The White Tower

Location from The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan

Seat of Aes Sedai power for three thousand years — a tower of bone-white stone that has shaped the destiny of nations and barely survived its own internal corruption.

The White Tower is simultaneously the most powerful and most dysfunctional institution in the Westlands. It trains channelers, advises monarchs, and maintains a network of eyes-and-ears that spans every nation. It also spends more energy on internal politics than external threats, which is why the Black Ajah festered for centuries and the Tower split in half when Elaida deposed Siuan. Egwene reunified it, purged the Black Ajah, and led it into the Last Battle — but the institution's fundamental weakness remains: Aes Sedai are trained to think they're always right, which makes reform nearly impossible.

Appearance

A single massive tower of gleaming white stone rising hundreds of feet above Tar Valon. Interior corridors are labyrinthine — novice quarters in the lower levels, Accepted chambers above, Aes Sedai apartments higher still, and the Amyrlin's study at the summit. The Tower is warm in winter and cool in summer through ter'angreal climate control. Libraries, training rooms, and the Hall of the Tower fill the interior.

Also known as: the White Tower, the Tower

What They Know

• The Tower contains the world's largest library and the most comprehensive collection of ter'angreal outside the Age of Legends
• Novice training takes years and produces channelers who are politically sophisticated but often arrogant
• The Hall of the Tower — the legislative body of Sitters — can overrule the Amyrlin on key decisions
• The Black Ajah operated within the Tower for centuries before Verin's intelligence exposed them

Connections

• part_of — tar_valon
• ruled_by — egwene
• infiltrated_by — mesaana
• infiltrated_by — alviarin

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