Tower in Exile: Salidar, Worst Idea? Or Not?

[jsbrads]

So it would seem that a Tower in Exile would need some basic things.

Distance from The White Tower.

Initial Subterfuge.

Access to Resources and Information.

Safe from Local Government.

Salidar, 1 out of 4 ain’t bad.

Saldean Town, on river, dock. 4 for 4.

I guess technically, Amador would have been worse, but not by much. 

 

[mb]

not sure about distance and subterfuge.

resources/information; Egwene teaches Gateways.  and telaranrhiod (initially from Nynaeve and Elayne) helped with information.

safe from local government; they probably could have defended themselves if any army/military attached them.

 

not sure, but history might have been a reason for Salidar.  an Amyrlin from Blue was born there.

 

[threadnecromancer]

They had no way to know about the Gateways and Dreams.

 

Plus it was not as secure as they thought - they were convinced that the Children were unaware of them and yet as it turned out Pedron Nial was well aware of them.

 

Now he failed to attack because a divided Tower was good for his plans (namely the Andor campaign) and later he got busy with a war with the Prophet of Ghealdan, but he could have attacked them, and if the complete armies of the Children and Amadicia had struck Salidar - well even if they did not annihilate them completely they could have inflicted irreparable losses on the Aes Sedai (and worse still - their mystique) and would have had a far easier time recovering themselves.

[Sabio]

The whitecloaks were also smart enough to know attacking so many Aes Sedai would of been bloody, after all they think that lost almost  an entire legion to Aes Sedai at Falme.  So even a victory against the people at Salidar could of left the whitecloaks so weak they would be useless.  Nial wasn't dumb so unless the Aes Sedai there showed themselves to be totally weak, he wouldn't see any upside to attacking so many.  He also had the prophet to worry about and disturbing reports from Ebou Dar.

 

They were safe where they were at, some the ajahs were still getting intel reports from their networks and they were in a country they that was no threat to them.  

[jsbrads]

Whitecloaks could have planned better, guerrila tactics, night time raids, archers, etc.

Even if the Whitecloaks would have lost every man sent and the Aes Sedai would have seen negligible losses, the reality that it is tactically stupid doesn’t change and 0.0% of Warders would have approved this location. 

[Sabio]

But that's not how whitecloaks fight, they are mostly a calvary force.  They are especially not trained in guerilla tactics.  If you look around, there wasn't really a better place.  They couldn't pick a place under control of Rand or too close to Rand.  They can't go to anyplace run by the whitecloaks.  Arad Doman, Cairhein were too unstable, Andor wasn't friendly with the WT at the time.  They can't be in any place too close to the white tower or in any country where the White Tower could force the nation to toss them out.  So they had to find a place in the middle of nowhere and where the country is so divided there is no power that can make them leave.  And no one would suspect or believe Aes sedai would stay so close to the Whitecloaks.  It also had meaning to the Blues.  Was it a perfect spot, no, but they didn't have a lot of good options.

[jsbrads]

Half the world is unpopulated.

Im not recommending close to WT like Cairhein or any unpopulated area close by like Harlan, Caralain, Bream Wood, Borderlands right nearby.

Southern Saldea on the Arinelle

North of Bearlon, outside Andor on Arinelle

Outside of Gheldean, Black Forest, close to Jehanna, but outside of civilization, access to river and city resources. 

Northwest Altara on the Manethrendrelle, better river, safer location.

Anywhere outside Murandy, either on Manetherendrelle or on the Cary river.

Places near Far Madding?

Haddon Mirk near the river?

Fishing villages between Illian and Tear.

[DemandredFO]

Don't forget, the rebellion was a struggle between the Blue and the Red, with a foresaken tossed in for good measure. A group of scared, frightened Aes Sedai were picking the exile, Not Sun Tzu or Lan, also at least one of their leaders, Sheriam was Black Ajah so that probably played a role too.

[jsbrads]

99% of Aes Sedai had access to basic tactical know how in their warders. Greens know some tactics. Any sane human with average IQ would see the problems. 

My claim isn’t that Salidar was slightly worse than a dozen other options. Salidar was perhaps the worst of almost all possible options.