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2.6.5: The Mystery of the Salidar Sitters

[Pam Korda, John S. Hamby, Karl-Johan Noren]

In [TPOD: 16, Unexpected Absences, 340-341], Siuan tells Egwene about a pattern she has noticed about the Salidar Hall:

"Aside from Romanda and Moria, the Sitters chosen in Salidar are... they're too young.... Escaralde is the oldest, and I'm sure she isn't much past seventy.... It isn't often the Hall has held more than one Sitter under a hundred, and here we have nine! ... When a woman is raised too young, there's a reason.... This time, there were more than enough sisters of proper age to choose from, and I can't see five Ajahs deadlocking on all of them. There is a pattern, and I mean to pick it out."

Now, to try to figure out what the deal is with the Sitters, we'll consider several things: the factions, who is new, who is "too young," how they voted on the War Vote, how they reacted to the result of the War Vote, whether they stood for Egwene as Amyrlin in the first vote, and whether they've promoted any hair-brained schemes which could have proven disastrous for the Salidar AS.

Who's Who among the Salidar Sitters

What information do we have?

1. In [LOC: 35, In the Hall of the Sitters, 472-476] Egwene is raised: voting occurs, and at the end, the Sitters line up by age. This last bit establishes Romanda, Lelaine, and Janya as the three oldest Sitters, and Delana as being one of the nine youngest.
2. From [ACOS: 11, An Oath, 214], we find that all the original sitters but one follow Romanda or Lelaine. The factions are given in [TPOD: 16, Unexpected Absences, 327]. Lelaine's followers are Faiselle, Takima, and Lyrelle. Romanda's followers are Magla, Saroiya and Varilin.
3. Siuan's explanation of her "too young" theory to Egwene [TPOD: 16, Unexpected Absences, 340-341]. From this we learn that there are nine Sitters who are too young.
4. In the same passage, we find that five of the six Ajahs in Salidar raised Sitters who are too young.
5. Of the Sitters raised in Salidar, only Romanda and Moria are old enough.
6. Various passages indicate that one or another of the Sitters is newly-raised, or one of the original ones.
7. In [TPOD: 19, The Law, 385-389], the Hall votes on declaring War on Elaida. The votes of all the Sitters are given.
8. Given the rarity of young Sitters, it is not too much of a stretch to assume that all of the young Sitters are newly-chosen. If nothing else, Siuan would have mentioned a young original sitter as an exception when she was explaining her theory. This would mean that there are 11 new Sitters and 7 original ones. (Note that it is possible that there is a young, original Sitter, but that just complicates matters, so for now, we'll assume not.)
9. From 1, 2, and 5, we can conclude that Janya is the independent original Sitter.
10. From 4 and 5, the Blue Ajah is the only one which didn't raise a too-young Sitter. (Lyrelle is one of the original Sitters.)
11. Seven original Sitters, less Lelaine and Janya, makes five originals who follow Lelaine or Romanda. Since there are six followers altogether, only one of the followers is newly-raised.
12. After Delana tosses her cookies in [TPOD: 19, The Law, 388], we have, "Magla and Saroiya... looked as though they might follow her example. No others who had been chosen in Salidar, though." This passage is ambiguous, in that we don't know whether "others" refers to Delana or to Magla and Saroiya, and thus, we don't know if this means that Magla and Saroiya are newly-chosen or original. However, whichever way it is meant, it indicates M and S were either both chosen in Salidar, or both were not. Since they both follow Romanda, both of them cannot be newly-chosen (because of 11). So, both of them must be original Sitters.
13. From 2, 9, and 12, we can conclude that the Salidar Sitters who were members of the original Hall are Lelaine, Lyrelle, Janya, Takima, Magla, Saroiya, and either Varilin or Faiselle.

