The Wheel of Time - Lorecast - On Ajahs

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[00:02:24] Welcome to the first Lorehounds lorecast of Season 3 of The Wheel of Time. I'm Alisha. I'm John, and this is a weekly extra episode just for subscribers. We'll keep these focused on one core area of lore related to that week's episode. And with the Black Aja uprising in the Tower this week and the Season 3 premiere, we thought the Aja system was a good place to start for Episode 1. What and why are the different Ajas, and how does the Black Aja fit into the rest?

[00:02:53] So, and we also know, we decided we're going to do a double lorecast for Episodes 2 and 3, just like we're doing a double breakdown, and that's going to be geography. That's right. And we've already broken the three L's once this episode, because we're going to be releasing this first one for the public as a teaser, a taste of what the lorecast are going to be. So only subscribers, though, will get the one on geography.

[00:03:17] And subscribers either on traditional subscriptions or the Season Pass, which is $10, you can get all of our ad-free podcasts for Wheel of Time, plus these bonus episodes. And the show notes and episode notes. The show guides, yeah. Mm-hmm. Right. Right. But today, we are focusing on the Ajas. So there are seven official Ajas in Rainbow Colors. We're going to talk through them.

[00:03:46] And then the unofficial Black Aja that we will also talk about how that throws in a wrinkle. But let's step back to the origin of the Ajas. So I had some notes from the wiki, and you have some notes from the Origins of the Wheel of Time book about the series. Do you want to start with those? Sure. So this book is, it has a few sections. And first of all, it talks about the writing process.

[00:04:12] It compares him with Tolkien's process, and it talks about Robert Jordan's life. Then at the end, it has a really long and detailed glossary where it gives you not just the definition, but the origin, like the book says, of the term that Robert Jordan has created here. So Michael Livingston, the author, writes,

[00:05:12] Okay. Yeah, that's interesting. Interesting. And so then the in-universe lore is, so there's the Age of Legends, which we've caught glimpses of in the show. Basically, that's when they have those flying jokars and the tall skyscrapers and when Luz Theron lived. And in the Age of Legends, the Aes Sedai were both male and female, and the Ajas didn't exist like they do now.

[00:05:40] It just meant a temporary group of people banded together for a specific purpose. So after the breaking, when Luz Theron broke the world, we'll have to do a lore cast on that in the future. Yeah. But yeah, and then leading up to especially the modern White Tower, there were more Ajas that used to exist and exist now. There were, I think, 12, and now there are obviously seven.

[00:06:07] And it's not really clear in the in-universe history why exactly they landed on these seven or which Ajas fell by the wayside. But yeah, basically, they stopped using Aja with a lowercase a, which meant in general groups banding together. And then it just became Aja with an uppercase A, which is just one of these seven colors, your orientation within the tower.

[00:06:36] Do you think, did I explain that well? Is there anything you want to add to that? Yeah, no, I think that's a great explanation. I would just add that you can't underemphasize how traumatic the breaking of the world was for everybody, especially the Aes Sedai, because half of their members started going crazy. And they had to just deal with that all of a sudden. And I would guess, this is my headcanon now, that I didn't know about the reduction of from 12 to 7. I'm curious about your source for that, because I didn't even know.

[00:07:07] Yeah, there's a lot of the sources for this. And when we're talking about the geography, there's some extra materials in the, what is it, the world? Oh, wait, sorry. Oh, yes. Yes. But it's a book that was written based on Robert Jordan's notes. Oh, I have to get this, because I, yeah, I would like to have more of these resources. Do you have this book? I mean, a digital version. It's called The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time. Okay, yes, yes. I've heard of this.

[00:07:36] I have not gotten it. You know what? I'll let you keep getting in-world bits from that, and I'll get the out-of-world stuff from Origins. Teamwork. Yep. Yep. My headcanon, anyway, is that they will have forgotten some of the skills by this 98 after the breaking. Right. And that's why some of these went to the wayside. It's like, maybe there was an Aja dedicated to making Terran Greal, for example. Perhaps. Yeah. That's just guesswork, though.

