You join when you get your period, and you spend the next 10 years locked up in an ivory tower.

It's not a bad thing that Moiraine didn't have a "purpose" when she was an Accepted. Who does? What purposes ARE there, even?

Yellows- Heal. Except they haven't advanced Healing in over two thousand years. Nice.

Red- Hunt male channelers. A public service, I'll admit, except there are far more Reds than any other Ajah (that always bugged me, btw) and they catch maybe one a year? If that?

Green- The BATTLE Ajah. Except... you don't really fight anyone. You don't go to the Borderlands, and actually be useful. All you really do is wear low cut dresses and be scandalous.

Brown- You can have a purpose, but it's a dry, academic purpose (barring Verin, I suppose). Who joins the Aes Sedai saying "One day I will catalogue ALL of the butterflies in Saldea!"?

Grey- Also important, and being a mediator to stop wars is an admirable purpose, but I can't imagine it's that common.

White- Philosophy. It has its good and bad points, but its also not a "popular" purpose.


Blue- You go and find a purpose, supposedly... except I don't think we've ever seen another Blue with a "cause" like Moiraine's.


Basically, it comes down to this. Moiraine (and Siuan) could have forgotten what they knew, or at least trusted that their superiors were handling it. But they investigated, perservered, and when it came down to Them Vs The World, they didn't even seek help (other than a Warder).


Rereading New Spring would help- you get a palpable sense of the terror Siuan feels once she finds out an Aes Sedai was murdered in her bed... and then had it covered up. Cadusane's more amusing than entertaining, since we (pretty much) know she's not Black, but it's still a pretty harrowing experience.


Also, Moiraine was cut off from the Tower for about 20 years- Siuan mentions that Moiraine is almost never in Tar Valon. Compared to the cushy, political life of other Aes Sedai, I'd say a life of dodging the Black Ajah is very much a sacrfice.