[Full Prologue Spoilers] The Red Veiled Aiel

[A Trite Pun]

Forgive me if we already know what the red-veiled aiel are, but here's my theory. We were told a long time ago then aiel men who learned they could channel would travel alone to the blight to die, fighting as many shadowspawn as possible. What if instead they were captured and 13 x 13'd like the people at the black tower and Demandred has been training them? This would explain both who they are and what Demandred's been doing in preparation for war. What do you think?

[fikkie77]

We don't know what they are, but what you're saying is probably the most common opinion about them here.

 

If that is what Demandred was doing (and I doubt that), then it's only what he's been doing the past few years. I'm quite sure those red-veiled Aiel were being prepared much longer than that, so my guess is that it was Ishamael/Moridin who has been preparing that particular army for centuries.

[Halleck]

I don't have the book with me but I remember them being described as having "dark" eyes. And we have never seen any Aiel with filed teeth either. So to me that made it seem like they weren't really Aiel at all and they just looked like Aiel. I personally like the idea that they are from Shara.

[Mazrim182]

I don't have the book with me but I remember them being described as having "dark" eyes. And we have never seen any Aiel with filed teeth either. So to me that made it seem like they weren't really Aiel at all and they just looked like Aiel. I personally like the idea that they are from Shara.

 

I like the idea of them being Sharans but I'm going to have to agree with the popular consensus that they are indeed "twisted" Aiel channelers who went to the blight and got 13x13'd or some other trick of the dark.

[Barid Bel Medar]

Filed teeth and dark eyes are no problem. This is the Shadow we are talking about. If Aginor can create trollocs, Myrddraal and Worms, the Shadow sure has hell can twist any Aiel Channellers.

 

Besides, it need not be so sinister a thing. It could be that they were bred with the fallen Malkier peoples. Isam was raised in the Blight, and dark eyes are usually dominant genes.

[fikkie77]

Intensive use of the True Power gives a channeler saa; dark flecks that drift over the eyes. If the channeler continues to use the True Power their eyes turn black.

So, if there's one way for the Dark One to turn someone's blue eyes black, he might also have other ways. Or these Aiel channelers have been using the True Power all the time (which I doubt).

[RandA lThor]

for the filed teeth, can't you use the power to make those teeth filed into points. Also, mask of mirrors?

[Barid Bel Medar]

Or just use a file... It would hurt like crap, but when you want your teeth to look like that, I don't think pain would be something to worry about.

[Orderofolde]

Intensive use of the True Power gives a channeler saa; dark flecks that drift over the eyes. If the channeler continues to use the True Power their eyes turn black.

So, if there's one way for the Dark One to turn someone's blue eyes black, he might also have other ways. Or these Aiel channelers have been using the True Power all the time (which I doubt).

No, after Saa, the eyes are gone replaced with flames like Ishy(and lots of other "side effects" are alluded to but left to our imagination.) One of the Forsaken, I believe Graendal in TOM or the end of TGS mentions it but I can't recall who/when to quote.

[RandA lThor]

Why can't you just use mask of mirrors for their eyes?

[Rufae]

They may just be an Anti-Aiel.

 

The Dai'Shan Aiel were helpers to the AoL Aes Sedai. We see in TSR that the Aiel were assigned to particular Aes Sedai. So when those Aes Sedai turned dark, could it be that at least some of their Aiel servants also went dark? When the Jenn Aiel contained themselves to the Waste, these Anti-Aiel might have contained themselves to teh Blight or Blasted Lands.

[RandA lThor]

This is a valid theory, but I think that when Aes Sedai went dark, they wouldn't tell too many people. Also, there are also darkfriends already in the Aiel, so why would they not go with them?

[Barid Bel Medar]

They may just be an Anti-Aiel.

 

The Dai'Shan Aiel were helpers to the AoL Aes Sedai. We see in TSR that the Aiel were assigned to particular Aes Sedai. So when those Aes Sedai turned dark, could it be that at least some of their Aiel servants also went dark? When the Jenn Aiel contained themselves to the Waste, these Anti-Aiel might have contained themselves to teh Blight or Blasted Lands.

 

A nice one, but I seem to recall the Aiel did not have their veils then, that was developed later.

 

It could of course be that these Anti-Aiel are doing it to mock their "other" Aiel counterparts. So it is a possibility.