[00:08:06] Mm-hmm. And so now what we're left with, there's seven, and then we'll talk about them in rainbow colors, starting with the blue, which, you know, we start basically from the perspective of the blue, because the blue is Moraine's Aja. It's also the Aja of Swan, formerly the Aja of Swan, the Emeriland Seat, and Liana, her keeper of the chronicles.

[00:08:30] When you are, we'll talk about this more in a minute, but when you're raised to Emeriland Seat, you give up your Aja, and you become of all and none. Um, but also we met Maigen from the blue Aja. Uh, she was the secret head of the blue Aja that was captured by the Shon-Shon. Uh, Guitara was the one who gave the prophecy that sent Moraine and Swan off on their mission to find the dragon.

[00:08:54] Um, Ispan is a black Aja member of the blue Aja, who we saw break away in this first episode. Shiryam, mistress of novices, who's not going to be in season three for some reason. She was also the blue Aja. Yeah, I don't know why. And we also, we're going to meet another important blue sister this season, Lelaine. So. Oh, okay. I didn't, I didn't realize she was in this season. Yeah, there was a casting announcement, so. Um. I guess we're swapping out some sisters here. Mm-hmm.

[00:09:23] Uh, yeah, I don't know why. Shiryam, mistress of novices, it would make sense she was around this season. I don't know if there was a scheduling conflict with the actress or what, but. You never know. Yeah, it's so much more complicated than in a book, right? Like, you can't just read into the story intent. You have to read into, like, who was available. Right, exactly. You can't just say, Shiryam's there. You have to be like, well, can Shiryam be there? Yeah. Um, but yeah, so the purpose of the blue is they fight for causes of justice and righteousness.

[00:09:50] And they are kind of like the spy network, Aja. Like, every Aja has their own spy network. Their eyes and ears, they call it. But the blue has the biggest network of these. Yeah, I'd say the blues are the ones who are going to show up to your protest. You know, they are just, they are just all in on a cause. They're the ones running the protest. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and the sister who leads the blue Aja is titled the first selector.

[00:10:18] And so, yeah, all these Ajas have secret Aja heads that they know within the Aja, but they don't announce it publicly for political reasons. Yeah, I said I are so weird. Like, I, some of these things, it's like, why do you need to hide that? I mean, I ask people, I ask that question about people all the time in real life. I can't believe the things that people play coy about. But then, I guess, you know, something's used against you once, and you become twice shy. Yeah, I guess so.

[00:10:48] And who are the best friends of the blue? The green. The battle Aja. So, that's obviously Alana. We, is our most notable green member. We also met in the first season, Karen A, RIP. And we met the black sister, Jean, in this first episode. She's the one who liked her warders dying. Yeah, that was spooky. That, honestly, though, great story building, right?

[00:11:16] Great demonstration without describing it of, like, how dark these people are. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and it was funny, because you see the warders of Alana. You know, Maxim is like, oh, good, it's Jean, you know, she's one of ours. And then she's like, nope, I'm actually black Aja. Yep. And yeah, and the greens are, they are the battle Aja. Their head is called the captain general.

[00:11:43] And it's common for them to bond multiple warders, ostensibly because, you know, that's, these are more soldiers to fight on their side. But also, the greens tend to be, I mean, they're always kind of like the most sexual, as we see portrayed in Alana. And I guess. Yeah. Maybe it has something to do with, you know, eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you may die. Yeah, yeah, I get that. I mean, I said this in the episode one recap.

[00:12:13] I think that we finally get to see, like, why the green are the battle Aja with Alana fighting the black Aja here. I mean, their front flip. I mean, come on. Matrix style moves. I was like, yeah, all right, all right. We're here with the green Aja. Yeah, yeah. Yep. And the other, yeah, the next Aja in the rainbow is yellow. And they are known as the healers.

[00:12:37] Um, we've met Rima, who was collared and or killed last season in foam. And we also met a yellow sister, Chesmal Emery, this season. And I think there are actually two yellow members of the black, which people are like, oh my God, the healing Aja, no. I mean, it's a good disguise, right? Like, nobody's going to be like, you healed me. You must be evil. Right. Exactly. Exactly.

[00:13:02] And, I mean, they need to embed in every single Aja so that the dark one knows what's going on everywhere. Um, and yeah, the first weaver is the head of the yellow Aja. Uh, anything to add there? I mean, this is one, we're going to learn more about this one for sure as the story goes, but. Yeah, I don't think I could say anything without doing spoilers. So, I'm just going to hold my tongue here. Yeah. They're healers. They use, I guess, they use water and spirit a lot in their healing at this point.

