Wise One:

Among the Aiel, Wise Ones are women chosen by other Wise Ones and trained in healing, herbs and other things, much like Wisdoms. They have great authority and responsibility, as well as great influence with sept and clan chiefs, though these men often accuse them of meddling. A good many Wise Ones can channel to one degree or another; they find every Aiel woman born with the spark in her and most of those who can learn. The fact that Wise Ones can channel is not spoken of among Aiel, by custom. Also by custom, Wise Ones avoid all contact with Aes Sedai, even more so than other Aiel. Wise Ones stand outside all feuds and battle, and according to ji'e'toh may not be harmed or impeded in any way. For a Wise One to take part in a battle would be a great violation of custom and tradition. Three Wise Ones now living are dreamwalkers, with the ability to enter Tel'aran'rhiod and to speak to other people in their dreams among other things. See also dreamwalker; Tel'aran'rhiod.

About the Author:

Robert Jordan

Note! Robert Jordan is a pseudonym. His real name is James Oliver Rigney Jr!!!

A lifelong resident of Charleston, South Carolina, Jordan was born in 1948. With a brother 12 years his senior, Robert began his education at an early age, and his future interest in fantastic literature was inevitable. "When my parents couldn’t get a baby-sitter, they’d get my brother," he recalls. "He would read to me, not kids’ books, but things he was interested in, like Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and Mark Twain, so I was exposed to a lot of great fiction." Jordan served two tours of duty in Vietnam (1968-70), earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze star. The Vietnamese twice awarded him with their Cross of Gallantry. After Vietnam, he entered the Citadel, the military college of South Carolina, where he received a degree in physics. In retrospect, Robert Jordan feels that physics is not such an unusual background for a fantasy writer. "You can’t study quantum mechanics without a feel for fantasy," he recently reflected, "Schrodinger’s Cat alone will kill any logical person dead." After attaining his degree, he was employed by the Navy as a nuclear engineer. He was hospitalized for an injury which gave him a great deal of time to catch up on his reading. Jordan quickly ran out of satisfactory material, and in exasperation, thought he could probably write as well as the authors he had been reading. The Wheel of Time is the happy result.

Robert Jordan has now been writing for 13 years, and he has been married for ten. He and his wife live in the Old Historic District of Charleston, in a house dating from 1797. A history buff, he is particularly interested in Charleston’s past, and in military history. An outdoors man, Jordan enjoys hunting fishing and sailing, and the indoor sports of poker, chess and pool, and collecting pipes. .

About this book . . .

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Lord of Chaos

Book Five of the Wheel of Time

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On the slopes of Shayol Ghul, the Myrddraal swords are forged, and the sky is not the sky of this world. In Salidar the White Tower in exile prepares an embassy to Caemlyn, where Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, holds the throne — and where an unexpected visitor may change the world. In Emond's Field, Perrin Goldeneyes, Lord of the Two Rivers, feels the pull of ta'veren to ta'veren and prepares to march. Morgase of Caemlyn finds a most unexpected, and quite unwelcome, ally. And south lies Illian, where Sammael holds sway. . . .

Robert Jordan, Lord of Chaos

(Series: The Wheel of Time # 6)