The Wheel of Time Companion

by Robert Jordan

  Cellaech, Yasicca. An ancient scholar and Aes Sedai of the Brown Ajah who was the source of the quote “Incomplete knowledge is better than complete ignorance.”

  Cemaile Sorenthaine. An Aes Sedai of the Gray Ajah who served as Amyrlin from 681 to 705 NE. Cemaile was an Amyrlin of moderate strength in the beginning, but she was reduced to a weak Amyrlin, certainly one of the weakest ever if not the weakest. She had grand plans to restore the White Tower to its former greatness, but those went badly awry. While it was recorded only in the secret chronicles of the Tower, from 686 NE to her death in 705 NE she was no more than a puppet of the Hall, and her Keeper was in actual fact her guardian, set to watch over her by the Hall, from whom she was forced to take orders, albeit orders which originated in the Hall. It was recorded that “the largest decision she was allowed to make in that time was what dress to don in the morning, and even that was subject to change by her Keeper.”

  The appointing of a guardian was done through one of the secret laws of the Tower, those that prohibited even revealing the existence of the law. As a step short of removing an Amyrlin, the greater consensus of the Hall, convened in secret, could in effect remove everything but the title and place someone of their choosing and under their authority in what amounted to in loco parentis of the Amyrlin. This law was created after an Amyrlin became incapacitated during the Trolloc Wars, and the Tower did not want to reveal their troubles to the outside world. Despite—or perhaps because of—the specific reasons the law was created, its wording was broad enough to allow this to be done to not only an Amyrlin who had become mentally or physically incapacitated. but to one who, in the opinion of the Hall (the greater consensus), was no longer capable of carrying out her duties properly. According to the secret records of the White Tower, it was mainly because of the recent troublesome plots surrounding Shein Chunla that Cemaile was not removed and exiled, though there were certain indications that the Hall more and more grew to like the power given to them by having a true puppet on the Amyrlin Seat.

  cemaros. Great winter tempests coming off the Sea of Storms.

  Cemeille din Selaan Long Eyes. Sea Folk Sailmistress of the darter Wind Racer. Cemeille visited some of the Sea Folk Islands and discovered that the Amayar were committing mass suicide; she took that news to the First Twelve Wavemistresses meeting in Illian.

  Cenn Buie. A grumpy old thatcher in Emond’s Field and a member of the Village Council. Cenn was born in the summer of 932 NE. He was as gnarled and dark as an old root with a scratchy voice, beady eyes and thinning hair. He sometimes used a gnarled walking staff.

  Cera Doinal. A serving woman at the Sun Palace in Cairhien. She told Sashalle and Samitsu that people were saying that Dobraine had been attacked and murdered; she also said that she had seen Maringil’s ghost.

  Ceran Tol. The creator of “Tempo of Infinity,” an art piece from the Age of Legends.

  Cerandin. A pale-haired Seanchan morat’s’redit. After the battle at Falme, she was left behind but managed to hang on to three s’redit, one a calf, and later joined Valan Luca’s show. She called the animals boar-horses, at Luca’s suggestion, and said they came from Shara. Luca’s show was in Ebou Dar when the city fell to the Seanchan. For keeping her animals through such difficulties and showing great honor and perseverance, Cerandin was rewarded, possibly (though not probably) by being raised to the lowest levels of the Blood and most certainly by being named der’morat’s’redit. She managed to obtain written permission for Luca to keep his horses, despite the Seanchan buying up any and all left and right, and also to travel where he wished without interference.

  Cerano, Sillia. See Sillia Cerano

  Ceri. A pregnant servant in Lady Arilyn’s Cairhienin palace. The Aes Sedai embassy that Elaida had sent to Cairhien to escort Rand back to the White Tower were staying with Lady Arilyn. Egwene went to the palace and, detecting channeling inside, used Air and Fire to replicate Moiraine’s eavesdropping trick on the inside, and learned of Ceri’s pregnancy in the process.

  Cerilla Marodred. An Aes Sedai of the Gray Ajah who served as Amyrlin between 454 and 476 NE. Cerilla was a moderately strong Amyrlin. She negotiated the Tower’s way out of the situations in which Ishara had enmeshed it. Her strength came in large part from her ability to do that. In most other ways, the Hall ran the White Tower and the Aes Sedai. Cerilla’s interest and passion lay in the outside world. In truth, though, overt Tower influence in the world, which had grown one way and another from Suilin Escanda to Ishara Nawan, began to decline once more during her reign.