[00:13:28] So, when you see yellows channeling, uh, in these episodes, pay attention to the colors of the weaves and you'll see they're using basically two weaves right now. Water and spirit. Yeah, I think, I think they use air too sometimes, but they definitely don't use fire and earth. That's like taboo in healing. Right, right. Yeah. Um, and then, yeah, speaking of earthy, we've, we've got the brown Aja. And, uh, so we've met, we've met a good number of brown Aja sisters.

[00:13:57] They, they're one of my favorites because they're the nerds. They're the ones. They're the Hufflepuffs. Well, they, the, I mean, I would call them the Ravenclaws because they're the ones who collect and curate knowledge. But. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. It's just like, I think social status wise, they are the Hufflepuffs. You think? Oh, yeah. Of the tower. They're not the cool ones. People definitely chide them for being like too bookwormy and all that. Right. Um, I mean, I, I'm, I'm saying this as someone who probably would end up being brown Aja. Yeah.

[00:14:26] But, but yeah, I, I just think it's funny that they're always like, oh, you browns. So easy. Like there is a thing in the book, a recurring thing where like somebody tries to talk to a brown and they're like lost in thought and they don't even respond. Right. Like Luna Lovegood. Who was, um, she was Gryffindor by the way, but yeah. Um, yeah, I would be, if I were in the tower. She wasn't Gryffindor, was she? Wasn't she? Oh no, she was Ravenclaw. I'm saving you here from the Potter people.

[00:14:52] I mean, I, yeah, I, I have to admit that I have let Potter fall by the way, wayside in recent years. As have I, I just, I vaguely recalled this detail. Yeah. She was always my favorite, uh, character though. Luna Lovegood. She was cool. She was cool. She should have ended up with Harry. Yeah. I don't know about that. No, I don't think, I don't think. I think it was a much more interesting relationship. Anyway, let's move on. But this is not a Harry Potter. I think we're in Harry Potter thought because like. Because of the houses.

[00:15:23] The houses are so, yeah, they're so, like very similar to like the Harry Potter. But there's seven instead of four. So they can be more specific. Right. Right. Um, but yeah, so we, we got, if I were one of the ayes, I was, I was going to say I would be either. I like to think I would be green, but maybe I would probably be blue, gray or brown. No, I think this is also like, what are the flaws in this? Is they trying to pigeonhole everyone? Mm hmm. Yeah.

[00:15:51] And you know, a lot are, are wonder girls where we're going to start calling these people the wonder girls, you know? Uh, and that's nine Eve, Elaine and Egwene's not with them right now, but yeah. Yeah. But the three of them together are the wonder girls. And, uh, that's just like something the fandom has branded them with. If you're not in like the book fandom. Uh, and, and they, I think are a lot more well-rounded. They have specialties for sure, but they're a lot more well-rounded. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, yeah, that starts to show flaws in the system.

[00:16:18] Um, but yeah, we, we got some nice time with the brown Aja, especially in season two. So we've met Viren, who's obviously the most important member of the brown Aja from the books and in the show. Um, her sister in the show is Adelaide. Adelaide has a different sister named Vandine in the books, but that's fine. They're condensing characters. This makes sense. Um, and then we also met two new characters who were added just for the show, Yasaka and Naomi. And Naomi is the one who we saw. She's actually black. It turns out.

[00:16:47] So that was heartbreaking for me because last season they were like sharing cider or whatever together and having like nice nerdy talk. And I love the brown Aja. Interesting too, that Naomi is given this like specialty of compulsion or memory erasure. I think, I think they're, I think they're basically framing this as like a type of compulsion though. Yeah. Yeah. Ooh.

[00:17:13] Well, yeah, we're, I guess we're not going to say any episode two or three spoilers in this episode, but, um. No, we are. In this episode? Okay. Yeah. This is all coming out after. Right, right, right, right. Okay. So we see Robin also using a form of compulsion, Lord Gabriel, quote unquote, um, using a form of compulsion to alter the memories of people around him to make him think, to make them all think he's been around longer with the Royal family of Gamelin. Yeah. Yep.

