Might be longer. In CoT, Ch23 it says "Beldeine saw her step out, and stiffened, twitching at the green-fringed shawl she had worn fewer than five years". She doesn't have the ageless face. The question is how fewer than five years.

 

Edit: according to EWoT Beldeine was raised in late 996 NE, we are currently at June 1000 NE.

Thank you.

It begins after you take more than one oath...

Right, but I was wondering a timeframe, as days or even months after taking the oaths you do not yet have the ageless face, so when does it set in? One year? Two?

As for AS numbers as of NS there were 1,200 AS all told.

Correct, but as of the Tower split, the Rebels had ~300 Aes Sedai, with the Tower having as many, and the non-aligned having also as many, leading the estimate of 800-1,000 Aes Sedai. But if we plug in the NS numbers, we have even more inflated numbers...

One more question, when does the Ageless face appear?

Response to all the responses to my original question [what was the number of Aes Sedai at their height of power] (my ability to check this site is sporadic at best due to my life at the moment): I estimated, given from ANS, that the total number of novices would be somewhere around 800, and 400 accepted. (In ANS, it is mentioned that there are nearly 200 accepted and 400 novice rooms, and it was rumored that at one point novices and accepted were boarded two to a room). Further, the White Tower was built to hold 3,000 Aes Sedai, which again, judging from current trends (that there are two Aes Sedai out of the Tower for every one inside), it gives us a hard upper number of 9,000 Aes Sedai.

These assumptions are quite tenuous however. We do not know that the 2:1 ratio was standard in earlier times. It could have been larger (it most likely was, as pre-Artur Hawkwing the Aes Sedai acted as advisers and governors and were more broadly accepted), but we do not know if the White Tower was built for more sisters than was needed at the time of construction (again, most likely, as the Aes Sedai most likely did not intend to stagnate or die, and the construction was no easy prospect. They would most likely have no desire to build a second Tower in Tar Valon or elsewhere, as that could risk a power division) and if the Tower was bigger than needed, was it ever full?

A separate estimation method is as follows: There are 800-1000 Aes Sedai in the world pre-Dragon Reborn. There are 40 novices pre-Dragon Reborn. This gives us a 20-25:1 Aes Sedai to Novice ratio. With the rumor of double-bedding of novices this gives us a figure of 16,000-20,000 Aes Sedai. This figure is massive, and seems out of credibility to me. However, this number does have some anecdotal and circumstantial evidence. It has been said that the White Tower will not lower its minimum standard for entry into the Tower. It is also said that Egwene and co's strength is remarkable now, but at a point in the past would have been merely unusual. Further, the Westlands have become more sparsely populated AND there are less natural channelers. This definitely points to a higher number, but not necessarily that high of a number, however there is more evidence of this number. Only 1% of the populace can channel. There are nearly or more than 1,100 novices as of the end of ToM and tGS. The figure was formerly 3%, and so if we extrapolate this, it seems reasonable to see that there could be as many as 3,300 novices. This is before the absolute population of the Westlands is increased. If there is still 75% of the population at that height (which I believe the figure is much closer to 50% or less) we could see 4,400 novices! If only 9 or 10 in every 40 (as the pre-Dragon Reborn numbers are) were to attain the shawl, and a total generation of Novices and Accepted changed every 20 years, and that Aes Sedai live ~300 years, we could see 16,500 Aes Sedai! If the current population is in fact only 50% of the total population right before the Trolloc Wars, or before Artur Hawkwing, we could see 24,750 Aes Sedai! However, while these figures are supportive of the second method of estimation, they are also, in and of itself, a third method of estimation.

TL;DR:

The best that we can estimate is thusly: One method produces 9,000 Aes Sedai at most, the second says 16,000-20,000 Aes Sedai, and the third says 16,500-24,750. Keep in mind that this is the theoretical maximum, and not the absolute number of Aes Sedai, but I have also tried to estimate what their actual numbers would be in these figures.

Anyone care to refute my theories, because to me, those last two numbers seem incredibly logical, but also mind-numbingly high.

How many Aes Sedai were there at the height of their power? When was their height of power? (Pre-Trolloc Wars, during, just after, before Hawkwing?) If it wasn't Trolloc Wars, what were their numbers?