my theory is never mentioned, but the wildly different ages between aes sedai themselves made me think that it is not the taking of the Oath that shortens their life. Instead i like to think it is the fact that every time they do something that they have doubts about with regards to the oaths, they lose a bit of life force. Because they are fighting the oath and that costs them energy, something like that.

this was exactly my take as well. All the mentions about trinities and different learning opportunities were packed in their as well, but i felt like this lineage was the core of the package. And everything else was a means to an end. They all 3 had their challenges and lessons to teach rhand, but all of them were related to their birthplace. This also ties in with something that was put to very little attention in the books, but the fact that rhand is the dragon reborn because he is the fusion of the 3 main tribes on this version of earth. it is mentioned 3 times in all of the books, but it ties in with the 3 wifes, what they teach hem, but mainly WHY they teach hem and why he needs to have 3 wives. to reunite the world after breaking it. He needs to take all of them equally into account to make sure all of them will be able to unite not only for the final fight but for the turning of the wheel that comes after

i have a big remark on the OP's point of suggesting that verin might decide to use a fast working potion and only take it after betraying and then not doing it. Since she is the arbiter of the oath herself. This would not work unless she is herself convinced that it really is her last hour. Meaning that she would need a firm believe of there being no other option but to take the poison after that one hour. Or believe that there is no way on earth that she changes her mind on this topic. Having the slightest doubt about it really being her last hour would (i guess) block her from betraying the BA. the oaths are (as you remarked) about what you believe yourself. But as made clear in the books, wanting to believe something and actually believing something are 2 widely different things

from what i understood the Oaths are all about the opinion of the oathtaker. There is no major power forcing things upon them, but a mental/physical inability to do things that you perceive as breaking the oaths. This means that an Aes sedai cannot go into a circle knowing it will be used as a weapon without provocation. But if they are tricked into a circle, there is nothing blocking the master of the circle to use the full power of the circle as a weapon. Of course, as soon as the aes sedai notices the real goal, she will feel forced to try and escape it if she cannot consciously comply with the Oaths, but at this point, that is mainly impossible. As my opinion on the seanchan bracelets: As the book often suggests there are ways to remove the oaths. i always figured the seanchans knew of this and at one point in time forced this upon their da'mane. seeing as they were basically given their knowledge by a black aes sedai or one of the chosen dark ones, i think it is plausible this knowledge was passed with it. We never saw it in the book as the character was never far enough in the process of being mentally broken to force this. the fact that the bracelets do not physically force them to do anything, but only causes pain and other things, means that the da'mane still choose to follow the orders and thus would still be bound to their Oaths as they are aware of what they are doing. This implies the oaths not applying anymore. How they are broken is for the reader to guess, but in the earlier paragraphs i suggested my opinion. happy to hear your opinion on these topics and read what i missed/got wrong.