Oldest Rand lander?

[Darth_Andrea]

Well Moghedien said in TSR that when the war of power started she was already 400 and considered young for a Aes Sedai then. So I was thinking more around the 900-1500 range as a absolute cut off for a channeler at least of the strength found in the AoL.

 

 

 

 

 

[glow=green,1,500]Darth_Andrea[/glow]

[DemandredFO]

If life-expectancy goes by strength how in the world did the tower let the oil merchant go.  She must be incredibly strong.

[Luckers]

Here we go.

 

The average life expectancy was between one hundred and fifty and two hundred. For Aes Sedai it was conciderable longer, since use of the One Power somehow enhanced the youth and durability of the channelers body. There are records of some Aes Sedai being concidered middle aged at three hundred years, and some channelers may have lived seven hundred years or so.

 

Page 37 of the The World of Robert Jordan's the Wheel of Time.

 

[RobertAlexWillis]

If life-expectancy goes by strength how in the world did the tower let the oil merchant go.  She must be incredibly strong.

 

There are alot of things that can get you put out of the Tower, regardless of your strength.  Reanne Corly is relatively strong, but was put out for failing to complete her test for Accepted.  You could be put out for failing either the test for Accepted or Aes Sedai.  Also, there are a number of successful runaways among the Kin.

[BKVMC]

wasnt Sumeko one of the kin who  failed her test for the shawl? there may be others like her who didnt run away  but were put out  iirc  you cant test for the shawl twice its a pass fail  deal. which brings  me to  ask will the ones who  failed these  test  if returning to the white tower  have to become novices again  or would people like sumeko  start up as accepted and retry  the  test for  the shawl ( if they  chose to not stay  Kin)

[RobertAlexWillis]

wasnt Sumeko one of the kin who  failed her test for the shawl? there may be others like her who didnt run away  but were put out  iirc  you cant test for the shawl twice its a pass fail  deal.

 

All of the Kin are either successful runaways or women who were put out of the Tower.  The Kin doesn't accept "wilders".

 

which brings  me to  ask will the ones who  failed these  test  if returning to the white tower  have to become novices again  or would people like sumeko  start up as accepted and retry  the  test for  the shawl ( if they  chose to not stay  Kin)

 

Its up to Egwene, of course, but I imagine that they will re-enlist at the same level they were at when they were put out, and that those who are ready to test up to Accepted or Aes Sedai will be allowed to do so fairly quickly, in the first rush, at least.  That probably won't get underway until after Tarmon Gaidon, however.

[mike2R]

The oldest actually mentioned are probably the two Aes Sedai seen in the most recent vision Rand sees in Rhuidean, assuming that vision is true. 

 

AFAIK we don't know how long after the breaking that was, and we certainly don't know how old they were at the time of the breaking, so I can't see how we can assign an age to them, but since they are described as appearing truly ancient and are presumably strong in the power I'd think they were older than Reanne by a fair margin.

[Luckers]

Those two both bear the ageless features, so despite their apparent advanced age they could be no more than three hundred and fifty years of age.

 

As a side note, neither woman would have been alive at the time of the breaking. Mandein references Artur Hawkwing's invasion as taking place in the time of his Greatfathers Greatfather, (or his Great-great-great-great-grandfather) Rhodric which places the pact of Rhuidean at around one thousand years ago, around the same time the Wetlanders were recovering from the War of a Hundred Years. If my math is correct thats a little over two thousand four hundred years after the breaking (including the two war periods, neither of which are included in the calendars).

 

In any case this is backed up by the fact that we know the Aes Sedai did not begin swearing multiple oaths (required for the agelessness) until after the Trolloc Wars.

[mike2R]

I need to reread that obviously, I thought it was much earlier.

[Luckers]

No to be fair that whole sequence is really confusing. I also thought that it was much earlier.

[CUBAREY]

Quote:

 

No to be fair that whole sequence is really confusing. I also thought that it was much earlier.

 

That Whole sequence also confused me a bit.  If we take the names to be a sequential rendition with each name referring to a specific character then the most recent vision (that in Rheardon(sp))the oldest being at the time the hole was bored into the DO's prison. But that makes the timeline a bit shaky as the predecessors of Cairhern(prior to its founding) would have shared their water about -1400-1600 years ago but I thought that the original city of caiehern was much older. Now if some of the names used for a character who is old is a different character with the same name then the timeline makes more sense but the actual dates of the visions(except for the vision that depicts the drilling of the Bore) become uncertain.

[RobertAlexWillis]

One thing to keep in mind is that the farther back you go, the longer the life-span of the people involved.  -shrug-

[aevogt]

That's true, One of the Aiel in Rand's lineage refers to himself as being in his mid 60's and barely out of his middle years, even though he cannot channel.

[Luckers]

In the section from which I quoted on the previous page it states that because of the Sung food and Power-wrought healthcare system the life average of a normal person in the Age of Legends was around 150.