In Robert Jordan's fantasy series The Wheel of Time, the Aiel ( /aɪˈiːl/) are a race of people. They live between the "wetlanders" in the west and the Sharans in the east, in a desert which the Aiel call The Three-fold Land and which everyone else calls the Aiel Waste. They have earned a reputation as skilled warriors; little else is known about them in the wider world. Aiel can be recognized through their height, characteristic pale eyes, and red or blond hair. Physically, they are reminiscent of the Celts; culturally, of Native Americans, Frank Herbert's fictional Fremen, and to some extent the people of Arabia and feudal Japan. Their short spears with sword-like blades, their three-pronged encircling tactics and their outrunning of horses are all derived from the Impi warriors of the Zulu. Their division into clans and septs--with fierce loyalty—mirrors Gaelic culture in Ireland and Scotland.
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Modern Aiel are descended from the Da'shain Aiel, servants of the Aes Sedai during the Age of Legends, and sworn never to do harm in their passing, known as the Way of the Leaf. During the Breaking of the World, however, the Da'shain Aiel turned from one people into three: today's Aiel (which means "dedicated" in the Old Tongue), the Tuatha'an (also known as Traveling People or Tinkers), and the Jenn Aiel (literally, True Dedicated). The split between the Aiel and Tuatha'an was acrimonious; certain members of the Aiel refused to continue the task of transporting a cache of angreal, ter'angreal, sa'angreal, and themselves to a place of safety.This led to them leaving the main group in order to search for the 'Song', since before the Breaking the Aiel had sung with the Ogier to raise crops, and many believed finding this song would restore the peace they had enjoyed during the Age of Legends. The remaining group of Aiel themselves split when some members of their group killed in self-defense, (though in doing so, they used only instruments which had practical uses, namely a cookpot, a spear, knives—and refused to use a sword) while retrieving kidnapped women. Over time, more and more Aiel joined those who would kill in self-defense, leaving only the Jenn Aiel who would still hold to the Way of the Leaf. The two groups remained together, the violent Aiel following at a distance and defending the Jenn Aiel, and this compound group made their way across the Spine of the World into the Aiel Waste. They were helped, during their journey, by members of the people who would later become the nation of Cairhien. In the waste, the Aiel prospered while the Jenn Aiel dwindled; the last Jenn died hundreds of years ago, leaving only a holy city, Rhuidean.
Today, the Aiel have all but forgotten their ancient ways; only their leaders remember that they once served the Aes Sedai, and few traces of the Way of the Leaf remain in their culture other than a total unwillingness to touch a sword, and the forced pacificism of gai'shain. The Aiel tradition of veiling their faces before "dancing the spears" may also indicate the Way of the Leaf has not been completely forgotten. When the Aiel were parted from the Jenn Aiel, the climate was dry and dusty, and all Aiel wore dustveils. As the Aiel who had committed violence were being ejected, one boy's mother commanded him to "hide his face," as she did not want to see her son's face "on a killer."
Not much is known about the Aiel by the outside world. Any wetlanders (as they call those who live to the west) entering the Waste are killed on sight; only peddlers, gleemen and Aes Sedai are given free passage. Tinkers can also move freely in the Waste if they so choose, as no Aiel will go near them. Aiel have a reputation for being vicious fighters, and "black-veiled Aiel" is a common epithet for belligerence. Their reputation as fighters was known by Artur Hawkwing, after a failed invasion, and by the Borderlanders who they still raid occasionally.
The Aiel once allowed a fourth class of wetlander to traverse their lands: the citizens of Cairhien, in honor of the help they had given the Aiel during their wandering. The Cairhienin were allowed to travel through the Waste to Shara, where the Cairhienin were able to obtain precious silks, spices and other luxury goods. The Aiel also gave Cairhien a small tree: Avendoraldera, a cutting of Avendesora, the Tree of Life. Unfortunately, several centuries later, a Cairhienin king with more ambition than sense, Laman Damodred, cut down Avendoraldera to make himself a throne. The Aiel, outraged, boiled out of the Waste to bring back Laman's head. Four of the twelve Aiel clans went, led by the Tardaad clan chief named Janduin, but the assassination-in-force was complicated when several wetlander armies mistook the Aiel for an invasion force and started fighting back. The Aiel cut them to ribbons, and by 978 NE they had pushed the multinational force all the way back to Tar Valon. The battle there, known as the Battle of the Shining Walls, saw the Aiel succeed in killing King Laman; the next day, they went home. Those who do not know the intentions of the Aiel in killing Laman insist that at the Battle of the Shining Walls, the multinational army won over the Aiel. However, the Aiel had crossed the Spine of the World just to kill Laman, and once that was achieved, they returned to the Aiel Waste. Those who know better realize that the Aiel could have taken Tar Valon had they wished, but had no desire to control a wetlander city. Wetlanders call this the Aiel War; the Aiel do not see it as a war - they simply went to punish an oathbreaker. Since then, however, the Aiel have been even more hostile to the Cairhienin than to other wetlanders, calling them "treekillers" and "oathbreakers."
