The Brown Ajah, I think I like them most of all...

[Caelan Arendor]

Brown Ajah, Mission: Knowledge and scholarship

 

 

As proponents of knowledge and research, they serve as the guardians of the White Tower’s library. They are regarded as scholars, and I have the impression that the main focus of their studies lies in the exploration of human history. As a side note, I must remark that I am astonished at how little, despite their efforts to shed light on the past, has actually been preserved from the Age of Legends (I have spoken about this elsewhere).

What I particularly value in them is that they remain largely untouched by political machinations and seldom involve themselves in such intrigues. Their focus rests on research, not on schemes. Of course, there is also an “however” with the Browns: many of them appear absent-minded or impractical. They forget everyday matters because they are so deeply absorbed in their studies. They are often considered otherworldly and struggle to interact with people beyond their books and research. Still, this does not make them truly unsympathetic to me.

 

About one very special representative of the Brown Ajah I intend to write in a future piece. I suspect you already have an idea who that might be, don’t you?

[Figs and Mice]

1 hour ago, Caelan Arendor said:

Brown Ajah, Mission: Knowledge and scholarship

 

 

As proponents of knowledge and research, they serve as the guardians of the White Tower’s library. They are regarded as scholars, and I have the impression that the main focus of their studies lies in the exploration of human history. As a side note, I must remark that I am astonished at how little, despite their efforts to shed light on the past, has actually been preserved from the Age of Legends (I have spoken about this elsewhere).

What I particularly value in them is that they remain largely untouched by political machinations and seldom involve themselves in such intrigues. Their focus rests on research, not on schemes. Of course, there is also an “however” with the Browns: many of them appear absent-minded or impractical. They forget everyday matters because they are so deeply absorbed in their studies. They are often considered otherworldly and struggle to interact with people beyond their books and research. Still, this does not make them truly unsympathetic to me.

 

About one very special representative of the Brown Ajah I intend to write in a future piece. I suspect you already have an idea who that might be, don’t you?

 Just a little 🙂

 

Blimey , Caelan : I am getting exhausted just reading all your new topic posts !  Still it is probably good for this site to have someone new setting off debates (again) on subjects that have doubtless been already thrashed out years ago ... but from a new perspective. As someone relatively new (just 2 years in) who therefore wasn't across those presumed archival debates , I am happy to contribute to your topics when I feel I can add anything.

 

And I rather like the Brown Ajah too.

[Caelan Arendor]

1 hour ago, Figs and Mice said:

 Just a little 🙂

 

Blimey , Caelan : I am getting exhausted just reading all your new topic posts !  Still it is probably good for this site to have someone new setting off debates (again) on subjects that have doubtless been already thrashed out years ago ... but from a new perspective. As someone relatively new (just 2 years in) who therefore wasn't across those presumed archival debates , I am happy to contribute to your topics when I feel I can add anything.

 

And I rather like the Brown Ajah too.

Thanks for your kind words and your encouragement. 

 

Be that as it may, readers of the epic who have already chewed over these themes ad nauseam need not trouble themselves with my contributions. Yet I believe that not everyone—especially not newcomers—will regard reflections of this kind as entirely superfluous. As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once wrote: “All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to think them again for oneself.”

[Elgee]

I agree that the Browns seem to best "carry out the mission of their Ajah", so to speak. They are what they are and do what they should. 

Though as you rightly mention, an awful lot of knowledge has been lost. 

[Caelan Arendor]

2 hours ago, Elgee said:

I agree that the Browns seem to best "carry out the mission of their Ajah", so to speak. They are what they are and do what they should. 

Though as you rightly mention, an awful lot of knowledge has been lost. 

Perhaps it was not merely the remendous length of time that had passed since the Breaking of the World that caused the memory of that age to fade almost completely; possibly it was the active intent of the Wheel of Time itself, or of the Creator (slight though His presence may be in the epic), or even the influence of the Dark One that erased remembrance of the elder days. Just a thought of mine

[Elgee]

You could be right, though it's accepted lore that the Creator does not involve itself in anything other than creating. I also wouldn't say that the Dark One would "physically" erase people's memories, as per a previous discussion, but he could definitely have ordered his minions to destroy or hide books etc.

 

My thinking (at the moment) is that knowledge was lost because the world split and melded and people fled and then scrabbled to survive. Things were simply lost and each generation knew less. I can't recall now how long it was after the Breaking before the White Tower was built, but several hundred years at least, I think? If you think back to our time, how much has been lost in the past 1000 years only? Now think that "present time" in the WOT is 3000 years after the breaking. 

If I just compare my generation to the current one, I'm horrified at the lack of knowledge now! LoL

[HeavyHalfMoonBlade]

I have to agree I'm amazed at how much has survived rather than how little. 

 

The only issue I have with the Brown Ajah is that their raison d'etre doesn't relate to channelers at all. Also the Whites. While the Gray Ajah can draw on the authority of the White Tower, their personal power and the Three Oaths, the only thing that I can think of that helps is their longevity, giving time to really become experts. While of course this doesn't stop Aes Sedai being the librarians and researchers of the world, where are the muggles that are helping them? Why is there not a whole infrastructure of scribes and researchers and investigators, etc., to support the Brown Ajah in their mission? 

 

Sadly I can think of only two answers, one, they are only interested in knowledge that will be bound to the Tower, not knowledge for it's own sake. Two, the whole concept of balance. The more they have their... er, stuff together, the worse things like Hawkwing's siege and the Trolloc Wars have to be to balance it out. The greater the order they preserve, the greater the damage wrought by the Lord of Chaos must be.