The Wheel of Time - The Call of the Horn
In the Old Tongue, Aes Sedai means “servants of all”, and the Aes Sedai of the Age of Legends lived up to this definition. They aided mankind as scientists, healers and philosophers. Women used saidar and men saidin, although it is believed that channelers in the Age of Legends were much stronger, or at least more knowledgeable in the Power than their modern equivalents; it is believed that they could fly, and things that would seem miraculous today were supposedly commonplace to them. Some of their lost Talents, such as Traveling and Dreaming, have only just been rediscovered. One thing is clear, however; the greatest works were wrought by male and female channelers working together.
It was an Aes Sedai research team at the Collam Daan that ripped open the Dark One’s Prison. The researchers, headed by Mierin Eronaile, thought they had found a power that both men and women could wield. They were not entirely mistaken (see the True Power), but it allowed the Dark One to manipulate the darkest desires of those that lived in the Age of Legends. What followed was a general collapse of civilization over the course of 100-110 years, concluding in the War of Power. It is said that, during this time, almost half of all Aes Sedai went over to the Shadow. In the end, the Dragon, with the help of the Hundred Companions, sealed the Dark One and the Forsaken in his prison at Shayol Ghul, and the Dark One’s final counterattack tainted saidin itself, eventually driving all male channelers mad.
The female Aes Sedai could not control them, and the men rampaged across the known world, boiling oceans, raising mountains where there were none, killing countless innocents. This was the Breaking of the World. While some of the men managed to find refuge in Ogier stedding (where they could not touch the Power, and therefore could harm no one and were protected from the effects of the taint), after a time they left the stedding hoping that the taint on saidin had disappeared. It had not, and they went insane, prolonging the breaking of the world according to some. Others hold to the view that this was not as disastrous as if all the men had gone insane all at once.
Before the arrival of Luthair Paendrag Mondwin, the Seanchan continent was a place ruled by shifting alliances of dictators, and the worst among them were the women who called themselves Aes Sedai. They bore little resemblance to the Aes Sedai of the White Tower; they used the One Power in battle, enslaved the people of the continent, and killed each other for power. One of these Aes Sedai, Deain, sought an alliance with Luthair, and gave him information on how to recreate a ter’angreal she had invented, the a’dam. She was to eventually become chained by the device herself, after Luthair used the invention to create a fighting force of female channelers. Eventually, all Seanchan Aes Sedai were captured and turned into damane.
Current Aes Sedai differ greatly from those from before the breaking, most notably in their organization and their level of knowledge. Present day Aes Sedai are organized into what is known as the White Tower. Only those women accepted by the White Tower can be called Aes Sedai, and all other channelers are known as wilders.
The White Tower was established in 98 AB, over one hundred years before the building of the same name was completed in 202 AB. Elisane Tishar was raised at this time as the first Amyrlin Seat, the supreme head of the Tower. The city of Tar Valon was likewise established at this time and is presently ruled by a governing body selected by the Hall of the Tower. It is said that the White Tower’s reign in Tar Valon is the longest of any kingdom save for the Ogier. After consolidated their power, they began punishing those “pretending” to be Aes Sedai. It is suggested that many of those punished in the beginning may actually have been Aes Sedai who did not submit to the authority of the Tower. 1 Eventually, the current hierarchy and seven Ajahs developed. Though still “servants of all,” the present day Aes 