Ilyena Moerelle

[Shig]

Have been considering Lews Therin and the Age of Legend, and i've been trying to figure out if Ilyena was an Aes Sedai. From memeory, im pretty sure i read somewhere that Lews Therin and Ilyena got married 50 or so years before the war of power(i could be wrong), which means that when she died, she'd have been one old gal.

 

Lets just set a hypothetical age for her when she got married, 17(trying to go as early as possible), but if she as an Aes Sedai it could have been far later. Add on 50 years(possibly), and then on top of that however long the war of power went for (from the perspective of Rand's ancestors, it looks to have continued across 2-3 generations) before the bore was sealed, and Lews Therin came home...insane.

 

This leads to the conclusion that she was In fact an Aes Sedai, but as far as i can remember it hasnt explicatly been stated.

 

So whats everyone's opinions, was she an eternally young Aes Sedai, or was Lews Therin, physically middle age, married to an 80 year old

[David Selig]

When asked, Jordan said Illyena was an Aes Sedai - http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=225

[Sharaman]

She was As Sedai. She had a third name which means some level of serious accomplishments. The War of the Power lasted just 10 years but it only started some 90-100 years after the Bore was opened. They'd been married for at least 60-70 years and they had young children.

[kght22]

she was an aes'sedai, but even if she were not it would not mean that she couldn't channel. becoming one of the servants was a choice, there were likely many channelers who did not become aes'sedai.

[Elgee]

I've always found it peculiar that they had young children. I mean, figuring that they had been married about 50 years, did they wait 40 years before having children, or did they have many many and they all just happened to be in the house when Lews came home insane and killed them all?

[olso4644]

I always found it peculiar that his children are barely ever mentioned in the series. Lews goes on and on about Illyena, but he never even mentions that he has had children. I suppose it could be cultural, but because people had the potential to live for hundreds and hundres of years, one would think the horror would be greater when a child died.

[Elgee]

Yes but you have to remember that he's loony tunes. We're just lucky he whines about his wife, not his horse :P

[Gabriel Kross]

Lol Elgee called him Looney Tunes!

[yoniy0]

You would think that, even for two channeling parents, loosing a child was fairly common. The longer life expectancy gets in a society, the more chance that a child of yours dies from something other than old age while you still live. The problem worsens when your kids have a shorter life expectancy to begin with.

 

That being said, it's still decidedly odd. Perhaps it's just because he only had time to see Ilyena's corpse before killing himself - the death of their children is less real to him.

[Gabriel Kross]

I like that theory honestly

[Matthew79]

I always found it peculiar that his children are barely ever mentioned in the series. Lews goes on and on about Illyena, but he never even mentions that he has had children. I suppose it could be cultural, but because people had the potential to live for hundreds and hundres of years, one would think the horror would be greater when a child died.

 

Uncanny! I just signed up to the site to post the very same thing. I'm pretty sure the only time it mentions his children is in the prologue of tEoTW. Something along the lines of "...their eyes staring at him accusingly."

It's always puzzled me how we always hear Lews Therin mourn for Ilyena, but not his children. Losing a child is pain enough for any parent, but to murder them yourself? I half expected Rand to break down after Veins of Gold upon remembering them.

[spoke]

even the non-channelers lived a long time - remember the rings of Rhidean, his ancestor who was alive during the age of legends, was 60 years old and at the prime of his life and decided to accept a marriage proposal. -- Lews Therin was around 400 years old when he died, and still was young. So the fact that they were married 50 or so years before the war or so means that his older 'young' children were in their 60's.

[Matthew79]

From tEotW:

" his sons and daughters lay sprawled like dolls, play stilled forever"

 

From this we can say at least 1, if not all are a young age. Secondly that he had at least 4 children.