Wise Ones and Agelessness

[Jason Williams]

If agelessness is due to the Oath Rod (as I believe to be generally accepted?)... why does it affect the Wise Ones? 

 

 

"She and Melaine could both channel - not many Wise Ones could - and she had something of the Aes Sedai look of agelessness about her." Fires of Heaven, Chapter 5

[Hagazussa]

I think what it refers to is the look of somehow being old and wise beyond one's apparent years, not the actual ageless face that Aes Sedai get but rather a look of just having seen more and know more than one who is of that apparent age should have, which is probably something all channelers who have slowed and have some yeas behind them get after a while.

[Ozzie_aiel]

Channelling leads to a slowing of the aging process, so while not having an ageless look, will still appear younger than their knowledge and experiences should indicate. Add to that Amys' pale, almost white hair (which she got when she was young) leads to an almost ageless look

[Barid Bel Medar]

Indeed, it was "something" of the look of the ageless face. Not an actual ageless face of an Aes Sedai. 

 

The same can be said of Rand post tGS. Byrne says he looks like an Aes Sedai. Of course, he doesn't have the ageless face. 

 

It is more about having a face that is youthful, with eyes and demeanour that suggest age and wisdom beyond the appearance. Thus, one minute they can look like a youth, the next (when they are giving out mysterious glares) an old wise woman. 

[Luckers]

To be frank I don't think he had the agelessness worked out at that point. There is wriggle room for explanations, but reading between the lines...

[Hagazussa]

It might be that he did not have the agelessness worked out, but everything else in the books do seam planned out at least to some extent so I think it was written that way to make it more of a mystery and not let the reader know to soon that the agelessness was unique to Aes Sedai and then start wondering why.

[Shig]

Plus...isnt the agelessness sort of a bad thing, at the very least in the AoL, it marked an Aes Sedai who had sworn something through the use of an oath rod and the one power(we see that Semirhage was going to be forced with the oath rod to never heal/never torture people, can't remember if it was both or just the torture, didnt get an exact answer there). So in the AoL having the 'oath-rod Agelessness' would indicate your possibly a serious criminal who'd been sentenced to having their normally hugely long life, halved. I'd assume that the healthy agelessness, displayed by channelers not limited by the oath rod is just normal age related deterioration being slowed pretty massively(apart from maybe hair colour). From tEotW prologue, we get a bit of a physical description of Lews Therin, although he isnt looking too fantastic at the time(likely due to the serious stress of being the man in charge of the fight against the shadow and of course the rotting due to corruption by the taint), Lews Therin was looking good, and around his 40's (he would have been approximately 40, wasnt he?, opinions?)up until the War of Shadows, at which point he was approximately 400 years old. Give it another 400 years and he may have ended up looking like a really sprightly grandpa

 

In regards to whether or not he had it all planned out, i think he did, the idea that they flick between looking different ages is likely dependent upon the fact that they look young, in contrast to the wisdom and intelligence in their eyes, and the way in which they carry themselves with dignity, and talk with experience. The two types, normal channeler aging and third age Aes Sedai agelessness are two different things, although the normal aging has some small similarities to abnormal agelessness.

 

Oath Rod agelessness: Smooth face, feels as though the excess skin is being pulled back and pinched at the back of their head, no normal signs of aging(eg. wrinkles, skin marring, age spots etc). Continues for the most part up until they die(at half their potential life span)

 

Normal Agelessnes: Normal signs of aging, but develop at a much much later age. Instead of starting to get real wrinkles and the like at 30(or so) it starts at say...300 years old?

[Agitel]

Oath rod agelessness: botox

[wotfan4472]

Hahahahaha!!! Good one Agitel!!!

[Hagazussa]

Oath rod agelessness: botox

 

I don't know it is usually described as a beautifying feature and I do not really think botox is that beautifying to tell you the truth. :P

 

Plus...isnt the agelessness sort of a bad thing, at the very least in the AoL, it marked an Aes Sedai who had sworn something through the use of an oath rod and the one power(we see that Semirhage was going to be forced with the oath rod to never heal/never torture people, can't remember if it was both or just the torture, didnt get an exact answer there). So in the AoL having the 'oath-rod Agelessness' would indicate your possibly a serious criminal who'd been sentenced to having their normally hugely long life, halved.

 

It is bad and it do cut their life span in half and in the Age of Legends it was probably sort of like a scarlet letter of shame. Remember Semirhage was given the choice between swearing on the binder and severing, severing the one thing third age channelers fear the most and which in 99 percent of the cases completely destroys a person, and yet it was given as a choice so getting that mark was probably a so shameful thing that for someone given that choice it was a real consideration, so it was considered pretty bad yes.

[Barid Bel Medar]

Just a small point, agelessness has been used in various ways in WoT ( a lot poetic license probably). 

 

It's not the ageless look in particular that defines the Aes Sedai. As has been mentioned, other channellers have been described as having ageless looks - the youthful face with wise eyes. 

 

It is the smooth face (I think of it kind of like a face lift - a good one- where the skin is tightened) that is the Oath Rod effect. 

 

I know we are most likely aware of that, but just thought to point it out. 

[XoMeltdownoX]

In the AOL a person would probably not have the ageless look after swearing on the binder. Not unless they made multiple oaths as the modern AS do.

RJ April 2003

"No...now you have to be careful with this, because this is a kind of spoiler for people that haven’t read far enough, but the Oath Rod is what was in the Age of Legends called a binder. It was used on criminals. If you committed a violent act, or some sort of criminal act, with a binder, someone who could channel could be constrained from ever doing that again, and the result of having three of the Oaths, is the ageless appearance. One would not produce agelessness, but even one would shorten life, and three of them put a cap on Aes Sedai’s lives, on how long they could live."