They also have a fearsome reputation amongst the Trollocs, who refer to the Waste as 'The Dying Ground', after a failed invasion during the Trolloc Wars.
The Aiel have a number of cultural practices that are quite strange to outsiders. For example, women frequently become soldiers and fight alongside men. In addition, the taboo against nudity is much weaker amongst the Aiel than in some cultures (much to the astonishment of many of the series' main characters). The Aiel moral code is called ji'e'toh, an Old Tongue word which roughly translates to "honor and duty" or "honor and obligation;" it codifies the Aiel responses to honor and shame (which is essentially synonymous with obligation). The concept is in many ways similar to the Japanese Bushido philosophy, which stresses that duty and honor are essential in every aspect of one's life; this, coupled with the fact that 'ji' is the onyomi of the Japanese kanji for 'samurai', the most purported practitioners of Bushido, makes the connection doubly strong. Outsiders consider it labyrinthine—one Aes Sedai who studied it for a month reportedly ended more confused than she started—but the Aiel live and die by it. Their culture also seems to stress the importance of water. Because they live in the desert Three-Fold Land, water is scarce and as said in the books, battles are fought over pools narrow enough to step across.
One of the most bizarre convolutions of ji'e'toh has to do with the taking of gai'shain, "those sworn to peace in battle." Aiel earn honor and prestige for deeds in battle—or accumulate shame by misdeeds—but killing an opponent earns the least honor; any fool can kill, just as any fool can die. What earns the most honor is touching the opponent who is holding a weapon, but without harming them (similar to the system of counting coup among certain Plains Indians). An Aiel so shamed is considered to have toh—obligation—to the person who touched them, and will march straight to that person and demand to be made gai'shain, at which point they don white robes, become that person's servant for a year and a day, and forswear to touch a weapon during that time. Becoming gai'shain is a way to satisfy or annul toh; it is totally voluntary and can be used to atone for non-battle-related shaming as well. Gai'shain are not servants, and any wetlander who suggests it is soon straightened out.
Wise Ones, blacksmiths, children, and women with a child under the age of ten cannot be taken gai'shain. Exact "ownership" of the gai'shain is a variable matter; though each gai'shain swears only to one person, they can be and are often instructed to obey commands from other people as well.
Though only men can become clan chiefs, only women can hold property. Both receive advanced training in fighting with various weapons. The owner of any given roof (house) or hold (settlement) is the roofmistress, and she must give permission to step under her roof. Only women, likewise, can become Wise Ones. Only women can propose marriage; a man may accept or decline, but may not ask, although he may make his interest known in other ways. A man can have more than one wife, but this is only when the women are close friends or sisters who do not want to be separated by marriage. The view of intimacy among the Aiel differs from that of "wetlanders." Nudity is unremarkable, but in public Aiel are extremely undemonstrative. They make their faces stoic and hard to read, and touching another, such as a hand on the shoulder, is considered extremely intimate. In fact, stroking a finger along another's face in public is as blatantly romantic as kissing on the lips.[1]
The Aiel are organized on several different levels. There are twelve Aiel clans, each of which has a clan chief; clans are further divided into septs, and septs subdivide into holdings which are individual settlements; each clan and sept also has a central hold. (As a parallel, clans are like countries, septs are like states or regions within the country, holds are like cities, with central holds corresponding to capitals.) Aiel warriors also affiliate themselves with various warrior societies (which cross sept and clan boundaries), of which there are twelve, as seen below. The lines of loyalty amongst clan, sept and society are tangled; but, roughly, allegiance to one's warrior society trumps clan allegiance. This appears counter-intuitive until one remembers that the clans are in a state of almost perpetual twelve-way warfare; since Aiel from any clan can join any society, and will not raise spear against fellow society members, this allows open lines of diplomacy between all clans at all times. (Some Aiel even sojourn with their societies away from home to avoid participating in clan feuds.) An Aiel greeting is, "May you find shade this morning." Another is, "I see you," implying that the other cannot (or will not) make a sneak attack.
The thirteen Aiel clans (including the ancient Jenn Aiel), and their known septs. [1]
The 12 Aiel clans are similar to the Tribes of Israel. There is a 13th clan, not counted among them—the Jenn Aiel, who built the city of Rhuidean, a repository of Aiel history and culture. The Jenn are equivalent to the thirteenth Hebrew tribe, the Levites, who had no land area but only scattered, strategic cities. The Aiel—living in the Aiel Waste—parallel the wandering of the Children of Israel in the desert. In the Third Age (the time of the books), the Jenn Aiel are believed to be entirely extinct.