  Cerindra. One of Amathera’s tirewomen in Tanchico. Amathera dismissed her for theft, leaving her willing to spread lies about her former employer.

  Cetalia Delarme. A Taraboner Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah with a strength level of 14(2). She was a tall, square-faced woman with steel-gray hair in a multitude of blue-beaded braids that hung to her waist. At the time of the Aiel War she was the head of the Blue Ajah’s eyes-and-ears; she coopted Siuan Sanche almost as soon as Siuan gained the shawl after learning of Siuan’s skill with puzzles, and she managed to intimidate the young Siuan Sanche quite thoroughly. When Siuan returned from her unauthorized expedition to the Borderlands, Cetalia made sure that Siuan regretted very much taking French leave. Cetalia was murdered by the Black Ajah.

  Cha Faile. An Old Tongue phrase meaning Falcon’s Talon or Claw. It was the name of Faile’s group of followers. They understood that they were to keep the name to themselves. They all dressed in men’s clothing and wore a sword at the hip. Men and women alike wore their hair to their shoulders, but gathered in the back with a ribbon in imitation of the Aiel “tail.” They were arrogant in everything, even how they walked, the women more so than the men. The Aiel decided to give some of this lot a taste of being gai’shain for real after a fight in the streets of Cairhien; they were stripped down and made to wait just like captives after a fight between Aiel. The result was not what the Aiel had hoped. Those so treated took it as a point of honor, something to be proud of; they told others they couldn’t really know ji’e’toh until they had been captured by the Aiel. On departing for Ghealdan, Faile told Perrin she had taken these people into her service because they would have gotten into trouble in Cairhien; he was to think of them as charity and she would keep them from getting under his feet. Once in Ghealdan, he saw that they numbered more than two dozen young men and women. They served as spies for Faile, and after Faile was taken by the Shaido, Perrin coopted them to some extent, using them as spies through Sebban Balwer. At that point there were twenty-five with Perrin. Some members of Cha Faile accompanied Faile on her mission to retrieve the Horn of Valere.

  Chachin. The capital city of Kandor, as large as Tear or Far Madding. It was also called “the Three Mountains” because it was built around three large mountains, each close to a mile high even with its top flattened. The city was ringed by a triple wall with towers, and that by a drymoat a hundred paces wide crossed by a dozen stone bridges, each with a fortress at its mouth. The mountains of the city were all terraced. Every level of the terraces contained trees, and some were given over almost entirely to orchards or parks, with orchards predominating. Garden plots were also plentiful.

  Many springs rose on each of the mountains, and their streams were dammed, producing several large reservoirs. Chachin never ran short of water in even the severest drought.

  Chachin was also called “the City of the Clouds,” though none of the mountains were high enough to have clouds around their tops. The highest of the three was occupied by the Aesdaishar Palace, which covered an area of 50 hides—more than 100 acres. The second highest held the fortress, on an area of about 75 hides—approximately 150 acres. The lowest, which held the palaces of the highest nobles crowded together, had a leveled area on top of approximately 100 hides—about 200 acres.

  Chadmar, Milisair. See Milisair Chadmar

  Chaelin. A Wise One of the Smoke Water sept of the Miagoma Aiel who had the ability to channel and a strength level of 19(
7). She had red hair with faint touches of gray and was over two hundred years old, almost as old as Sorilea, although she appeared to be in her thirties. She went to Dumai’s Wells from Cairhien and afterward taught the Aes Sedai pledged to Rand in Cairhien as apprentices to the Wise Ones.

  Chaena. A Shienaran soldier following Ingtar when he and Perrin pursued the Horn of Valere to Falme. He wintered in the Mountains of Mist with Perrin and Rand; then, after Rand left and the Shienarans were abandoned to make their own way, he was with Masema in Samara.

  Chaendaer. A mountain above Rhuidean in the Aiel Waste. It was the site of the Portal Stone that Rand used to get to the Waste, and the location where he met the Aiel Wise Ones.