[00:17:43] Oh, is that what's happening? Mm-hmm. Oh, that completely went over my head. Like I understood that compulsion was happening, but I didn't understand that he was like rewriting history here. Well, the first time you see a new character meet him, uh, in the, in episode two, episode three, they reveal who he is, but in episode two, they haven't revealed yet who he is. And the first time a new character meets him, they pause and they're like, and this is, oh, of course the Prince Consort. Yes. Right. Right. I've known you for years.

[00:18:13] Very interesting. Okay. All right. Well, now I feel very dumb, but that's okay. Okay. Because you're here with me to guide my hand. And so, yes, we are recording this before we record our episodes two and three breakdown. Right. Right. We have to be careful not to just like analyze those episodes because we haven't gotten to do that yet. But anyway, the Brown Aja, it's a, it's a very fair Aja. It's governed by an internal council rather than just one head per se. And the leader of the council is called the first chair.

[00:18:43] Going to what a lot of us probably think is the least fair Aja, everybody's most hated Aja, the red. And their purpose is to prevent the misuse of the one power. And they especially interpreted that as, you know, they, they need to gentle males who are corrupted by the male half of the power, also known as Cydine. Right. And like, here's the thing, like there is an argument for this. Mm-hmm. Sure.

[00:19:11] And that's the problem is like, this is almost like, like everyone like loves to hate them, but they're like, okay, but they're necessary. That's kind of their role in the, in the tower. And this has been, you know, for thousands of years now, men who channel go crazy and they hurt people. And like, that's why there is actually a reason to, to gentle them. Even if it does hurt them, it won't kill them and everybody around them.

[00:19:38] I mean, we know that men actually do die and pretty much anybody gentled or still dies within a few years of that. But I, I mean, I, I see the point of what they're doing. Um, and so, so the question is, what is this Aja now that you have the dragon reborn and you can't gentle him without forfeiting the last battle? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it is, you know, and it makes it easy for the other Ajas to hate them, which leads to,

[00:20:04] you know, we saw in that first episode, um, that prejudice that was shown where the reds weren't allowed into the chamber, but actually those two reds, as far as we know so far, they do not seem to be black Aja. So they actually would have helped rather than hindered the fight against the black Aja, but just, yeah, they're, they're being discriminated against because of prejudice. And obviously that's going to cause problems. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:30] It's again, like, this is why it's more interesting than the Harry Potter divisions because they have that whole like, Oh, only the Slytherins go bad. And here it's like anybody from any Aja could go bad. And the people who are like the cops who don't like, they might be, they might be good. They might be like good intention. And, and that's, what's so interesting to me about the wheel of time, which I think puts it above some other fantasy in, in some of these aspects is that the wheel of time makes

[00:20:57] you question like, how does good come together when we have a different idea of how to get there? And that feels much more real world to me than a lot of fantasy. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see some characters who do the wrong things for the right reasons. And then there's a lot of characters who, I don't know, it's hard to say, like, like gentling the men who go mad. Like, is that the right thing or is that the wrong thing? Depends on your perspective or what, if you think that there's any other option.

[00:21:27] Right. Yeah. Right. So the red, they are known as man haters. They never bond warders. The sister who leads the red Aja is titled the highest, of course, but, and they consider their highest to be equivalent to the Amarillyn seat within the red Aja. They respect her basically the same amount. And at the moment, that is Tsutama. We've seen that they had some private talks in the red chamber and Tsutama is the current

[00:21:56] head of the red Aja, not Aleda, who, new character, just introduced, advisor to the queen of Andor, played by Shover Agdashloo. She would like to be the highest, but she's currently not. Yeah. Aleda is a very interesting character. And I, I honestly, I thought she'd be younger just because of her demeanor in the books. Yeah. But I actually kind of like what they're doing here by changing that. Yeah.

