. Believed to be the most deadly fighters on the continent, if not in the wordl, they viel their faces before they kill and have established a well-earned reputation for defending their land from outsiders. They call the Waster the Three-Fold Land, for they believ it is fist a shaping stone to make them; secon, a testing ground to prove their worht; and third, a punishment for their sin-thought the exact sin is apparently unknown. Only those selet few on friendly terms with the Aiel dare enter the Waste: peddles, gleeman, and Tuatha'an Tinkers. At one time the merchants of Cairhein were also welcomed, but that welcome was revoked when Lanam destoryed Avendoraldera. Everyone else is considered and enemy.
The Aiel were not always a warrior people. Recently discovered historical information reveals that the Aiel not only evolved their warlike tendencies after the Breaking, but are acually related to the peaceful Tuatha'an, whom they avoid, but never harm.
History:
During the Age of Legend a pacifistic people known as the Da'shain Aiel had sworn the Covenant to serve the Aes Sedai and follow a non-violent code known as the Way of the Leaf. Withing this code all trials were to be accepted and endured. There was no excuse for violence. All who lived in that time knew of the Covenant and the Aiel's code, a teasure to all who heard them sing. When the war came, and after it the Breaking of the World, they would no betray their code by fighting. This was not for any lack of courage, for there are storied that tell of the Da'shain stading against danger unto death, without raising a hand, in order to buy time so that others might live.
When the Breaking began, the Aes Sedai apparently realized that the Da'shain would be slaughted uselessly if they remained in the cities. There may also have been a Foretelling that the Aiel would eventually produce a man who would stand agains the Dark One. The Aes Sedai must have now that the Da'shain were too proud to leave the cities simply for their own safety, or even for a possible future salvation, and therefore devised a great task worthy of the Da'shain. They were given precios angreal and ter'angreal and told to take them all to a place of safety. With insane male Aes Sedai rampaging though the world, it was important to keep these powerful tools out of their reach. The Da'shain never knew that this task was also meant to get the Aiel themselves out of harm's way because the Aes Sedai could no longer protect them. The second covenant, occasionally spoken of by Aiel and Tinkers, probably refers to this last duty the Aes Sedai laid upon the Aiel.
The First and Second Division:
Before the Breaking, no one would harm a Da'shain Aiel. The idea simply didn't seem to exist. But during a time when mountains were moved and sea become land and land sea, when the majority of humans died, The way of life the Da'shain Aiel followed was as dangerous to them as any hungry mob could be. The people that survived took advantage of any things they could, and the Da'shain Aiel were the easiest to take advantage of because of their beliefs.
As the Wheel turned, some of the Da'shain Aiel started to believe guarding the angreal the Aes Sedai had given them was useless, and left the others. These people were known as the Lost Ones among the Da'shain Aiel and still are among the Aiel. They are the only known descendants of the Da'shain Aiel that still follow the Way of the Leaf, known as the Tuatha'an, or the Traveling People.
The remaining Da'shain Aiel kept the Covenant and protected the angreal, but they couldn't stop people from stealing the angreal, their food, and their clothes or from raping the women and killing the men. Eventually, as the Wheel turned, even the oldest of the Da'shain Aiel had not truly served an Aes Sedai beyond guarding the angreal. The younger men, outraged at the way people would take advantage of the helpless Da'shain Aiel, and began to fight back. They didn't intend to hurt anyone, just steal what was theirs back. When the first Da'shain Aiel killed, using a spear, which is why present day Aiel use spears, he was cast out of the by the Da'shain Aiel. He went to his family for support, and their answer was this: "hide your face ... I had a son, once, with a face like that. I do not wish to see it on a stranger." This is why the Aiel Warriors veil thier faces before killing.
The young men who were cast out didn't want to abandon the wagons of the Da'shain Aiel, so they followed the Da'shain Aiel. Since they had already killed, they decided to protect the Da'shain Aiel, even though the Da'shain Aiel ignored them. None of them stopped thinking about themselves as Aiel, and they are the ancestors of todays Aiel.
