The cold open for The Wheel of Time Episode 7 was a big reveal that twenty years ago during
what some call the Aiel War. The birth of the Dragon Reborn. In this video, we will
recap who was in that war, why that war was started, how it ended, and why some don’t
even think of it as a war. First, let’s frame this with the map.
A mountain range called the Mountains of Dhoom runs across the top of the map. The land north
of the Mountains of Dhoom is the Blight. The Eastern section of this map also has a
mountain range called the Spine of the World. East of the Spine of the World is the land
called the Aiel Waste. By day the air in the Aiel Waste shimmers with heat, and by night
it freezes. In other words, the Aiel Waste is a desert. Nowadays, there is very little
water there. So the Aiel treat water with a lot of respect.
Trollocs call the Aiel Waste, Djevik K’Shar. In the human tongue that translates to The
Dying Ground. In other words, even Trollocs rarely enter the Waste since it is such a
hard land. Another reason that Trollocs don’t go there is because the Aiel are a hard people.
The Aiel are so hard that they refer to the Aiel Waste as the Three-fold Land, claiming
that it gave them three gifts: a shaping stone to make them, a testing ground to prove their
worth, and a punishment for their sin. So long story short, the Aiel are a hard people,
they are very good fighters, and they respect water since they live in a desert.
The main body of land on this map is called the Westlands. But the Aiel refer to Westlanders
as Wetlanders. The Aiel also call Wetlanders Treekillers. And the reason for that is the
reason for the Aiel War. Now, we need to go back in time over 3,000
years. The current story takes place in the Third
Age, which began about 3,000 years ago. During the Second Age, also known as the Age
of Legends, they created things called constructs. One example of a construct is a Trolloc. Not
cool. But another example of a construct is the Chora Tree. A Chora Tree is a construct
made with the One Power. It has large green trefoil-shaped leaves which emit an aura of
peace and well-bring. So when you were under a Chora tree, you feel good. During the Age
of Legends, cities were lined with chora trees. But at the end of the Second Age, male channelers
went mad. They broke the world. And unfortunately, every chora tree except for one was destroyed
during the Breaking of the World. The one chora tree that is left is in the Aiel Waste.
It is called Avendesora. The Tree of Life. So male channelers broke the world and set
it back thousands of years. The world was a mess. But the Aiel’s ancestors were helped
out. According to legend, only one group of people did not attack the Aiel’s ancestors.
And only one group of people allowed the Aiel’s ancestors to get water freely when it was
needed. Now we need to fast forward over two thousand
years after the Breaking. About 500 years ago, the Aiel determined that
the people who had helped out their ancestors were the ancestors of the current Kingdom
of Cairhien. So the Aiel gave them two gifts. First off, a peace pact. The Aiel allowed
Cairhienin traders to cross through the Aiel Waste on a path known as the Silk Path.
The second gift that the Aiel gave as a thank you was a tree. But not just any tree. A chora
tree. They gave the people of Cairhien a chora sapling. It is said that the Tree of Life
makes no seed. So no one knows how the Aiel got a chora sapling, but some suspect that
it was a cutting off of their chora tree. Regardless, a second chora tree grew in Cairhien.
That sapling grew for the next 400+ years and was called Avendoraldera.
Now we fast forward to the Aiel War which happened about twenty years ago. But let’s
start by recapping what happened four years before the Aiel War.
The King of Cairhien was Moiraine’s uncle, King Laman Damodred. Laman wanted to ease
tensions between Cairhien and Andor. So his nephew Taringail was married to Tigraine Mantear,
the Daughter-Heir of Andor. In other words, Moiraine’s half-brother Taringail was married
to Tigraine Mantear, the Daughter-Heir of Andor. Tigraine was not in love with Taringail,
but they had a child: Galad Damodred. But then, the Keeper of the Chronicles in
the White Tower had a Foretelling. Gitara Sedai told Tigraine to dwell among the Maidens
of the Spear or disaster would befall her land and her people. A Maiden of the Spear
is one of the female warrior societies of the Aiel. So Tigraine Mantear disappeared
from the Westlands. She left behind her husband and child, and she went to the Aiel Waste.
She changed her name to Shaiel, a name which means “Woman Who is Dedicated” in the
Old Tongue. Shaiel fell in love with Janduin, clan chief of the Taardad clan.
Meanwhile, Moiraine’s uncle, King Laman Damodred, King of Cairhien decided to cut
down Avendoraldera and make a throne out of it. As a reminder, Anedoraldera was the chora
sapling that had been gifted to his ancestors 500 years prior. So when he cut it down to
make a throne, it was one of just two chora tees in the world. And more importantly, it
had been given as a gift. As thank you. And as a peace offering. So that event is known
as Laman’s Pride or Laman’s Sin. He had cut down one of the only two chora trees.
