Ageless Look
General
The Ageless Look is a feature Aes Sedai develop after wearing the shawl between two and five years (ACoS, Ch. 24). It is described as having a smooth face, which an observer cannot easily put an age to. It is most likely caused by the Oath Rod as one of the effects of this is to feel a tightening of the skin (NS, Ch. 11; TPoD, Ch. 26) and women who don't swear on the rod, such as forsaken, Wise Ones, damane, Windfinders, novices, Accepted, Wilders and the kin do not have it. When a woman is stilled, they quickly lose the look (CoT, Prologue).
Aes Sedai without it
There were a total of at least five Aes Sedai who kidnapped Rand that were too young to have the look.
- Amico (though there is some confusion here as Aviendha observes she loses the look after being stilled). Her age is corrected in later editions to fix this problem.
- Sareitha
- Turese
Those who have lost the look
Quotes
"The ageless face of Aes Sedai is well known. One who is old enough to be a great-grandmother may have only a few gray hairs, and will have no lines or wrinkles." (The World of Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time", Chapter 24).
"When he had heard she called Nynaeve child, he had pictured her as old, but she was not. At least, he could not put any age to her at all. At first he thought she was as young as Nynaeve, but the longer he looked the more he thought she was older than that. There was a maturity about her large, dark eyes, a hint of knowing that no one could have gotten young." (Rand, when he first sees Moiraine, The Eye of the World, Chapter 2).
"Do they bind themselves like criminals?" (Sammael to Graendal, A Crown of Swords, Chapter 6)