The remaining Da'shain Aiel kept the Covenant and protected the angreal, but they couldn't stop people from stealing the angreal, thier food, and thier clothes or from raping the women and killing the men. Eventually, as the Wheel turned, even the oldest of the Da'shain Aiel had not truly served an Aes Sedai beyond guarding the angreal. The younger men, outraged at the way people would take advantage of the helpless Da'shain Aiel, and began to fight back. They didn't intend to hurt anyone, just steal what was thiers back. When the first Da'shain Aiel killed, using a spear, which is why present day Aiel use spears, he was cast out of the by the Da'shain Aiel. He went to his family for support, and thier answer was this: "hide your face ... I had a son, once, with a face like that. I do not wish to see it on a stranger." This is why the Aiel Warriors veil thier faces before killing.
The Water Gift, Laman's Sin, and Aiel War:
As the Wheel turned, the size of the nomadic Aiel grew,do to both young men who wanted to fight back and a woman who's daughter was taken from her. The size of the Da'shain Aiel, by then called the Jenn Aiel, grew smaller, due to the young men and women who were cast out of thier camps, and nature. Thier wanderings took them along the Spine of the World, into what is now called Cairhien. In this place, something happened that would effect not only the Aiel at the time, but also future relations with the Cairhienin. The leader of a town, when asked by the Aiel if they could have some of the nearby water, told them they could, if they dig the wells to get to it. Both sides benifited from this agreement, the Aiel recieving needed water, and the ancestors of the Cairhienin not have to dig wells to get water. Among the Aiel this became part of the folklore because never before since the second division, probably since the Breaking, had anyone given the Aiel anything without the Aiel having to fight for it. 100 years later it was this act of kindness by the Cairhienin's ancestors that led to the Aiel giving the Cairhienin the only known sapling of the Tree of Life, Avendoraldera, and exclusive rights for thier merchants to cross the Three-Fold Land without harm.
King Laman, the Last Damodred king of Cairhien, was the uncle of Taringail Damodred, who married Tigraine, Daughter-Hier to the throne of Andor before she disappeared in 972 NE. When Mordrellen, the Queen of Andor and mother of Tigraine died without a hier to the throne, a succession took place that ended with Morgase Trakand taking the throne. Morgase married Taringail, and Laman realized that Taringail was barely co-ruler of Andor. Laman wanted him to be sole-ruler, and because of the game of houses, this was public knowledge in Cairhien. Using the fact that Taringail was barely co-ruler, lords and ladies started new plots to take the throne from Laman. One of Laman's counter-plots was the cutting down of Avendoraldera to make a throne. This act is called Laman's sin, or Laman's pride.
When the Aiel learned of this act, they were outraged. They sent four of twelve clans across the Spine of the World to punish Laman's crime. The clans were led by Janduin, an Iron Mountain and clan chief of the Taardad Aiel. It is interesting to note that the Nations thought all of the Aiel clans were attaking, and didn't realize that this was less than half of their clans. The four clans were:
-
Nakai
- Reyn
- Taardad
- Shaarad
The Nations thought the Aiel were intent on looting, when in fact they were following Laman. This invasion swept through Cairhein, capturing the city and putting it to the torch. Only the library was spared from the flames. The war spread down through Tear, back up the River Erinin to Andor, and finally, three years later, to Tar Valon itself. Many towns and cities indeeded were looted, though only one-fifth of everything was taken, in accordance with Aiel law. Of course, those who lost goods or lvoed ones only knew that they wer victims of deadly savages; they did not consider how much more could have been taken by the victors had they chosen.
At the Battle of the Shining Walls, which took place outside of Tar Valon, The Nations sent armies to fight against the Aiel, and that was the first time the Nations had worked together. The Aiel captured and killed Laman, who they called Treekiller, during this battle, although the Aiel don't and didn't consider it a battle, and didn't consider it a war either. The Nations thought they had turned back the Aiel, when infact they Aiel merely left because they had done what they came to do.
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