And the Aiel took that as a major insult. Rand’s biological father, Janduin, united
four of the thirteen Aiel clans and, for the first time ever, the Aiel crossed over the
Spine of the World and invaded the Westlands. Rand’s biological mother had become a Maiden
of the Spear. So she joined the fight as well. Now, the Aiel War.
The Westlanders considered the Aiel to be savages. So the Westlanders thought that it
would be an easy fight. But as we mentioned at the beginning of this video, the Aiel are
a hard people. So they surprised the Westlanders by going straight to Cairhien and burning
some of it to the ground. It’s worth noting that they specifically did not burn the Royal
Library. King Laman Damodred fled the city and went
south to Tear. So the Aiel followed. And they kept kicking ass. Eventually, the Aes Sedai
formed the Great Coalition, and armies from 10 of the 14 kingdoms rallied together to
fight the Aiel. During the three years of fighting, Shaiel
got pregnant with Rand. But she refused to give up the spear even after she became pregnant.
The final battle was the Battle of the Shining Walls also known as the Blood Snow. This battle
took place over three days outside of Tar Valon at the base of Dragonmount. So the final
battle occurred on the mountain where the Dragon, Lews Therin Telamon had died three
thousand years earlier during the Breaking of the World. And of course, Rand was born
there. After that battle, the Aiel returned to the
Aiel Waste, the Three-fold Land, their home. The Westlanders thought that they had defeated
the Aiel, but that’s not what happened. In fact, the Aiel don’t even consider it
a war. From their perspective, they had crossed the Spine of the World to punish King Laman
for cutting down Avendoraldera. And they did just so. The Aiel killed him during the Battle
of the Shining Walls. Once they did that, they went home.
So to be clear, the Aiel were not defeated. They came, they kicked ass for three years,
they eventually killed King Laman, and then they went home. Over time, Westlander leaders,
generals, and Aes Sedai came to find out the truth. But it’s an embarrassing truth, so
they never told their people what really happened. And because of that, many Westlanders think
of Aiel as evil. Some even think that the Aiel are Darkfriends. But they are like any
other society. Some good. Some bad. Most a mix.
Now, let’s discuss the aftermath. As a reminder, Gitara Moroso was the Aes Sedai.
She had told Tigraine Mantear to go become a Maiden of the Spear or else disaster would
befall her land and her people. But that was not her entire Foretelling. Gitara had also
said that Tigraine could not return to her own land until the Maidens had gone to Tar
Valon. When Tigraine had first found the Aiel, they
thought this Foretelling was crazy. Because the Aiel do not cross over the Spine of the
World into the Wetlands. So it seemed illogical to think that the Maidens of the Spear would
ever go to Tar Valon. But low and behold, four years later, the Maidens of the Spear
crossed over the Spine of the World for the Aiel War. And the final battle happened at
Tar Valon. During that final battle of the Aiel War,
Gitara Moroso had another Foretelling. Her final Foretelling. Because after she said
it, she died. She was in a room with just three people: the Amyrlin at the time, Moiraine,
and Siuan Sanche. This was twenty years ago. So at the time, Moiraine and Siuan had not
yet been raised to Aes Sedai. They were at the level of Accepted. Gitara’s Foretelling
was of the Dragon being reborn. She yelled out that the Dragon Reborn takes his first
breath on the slope of Dragonmount. Then she died. So ever since that day, Moiraine and
Siuan Sanche made it their mission to find the Dragon Reborn so as to protect him, guide
him, and prepare him for the Last Battle. Unfortunately for them, Tam al’Thor found
the baby. He and his wife Kari went to the Two Rivers, where they unknowingly raised
the Dragon Reborn. Twenty years later, Moiraine finally found him. And it’s a good thing
because the seals on the Dark One’s prison are weakening, which means, the Last Battle
is coming. Now the big question. What happened to Rand’s
biological parents? So Rand’s mother got pregnant during the
war. By the laws, she should have returned to the Three-fold Land. A Maiden is forbidden
to carry the spear while she carries a child. But Janduin could forbid her nothing; had
she asked the moon on a necklace, he would have tried to give it to her. So she stayed,
and in the last fight, before Tar Valon, she was lost, and the child was lost. Janduin
could not forgive himself for not making her obey the law. He gave up his place as clan
chief, which is something that no one had ever done before. In fact, some told him that
it could not be done, but he simply walked away. He went north with young men to hunt
Trollocs and Myrddraal in the Blight. It is a thing wild young men do, and Maidens with
less sense than goats. Those who returned said he was killed by a man. They also said
that Janduin claimed that the man looked like Rand’s mother, and he would not raise his
spear when the man ran him through. In other words, for reasons, Rand’s biological
father was a badass Aiel man, who died carrying out the Tuatha’an’s Way of the Leaf.