““My name is Aviendha,” the Aiel woman said, “of the
Nine Valley’s sept of the Taardad Aiel.”
Her face was as flat and expressionless as her voice. “I am Far Dareis Mai, a Maiden of the
Spear.” She paused for a moment,
studying them. “Youhave not the look in
your faces, but we saw the rings. In
your lands, you have women much like our Wise Ones, the women called Aes
Sedai. Are you women of the White Tower,
or not?”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 432.
As mentioned in the previous essay, The Dragon
Reborn is where we get our first real look at the Aiel and the Aiel
culture. The Aiel were mentioned in The
Eye of the World and The Great Hunt, especially with the idea that
Rand looks like an Aielman due to his height and fiery red hair, the term that’s
culturally used by those who are not Aiel, but Jordan has made this effort to
make them the other in the narrative. The
introduction of an Aiel character is one locked in a cage, immediately putting
this image in the mind of the reader that they are violent. They are something the culture fears,
something that has subtly been planted in the mind of the reader with
references to the Waste where they live, and references to their warrior like
nature. This isn’t explicitly evil, but
it is done in a way to make the reader wary of them as a culture, as our young
and inexperienced characters are often wary of different cultures. Egwene in particular becomes more wary of
other cultures since her torture in The Great Hunt, is terrified when captured
by a group of Cairhienan slavers who are taking advantage of the civil war that
has broken out since the death of the previous king in The Great Hunt
(the one that Thom Merrilin most likely murdered in revenge for Dena’s
death). Okay so she is able to heal
Elayne who is injured in the capture and escape and Nynaeve becomes angry
enough to burn the Fades which their captors are selling them to death. This is balefire which has already been set
up as writing people out of the Pattern and while Jordan’s prose is beautifully
terrifying and the character buildup between Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve, it is
the fact that Aviendha, an Aiel who had already met them on the road, had
followed them, using some of her own people to attempt a rescue leading to two Aiel
deaths.
It is at this point where Egwene can start letting go
and trusting Aviendha as a person instead of what had been rather spiky
narration towards her and the Aiel. With
Aviendha are Bain and Chiad who are first sisters, a piece of Aiel culture
describing sisters but it is mentioned here that Aiel women can be bonded to
become sisters if they wish, something that will come up again later but it is
a piece of culture shock as Elayne asks this “How can you become first-sisters?
Either you have the same mother, or you do not…All I know about the Maidnes of
the Spear comes from what my mother has told me. I know you fight in battle and don’t care for
men, but no more than that.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 435. Now while this isn’t necessarily explicit in
the text here at least, it is clear that this type of close relationship,
especially in terms of people becoming a sort of symbolic family, is perhaps
one of the first attempts by Jordan to include LGBT characters in The Wheel
of Time even if other attempts have been through coding through coding,
Elayne even referencing the Red Ajah who have more explicit lesbian coding in the
way they operate. Bain and Chiad being
the first we see, however, bring this to mind since they are explicitly No, it isn’t handled the absolute best,
especially since we don’t actually get a point of view from Bain and Chiad, but
it is something that is there and important for this nearly thirty year old
book to have included. Bain and Chiad
are established as badass warrior women on the level of Aviendha, as all three
are Maidens of the Spear and have explicitly sworn off love of a man as they
are wedded to the spear.
There are also some very subtle cultural clashes with
this meeting which makes all characters deeper.
Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne lying about being full Aes Sedai, something the
Aiel equate with being a Wise One, find it odd that they must guard each other’s
back as no one would dare attack a Wise One, and if they were the Wise One
could defend themselves. This adds a bit
of individualism among Aiel while among our trio of Accepted there is more of a
collective help inherent in one another.
This culture shock is also not necessarily a bad thing, it does end with
the two parties agreeing to travel together as we get the explanation that
dreams from the Wise Ones are leading the Aiel towards Tear which is where He
Who Comes with the Dawn will be declaring himself. There is also one last chapter with Mat and
Thom find themselves in an inn in Cairhien where they meet Aludra, the leader
of the Illuminators guild, who gives Mat fireworks, something that is far more
dangerous than anyone can ever know since this is Mat Cauthon. It’s a chapter that deepens the Cairhien
conflict as Mat heads the opposite direction towards Caemlyn but Aludra will be
very important later, much much later, and the establishment of fireworks in
this world also establishes gunpowder.
It’s also just full of wit that helps the reader become more acclimated
to Mat as a character. Now sadly it is
the only Mat chapter for now, the next grouping going back to Perrin and his plotline
which is important, but after that we will be back to Mat for a bit before one last
meeting of our Emond’s Field Five leads into the climax so stay tuned.
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