From [LOC: 35, In the Hall of the Sitters, 472-476], we know that Delana, Kwamesa, Janya, and Malind stood for the first vote. Samalin, Lelaine, and Romanda did not. With respect to hair-brained schemes, in [TPOD: 16, Unexpected Absences, 331] there is a list of suggestions from the sitters on how to raise money. Moria proposed to stop paying the soldiers, which any idiot knows would mean the army would melt away. Malind suggested hitting up nearby nobles for donations, something Egwene thought would turn the whole countryside against them. Salita wanted to levy a tax on villages, which Egwene also thought was a bad idea. In [ACOS: 11, An Oath, 215], we hear about a proposal from Delana that Elaida be publicly denounced as Black Ajah, a move which would cause public confidence in Aes Sedai to plummet. Romanda suggests that all sisters be interrogated about being BA, and any who refuse should be shielded and confined, a move sure to cause a mutiny. In response to Romanda's idea, Lelaine wants Egwene to forbid mention of the BA as "fomenting discord." This plan "would have every sister convinced not just that there was a Black Ajah, but that Egwene was part of it." [ACOS: 12, A Morning of Victory, 247]

Summary:

Sitter	Ajah	Faction	New?	Too Young?	War Vote	1st Amyrlin vote	Scheme?
Romanda	Yellow	Romanda	Y	N	N	N	Y
Magla	Yellow	Romanda	N	N	N	-	-
Salita	Yellow	-	Y	Y	Y	-	Y
Saroiya	White	Romanda	N	N	N	-	-
Aledrin	White	-	Y	Y	Y	-	-
Berana	White	-	Y	Y	Y	-	-
Varilin	Gray	Romanda	?	?	N	-	-
Delana	Gray/Black	Halima	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Kwamesa	Gray	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	-
Lelaine	Blue	Lelaine	N	N	Y	N	Y
Lyrelle	Blue	Lelaine	N	N	Y	-	-
Moria	Blue	-	Y	N	Y	-	Y
Faiselle	Green	Lelaine	?	?	N	-	-
Samalin	Green	-	Y	Y	Y	N	-
Malind	Green	-	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Takima	Brown	Lelaine	N	N	N	-	-
Janya	Brown	-	N	N	Y	Y	-
Escaralde	Brown	-	Y	Y	Y	-	-

What is the secret in the Hall?

Siuan thinks that the "pattern" in the hall is connected with the relative youthfulness of the new sitters. In fact, when the War Vote is being taken, and Egwene doesn't get as many votes as she and Siuan expected, Egwene thinks that the discrepancy might be due to Siuan's pattern.

Here are some ideas for what the Secret of the Salidar Sitters might be.

1. Egwene is actually right when she thinks "Older sisters were more likely to be tied to old ways...everything was shifting... Surely that was why younger women, more open to the new, had been chosen." [TPOD: 16, Unexpected Absences, 341] Conceivably, this could be true, but see the commentary on Siuan's puzzle-solving ability at the start of this section.

2.The new young Sitters are sacrificial lambs in case things go wrong, along the lines of Elaida's thoughts on Egwene being chosen as Amyrlin over Romanda, Sheriam or Lelaine [ACOS: Prologue, Lightnings, 25]. Note that Elaida is not exactly correct; Siuan and Leane guided the Salidar Six, and through them the Hall, into choosing Egwene. However, the people behind choosing the new Sitters (possibly the seven original sitters, Romanda and Lelaine, or the Salidar Ajah heads?) may have been of Elaida's school of thought, and so it might still apply to the choice of Sitters in Salidar. The anomalies of Romanda and Moria can be explained as exceptions. The Blues have little to nothing to gain from a rapprochement under Elaida so choosing a traditional Sitter who will follow Lelaine (so was the idea when Moria was chosen) and present a strong stable front for the Blues makes sense. Romanda clearly did not think that the Salidar effort was going to fail or else she would not have joined, right? After all if she went to Salidar in hopes of becoming Amyrlin she must have thought it worth the consequences of failure.

3. All the too-young Sitters are Black Ajah. After all, Delana is BA and too young. One problem with this is that only Delana upchucks as a result of the vote. Then again, Delana is probably the only BA who knows about Halima. Another problem is that this supposes that a full half the Salidar Hall is BA. While the Hall is disorderly, it sure doesn't show any evidence of being dominated by Darkfriends.

