V'saine
A similar entry appears in the Wheel of Time Companion confirming the information available in the main story arc.
Author: Atarah al'Norahn
The City
V'saine was one of the great cities of the Age of Legends, before the Breaking of the World. It is mentioned to have been the sixth largest/most important city during the Age of Legends.
V'saine was famous for the Collam Daan, a great university that was located in the city.
(Reference: The World of Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time")
The Collam Daan
The Collam Daan was the greatest university of the Age of Legends, and it was the world's foremost center for research and development, run by Jorlen Corbesan (TGS, Ch. 5).
The university was made of silver and blue domes, and floating above the university was the Sharom, a huge, white sphere that was a thousand feet in diameter. The Sharom was actually a research facility, though to get to it required the use of either the One Power or an air-borne transport. The people who designed the Collam Daan built the Sharom because they could. It is described to have been "a sky-borne pearl that celebrated the triumph of their art" (TWoRJTWoT).
Mierin Eronaile, who eventually came to be known as Lanfear, worked at the Collam Daan.
Saine Tarasind, who came to be known as Mesaana, desperately wanted to acquire a research position at the Collam Daan, but was only granted a teaching job. This disappointment eventually led Saine Tarasind to turn to the Shadow.
When the hole in the Bore was drilled, the backlash destroyed most of the Collam Daan, the Sharom included. The following is a quote from The Shadow Rising, Chapter 26, describing the destruction of the Sharom.
- "What seemed a tiny chip of white spun away from the Sharom in a jet of black fire; it descended, deceptively slow, insignificant. Then a hundred gouts spurted everywhere around the huge white sphere. The Sharom broke apart like an egg and began to drift down, falling, an obsidian inferno. Darkness spread across the sky, swallowing the sun in unnatural night, as if the light of those flames was blackness. People were screaming, screaming everywhere."
