ajah and the Portal Stones

[jwood01]

Just noticed Luckers mentioning that there were originally 12 major ajahs. Was this in the AoL or post-breaking?

 

I am currently rereading tGH and assumed the 7 colored steps around the portal stones in the reflection world represented the 7 Ajahs, yet there were more ajahs in the AoL. We know that the portal stones were not created in the AoL, so is this a sign of things to come i.e., evidence of the circular nature of the WoT? or just a coincidence?

[Turin Turambar]

Was it stated anywhere the 7 colors on the stones matched the 7 ajah colors? Not arguing just curious.

[jwood01]

Don't have the book in front of me right now. I just assumed they did.

[jwood01]

Don't have the book in front of me right now. I just assumed they did.

 

eWOT claims they match:

http://encyclopaedia-wot.org/items/portal_stone.html

[threadnecromancer]

Remember that Rand only thought that the colours stood for the Ajah's. They probably did not, as the modern Ajah's did not exist prior to the Breaking, and during the Second Age the word ajah had a different meaning from what it would later acquire (at least according to the BWB).

[jwood01]

Remember that Rand only thought that the colours stood for the Ajah's. They probably did not, as the modern Ajah's did not exist prior to the Breaking, and during the Second Age the word ajah had a different meaning from what it would later acquire (at least according to the BWB).

 

So coincidence then?

[Turin Turambar]

It would seem coincidence. On a side note, if there were more ajahs, were they also by color? pink? orange? purple?

[contempt]

I found that strange also when I first read it. But I just rationalized it away by figuring the AS after the Breaking propped up the portal stones & re-paved the area around them to mark them as "theirs" since they couldn't take them back to the WT.

 

Remember Verin knew what they were & did, just not really what they said & how to use them. The AS after the Breaking most likely remembered at least enough to partially use them but it was lost after the Trollic Wars and/or the War of the Hundred years. At least, that's just what I assumed when I read it.

[Kahsm]

Yeah, your leaping to the conclusion that the colours were original. They were simply coloured in that particular world, which could be for any number of reasons since they are alternative worlds.

 

And the stones are older than the AoL too.

[Luckers]

There were not twelve ajah in the age of legends there were thousands, likely tens of thousands. In the AOL an ajah was a group of aes sedai alligned by a specific alleigence or purpose, and they came and went depending that purpose.

 

There were twleve major ajah at the creation of the tower, and several minor, but it was in the ancient sense. The modern permenant Ajah did not come about for another two hundred years.

 

We don't know the link between the colours... Possibly those steps were laid during the third age. Possibly the choice of Ajah colour relates to something in the AOL like amyrlim is to tamyrlin. But it is not due to ajah as rand assumes.

[mackoY-kun]

The Seven colors represented are probably significant to the portal stones as well as the AoL AS. The modern AS and their seven colored "Ajah" were probably patterned from there. The term "Ajah" in the AoL, as I understand was used to denote a "team" of AS delegated to perform a certain task. (No colors)