The Hall of Servants vs The White Tower

[Dagon Thyne]

I am trying to figure out the differences and simularities between these two groups.

 

When it comes to the Hall of servants we only know what we have been told in the books and what RJ revealed in interviews and his blog. From what I gathered, the Hall of Servants was not a political group like the White Tower is, it was more of a guild of sorts. Many the Aes Sedai of the Hall of Servants lived normal lives and only came together when there was need of using their abilities with the One Power. The Hall of Servants was mostly for regulating the use of the One Power and punishing those who misused it and keeping the technologies that depend on the OP up and running. It was not until the War of Power that the Hall of Servants really became any form of politcal or military organization....

[Shimmer]

And yet their (as in the Hall of Servants) involvement in almost every facet of life in the Age of Legends effectively made the AS the moral - as opposed to political - leaders of the world. There really then was only a slight role transition to that of political leadership and governance during the War of Power.

[Ananta]

And yet their (as in the Hall of Servants) involvement in almost every facet of life in the Age of Legends effectively made the AS the moral - as opposed to political - leaders of the world. There really then was only a slight role transition to that of political leadership and governance during the War of Power.

 

They had democracy, though. During the Age of Legends.

 

From Chapter 4 in The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time:

"The Age’s system of government was both strong and responsive. Unfortunately very few details of this government or how it interacted with the population at large and the Aes Sedai are available. The sparse fragmented documents that have been preserved mention a worldwide parliament, or “council,” of democratically elected officials. They also mention that within the government the ability to channel earned respect, but did not guarantee prominence. From this we can deduce that Aes Sedai were often elected to the council, and were influential, but were not necessarily in charge."

 

But yes I see what you mean.

 

There's also the fact that normal people lived for 150 to 200 years, and Aes Sedai lived for 500-700+ years. That means that Aes Sedai were often a lot wiser than normal people could be, due to their prolonged lenght of life the choices they made were thought out with hundreds of years of experience, and because of the way the society worked (there was no poverty, money didn't matter. Honor and Status were the things sought after) good choices for everyone, as opposed to personal gain, were encouraged.

 

I'm not saying that Age = Wisdom, but usually people get wiser as they live longer.

[Dagon Thyne]

And yet their (as in the Hall of Servants) involvement in almost every facet of life in the Age of Legends effectively made the AS the moral - as opposed to political - leaders of the world. There really then was only a slight role transition to that of political leadership and governance during the War of Power.

 

 

The Hall of Servants only regulated the use a channeling......they had no moral or political control over the world....only over channelers.....They did have control over the technology of the AoL aince it was all powered by the OP.

[Monte]

I prefer to leave political thought out of AoL, I don't even consider it democratic...more of a "Utopian" society where everyone worked together in harmony to create wonders and live peacefully. Sounds lame, I know even as I type it, but that's pretty much the idea RJ was getting across in my opinion, regardless.

 

So in terms of Hall vs Tower, hard to compare because you are comparing a world that is basically based on feudalism as seen in our middle ages, and the tower trying to have power and influence in that, such as the church did DURING the middle ages, vs a group of special people trying to serve (servants) an idyllic atmosphere created in AoL.

[mb]

The chapter directly before (of the mentioned book) has a little bit more info.

 

Chapter 9 and Chapter 24 talk about third age Aes Sedia.