Aiel Waste

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Unless stated otherwise, all information herein is taken from Template:BWB20.

General

The Aiel Waste is the almost waterless stretch of land between the Spine of the World in the west and the Cliffs of Dawn and Great Rift in the east, inhabited by the Aiel, since around the time the Aes Sedai built Tar Valon (TSR, Ch. 34). To the north are the Mountains of Dhoom and to the south, the Termool, As such, there are few ways into or out of the Waste and it is very isolated. The Aiel themselves refer to it as the Three Fold Land, a shaping stone to make them, a testing ground to prove their worth and a punishment for their sin. They allow few to enter the Waste, Gleemen and peddlars are welcome, as long as they have a guide and Tuatha'an are ignored. Until the Aiel War, Cairhienin were also allowed passage, but this changed when Laman cut down Avendoraldera. As there is what seems to be the remains of a port high in the Jangai Pass (TFoH, Ch. 20), it seems likely that much of the Waste was underwater before the Breaking.

Miscellaneous

The Trolloc Wars did not really touch the Waste, those times the Trollocs did invade, they were defeated and they now refer to it as Djevik K'Shar, the Dying ground.

Aiel Holds

  • Bent Valley
  • Cold Rocks

Cold Rocks Hold is the home of Rhuarc, Amys and Dorindha, who is roofmistress there. It is well camouflaged and highly defensible, a canyon, with houses climbing the walls and enough houses to make a fair sized town (TSR, Ch. 49).

  • Colrada
  • Comarda
  • Hot Springs
  • Mainde Cut
  • Red Springs
  • Shende
  • Smoke Springs
  • Sulara

Places in the Waste

Alcair Dal

Alcair Dal, the Golden Bowl, is a meeting place in the Waste, a few days from Rhuidean, where something like the peace of Rhuidean holds (TSR, Ch. 34). It is almost perfectly round, its gray wall sloped all the way around except at the far end, where it curls inward like a breaking wave TSR, Ch. 57). Rand announced he was the Car'a'carn at Alcair Dal.

Chaendaer

Chaendaer (pronounced CHAY-ehn-DARE) is a mountain, just by Rhuidean, where Wise Ones and Clan chiefs wait when a person goes to Rhuidean. It has a Portal Stone, suggesting it may not have been underwater in the Age of Legends (TSR, Ch. 21).

Imre Stand

Imre Stand is a place in the Waste known as a source of water - a pool around two paces across arising from a small spring and as somewhere for herdsmen to rest. It has several building, with arrow slits for defence, that blend into the background. It had been attacked by Trollocs before Rand reached it (TSR, Ch. 37).

Rhuidean

Main article: Rhuidean

Rhuidean is a city, built, though never inhabited or completed, around 100-200AB.

Animals & Plants

Not many animals live in the Aiel Waste, but the ones that do are usually as treacherous as the land itself. The Waste has a number animals not found elsewhere, many of them poisonous or venomous, though the Aiel typically know how to safely eat them. The Aiel Waste has almost no vegetation and what there is, is small and virtually useless. The only known Chora tree, Avendesora, also known as the Tree of Life, resides in Rhuidean's central square (TWoRJTWoT, Chapter 20).

Quotes

Where the hard ground was not cracked clay, yellow or brown or something between, it was stony and stark, and everywhere split by dry gulleys and hollows. The scattered vegetation was sparse and low thorny bushes and leafless things with spines; the few blossoms, white or red or, yellow, were startling in their isolation. Occasionally stretches of tough grass covered the ground, and rarely, there was a stunted tree also likely to have thorns or spines (The Shadow Rising, Chapter 36).