[00:22:23] I think because she's, you know, she, she looks like when you first look at her next to Tsutama, you're like, oh, well, I'm going to defer to Aleda, Aleda, however. I guess they said Aleda in the episode. But actually, yeah, that's, that's not how, that creates a tension in the inner higher hierarchy of the red Aja, let alone the tower and beyond. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:22:46] And, and I, I mean, I, I think it's interesting because if, if an Aes Sedai is going to look as old as Aleda looks here, she must be like three or 400 years old. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Like we are, we are at that point and you go, well, does the, I don't think, that's why I think that you can't read that in. At least 200. In the books. Yeah. But, but I do think it makes sense here. It does seem, she seems to have some kind of like health issue going on. You think?

[00:23:16] Like what? Yeah. Oh, because she was shaking, right? Yeah, exactly. It made me think of, it made me think of Silo with a syndrome. Oh yeah. Yeah. And so. That's not a thing in the books. Yeah. Yeah. So they're, they're adding that and I think this could be really, we're getting into the episode now. We got to stop. Okay. Okay. So we've obviously, Leandrin is of the red Aja and also of the black clearly. And the other prominent red that we've met this season is Galena.

[00:23:42] So we saw Tsutama is the, is the leader of the Aja and Galena is the one who she was happy to accept the strawberries from Aleda. And she just seems a bit more, um, she seems a bit more, you know, deferential to Aleda. Yeah. Whereas Tsutama is like, don't step on my toes, bitch. But yeah, so red Aja. And then there's two more Ajas that have gotten the least screen time in the show, always get

[00:24:11] the least, uh, page time in the books. And that's the gray and the white. Um, I said that the gray is one of the ones that, that I could see myself as part of their purpose is diplomacy, politics, and negotiation. So when there's a big treaty negotiation between nations, you often want to call in a gray Aja member to help with that. Um, so far we've only really met one, which is Joya.

[00:24:38] Uh, she's, she's the bald girl who last season, um, pegged her, knew she was black Aja. She's revealed here as black Aja and she's now in the custody of the tower. Uh, and the sister who leads the gray Aja is titled the head clerk. Do you have any, anything else to add about the gray Aja at this point? Boring. I like, I mean, I think the gray Aja is important. The one that I like. Ooh, all right, I'm sorry.

[00:25:05] The one I like the, the least other than the reds is the white. Um, their purpose is logic and philosophy. Uh, so far we finally met the one really prominent, uh, book character from the white Aja, Alviarin. That was the third sister who was at Egwene's, um, testing for becoming accepted. And the sister who leads the white Aja is titled the first reasoner. Any thoughts on white?

[00:25:34] I mean, that's super pretentious. I'm the first reasoner. Yes. I'm the most logical. Um, but yeah. So how does it work when the accepted become sisters? They've got a, I mean, what, something that swans us sometime in the series, and I think it's later.

[00:25:56] So I don't want to spoil when, but she says like, you know, by the time you finish your, your trials, you, as an accepted, you, you will have already been guided to the right Aja, whether you know it or not.

[00:26:08] Um, yeah.

[00:26:37] Exactly. Yeah. You can't be refused entry to the Aja of your choice. But yeah, indeed. Well, you can, but just nobody ever does. Can you? Is it a lot? Yes. That was made very clear in the passage I read like last night. Okay. Okay. Okay. Well, we've seen, so far we've seen Nynaeve and Egwene take the test to go from novice to accepted.

[00:26:59] And so they go from wearing the novice white dresses to a new type of white dress that looks less like a servant and more like they have these rainbow banded armbands and stuff on their accepted white dresses. And then they get the serpent ring in the books. The serpent ring is just a serpent ring. In the TV show, the serpent ring has a setting for a stone, but it's empty when you're accepted. And you only get a stone the color of your Aja once you're accepted in the books.

[00:27:27] Instead, you get these shawls and the shawls have the fringe, the color of your Aja. So do you miss the shawls? I could go for a shawl. I like a good shawl. There's also the thing of like, it makes it very easy for an accepted to just like change hands of the ring and pretend to be Aes Sedai in the books.

[00:27:51] And we see in, I think it's episode three, that Egwene is being taken for Aes Sedai by the wise ones and doesn't correct them. Mm-hmm. I don't know. I don't think we ever saw her represent herself as that, but she certainly didn't correct them. No. Which, yeah, is fitting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, and some stop at accepted. If you attain the rank of accepted, then you can keep the ring and you can leave and you can still like come back to Tarvalon when you want.