In book nine of the series, Winter's Heart, it is mentioned by the Wise One Therava that the tribe of Shaido has 83 septs in total, so the total number of septs in a tribe could be much greater than the number of known septs in a tribe.
In addition to their various clans and septs, many Aiel in the series belong to various warrior societies.
Some Aiel do not belong to any warrior society, and are known as Mera'din (the Brotherless, described below).
Aiel women who can channel are not sent to the White Tower; instead, they remain among the Aiel and become Wise Ones. Some Aiel women are also skilled in walking Tel'aran'rhiod, the World of Dreams; they too become Wise Ones (even if they cannot channel). Wise Ones do not have to channel or dreamwalk, though. Wise Ones undergo a grueling testing period, culminating in a second and final trip to Rhuidean; inside there are ter'angreal which administer the final test.
Aiel clan chiefs must also undergo this test. They come out marked with an iridescent dragon tattoo around the left forearm---or die in the revelation of their inheritance. The ter'angreal that provides the markings shows those who enter the path the Aiel took to reach their current state. These paths are lived through the eyes of each persons grandfathers, from those who were first among the Aiel to go to Rhuidean to be marked, to the leader of the Da'shain who witnessed the opening of the Dark One's prison in the Age Of Legends. Women receive no marking. Two of three who go, do not return; what happens to them and what is learned in Rhuidean has been a mystery to most Aiel until recently. Eventually, it is told, a man will emerge from Rhuidean at daybreak with two dragons, one on each forearm: the Car'a'carn, Chief of Chiefs, He Who Comes With The Dawn.
In the Old Tongue, they are called Far Dareis Mai (pronounced FAHR DAH-rize MY).[2] The first Maiden of the Spear, named Morin, is seen through the eyes of Rand's ancestor, Jeordam, inside Rhuidean.[3]
Aside from the distinction of being a warrior society that only accepts women, Far Dareis Mai have become significant to Rand al'Thor (the story's main character). Rand's mother, Shaiel, was a Maiden of the Spear; Maidens traditionally must either forfeit their children or their spears, but Shaiel (by dying in childbirth) was able to sidestep that decision, and Rand is the first child the Maidens have been able to reclaim. Also, Rand had announced that the maidens carry his honour. Every Maiden considers him a member of the family, though particular role (son, older brother, younger brother) varies from woman to woman. They also consider his safety their personal concern, and Maidens attend him as bodyguards at all times; on the few occasions Rand has managed to give them the slip, they have expressed extreme displeasure (by way of a beating). They are a source of conflict for Rand; they refuse to abandon him, but people near him have a tendency to die, and it pains him to see women killed. Of all his duties as Car'a'carn and Dragon Reborn, he loathes this one the most.
The Maidens also have formed their own language of sorts that involves using hands and fingers. One could go as far as saying it is an early form of sign language.
Some well known Maidens are Sulin, Bain, Chiad and Enaila.
At least one of the twelve clans, the Shaido (pronounced shah-EE-doh) [2]), has splintered off from the Aiel proper; its now-deceased leader, Couladin, claimed to be the real Car'a'carn and led the Shaido across the Dragonwall into Cairhien. His claim was bolstered by markings on his arms identical to those Rand received in Rhuidean, placed there by Asmodean in an attempt to derail Rand's plans. After Couladin's defeat at the capital city of Cairhien, the Shaido were led by Sevanna, the wife of the former Shaido clan chief. Under her leadership the Shaido wreaked havoc throughout the wetlands. Eventually their main force was defeated, Sevanna was captured, and what was left of the Shaido went back to the Waste in disgrace.
At Alcair Dal, Rand also revealed the secret he learned in the Rhuidean test, the secret that drove two out of three Aiel to insanity: that the Aiel had once been the Da'shain Aiel, and served the Aes Sedai, and followed the Way of the Leaf. To a culture that lives and dies by its oaths and fighting prowess, the news that they were all descendants of pacifist oathbreakers was devastating, and many Aiel have since succumbed to the resulting "bleakness." Some take on permanent gai'shain white, in the hope of paying off a debt that can never be repaid. More forsake spear and cadin'sor and attempt to live the Way of the Leaf in the wetlander cities—or among the Tinkers—as their ancestors would have. Others simply disappear while some of them run to join the Shaido, in denial of the truth, hoping for a return to an earlier, simpler time.
Some of the Aiel affected by the bleakness eventually joined the Shaido. Because of this, the Shaido gained many spears, but these runaways, having abandoned their clan and sept, were scorned by the Shaido, and their warrior societies did not accept them. This resulted in the unofficial creation of a thirteenth warrior society, peculiar to the Shaido: the Mera'din, the Brotherless, those who have lost everything (no Maidens of the Spear have been known to succumb to the bleakness as yet, possibly due to their loyalty to al'Thor).
