Darius-sedai, I think your plan would ruin the White Tower. - Edit 2
Before modification by FanEditor10 at 11/06/2010 06:09:06 AM
Sorry.
If I were Egwene, pretty much the only change I would make is the novice recruiting. I think she will change it to open recruitment. I think she would send groups of sisters across the lands once a year to test all girls for the ability. The sparkers would ALL have to go to the Tower, but the learners could choose whether to come or not. Egwene was trained by Aiel, so she knows that they find every girl who can channel, and none die. But not all become Wise Ones apprentices either.
It would violate custom completely to force every girl who could learn to come to the tower, but bringing all the sparkers for their own safety and not ever forcing them to test for Accepted would not violate custom. Any sparker who did not want to be Aes Sedai could be released as soon as she was deemed safe. Maybe even allowed to join the Kin if they wanted. Who knows.
This method would still bring far more women to be trained, as Egwene has already shown. Her opening of the novice books alone brought a flood of women. Open recruitment would have to bring more. And someone who didn't want to be Aes Sedai when she first got to the tower might change her mind after a few years working with the power.
The Embassies idea from earlier in the thread (daurius) would NEVER happen. First of all many countries don't have Aes Sedai advisers and would resent a small Embassy forcing themselves upon them. It violates custom to interfere with a Sister's business, and making many dozen Aes Sedai go live away from the tower as embassies would likely be viewed that way.
In New Spring we read that there hadn't been any Aes Sedai queens in over a thousand years and the ones before that were usually assassinated very early in their reign. Elayne is the first Aes Sedai to claim a throne in a thousand years, and the only reason she has been successful thus far is because she was also BORN to rule that country. I think, using this as a basis for reasoning, that if the Aes Sedai tried to put that much influence into every country, openly, they would meet with a LOT of "accidents".
They would also never consider training girls outside of the White Tower. Splitting up the female channeling community in that way would effectively destroy all Aes Sedai standing. The only thing that sets them so high in the world is their united front, as a source of serenity and stability, a source of power and control. And mystery. If they split up all over the world and trained their own girls, they would no longer be a united front. They would cease to be what they are, and in a thousand years would probably find themselves in a situation very like the damane of Seanchan.
Orius said something I loved:
This pretty much sounds like what would happen to the White Tower if they used your plan, daurius_sedai. Sorry dude, I like almost everything you post here, and your plan does sound good...
If I were Egwene, pretty much the only change I would make is the novice recruiting. I think she will change it to open recruitment. I think she would send groups of sisters across the lands once a year to test all girls for the ability. The sparkers would ALL have to go to the Tower, but the learners could choose whether to come or not. Egwene was trained by Aiel, so she knows that they find every girl who can channel, and none die. But not all become Wise Ones apprentices either.
It would violate custom completely to force every girl who could learn to come to the tower, but bringing all the sparkers for their own safety and not ever forcing them to test for Accepted would not violate custom. Any sparker who did not want to be Aes Sedai could be released as soon as she was deemed safe. Maybe even allowed to join the Kin if they wanted. Who knows.
This method would still bring far more women to be trained, as Egwene has already shown. Her opening of the novice books alone brought a flood of women. Open recruitment would have to bring more. And someone who didn't want to be Aes Sedai when she first got to the tower might change her mind after a few years working with the power.
The Embassies idea from earlier in the thread (daurius) would NEVER happen. First of all many countries don't have Aes Sedai advisers and would resent a small Embassy forcing themselves upon them. It violates custom to interfere with a Sister's business, and making many dozen Aes Sedai go live away from the tower as embassies would likely be viewed that way.
In New Spring we read that there hadn't been any Aes Sedai queens in over a thousand years and the ones before that were usually assassinated very early in their reign. Elayne is the first Aes Sedai to claim a throne in a thousand years, and the only reason she has been successful thus far is because she was also BORN to rule that country. I think, using this as a basis for reasoning, that if the Aes Sedai tried to put that much influence into every country, openly, they would meet with a LOT of "accidents".
They would also never consider training girls outside of the White Tower. Splitting up the female channeling community in that way would effectively destroy all Aes Sedai standing. The only thing that sets them so high in the world is their united front, as a source of serenity and stability, a source of power and control. And mystery. If they split up all over the world and trained their own girls, they would no longer be a united front. They would cease to be what they are, and in a thousand years would probably find themselves in a situation very like the damane of Seanchan.
Orius said something I loved:
The Seanchan Aes Sedai never unified like those of the Westlands. So there were dozens or even hundreds of woman who called themselves Aes Sedai and ruled as queens over petty little kingdoms. Each of these AS had a handful of students at best, either their daughters or girls they discovered here and there and taught them probably as heirs, enforcers, or something similar. Or these Aes Sedai saw girls who could channel as potential rivals and tried to eliminate them. My guess is that somewhere along the line, the fractured Seanchan Aes Sedai lost the knowledge that women could be taught to channel.
Then came Hawkwing's sons. They naturally had no idea how channeling worked, because even the AS of the Westlands never went out of their way to explain things about the OP to anyone who wasn't an initiate of the WT. So then Deane, in a failed attempt to kiss Luthair's ass, gives him the first damane. This damane was probably a sparker, I would imagine that Deane might not have been aware that women could learn to channel. Luthair probably inherited his father's mistrust and hatred of AS, and the common folk of Seanchan probably feared and hated their AS rulers, so they all were probably more interested in seeing Deane collared than wondering why she could be used on either end of the a'dam.
Then came Hawkwing's sons. They naturally had no idea how channeling worked, because even the AS of the Westlands never went out of their way to explain things about the OP to anyone who wasn't an initiate of the WT. So then Deane, in a failed attempt to kiss Luthair's ass, gives him the first damane. This damane was probably a sparker, I would imagine that Deane might not have been aware that women could learn to channel. Luthair probably inherited his father's mistrust and hatred of AS, and the common folk of Seanchan probably feared and hated their AS rulers, so they all were probably more interested in seeing Deane collared than wondering why she could be used on either end of the a'dam.
This pretty much sounds like what would happen to the White Tower if they used your plan, daurius_sedai. Sorry dude, I like almost everything you post here, and your plan does sound good...