Aludra Nendenhald

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The full name was not recorded in the main series, but was given in the Wheel of Time Companion. Other information about the character is also included in the Companion, but we did not use it in the TarValon.Net Library.


Author: Kyria d'Oreyn

General

Aludra is an Illuminator from Tarabon and was Mistress of the Chapter House in Cairhien. She is a slender, dark-eyed woman in her thirties with dark waist-length hair in the Taraboner fashion of thin, brightly beaded braids (TDR, Ch. 40). She does not wear the braids when she demonstrates her dragons to Elayne (ToM, Ch. 29).

Since there is no Guild in Tarabon anymore, Aludra travels with Valan Luca's Circus (WH, Ch. 15). She gives daily displays of her nightflowers when they are outside of towns (KoD, Ch. 6).

She came up with the idea of using bronze lofting tubes - "dragons", as she calls them - in battle. She intends to use them on the Seanchan for destroying the Guild of Illuminators in Tarabon (KoD, Ch. 8; Ch. 37).

Mat thinks her a little crazy because of the way she treats the explosives (TGS, Ch. 34).

Timeline

  • She grew up in the Guild of Illuminators (KoD, Ch. 8).
  • She was the Mistress of the Chapter House in Cairhien until Rand, Selene, and Loial set off the Guild's display they had prepared for King Galldrian and destroyed a big part of the house (TGH, Ch. 27).
  • After the incident, she is cast out of the Guild but continues to make fireworks. Tammuz and some other Illuminators follow her to Aringill intending to kill her. Mat saves her from them, and she rewards him with some of her fireworks (TDR, Ch. 40).
  • She produces lots of firesticks and wants everybody to try them out (TFoH, Ch. 33).
  • She bids farewell to Elayne and Nynaeve and gives them two boxes of firesticks before they leave the menagerie (TFoH, Ch. 48).
  • Mat wants to find out about Aludra's fireworks. After a while she gives him a puzzle: he is to figure out what use she could have for a bellfounder (WH, Ch. 15).
  • When Luca's circus arrives in Jurador, Mat spots Aludra talking to a salt merchant (CoT, Ch. 29).
  • When Mat comes back from a walk to Jurador, he spots Aludra taking on wagonloads of barrels (KoD, Ch. 6).
  • Mat goes to her wagon to tell Aludra that he finally figured out why she wants a bellfounder. She then tells him about what she intends with her dragons and agrees to go with Mat when he leaves the menagerie if he helps her to get her dragons made (KoD, Ch. 8).
  • In the battle against the Seanchan who were set to abduct or kill Tuon, she provides Mat's crossbowmen with grenades and fires her dragon herself (KoD, Ch. 37).
  • Leilwin tells Mat he should show Aludra respect, rather than being so flippant (TGS, Ch. 34).
  • She is faintly uncomfortable with Mat since his marriage but wishes him happiness (TGS, Ch. 34).
  • She supervises the use of the dragons outside Caemlyn (AMoL, Ch. 10).
  • She and the Band move to an inaccessible cavern (AMoL, Ch. 13).
  • She and the Band use the dragons to finish off the fleeing Trollocs (AMoL, Ch. 41).

Miscellaneous

  • She carries a slim-bladed dagger at her belt (TDR, Ch. 40).
  • Egwene has a dream about Mat bowling and killing people with every toss. An Illuminator is somehow connected (CoT, Ch. 20).
  • She likes giving her inventions fancy names (KoD, Ch. 37).
  • She requires charcoal, sulfur, bat guano, copper, and tin and has said she will need every bellfounder from Andor to Tear and all the copper and tin (TGS, Ch. 34).
  • Before the first test, she has the bellfounders recast them three times to get them perfect. She gives Elayne an oath to keep the plans secret (ToM, Ch. 29).

Quotes

Aludra had everyone trying out her strikers, or firesticks, or whatever she would decide to call them next. They certainly would light a fire or a lamp. They could also burst into flame if the blue-gray heads rubbed against each other or anything else rough. (Nynaeve; The Fires of Heaven, Chapter 33)

"Do you remember Aludra?"
Mat had to think. "The Illuminator we kept from getting her throat slit in Aringill?"
"The very one. Juilin and I met her during our travels, and she didn't know me. Not that she failed to recognize me; you say things to a stranger you travel with, to get to know them. Aludra did not want to know me, and even if I didn't know why, I saw no reason to impose. I met her a stranger and left her a stranger. Now, would you call her a friend or an enemy?"
"Maybe a lover," Mat said dryly. He would not mind meeting Aludra again; she had given him some fireworks that proved very useful.
(Thom and Mat about Aludra; Lord of Chaos, Chapter 44)

"So long as one Illuminator lives, the Guild, it lives too, and me, I still live." (Aludra; Winter's Heart, Chapter 15)

Mat attempted to make Aludra relent, but the woman might as well have been cast bronze herself. Well, she was considerably softer than bronze once she finally let him put an arm around her, yet kisses that left her trembling did nothing to slacken her resolve. (Mat about Aludra; Winter's Heart, Chapter 18)

With her dark hair in thin, beaded braids that hung to her waist, Aludra was probably the most exotic of Luca's marvels. He advertised her as an Illuminator, and unlike many of the other performers and marvels, she really was what Luca claimed, though Luca probably did not believe it himself. (Mat; Crossroads of Twilight, Chapter 2).

“Pessimism, she is a fond friend of yours, yes?” (To Mat; The Gathering Storm, Chapter 34).

“I don't want them to ... when Aludra taps one of those nightflowers the wrong way and blows herself halfway to Tarwin's Gap." (Mat; The Gathering Storm, Chapter 34)