The Aiel Waste is a vast, arid land to the east of the Westlands, separated from the latter by the mountain range known as the Spine of the World, or the Dragonwall, to the west, the chasms and precipices of Shara to the east, the Blight in the north, and the Sea of Storms in the south. These four borders, and the hot, dry, roadless terrain keep the Waste an isolated land, as does the Aiel's harsh treatment of foreigners. Blistering temperatures ravage the land by day and glacial ones freeze it at night. It is a land of mountains and valleys dotted by numerous rock formations, including many spires. It has almost no vegetation and what there is, is small and virtually useless. Not many animals live in the Waste, but the ones that do are usually as treacherous as the land itself.
Despite the daunting environment, the Aiel people make the Waste their home. The majority of Aiel live in and among the rock formations. These holds, as they are called, are approximately the size of villages. The Aiel have their own name for the Waste, the Three-Fold Land: First, because it is a shaping stone to make them; second, it exists as a testing ground to prove their worth; third, it serves as a punishment for their sins against the Aes Sedai. The Aiel have absolute control of the land and only allow peddlers, gleemen and Tinkers to enter it.
During the Trolloc wars, the Trollocs gave it the name Djevik K'Shar, or "The Dying Ground," due to the immense ferocity and fighting prowess of the Aiel.
Read more about this topic: The Ways (Wheel Of Time)
Famous quotes containing the word waste:
“Men should not labor foolishly like brutes, but the brain and the body should always, or as much as possible, work and rest together, and then the work will be of such a kind that when the body is hungry the brain will be hungry also, and the same food will suffice for both; otherwise the food which repairs the waste energy of the overwrought body will oppress the sedentary brain, and the degenerate scholar will come to esteem all food vulgar, and all getting a living drudgery.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)