Sereille Bagand

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Author: Atarah al'Norahn

General

Sereille Bagand was an Aes Sedai of the White Ajah. For a time, she was the Mistress of Novices, most likely under the Amyrlin Parenia Demalle, even though Parenia was Gray Ajah. Sereille was Parenia's successor on the Amyrlin Seat in the year 866 NE. She held the position until her death in 890 NE when she was succeeded by Aleis Romlin (TWoRJTWoT).

Sereille is a legend. She was a fierce Mistress of Novices and a very strong Amyrlin. She raised the prestige of the White Tower to levels seldom seen since Artur Hawkwing, and controlled the Tower through the sheer force of her will (ACoS, Ch. 2; TPoD, Ch. 15; WH, Ch. 8).

Miscellaneous

  • Sereille had driven the proprieties into Seaine so much that when Seaine does something outside of the rules, she almost expects to find the dead Amyrlin standing there, ready to haul her off to the Mistress of Novices (TPoD, Ch. 26).
  • Vandene tells Kirstian and Zarya that she once taught novices, but the Mistress of Novices, Sereille Bagand, thought she was too hard (WH, Ch. 8).

Quotes

"Sereille Bagand had been a fierce Mistress of Novices before being raised Amyrlin Seat, the very year she herself earned the shawl, and a fiercer Amyrlin than Elaida could be with a sore tooth. Seaine had had the proprieties driven into her too hard and deep for mere years to shift, or any dislike for the woman who wore the stole. One did not have to like an Amyrlin." (Seaine thinks about Sereille; A Crown of Swords, Chapter 32)

"Gerra and Sereille were remembered as among the greatest Amyrlins. Both had raised the influence and prestige of the White Tower to levels seldom equaled since before Artur Hawkwing. Both controlled the Tower itself, too, Gerra by skillfully playing one faction in the Hall against another, Sereille by the sheer force of her will." (Egwene; The Path of Daggers, Chapter 15)

"Seaine sighed. They were Sitters, with a perfect right to use any ter'angreal they wished, but she had been the one to filch it - she could not help thinking of it as filching when she had observed none of the proper procedures - and the whole time, in the back of her head, she had been sure she would turn to find long-dead Sereille Bagand standing here, ready to haul her off to the Mistress of Novices' study by her ear. Irrational, but no less real." (Seaine; The Path of Daggers, Chapter 26)

"'I did teach novices for a time,' she said. 'A short time. The Mistress of Novices thought I was too hard on my students.' The pair's eagerness cooled a bit. 'Her name was Sereille Bagand.' Zarya's face went as pale as Kirstian's, and Kirstian swayed as if suddenly dizzy. As Mistress of Novices and later Amyrlin Seat, Sereille was a legend. The sort of legend that made you wake in the middle of the night sweating." (Vandene and Elayne; Winter's Heart, Chapter 8)

"Since she had been forced to order punishment for some of the Two Rivers women, word had spread among the novices that the Amyrlin was as hard as Sereille Bagand, and it was best to avoid incurring her temper, which could spring up like wildfire. Not that most of them knew enough history to have any real idea who Sereille had been, but her name had been a byword of iron-handed strictness in the Tower for a hundred years, and the Accepted made sure that novices absorbed tidbits like that. It was a good thing that Egwene's cowl hid her face. By the tenth time a novice family leapt out of her way like frightened hares, she was gritting her teeth so hard that seeing her face would have cemented her reputation for chewing iron and spitting nails. She had the horrible feeling that in a few hundred years, Accepted would be using her name to frighten novices the way they used Sereille's now." (Egwene; Crossroads of Twilight, Chapter 18)