[00:28:20] If you don't make it to accepted, then you're kicked out basically and you're gone. You're banished from Tarvalon. Can't sit with us. Yeah. It's over. Can't eat lunch with us. Can't play our reindeer games. But also like, I think I said this in our episode one podcast, like they definitely don't have as much freedom as they're portraying in the show. Right. In the books. Like Egwene's just like, I'm going to disobey the Amarlin seed. Yeah. I'm going to go exactly where I want. And you're like, it's fine.

[00:28:49] I think it works for what they're doing in the show. Again, they are reordering some plot lines and you just got to change some things. And, you know, the fact that Egwene is besties with, well, not even besties, dating the dragon reborn. You know, Swan is also a bit like, well, at least we do want. She knows that Egwene is going to play a big role in helping to influence the dragon in the future. So she has to stay on her good side. Right. Right.

[00:29:16] But yeah, so we saw, for instance, in the first season, we saw Amelisa, the princess, I guess, of Faldara. She had an empty ring because she became accepted, but not a sister. This season we saw Queen Morgaz. What do you say? Morgaze. Morgaze. And I think they said that in the show too. No, that's fair. I just pronounce it with a European A.

[00:29:39] Look, I'm just lucky that I've listened to some audiobooks because it does help a lot because I agree with you that there are definitely different interpretations you could make of the same name. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, she's another one who it's custom, they say in the episodes for the daughter heirs of Andor to study at the tower. But usually they just leave with an accepted ring. So that's why Elaine is hoping to become the first full sister Queen of Andor. Yeah.

[00:30:09] And I don't think they made this clear in the show, and I don't think they're going to, so I'm just going to say it. Like, Morgaze was not really powerful enough to become accepted even. They kind of just gave it to her as an honorary ring. Right. Yeah. Well, it's like she demands to Swan, like, just give my daughter the ring now. Like, well, everyone else has to take the test. Right, right. But in the books, I don't think Morgaze took the test. I don't know if they're implying that she did in the show. It could be different. But yeah, it's interesting.

[00:30:38] Like, Elaine is that much more powerful. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, which is, you know, there's this suddenly this new generation with Nynaeve, with Gwaine, with Elaine. Suddenly there's a lot more power than there used to be. And the dragon was born into that same generation. Is it a coincidence? I think not. Did you ever watch Arosa Development? Yeah. Did you watch season four with the reboot? I watched the whole thing, but I might not remember it as well as you.

[00:31:07] Do you remember Alia Shaka out singing with, like, Indian style music? She goes, coincidence. Okay, no. Well, I feel like I need to get a clip of that. Put that in some of our podcasts. Yeah. Yeah. It's called Taviran in this world. That's another. Yeah, right. That's another lore cast. I have always appreciated that we have, like, in-universe plot armor. And so it's not just the author, it's the world. Right.

[00:31:37] Exactly. Yeah, he wrote it into the plot. Yeah, that makes sense. And yeah, so we've also, we've seen the hall where there's, so obviously not all the sisters meet in the hall. They have three sitters. So they're kind of like the senators of their Ajahs, the three sitters. Mm-hmm. Interesting to note that at least each Ajah had at least one black sister we saw in episode one. So yeah, they were all the way infiltrated.

[00:32:06] Um, and often the heads of the Ajahs, we saw Tsutama, it does seem to be a sitter and the head of her Ajah, but in the books they make it clear that often the heads of the Ajahs are not one of the sitters. Uh, just to keep the heads of the Ajahs more hidden, I suppose. Right, right. Which makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and so what's the deal with the Amarlin and, uh, and the Brother Chronicles?

[00:32:31] Well, when you, well, we kind of already talked about this, but they, when they are raised to Amarlin, they give up their Ajah, they become, of all Ajahs and none, as you said. Uh, and it's, it's so, like, silly because they're supposed to do this. But everyone knows that they're going to favor the Ajah that they came from. Duh, yeah. Yeah, which, which you get it, you know?

[00:32:55] And, and generally, the Keeper of the Chronicles comes from the same Ajah as the Amarlin seat, although it's not a rule. Right, right, because the Amarlin gets to pick, sorry, gets to pick their own Keeper. Right. And then, uh, it has to be, like, voted on and ratified, basically. But, um, yeah, obviously they're going to choose one of their buddies. Yeah, yeah. That's your VP. Yeah. And then the Amarlin, to show they're of, uh, all and none.