4. Perhaps the too-young Sitters were all picked by the Six. But for what purpose beyond the obvious of hoping to control the Hall? Was it an attempt to have a Hall and yet keep it from becoming effective in the eyes of the other sisters? That young Sitters would not be taken seriously or have as much clout? Or perhaps young sisters suddenly raised would be blinded by the honor and happily let the Six continue their rule? Was it because they already had an idea of Egwene as Amyrlin and figured that Sitters who were younger than normal would be more open to raising an eighteen year-old as Amyrlin?

However, it seems from Siuan's comment [TPOD: 16, Unexpected Absences, 341], that it was the Ajahs that chose the Sitters in Salidar. Certainly Siuan would have known right away if Sheriam and crew had gone out and hand-picked nine Sitters, right? Also, as far as we know, Myrelle is the only Ajah Head among the Salidar Six, and thus the only one we can expect to have any clout in Sitter-choosing. From Siuan's statement about the choosing of Moria, it seems that Lelaine hand-picked Moria, with Lyrelle's tacit consent. It is possible that Morvrin, Beonin and Carlinya are heads of their respective Ajahs in Salidar. But even if that is so, it still leaves open the question of Salita Toranes of the Yellow. No Yellow member of the Salidar Six.

5. The nine were chosen in hopes of never being able to reach a consensus since they all go their own way (this was anticipated).

6. The nine were chosen in hopes that they would be able to reach the lesser consensus even if Lelaine and Romanda were filibustering, as it would only take one or two Sitters to break ranks to accomplish something.

7. They were chosen as the best possible means of bringing the Two Towers together. As young go-getters they would be anxious to act. The fact that the Hall has a tendency to sit on its collective ass seems to refute this.

8. Chosen because they would have less loyalty and awe for the Tower as an institution and perhaps be more likely to keep the Tower split? This would fall back once again on BA influence of sorts. Also their inexperience might lend to this as they would not be able to come together to get anything major accomplished. Instead, the Hall in Salidar ends up with two factions that refuse to compromise and nine others who all don't want an accord that brings them under Elaida but don't know what their next step should be. Or if they do, they can't get it through because Romanda and Lelaine consider them children.

9. Offshoot of 8. Young Sitters were chosen to keep either Romanda or Lelaine from gaining a clear advantage. Neither would take the young Sitters seriously, yet could not do so openly as it would undermine their own positions in the Hall as a legitimate Sitter. At least some of the young Sitters clearly have issues with being taken seriously as a Sitter. Might this include how they are treated in the Hall itself by the venerable Sisters from the Yellow and the Blue?

10. The nine young Sitters are all Elaida's agents. This is not very likely, since all the young Sitters except the one in Lelaine or Romanda's faction voted in favor of declaring War on Elaida.

11. Escaralde is the oldest of those chosen in Salidar; she is "not much past seventy." What if the Sitters were chosen due to their age? Not so much as they are young; but that their age precludes them from having been in the Tower at a certain time. What this may have been I have no idea. But maybe the fallout, while not too major, was enough to make any of the older sisters reluctant to place themselves in a 'target' position. Or maybe if something did happen it was enough to prompt avoidance of any who might have been associated with the event. This hypothetical event would have taken place before Escaralde came to the Tower as a Novice-- probably between the ages of fifteen and twenty. That would put the timing of the event at least forty-five to sixty years ago. We don't know of any significant events involving the Tower during that time period. The AS might have given themselves a margin of error, so the event could have happened longer than sixty years ago. Note that all sorts of things seem to have occurred seventy years ago.

Looking at the table, the only apparent pattern involving the young Sitters is that they all voted in favor of War on Elaida, except for the one who follows Lelaine or Romanda (Faiselle or Varilin). However, Egwene and Siuan expected more votes in favor of War than they actually got. This means that more of the older Sitters were expected to vote for War than actually did. It's reasonable that the Blues all voted for War. All of Romanda's faction voted against War, as did the two non-Blues (Faiselle and Takima) in Lelaine's-- much to Lelaine's surprise and displeasure.

In any case, there seems to be too little information to figure out the reason behind the youth of the new Sitters.

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