The Wheel of Time Companion

by Robert Jordan

  Stag’s Stand. The highest hill in Canluum, Kandor, where Lord Marcasiev’s palace stood.

  Stair of Jehaan. A place where the Borderland armies successfully checked the advance of the Shadowspawn following the destruction of Malkier.

  Standardbearer. A Seanchan rank equivalent to Bannerman. A Standardbearer’s helmet had a small crest like a bronze arrowhead on its front.

  standing flows. A technology from the Age of Legends that maintained the continual flow of the One Power in relation to specific objects, allowing many ter’angreal to be used by those unable to channel.

  Stang, Kairen. See Kairen Stang

  Star, The. A large wooden four-storied inn located in Tear next to Ajala’s smithy. The innkeeper was Jurah Haret. Moiraine, Lan, Perrin, Loial and Faile lodged there while looking for Rand. There they found out that Be’lal had made himself a High Lord of Tear and that he intended to take Callandor from Rand after Rand removed it from the Heart of the Stone. Master Haret allowed the Black Ajah to leave the hedgehog ter’angreal in Moiraine’s private dining room; Faile triggered it, and Perrin had to rescue her in the wolf dream.

  starblaze. A plant that had deep red, wavy-petaled flowers. It was found in the gardens of the Royal Palace in Caemlyn. Cadsuane used an image of this flower on a piece of embroidery.

  stasis-box. High-tech device from the Age of Legends that preserved artifacts or extreme perishables by suspending time within the box.

  Staven. A soldier who died defending Ituralde at Maradon in Saldaea.

  Stayer. Perrin’s horse from Cairhien. A well-shod bay stallion from the Sun Palace stables, he was reddish with a black mane and tail and white forefeet. His training as a warhorse was not specifically established, but the horse was Cairhienin, where cavalry were important, and there were indications that he was well trained; he responded to leg pressure, and he backed away on command.

  Steady. A roan gelding belonging to Rodel Ituralde.

  steamwagon. A wagon that moved without horses; it was the invention of Mervin Poel, who was a member of the Academy of Cairhien. Steamwagons were used in the Last Battle to deliver supplies to the battlefronts.

  stedding. The habitat of Ogier, governed by a Council of Elders. There were forty-one inhabited stedding between the Aryth Ocean and the Aiel Waste, each with an average population of twelve thousand, although that varied considerably. Young stedding, such as Tsofu, had much smaller populations than old ones. There were more than fifty abandoned stedding. Stedding had special properties, including the inability of a channeler to use the One Power within their boundaries or from without.

  Trollocs would not enter a stedding unless driven by Myrddraal, and the Myrddraal rarely had the incentive to do so. Even Darkfriends, if truly dedicated, felt uncomfortable there.

  Aes Sedai also hated entering a stedding—not only could they not channel there, but they could not even feel the True Source.

  Ogier sickened and died if they remained Outside stedding too long.

  Steler. A bannerman in the Tower Guard. Tall and grizzled, with a deep gravelly voice, he led the group that escorted Moiraine and Siuan to collect the names of babies outside Tar Valon.

  Stepashin, Ester. See Ester Stepashin

  Stepin. One of Kerene’s Warders. He had narrow shoulders and sad brown eyes that made him look more like a clerk than a Warder. He could play the twelve-string bittern as skillfully as a hired musician.

  Stepper. Perrin’s dun stallion. As tall as any Tairen bloodstock, but heavier in shoulder and haunch, he had a yellowish hide and a black mane and tail. He was a trained warhorse, as demonstrated during the fighting in the Two Rivers.

  Steps. A young black-furred wolf that Perrin met in the wolf dream while searching for Slayer during the Last Battle.

  Stevan Gedarien. Demira Eriff’s Cairhienin Warder. He was 5'6" tall, and slender, with gray at his temples. Though he was twenty years younger than Demira, sometimes he tried to act like her father.

