Aiel - Reputation

Reputation

Not much is known about the Aiel by the outside world. Any wetlanders (as they call those who live to the west) entering the Waste are killed on sight; only peddlers, gleemen and Aes Sedai are given free passage. Tinkers can also move freely in the Waste if they so choose, as no Aiel will go near them. Aiel have a reputation for being vicious fighters, and "black-veiled Aiel" is a common epithet for belligerence. Their reputation as fighters was known by Artur Hawkwing, after a failed invasion, and by the Borderlanders who they still raid occasionally.

The Aiel once allowed a fourth class of wetlander to traverse their lands: the citizens of Cairhien, in honor of the help they had given the Aiel during their wandering. The Cairhienin were allowed to travel through the Waste to Shara, where the Cairhienin were able to obtain precious silks, spices and other luxury goods. The Aiel also gave Cairhien a small tree: Avendoraldera, a cutting of Avendesora, the Tree of Life. Unfortunately, several centuries later, a Cairhienin king with more ambition than sense, Laman Damodred, cut down Avendoraldera to make himself a throne. The Aiel, outraged, boiled out of the Waste to bring back Laman's head. Four of the twelve Aiel clans went, led by the Tardaad clan chief named Janduin, but the assassination-in-force was complicated when several wetlander armies mistook the Aiel for an invasion force and started fighting back. The Aiel cut them to ribbons, and by 978 NE they had pushed the multinational force all the way back to Tar Valon. The battle there, known as the Battle of the Shining Walls, saw the Aiel succeed in killing King Laman; the next day, they went home. Those who do not know the intentions of the Aiel in killing Laman insist that at the Battle of the Shining Walls, the multinational army won over the Aiel. However, the Aiel had crossed the Spine of the World just to kill Laman, and once that was achieved, they returned to the Aiel Waste. Those who know better realize that the Aiel could have taken Tar Valon had they wished, but had no desire to control a wetlander city. Wetlanders call this the Aiel War; the Aiel do not see it as a war - they simply went to punish an oathbreaker. Since then, however, the Aiel have been even more hostile to the Cairhienin than to other wetlanders, calling them "treekillers" and "oathbreakers."

They also have a fearsome reputation amongst the Trollocs, who refer to the Waste as 'The Dying Ground', after a failed invasion during the Trolloc Wars.