Sea Folk: More properly, the Atha’an Miere (ah-thah-AHN mee-AIR), the People of the Sea. Inhabitants of islands in the Aryth (AH-rihth) Ocean and the Sea of Storms, they spend little time on those islands, living most of their lives on their ships. Most seaborne trade is carried by the Sea Folk’s ships.
Seanchan (SHAWN-CHAN): (1) Descendants of the armies Artur Hawkwing sent across the Aryth Ocean. (2) The land from which the Seanchan come.
Selene (seh-LEEN): A name used by the Forsaken called Lanfear.
Servants, Hall of the: In the Age of Legends, the great meeting hall of the Aes Sedai.
Shadar Logoth (SHAH-dahr LOH-goth): A city abandoned and shunned since the Trolloc Wars. It is tainted ground, and not a pebble of it is safe.
Shai’tan (SHAY-ih-TAN): See Dark One.
Shayol Ghul (SHAY-ol GHOOL): A mountain in the Blasted Lands, the site of the Dark One’s prison.
Sheriam (SHEER-ee-ahm): An Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah. The Mistress of Novices in the White Tower.
Siuan Sanche (SWAHN SAHN-chay): The daughter of a Tairen fisherman, she was, according to Tairen law, put on a ship to Tar Valon before the second sunset after it was discovered that she had the potential to channel. Formerly of the Blue Ajah. Raised to the Amyrlin Seat in 988 NE.
Soulless: See Gray Man.
span: See length, units of.
Spine of the World, the: A towering mountain range, with only a few passes, which separates the Aiel Waste from the lands to the west.
stedding (STEHD-ding): An Ogier (OH-geer) homeland. Many stedding have been abandoned since the Breaking of the World. They are shielded in some way, no longer understood, so that within them no Aes Sedai can channel the One Power, nor even sense that the True Source exists. Attempts to wield the One Power from outside a stedding have no effect inside a stedding boundary. No Trolloc will enter a stedding unless driven, and even a Myrddraal will do so only at the greatest need and then with the greatest reluctance and distaste. Even Darkfriends, if truly dedicated, feel uncomfortable within a stedding.
stilling: The act, performed by Aes Sedai, of shutting off a woman who can channel from the One Power. A woman who has been stilled can sense the True Source, but she cannot touch it. So seldom has it been done that novices are required to learn the names and crimes of all women who have suffered it.
Stone Dogs: See Aiel warrior societies.
Stone of Tear: A great fortress in the city of Tear, said to have been made soon after the Breaking of the World, and to have been made using the One Power. It has been besieged or attacked countless times, but never successfully. The Stone is mentioned twice in the Prophecies of the Dragon. Once they say the Stone will never fall until the People of the Dragon come. In another place, they say the Stone will never fall until the Dragon’s hand wields the Sword That Cannot Be Touched, Callandor. Some believe that these Prophecies account for the antipathy of the High Lords to the One Power, and for the Tairen law that forbids channeling. Despite this antipathy, the Stone contains a collection of an’greal and ter’angreal rivaling that of the White Tower, a collection which was gathered, some say, in an attempt to diminish the glare of possessing Callandor.
Sunday: A feastday and festival in midsummer, widely celebrated in many parts of the world.
sung wood: See Treesinger.
Talents: Abilities in the use of the One Power in specific areas. The best known of these, of course, is Healing. Some, such as Traveling, the ability to shift oneself from one place to another without crossing the intervening space, have been lost. Others such as Foretelling (the ability to foretell future events, but in a general way) are now found only rarely if at all. Another Talent long thought lost is Dreaming, which involves, among other things, interpreting the Dreamer’s dreams to foretell future events in more specific fashion than Foretelling does. Some Dreamers had the ability to enter Tel’aran’rhiod, the World of Dreams, and (it is said) even other people’s dreams. The last known Dreamer was Corianin Nedeal, who died in 526 NE.
ta’maral’ailen (tah-MAHR-ahl-EYE-lehn): In the Old Tongue, “Web of Destiny.” A great change in the Pattern of an Age, centered around one or more people who are ta’veren. See also Pattern of an Age; ta’veren.
Tanreall, Artur Paendrag (tahn-REE-ahl, AHR-tuhr PAY-ehn-DRAG): See Hawkwing, Artur.
Tarmon Gai’don (TAHR-mohn GAY-dohn): The Last Battle. See also Dragon, Prophecies of the; Horn of Valere.
ta’veren (tah-VEER-ehn): A person around whom the Wheel of Time weaves all surrounding life-threads, perhaps ALL life-threads, to form a Web of Destiny. See also Pattern of an Age.
Tear (TEER): A nation on the Sea of Storms. Also the capital city of that nation, a great seaport. The banner of Tear is three white crescent moons slanting across a field half red, half gold. See also Stone of Tear.
Telamon, Lews Therin (TEHL-ah-mon, LOOZ THEH-rihn): See Dragon, the.
Tel’aran’rhiod (tel-AYE-rahn-rhee-ODD): In the Old Tongue, “the Unseen World,” or “the World of Dreams.” A world glimpsed in dreams which was believed by the ancients to permeate and surround all other possible worlds. Unlike other dreams, what happens to living things in the World of Dreams is real; a wound taken there will still be there on awakening, and one who dies there does not wake at all.
ter’angreal (TEER-ahn-GREE-ahl): Any one of a number of remnants of the Age of Legends that use the One Power. Unlike angreal and sa’angreal, each ter’angreal was made to do a particular thing. For example, one makes oaths taken with it binding. Some ter’angreal are used by Aes Sedai, but the original purposes of many others are largely unknown. Some will kill or destroy the ability to channel of any woman who uses them. See also angreal; sa’angreal.
Tigraine (tee-GRAIN): As Daughter-Heir of Andor, she married Taringail Damodred and bore his son Galadedrid. Her disappearance in 972 NE, shortly after her brother Luc vanished in the Blight, led to the struggle in Andor called the Succession, and caused the events in Cairhien that eventually brought on the Aiel War. Her sign was a woman’s hand gripping a thorny rose stem with a white blossom.
Time of Madness: The years after the Dark One’s counterstroke tainted the male half of the True Source, when male Aes Sedai went mad and Broke the world. The exact duration of this period is unknown, but it is believed to have lasted nearly one hundred years. It ended completely only with the death of the last male Aes Sedai. See also Hundred Companions; True Source; One Power.
Traveling People: See Tuatha’an.