  Stick. A creature in the Blight. It looked like a stick and hid in leaves. If it was touched, it would bite and immediately begin digesting whatever was bitten. The only thing that could save one after that was amputating the arm or leg that was bitten.

  sticklesharp. A clinging vine with three-pronged leaves; Ferane grew them on her balcony, and their tendrils covered the inside of the stonework.

  stilling. The process of removing the ability of a woman to channel. It was thought to be permanent until Nynaeve Healed Siuan and Leane; Flinn Healed the three women stilled at Dumai’s Wells.

  Stinger. Silviana’s gelding that she rode during the Last Battle. She had trained Stinger not to be skittish around channeling.

  stingweed. A water plant that got tangled in fishing nets. It was mentioned by Mother Guenna in Tear.

  stinkadder. A snake that wriggled away from its own shadow.

  stinkweed. A plant, found in the Two Rivers and elsewhere, that left a rank smell on any boot that crushed it.

  Stone Anchor, Amel din Monaga. See Amel din Monaga Stone Anchor

  Stone Dogs. See Shae’en M’taal

  Stone of Tear. The immense fortress guarding the city of Tear from which the High Lords ruled. The Stone looked like a mountain that extended from the river west through the city wall, with battlements and towers and flying banners. The Heart of the Stone was the central citadel. It was said to be the earliest fortress built after the Time of Madness, and said by some to have been built during the Time of Madness, made with the One Power soon after the Breaking of the World. It was besieged or attacked countless times, but never successfully until it fell in a single night to the Dragon Reborn and a few hundred Aiel, thus fulfilling the Prophecies of the Dragon.

  The Stone was mentioned twice in the Prophecies: it was said that the Stone would never fall until the People of the Dragon came, and also that the Stone would never fall until the Dragon’s hand wielded the Sword That Cannot Be Touched, Callandor. Some believed that these Prophecies accounted for the antipathy of the High Lords to the One Power, and for the Tairen law that forbade channeling. Despite this antipathy, the Stone contained a collection of angreal and ter’angreal rivaling that stored in the White Tower, a collection which was gathered, some say, in an attempt to diminish the glare of possessing Callandor.

  Stone Verge. The large open space surrounding the Stone of Tear on three sides.

  Stoneboat. A Taren Ferry family name.

  Stonebow, Yurian. See Yurian Stonebow

  Stonebridge, Aeldene. See Aeldene Stonebridge

  stones. A board game played with stones on a lined board. In the Age of Legends, it was known as no’ri; in a much later age, it was known as Go.

  stones including gemstones. Stones and gemstones found in the world of The Wheel of Time were marble, golden Kandor marble, winter marble, white marble, heartstone (cuendillar), elstone, redstone, yellow and white opals, blue sapphires, black sapphires, yellow sapphires, yellow diamonds, carnelian, avatine, amber, pearls, firedrops, rubies, moonstone, catseye, sunstone, emeralds, garnets, amethyst, lapis and turquoise.

  Stones River. A dry riverbed in the Aiel Waste and also the name of a sept of the Goshien Aiel.

  Stormbringer. An old Sea Folk name for the Dark One; it was used by Birgitte.

  Storn, River. A river flowing southwest through Murandy to Lugard, where it joined the River Reisendrelle.

  Stout. Galad’s bay gelding, which he rode to his confrontation with Valda and afterward. Stout was killed when the Trollocs attacked the Whitecloaks on the Jehannah Road.

  Stranded Goose, The. An inn of three broad stories in Ebou Dar. It had a female innkeeper, as was true of most of the inns in Ebou Dar. Setalle Anan, Elayne and Nynaeve stopped there, as Setalle was stopping at many inns while taking Elayne and Nynaeve to the Knitting Circle, to tell the other innkeepers about these two foolish girls.

  Strang, Elise. See Elise Strang

  Strangers’ Markets. The three markets open to foreigners in Far Madding.
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br />   Street Guard. The police force of Far Madding who patrolled the streets in groups of three. The Street Guard relied mainly on long cudgels, sword-breakers, quarterstaffs and catchpoles. They carried no blade longer than a belt knife. When the Street Guard arrested someone, the detainee was bound wrists-to-ankles and put into a sack, which was then slung from a pole carried on the shoulders of two men.

