The Great Hunt by: Robert Jordan: Seanchan and Aiel (Chapters 28 to 29)

 

““She is Aes Sedai?” he said disbelievingly.  He never saw the casual backhand blow coming.  He staggered as her steel-backed gauntlet split hi slip.  “That name is never spoken,” Egeanin said with a dangerous softness.  “There are only the damane, the Leashed Ones, and now they serve in truth as well as name.”  Her eyes made ice seem warm.” – The Great Hunt, p. 423.

 

As the previous section was devoted to providing the beginnings of Rand’s acceptance, this section and an introduction to the people of Cairhien, this section brings the audience our first glimpse of two different cultures, the Seanchan and the Aiel.  The Aiel are introduced first, but as that is an important chapter for Perrin and Mat, it will be discussed later.  The Seanchan are a culture from across the Aryth Ocean, the point of view of this chapter looking from Captain Bayle Domon, who until this point had not encountered the Seanchan.  He is surprised to find they own slaves, and even more surprised when the damane, the slaves, are all women who can channel.  This is already setup as an interesting look at what other cultures do with channelers, the Two Rivers being suspicious but Seanchan using channelers as slaves as an almost to the extreme version of the suspicion in the Two Rivers.  Domon is threatened several times when he asks about the damane on board, as he is a foreigner and the Seanchan already have plans to expand their empire.

 

Egeanin is the captain and is in charge of the single damane, whom she treats like a pet in a scene where Jordan truly gets under the reader’s skin.  The reader already is familiar with Domon as a character.  While Domon shares some traits with stock pirates, he isn’t a bad person.  He is entirely on thin ice with the Seanchan, attempting to pass himself off as a simple trader, which works, but only barely.  He’s in stark contrast to Egianin and the High Lord Turok who both act with superiority complexes and obviously own slaves.  They add a human villainy and it isn’t a coincidence that half of this chapter is from the perspective of the Whitecloaks, quietly making a parallel between their over the top zealotry making anyone who associates with channeling or Aes Sedai as Darkfriends, while the Seanchan have slaves of channelers, literally called the Leashed Ones.

 

The Aiel introduced before this, however, already has a different story “So the Wise Ones say…yet even a clan chief must have a strong belly to avoid doing as they want…I search for….someone.  A man…He Who Comes With the Dawn.  It is said there will be great signs and portents of his coming…It is said we will know them when we hear of them, as we will know him when we see him.  He shall be marked.  He will come from the west, beyond the Spine of the World, but be of our blood.  He will go to Rhuideian, and lead us out of the Three-fold Land.” – The Great Hunt, p. 411-412.  This Aiel, Urien, calls Verin both a Wise One and there is a cultural thing about not hurting women who are not wedded to the spear.  There is a lot of idea that the Aiel leaving the waste means that there are new threads in the Pattern.  The sequence is from Perrin’s point of view and upon seeing the Aiel this is what is immediately remarked by Mat ““He looks like Rand.”  Perrin looked around to see that Mat had joined them to.  “Maybe Ingtar’s right,” Mat added quietly, “Maybe Rand is an Aiel.” Perrin nodded, “But it doesn’t change anything.”” – The Great Hunt, p. 409.  Clearly, Jordan is attempting to connect the idea about Rand being the Dragon Reborn and a predicted Aiel figure in He Who Comes With the Dawn.  While Mat responds that he agrees Rand possibly being an Aiel wouldn’t change their friendship it is Perrin who makes the point that it doesn’t change anything.  Perrin is once again the one communicating with the wolves and being changed like Rand, while Mat is only deteriorating, with Verin having to heal him multiple times ad day at this point.  Verin leaves once the Aiel says nothing more, knowing that there are things changing with the Pattern,  The party also makes it to Cairhien implying that a reunion is going to be happening quite soon.