  Chai Rugan. An Aes Sedai of the Brown Ajah publicly and of the Black Ajah in truth. She was a member of the loyalist contingent. Her name was found on Verin’s list of the Black Ajah, but she fled the Tower before she could be captured.

  Chain Ridge Stand. A water hole in the Aiel Waste. At Alcair Dal, Jheran wanted to discuss the water at Chain Ridge Stand while waiting on Rand to arrive.

  chainleaf. A plant used as a medicinal tea to relieve a queasy stomach.

  Chair of Remorse, The. A ter’angreal in the White Tower, used for punishment and confession. It was noted that thieves caught in Tar Valon, and other criminals as well, were taken to the White Tower, and that when they were released, they inevitably left the city as fast as they could. A fair number actually gave up lives of crime. The reason for this behavior was the Chair of Remorse.

  The Chair appeared to be made of stone in a soothing shade of white, but it felt softer than stone to the touch. In appearance, it seemed to be more of an inclined bench made for reclining upon than a chair, with solid arms on which the person using it could rest his or her arms. When someone reclined on the Chair of Remorse, it took the first action on its own, without any other intervention, after an interval of perhaps twenty or thirty seconds. First the chair molded itself to the person’s body; this stopped and reversed if the person sat up, but it didn’t matter if someone was bound and held down. The person reclining on the Chair fell into a sort of trance. Without an Aes Sedai, nothing more happened. It was learned long ago, though, that by channeling in a certain way, to certain spots on the Chair, a sort of link was established. The Aes Sedai then thought of a scenario; the person in the Chair then experienced this scenario fully fleshed out and starring themselves, in part like a movie (i.e., with jumps and cuts, with “understandings” of what had happened between), but also as if actually living the experience. At the end of the scenario, the person came out of the trance with memories of the experience as if they had actually lived it, and with some physical reminders, too, on the order of slight tiredness if great labor was done, or slight soreness if they had been wounded or struck. For someone with no idea of what the Chair was except that it was used by Aes Sedai, it was impossible to be sure that the events were not real, despite the lack of real physical effects. Given that the people placed on the Chair were there for punishment, with scenarios chosen for that purpose, usually entailing dire consequences of the actions that brought them there, the overall effect on wrongdoers was not at all surprising, especially when one considered that each person was generally sent through a number of such scenarios.

  The use of the chair on any initiate of the Tower was absolutely forbidden by law. It could, however, be used on a servant caught stealing, for example.

  The Chair of Remorse was in fact an entertainment device from the Age of Legends, employing a sort of virtual reality tied straight into the brain. While Aes Sedai could see that the device drew on saidar as soon as someone sat on it, they did not know that it also drew on saidin, which was what gave the scenarios a particularly grim, dark and foreboding feel under any circumstances. There was a way to place “cartridges,” like video discs which carried various story lines, into the device, and it actually contained a very large library of stories—the previous owner’s library—which the Aes Sedai had never accessed and were not aware of. The manner the Aes Sedai had found to make use of the device—implanting a scenario manually, as it were—was not a designed feature of the ter’angreal in the Age of Legends. Whether the ability to do this resulted from some deterioration of the device through age or through some modification that was made on it during the Age of Legends was not known.

  The Black Ajah hunters in the White Tower, including Pevara, Seaine and Saerin, put the Black sister Talene Minly in the chair, forcing her through horrific experiences generated by the ter’angreal to retake the Three Oaths plus an oath of obedience to them.

  Chalinda. An alias Siuan suggested Min use when they were escaping from Bryne at Kore Springs; it was Old Tongue for “sweet girl.”

  Challenge. Gawyn’s horse, a gelding.

  Chalm. The warehouse district in Tear, adjoining the Maule.

  Chalwin, Kirstian. See Kirstian Chalwin

  Cham, Duram Laddel. Be’lal’s name during the Age of Legends.

  Chandar, Stedding. A stedding that was swallowed by the Blight in 31 NE.

  Chandin, Athan. A Two Rivers man with Perrin. He was a good shot with the bow, but he had a truckling manner which annoyed Perrin.

  Chandin, Ren. A Two Rivers man who joined Perrin’s band in the Two Rivers. He was killed in a Trolloc ambush.