[Pinzarn]

Isn't the common belief that the "Blank" in the Blight is a city? Along those lines, I just figured that these red-veiled Aiel were the warriors from that city.

 

I don't go along with the threory that these fellows are the twisted male channlers since they didn't do any channeling. The light side seems to have some restrictions about freely channeling, but the dark side lets it flow.

[fikkie77]

Intensive use of the True Power gives a channeler saa; dark flecks that drift over the eyes. If the channeler continues to use the True Power their eyes turn black.

So, if there's one way for the Dark One to turn someone's blue eyes black, he might also have other ways. Or these Aiel channelers have been using the True Power all the time (which I doubt).

No, after Saa, the eyes are gone replaced with flames like Ishy(and lots of other "side effects" are alluded to but left to our imagination.) One of the Forsaken, I believe Graendal in TOM or the end of TGS mentions it but I can't recall who/when to quote.

black eyes is what happens between saa and flaming eyes.

[RandA lThor]

Noob question: I never heard of the flaming eyes, I only remember the saa, how do the flaming eyes work?

[fikkie77]

Noob question: I never heard of the flaming eyes, I only remember the saa, how do the flaming eyes work?

That's Ishamael during Eye of the World, The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn.

[Sharaman]

Why would the GLoD offer TP access to random hordes? If the red-veiled are twisted Aiel (my feeling too), they could easily have been bred over the years with captured Borderlanders. In that case, since dark eyes (and hair) are dominant genes, they would have gone dark-eyed. That's an easier explanation if one needs one.

[fikkie77]

I was giving one possibility of how blue Aiel eyes could turn black. You're giving another. I'm not saying mine is true, just that it's very possible to have black-eyed Aiel.

[Durinax]

Isn't the common belief that the "Blank" in the Blight is a city? Along those lines, I just figured that these red-veiled Aiel were the warriors from that city.

 

I don't go along with the threory that these fellows are the twisted male channlers since they didn't do any channeling. The light side seems to have some restrictions about freely channeling, but the dark side lets it flow.

the reason why I think they are channellers is that they are following in the wake of the trolloc horde

and the channellers are always behind the lines

 

so I think that is too much coincidence

[Barid Bel Medar]

Just because they didn't use channeling in that instance doesn't prove anything.

 

It is some dying merchant alone in the Blight.

 

The filed teeth can be a sign of cannibalism, in some real world cultures. Cutting the guy up with a knife then seems to make sense. Besides, it seems as if they enjoy harming people. Sometimes the physical interaction can make it more pleasurable for them, instead of just offing them at a distance.

[Suttree]

Well the prologue gives us some answers on this. From fionwe over at TL...

 

 

 

Aiel town/clan, men who wear rad veils that they only remove when killing. Inversion of the Aiel, and everything there is a corruption of the original (Aiel Waste). The clan is called the "eye blinders", which fits nicely with the Aiel name for the DO: Sightblinder. Isam grew up among them, oen of the "Talentless", which is clearly a term they use for non-channelers. That, along with the large number of dogs, makes it all but certain that these are male Aiel channelers.

 

 

Now we most likely know what the "blank in the blight" is too.

[Olver_is_a_Forsaken]

Well the prologue gives us some answers on this. From fionwe over at TL...

 

My question is where the Red-Vailed Aiel theory comes from in the first place in the previous books?

[Suttree]

Well the prologue gives us some answers on this. From fionwe over at TL...

 

My question is where the Red-Vailed Aiel theory comes from in the first place in the previous books?

 

Well it comes from knowing the Aiel would send their male channelers to go hunt the DO in the blight. That was then connected to the epilogue in ToM when that merchant was attacked by "red veiled" killers with filed teeth that carried speers and seemed like a perversion of the Aiel.

[Barid Bel Medar]

Muhahahhahahaha.

 

I love getting things right! (often it is rare enough, so I can celebrate!)

 

@Olver, depending on how you read certain things, there have been many subtle foreshadowings.

 

The first one is in EotW, where the dying Aiel Maiden is found, wanting to warn them of something, but dies before revealing it.

 

When we actually meet the Aiel, they talk about sending their male channelers to the Blight to kill the DO.

 

We have some people referring to "black-eyed Aiel". Not suggesting that they have actually seen one, but a little bit of sly foreshadowing there.

 

And obviously we have the red-veils in ToM Epilogue.

 

There are other things that point to this(random channelling at Maradon, Murandy etc), but these are the main points that formed the backbone of my theory at least.