  Street of Joy. A main thoroughfare in Far Madding. It was really two broad straight streets separated by a measured row of leafless gray-barked trees.

  streith. A fabric that changed color with the wearer’s emotions and also changed from opaque to transparent mist. It was common in the Age of Legends; Graendal found a stash of it in a stasis-box.

  strength in the One Power. Strength in the One Power varied greatly across individuals. Men strong in the Power were usually considerably stronger than women strong in the Power. This is not to say that some women were not stronger than some men, just that the general form ran the other way.

  This strength was a matter of the sheer raw amount of the One Power that could be drawn. In kind, there was nothing a man could do with any part of the Power that a woman could not, and vice versa. There were, however, areas where women showed greater abilities and areas where men did. Additionally, of the Five Powers—Earth, Air (or Wind), Fire, Water and Spirit—women generally had the greatest strength and ability in Air and/or Water, while men generally had the greatest in Earth and/or Fire. That is to say, men were generally much more adept than women in weaving Fire and Earth; they were usually able to handle much more of these as well, which followed from their greater raw strength. Women were generally much more adept than men in weaving Air and Water; despite men’s greater raw strength, in these two areas women were in general stronger than men. Ability in Spirit was usually considered to be equally divided; there seemed to be no advantage, either male or female.

  Women who could channel could sense the ability in one another and also sense their relative strengths. Among women, the eventual strength of a testee was determined in the first testing. It would take time for her to reach it—and indeed, if she did not work, it was possible that she would not reach it, because it was a potential—but the limits of her strength were known up front. No one ever surpassed the detected limit. Female strength usually—but not always—grew in a smooth progression, and often the stronger she would eventually become, the more quickly it grew. This was not a hard and fast rule, though. Forcing, which was forcing the woman to use more of the Power and do more, could bring on faster increases in strength, but it also ran the greatly increased risk of burnout or death. There were also frequent individual variations in this speed of growth. Hierarchy among Aes Sedai was based in part on relative strength.

  Among men, there was no way of knowing how strong a beginner would become. It was not unusual for men to show as much raw strength at their first testing as a woman who had worked for some time, but there was no way to know how far he would go beyond that, if at all, or how long it would take him to reach his upper limit. Male strength levels usually, but not always, increased in spurts and plateaus, with the intensity and duration of the spurts, as well as the duration of the plateaus, generally uneven. Thus a man might test stronger than a woman only to see her pass him, then spurt to pass her, then have her pass him again because he reached a plateau; this could repeat a number of times until their full strengths were reached. Needless to say, as with women, a man who did not work hard would not go as far as he might otherwise, but in his case, no one would ever be sure that he had not reached his full potential.

  Men usually took longer to reach their full strength than women did. Most women took about ten years to do so. It was very likely no coincidence that this was the same amount of time most novices took to be raised Accepted, although the correlation was not exact. Women sometimes reached their peak strength and remained novices because they had not learned enough or gained sufficient skill, while others were raised Accepted or even Aes Sedai while still short of that peak. It was learning and skill, not strength, that were the keys there. Again, this was not a hard and fast rule; some women took as long as fifteen years to achieve full strength, while a few managed it in as little as seven or eight. Most men took about fifteen years to reach peak strength. For both men and women, of course, the rate of increase in strength could be sped up dramatically by forcing, but this also entailed danger of burnout or death. Men were somewhat more resistant to the dangers of forcing than women, but not by a large amount.

  For some reason, the age when a man or woman began to channel seemed to make a difference in their rate of progress. While a given person’s peak strength would be the same whether he or she began learning at fifteen or at fifty, would reach that peak faster at an older age.

  Among both men and women strength and skill were not the same thing. It was possible for one person to have great raw strength yet be less effective in many situations than another who had lesser strength but greater dexterity with the flows or greater knowledge in using them. While there were limits to strength for anyone—there was a certain upper limit which could never be surpassed—there were no real limits to increasing skill. Anyone could increase their knowledge, though of course, some would have greater ability to increase dexterity with the flows than others. Having been born with the inherent spark apparently was not an indicator of strength. There were as many with weak potential who would channel whether they were taught or not as there were with great potential.