  Chanelle din Seran White Shark. A fairly high-ranking Sea Folk Windfinder with a strength level of 19(7). Her honor-chain carried nearly as many golden medallions as Zaida’s. She was lean, dark-skinned and big-eyed. Windfinder to a Sailmistress who was one of the First Twelve, she was left in charge of the Windfinders remaining in Caemlyn. She did not want to provide a gateway for Birgitte to rescue Elayne from the Black Ajah, but Birgitte pointed out that if Elayne was lost, the Sea Folk bargain with her was lost. Birgitte then managed to persuade Chanelle and her circle to take out the members of the Black Ajah when they were using balefire. After being rescued, Elayne persuaded Chanelle to provide a gateway so that she could attack Arymilla’s back as Arymilla advanced against Caemlyn.

  Changu. A Darkfriend Shienaran soldier. He was one of the guards of Fain’s dungeon prison in Fal Dara and vanished when Fain escaped. Those pursuing the Horn of Valere found his body skinned and hanging from a tree.

  channeling. The act of controlling and using flows of the One Power that stem from the True Source. Among the advantages to being able to channel was a heightened resistance to disease. The stronger one was in the One Power, the more the resistance one had. There was a resistance to bodily deterioration also, as from the effects of aging. For someone who could channel, old age was youthful and vigorous, lacking the aches and pains normal to those who could not.

  Chansein. A feast celebrated on the third day of Jumara in the Borderlands and Arad Doman. A day of wild indulgence in food, its object seemed to be to get other people to eat as much as they could hold and more. People carried hot pastries filled with meat or dried fruit, sometimes stuffing their pockets or actually carrying bags, and handed them out to everyone they saw. It was considered extremely ill-mannered to fail to eat every crumb.

  Chanti, Stedding. A stedding located in the Spine of the World.

  Chaos, Numbers of. A body of knowledge required to build the Portal Stones; part of this process consisted of laying the Lines that joined the Worlds That Might Be.

  Charal Drianaan te Calamon, The Cycle of the Dragon. A text written by an anonymous author in the Fourth Age.

  Chareen. An Aiel clan. Erim was its clan chief.

  Charel. A good-looking young groom in the White Tower stables. He was used by Sheriam in 981 NE to help break Theodrin’s block which prevented her from channeling unless there was a man present for whom she had strong feelings. Charel had a gorgeous smile and made eyes at Theodrin. He was allowed to sit in on her lessons so that she could channel, but after a few times his twin sister Marel was substituted and thus broke Theodrin’s block.

  Charendin. An Aiel sept chief during the building of Rhuidean.
He and Mandein had nearly killed each other three times; Charendin bore a long scar on his face from one of those encounters. Rand saw him as part of his visions through the glass columns in Rhuidean.

  Charin, Jain. See Jain Farstrider

  Charin, Noal. See Noal Charin

  Charl Gedwyn. An Asha’man and Darkfriend of Taim’s faction. He was a hard-faced young man with a grimly challenging look, about 5'11" tall, with dark brown hair and brown eyes, a few years older than Rand. He held the rank Tsorovan’m’hael, Old Tongue for “Storm Leader,” which indicated that he was second to Taim. After the attack on Rand in Cairhien failed, he was placed on the deserters list at the Black Tower. Gedwyn went to Far Madding to kill Rand, but was murdered by Padan Fain instead.

  Charlin. A young Jenn Aiel from the time after the Breaking. He was killed while saving two girls from bandits; his Jenn Aiel companions used weapons, and were cast out by their families. Rand saw him as part of his visions through the glass columns in Rhuidean.

  Charlz Guybon. An officer in Elayne’s Queen’s Guard. Extremely good-looking, he was tall, broad-shouldered and well short of his middle years with greenish hazel eyes. A lieutenant when he left Aringill, he traveled toward Caemlyn, recruiting all the way. He arrived with 4,762 of the Guards and sufficient nobles with their armsmen to bring Elayne’s troop total up to near ten thousand. Elayne immediately promoted him to captain, and Birgitte named him her second. When they were trying to rescue Elayne from the Black Ajah, he charged bravely even though the Black Ajah was using the balefire ter’angreal and wiping out large numbers of his troops. He distinguished himself in the fight against Arymilla’s troops outside Caemlyn. When the Trollocs invaded Caemlyn, he defended the palace until Talmanes convinced him to help save the dragons. In the Last Battle, his horse was balefired, but he survived.