As of the latest novel, the heads of the other eleven clans remain loyal to al'Thor. But battle and the bleakness take their tolls, and the number of loyal Aiel diminishes daily.
Somewhat similar to the ronin of feudal Japan; ronin are lordless samurai who often become mercenaries.
Ji'e'toh is the system of honor and obligation that the Aiel follow. Ji'e'toh determines all interactions in Aiel life; fighting, housing, even intimate relationships and marriage. The term is from the Old Tongue and means, literally, honor and obligation. The Aiel developed it in response to the harsh conditions of the Threefold Land, needing a strict system of discipline and method to promote personal integrity in order to survive in the inhospitable terrain.
Ji is honor, and toh is obligation, though in practice shame is also an important part of the Ji'e'toh system, as both failing to meet one's toh to others and dishonoring others brings shame.
Toh can be acquired in a variety of ways, but most toh is the result of failing to respect others, bringing shame to others, shirking duties, and neglecting traditional forms of etiquette. When one person has offended another, it is said that the offender "has toh toward" the one offended, and to reduce the dishonor, one must "meet" his or her toh. Although toh is met when the one who requires it says 'this person has no toh to me,' the one who incurs the toh, implicitly sets the amount required. As a matter of maintaining ji, the amount of toh set by the offender must be commensurate to the offense. In some cases the shame extends to an entire group, and the offender has toh to each of the group's members.
Meeting one's toh is possible through a variety of means, including service to the one owed, as well as public display of corporal punishment or hardship. It is not unusual for the person with toh to request that the offended person beat them in public to meet it. It is not the actual punishment itself, but the willingness to bear both it and the shame of its public nature that helps the offender meet his or her toh. It is also permissible to meet toh with money or material goods, but this is method is considered to be the least efficacious at reducing toh and of creating ji.
The greatest ji comes from touching an enemy in battle without killing him. This incurs a great deal of toh, and the person who is touched usually becomes gai'shain, which in the Old Tongue means "pledged to peace in battle." A gai'shain serves his or her captor for a year and a day, touching no weapon, doing no battle, and wearing only white. A Wise One, blacksmith, woman with a child, or a child under the age of ten may not be made gai'shain.
The least amount of ji comes from killing an enemy, as the Aiel believe that killing is easier than leaving an enemy alive.
When the Shaido Aiel invaded the wetlands, they took wetlanders as gai'shain, violating ji'e'toh and adding to their shame. Due to this violation, it may be construed that they are reconstructing their culture according to what works best for them, now that they know the truth of their history.
After the Breaking of the World, the Aiel, like all people, wandered the land looking for safe refuge from the depredations of the insane male channelers; this brought the Aiel to the Three-fold Land in the first place, and the Aes Sedai who accompanied them. These Aes Sedai, who were the remainders of those left in the world not strong enough to challenge male wielders of the power, were entrusted with a great store of artifacts, containing all three types of angreal. These artifacts could not be allowed to fall into the hands of the mad male Aes Sedai, and were sent away against a foreseen need in the future. With the Aiel split in two, the warlike Aiel found habitation in the Waste, utilizing caves, natural and man-made, shadowed bluffs and areas where water, in small amounts, was known to be available. The Jenn Aiel, meanwhile, built the only city there, which they named Rhuidean. The entire purpose of their travel, as it would seem, was to find a place of safety, as after the male Aes Sedai went mad with the taint, it was foreseen that they would need to flee lest they be wiped out as a people. The Aes Sedai responsible for this foretelling saw that, in time, the Da'shain Aiel would only be associated with serving the Dragon, Lews Therin Telamon, and no other Aes Sedai at all. Rhuidean was never definitively inhabited, and was abandoned when the Jenn Aiel died out; however, it is still used for raising clan chiefs and Wise Ones, a practice instigated by the Jenn to ensure that the Aiel, as the last remainders of the Da'shain legacy, were aware of their origins.
The Car'a'carn will lead the clans and destroy them: "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".[4] Of late, Rand al'Thor has been proven to be that man. The arrival of "He Who Comes with the Dawn" has caused a number of upheavals to the Aiel way of life, after his revelation concerning the peaceful past of the Aiel at Rhuidean, that Aiel are the descendants of those who broke an Oath to peace.
"Till shade is gone, till water is gone, into the Shadow with teeth bared, screaming defiance with the last breath, to spit in Sightblinder’s eye on the last Day." The Aiel's purpose
"May you always find water and shade." A traditional blessing and farewell saying to a friend.
"Life is a dream from which we all must wake." The Aiel's view on mortality.
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