[00:33:21] In the books, she wears a rainbow stole with all the stripes of the seven different Ajahs. In the show, we saw that worked into her clothing, into, like, her collar and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Um, what I find interesting is just all the politics within the tower, how some Ajahs get along better, and some are natural enemies. So, for instance, blue and green tend to be best friends. They both hate red and vice versa.

[00:33:46] Um, there's some really interesting politics going on between the blues, browns, grays, and yellows. Because, like, it's like, the browns have beef with the grays and yellows for, like, historical reasons. But, and the blues have some uneasiness with them, too. But the browns will support the grays over the blues, but they'll support the blues over the yellows. Like, it gets really complex. I don't know how much they'll go into that in the show.

[00:34:12] But, uh, I love all the politicking in the tower. I think they've actually quoted this in the show. I think Moraine might have said it. But, you know, they have the Game of Houses, Deus DeMar. We talked about that last season. And, and Moraine, I think, at one point says, you know, the Kyrianon might play the Game of Houses, but the Aes Sedai invented it. And so, uh, it's, it's, it's very complicated, the tower politics.

[00:34:36] And, and where, where I'm at in my reread right now, they are going into, like, other hierarchies within, within the Aes Sedai. And that's interesting, too. Like, the secret hierarchies. Right. Yeah. Which I, we probably could talk about here, but I don't want to spoil it in case they do it later. I don't think they're doing the thing in the show with, you mean based on, um, perceived power? Like, yeah. Capital P power? Yeah. Yeah, I don't think they're doing it in the show. I think we can say that. Okay.

[00:35:05] Well, then I'm going to say it. You know, there, there's this thing, because it's not like that big of a twist, right? It's just like, sisters can tell, you know, channelers of the same sex can tell with experience, like, how powerful another channeler is. Roughly. They're not, it's not always accurate. And so, sure, the, the head of an Aja is going to be above you and the sitters are going to be above you and the amurland is going to be above you.

[00:35:30] But if you are not any of those things, generally, your opinion matters as much as how powerful you are. Right, exactly. And then, so, that adds another twist when we have all these youngins coming in who suddenly have more power than all these sisters who have been there for a century or more. Right. It creates interesting dynamics. Right. Like, experience doesn't even play into, like, the hierarchy. It's really just power. Right. Yeah.

[00:35:57] I mean, I would say it's a complex web of all those things where, but power is definitely a big role because it's hard. It's undeniable if you were feeling like, well, that person can literally crush me. To quote Cersei Lannister, power is power. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And one thing they did for the show that I think was a good call, so in the books, it's common for members of an Aja to dress in the color of their Aja. It's common, but it's not, like, mandatory or universal or whatever.

[00:36:25] In this show, they basically always have the members dressed in the color of their Aja. And I think that's just important for visual storytelling and just making it easy when there's less time to get into all that. Yeah, I totally agree. That was a very good idea for, like, the people trying to keep track of who's in what Aja. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And then, so that brings in the wrinkle of the Black Aja, which is, like, it's like a second secret Aja.

[00:36:53] So, basically, you're a member of the Black Aja if you're sworn to the dark one, but you have to also be a member of another Aja publicly because people don't know you're a member of the Black Aja. You have a day job and a side gig. I get it. Yeah. Well, it's also, like, I think about, like, I have membership in the Potawatomi Nation, but I cannot have, that can't be my only nationality, you know?

[00:37:18] I have to have at least another internationally recognized passport as well. Right, and I get you. But, yeah, so they're sworn to the dark one, and part of that swearing is that they go through the painful process of breaking all three of their oaths that they swear when they become full sisters. So, that means they can lie, they can create weapons, and they can attack innocent people, as we see the Black Aja do in this first episode.

[00:37:44] And they're basically embedded in the tower as sleeper agents, and they have their own internal hierarchy where, and for the most part, I think in the books, it's like they're only, they have little cells of three sisters, I think, who know who each other are. And then one, each sister knows one other person in a different cell. Yep. They're called hearts. Hearts. You're right, sorry. Hearts. Mm-hmm.

