Moiraine and Siuan take their Aes Sedai oaths. They choose the Blue Ajah.
Whatever happens with Siuan and the mice is strangely not discussed at all. Instead, we pick back up the next morning when a group of Aes Sedai gather first Moiraine and then Siuan and march them down to the testing room for the oath ceremony.
First, a word about ter’angreal. Imagine that 500 years from now, our descendants have lost the capacity to produce integrated circuits. All they know how to do is make electricity flow through wires again. Sounds pretty far-fetched, right? Like even if knowledge about how to build integrated circuits somehow faded into obscurity, you would think that with a little bit of time on their hands those electrical engineers would rediscover how to build them again. “No!” says Mr. Jordan. “No, no, NO! They built them during the Age of Legends! They don’t know how to build them anymore, you get it?!?” Alrighty then, Mr. Jordan. They’re too dumb to reverse-engineer a glorified magic flashlight. Fine.
Not only is a ter’angreal central to the Aes Sedai test, but it is also a pivotal part of their induction into the order: inductees are required to hold the ter’angreal known as the Oath Rod and recite three oaths:
- I vow that I will speak no word that is not true.
- I vow that I will make no weapon for one man to kill another.
- I vow that I will never use the One Power as a weapon except against Shadowspawn, or in the last extreme of defending my life or that of my Warder or another sister.
Light, these rules are so mechanical, they read like Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics. They’re so similar, it’s like Jordan jotted them down in a fit of jealousy after finishing I, Robot.
Much has been made of the first vow. What could be more core to the identity of an Aes Sedai than having to perform all of their lying by omission? Instead of glossing over this point, let’s call it what it really is: a loophole. In the Wheel of Time world it is common knowledge that the Aes Sedai are bound to this vow, so they regularly use it to mollify the public into believing that they are trustworthy, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth.
With loopholes in mind, let’s talk about vow #2. Looks like it’s perfectly fine for Aes Sedai to create weapons for men to kill women, for women to kill women, and for women to kill men. You can practically hear George Carlin rattling off this list, and it appears to fit quite well with the matriarchal societal modeling that appears to be prevalent in this world. Women killing others? Fine!
Also, what if it’s a weapon that is not intended to be fatal? This opens all kinds of doors to pepper spray, stun guns, batons, rubber bullets, bean bag rounds, sound canons, flashbangs and tranquilizer darts. I’m going to be keeping this one in mind, Mr. Jordan.
As Moiraine and Siuan spoke these oaths, I also could not help but wonder:
- What if the oath taker makes up a completely different oath, like I vow that I will never wear slippers on Tuesday?
- What if the oath taker vows to do something that is impossible, like I vow that I will manufacture a brand new ter’angreal within seven days?
- What happens if the oath taker forgets the oath, or misspeaks? Does this ter’angreal have an UNDO button, or is that going to turn into an Army of Darkness moment?
Setting aside all of my unanswered questions, the ceremony goes off without a hitch, and both Moiraine and Siuan choose the Blue Ajah, also known as “Seekers after Causes.” Oh, no wonder Moiraine is so bent on finding the Dragon. She’s an activist. That explains so much.