  Before the appearance of Elayne, Egwene, Nynaeve, Aviendha and Nicola, there were 60 base levels of strength, each of which had internal gradations, for women who were strong enough to be raised to the shawl. After their appearance, there were 72 base levels.

  The earlier distribution of Aes Sedai strengths thus ran from 1 to 60, which became 13 to 72. Women below the lowest level at which someone could become Aes Sedai were trained, but with the knowledge that they would be put out; a few received the ring for political reasons, as with Morgase. There was, of course, also the need to consider Aes Sedai reluctance to let go of a woman once they had their hands on her. Non–Aes Sedai changed this distribution to a considerable extent. Both Atha’an Miere Windfinders and Aiel Wise Ones had no lower limit for full acceptance in their organizations.

  Rating men against this scale (that is, comparing strength in saidin to strength in saidar), there were an additional six possible levels for men at the top end. While this was true in terms of bulk amounts of the Power that men could handle, certain vulnerabilities on the part of men, and others on the part of women, made a direct comparison difficult at best. Still, one-on-one, looking only at pure strength and avoiding the advantages of dexterity, length of practice and skill, the top level for a man was usually no more than a match for the top level for a woman.

  Thus the strongest man would be ++1, the 800-year level in aging. Ranks ++2 to ++6 would have an aging range of 720 to 800 years. The strongest woman would be 1(+12), with a life expectancy of around 800 years; a man of the same rough level, which was 7, would have a life expectancy of 720 years.

  There were considerable variations between individuals, but in rough form it could be said that there was a parallel between strength and longevity, minus the effects of a binder such as the Oath Rod. All age levels given were approximations, with considerable room for variation among individuals. For example, at the so-called 800-year level, a person could reasonably be expected to live to between roughly 775 and 825 years of age, with some making it to 850, and a very few making it to as much as 900. Strength level 56(44) was the 300-year age level, 67(55) the 200-year age level, and the bottom level, 72(60), approximately the 150-year level for women. The male equivalents were approximately the 240-year, 180-year, and 135-year levels for men.

  A given strength level did not produce the same degree of longevity for a man as for a woman. At any given level of equality, a woman would live longer. In general, a man at any given strength would have a norm
al lifespan roughly ten percent less than that of a woman of that strength. The range of longevity was the same, though, with men at their top level having a life expectancy of 800 years or so, within the range of the bell curves.

  While there were six additional levels for men above those for women, the disparity was not as great as it seemed, measuring the bulk quantity of the One Power that a person could handle. Adding in the greater dexterity of women in weaving, a woman at the top level might well be roughly equal to a man in the top level in a stand-up one-on-one fight.

  strikers. An invention of Aludra’s. Small sticks with rough blue-gray heads that produced a flame when rubbed against something rough, they had to be packed carefully; if they rubbed against each other they could burst into flame on their own. She also called them “firesticks.”

  Strom. A strongarm at The Dancing Cartman in Four Kings, Andor. Strom was hard-faced, big and had arms that were thick enough for legs. His crooked teeth were yellow. He and Jak threw people out of the inn if they caused trouble, and the two also planned to help Hake, the innkeeper, rob Rand and Mat. The Darkfriend Howal Gode gave Jak, Strom and Hake something to make them sleep while he tried his pitch on Rand.

  Study of Men, Women and the One Power Among Humans, A. A book by the Ogier Ledar son of Shandin son of Koimal; Loial considered it one of the best about Aes Sedai dealing with men who could channel. It was written around 700 NE.

  Study of the War of the Shadow, A. A book by the Ogier Moilin daughter of Hamada daughter of Juendan; in it Be’lal was referred to as the Netweaver.

  Stump. What Ogier called a meeting where they discussed and debated momentous topics; it was also called the Great Stump. The Great Stump held at Stedding Shangtai debated whether or not the Ogier should open the Book of Translation before Tarmon Gai’don, thus returning them to the alternate world from which they had come; the Ogier decided to stay and fight to help the humans.