[00:38:12] Yeah, it's a very secretive, like, it's deliberately decentralized so that you can not capture one and then get everybody. Right, right. Which is why it's interesting. So, Leandrin, she says, I will tell what I know, and they all attack her. Well, we find out that actually in the book, a lot of the sisters were directly connected to her heart. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The ones who jumped up and were like, okay, I guess we got her back. Yep, yep.

[00:38:41] Oh, we're doing it, we're doing it. Yeah, all right, here we go. She says, I tried, she says. I tried. Any other thoughts about the Aja's Black, or otherwise? I think we'll develop it further over the season. It's always tricky when we've read all the books and we don't want to spoil things. But honestly, I don't think you learn that much more about the Aja's beyond this. Like, this is a pretty good, solid overview of everything that you need to know.

[00:39:11] Right, exactly. Yeah, I mean, basically, we're explaining the chess pieces, but then the show is going to show how the game plays out. Yes, and I'm finishing up the show guide as we're recording, but I'm going to be putting the affiliation of each sister on their character page in the show guide that's for subscribers only. Okay, cool. Okay. Yep. And as far as, yeah, we're just keeping, this is a short one. The next one is probably going to be a bit longer.

[00:39:40] We're talking about geography and this entire world. But all the stuff we said in the public podcast still applies. We won't waste too much time with telling you everything that's going on in the network. It's the same stuff. But do explore the link tree with links to the affiliate podcasts and, of course, the Severance feed and links to the season pass if you want to hear more of these lore casts. And I think we're going to have maybe a couple other extra episodes in the works. Yeah. I know. We're cooking.

[00:40:10] We're cooking in here. We're cooking. And Discord, come chat with us on Discord. We have a whole Wheel of Time forum set up with different chats with spoilers for different episodes and a book spoiler chat and everything. Very cool. And send your feedback in to WOT, W-O-T, at thelorehounds.com, and we will do a couple of mailbag episodes this season as well. We should have made a funny email for this one. We should have been like, Rand is a tool at thelorehounds.com.

[00:40:40] Ooh. That'll generate emails on its own. It sure will. I do not think Rand is a tool. No, but he can be a tool for sure. He's a whiner. He whines sometimes. He can be a real tool. I called him a dog. That's D-A-W-G, but not in the cool homie way. I was watching the episode. I was talking to my wife. And she goes, why is this guy just like a chick magnet? Like, what's going on here?

[00:41:11] Rand, penny dropper Al Thor. He's Deheeran. Well, that's enough for me today. All right. Do you want to do the reading of the names? Sure. We have our Discord server boosters. Aaron K. Taylor, the Thriller, Dork of the Ninjas, Dove 71, Athena A, Tina Lestu, Nancy M, Ghost of Partition and Radio Active Richard. Thank you for supporting the server and getting us also these bonus features.

[00:41:40] And Lore Masters, the Martian, Michael G, Michelle E, Brian P, SC, Peter OH, Bettina W, Adam S, Dancy M, Dove 71, Brian 8063, Frederick H, Sarah L, Gareth C, Matthew M, Sarah M, DJ Miwa, Andra B, Kwong Yu, Dead Eye Jedi Bob, Nathan T, Alex V, Sub Zero, Aaron K, Dally V, Mothership 61, Narls, Kathy W.

[00:42:06] Lestu, Jeffrey B, Elisa Yu, Neil F, Ben B, Scott F, Stephen N, Julia F, Kali S, Gilmariel, and Adrian. Thanks, everyone, for all the support. And we'll see you on the geography episode. All right. See you in Randalland. The Lore Hounds Podcast is produced and published by The Lore Hounds. You can send questions, feedback, and voicemails at thelorehounds.com slash contact.

[00:42:32] Get early and ad-free access to all our episodes at patreon.com slash thelorehounds. Any opinions stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other entities. The Wheel of Time turns and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. In one podcast called The Lore Hounds by Some, a weekly recap with tons of analysis,

[00:42:59] two Wheel of Time superfans will lead you through a world of powerful magic, tricky prophecies, and cutthroat politics. Join me, John, and my co-host, Alicia, for weekly coverage of Season 3 by searching your podcast app for The Lore Hounds. Dovyeandi se tovassegin. It's time to roll the dice.