Elaida A'Roihan - Background

Background

The youngest daughter of a minor House in the north of Murandy, Elaida was the first novice to be raised to Accepted in only three years. She was raised to the shawl after Siuan Sanche and Moiraine Damodred's second year as novices and chose the Red Ajah. From the time Siuan and Moiraine came to the Tower, Elaida made life miserable for them, pressing them so hard that other sisters often had to intervene. Her abusive and unwarranted 'help' as an already raised Aes Sedai were eventually put to an end after the then Mistress of Novices, Merean Redhill, having been informed by other concerned Accepted, threatened her with a penance as well as humiliation. Elaida bitterly resented this intervention, though, and grew to hate Siuan and Moiraine because of it. She has a strong aptitude with the One Power, but is frequently depicted as proud and foolish. She dreams of defeating the Salidar Rebels and having them kneel at her feet, and plans to build a grand palace for herself despite the ongoing crisis in Tar Valon. In The Fires of Heaven, Siuan speculates that Elaida was insanely jealous that the former was raised Amyrlin over her. This was probably one of Elaida's most motivating factors in deciding to mutiny against Siuan. In the novel Lord of Chaos, Padan Fain speculates that now that he has "brushed" Elaida with some of the taint of Shadar Logoth, she "might" trust her own mother, but never Rand al'Thor. This infection from Fain might also be a source of her growing and irrational paranoia.