In The Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan (1948-2007), the One Power is the force that maintains the continuous motion of the Wheel of Time. It comes from the True Source, and it is separated into two halves: saidin (pronounced 'sah-ih-DIHN'), the male half, and saidar (pronounced 'sah-ih-DAHR'), the female half. It is used in the series (like magic) by people who can wield it -- such people are called channelers. This article is about a fantasy series. ... For other persons named Robert Jordan, see Robert Jordan (disambiguation). ... Not to be confused with Magic (illusion). ...

Nature of the True Source

The One Power is divided into male and female halves that work with and against each other to drive the Wheel of Time. The True Source cannot be consumed by channellers, even as a river cannot be consumed by a waterwheel. Each half of the One Power is able to be used only by people of the associated sex (the only known exception is Aran'gar who is a man in a female body and can thus use saidin).

Channelers

Not everyone has the ability to "channel", or access, the One Power. Most have none at all, and some only have the ability to be taught, to one degree or another. But a few channelers are born with "the spark" -- an innate inclination that will lead them to touch the Source, whether they wish to or not. These wilders often die without ever gaining control over their innate ability; some research indicates the mortality rate for untrained channelers is 75% or more. Often, this survival comes with a price; they may not even know they are using the One Power to do things, they just know that sometimes, "things happen" when they want them badly enough. Wilders are also frequently saddled with a block -- an instinctive self-preservation behavior that causes them trouble when they do try to channel purposely. This can take the form of only being able to channel while angry, or only with one's eyes closed, or some other condition specific to the channeler. Those who do not have the spark can go their entire lives without touching the Power or even realizing they can.

Channelers are also not born equal--some are stronger in the Power and can handle more of it than others. Men and women are different in this and many other regards when it comes to the One Power.

Differences between Male and Female Channelers

When using the One Power one weaves flows of different elements: Earth, Water, Air, Fire and Spirit. Men are generally stronger with Fire and Earth, while women are generally stronger with Air and Water; strength in Spirit is equal, and equally rare. Male channelers, in general, are capable of holding more of the Power than female ones, while women generally are more dextrous in the weaving of the Power. Also, male channelers cannot link to form a "Circle" of multiple channelers working together without a woman's aid; only women can initiate a Circle, although there cannot be more men than women in a circle and no more than thirteen women may be joined without including any men.

Female channelers can tell when other women are touching the Source; a white glowing aura appears around their body, only visible to those trained to touch the One Power. Normally, there is no way for a woman to tell when a man is channelling; however, ter'angreal have been discovered that make it possible. (Moghedien the Forsaken, when captured, claimed to know a weave of the One Power that served the same purpose; however, she later confessed to the Dark One that the weave only caused severe headaches to those attempting to use it. Moghediens weave may have been fake, but more recently as of Knife of Dreams, Aes Sedai have discovered a way to detect a males channeling. Men feel women holding the Source as a tingling on their skin, like goosebumps; they can also sense when another man is holding the Power (though they cannot see it as an aura or by some comparable visual aid). Black and white Kirlian photo of a fingertip. ... Moghedien is one of the primary antagonists of the Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan. ... forsake (STOP) verb [T] forsook, forsaken FORMAL to stop doing or having something: He decided to forsake politics for journalism. ... The Dark One is a fictional entity and primary antagonist of The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. ...

Most vividly, male and female channelers experience the Power differently: a woman would describe it as a gentle but immense force requiring patience, acceptance, guidance, and relaxation, while a man frequently describes it as a cataclysmic torrent requiring strict control and masterful will. In short, women "embrace" saidar, influencing it from within, while men "seize" saidin, manipulating it from without. This essential difference in the "feeling" of the Power means that a woman cannot teach a man to channel, and vice-versa (it has been tried, many, many times), especially as many "weaves" (spells) which work for one sex do not work the same way for the other. As an example, men can use a weave of Fire to dissipate the heat from a candle flame, whereas women must use Air or Water to snuff it; women who have tried the male way have been grievously injured, some even bursting into flame—just from a candle. Male and females also grow in the One Power differently; Women gradually increase in strength, whereas men gain strength in sudden leaps.

Channelers must always be careful, as the One Power is dangerous. The feeling of holding the One Power is described as being "more alive than ever before"; a powerful feeling of joy for women, and a feeling of "holding a river of frozen fire and burning ice" for men, as well as a significant increase of sensory acuity. Besides providing an addictive stimulating quality, channelers who draw too much of the Power into themselves can kill themselves or render themselves brain-dead. If they are lucky—relatively speaking—they will only burn the ability out of themselves, leaving themselves unable to channel ever again. Channelers can be temporarily "shielded" from touching the Source using weaves of Spirit. They can also be permanently cut off from it; in modern Aes Sedai parlance, this is called "stilling" when done to women and "gentling" when done to men. (Archaically it was called "severing" for either sex.) Regardless of the circumstances, those who lose the ability permanently also tend to lose the will to live. Very recently, an Aes Sedai named Nynaeve al'Meara, and an Asha'man Damer Flinn, have discovered how to heal severing, but the process only works completely when the healer is of the opposite sex to the healed (as shown by Nynaeve's incomplete Healing of both Siuan Sanche and Leane Sharif.) Nynaeve alMeara (pronounced NIGH-neev al-MEER-ah) (formally and currently elNynaeve ti alMeara Mandragoran) is one of the main characters of The Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan. ... The Ashaman are an organization of men who can channel in the fictional world of Robert Jordans fantasy series The Wheel of Time // The name Ashaman means guardian or defender in the Old Tongue; the meaning is uncertain, as with many words in the language, but what... Siuan Sanche is a character of the Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan. ... Leane Sharif is a fictional character in Robert Jordans Wheel of Time series. ...

All men and women with the spark come to a point of crisis in which they are in severe danger of dying without training. Many women who die of mysterious—and, unfortunately, excruciatingly painful—circumstances in their late teenaged years are actually wilders who have failed to cope with their abilities. The women who survive invariably develop mental blocks that prevent channeling in the absence of certain conditions; three known blocks required severe anger, thoughts about men, or even closed eyes (which would prevent most channeling, as sight is required) before their sufferers could allow themselves to channel. Serious and sometimes drastic counseling is often required to overcome blocks. These blocks are known as bars by Taim. One example of a block is Nynaeve's inability to surrender to saidar except while angry. Another is an Asha'man's inability to channel at anything beyond a certain distance. Mazrim Taim is a character in Robert Jordans The Wheel of Time fantasy series. ... The Ashaman are an organization of men who can channel in the fictional world of Robert Jordans fantasy series The Wheel of Time // The name Ashaman means guardian or defender in the Old Tongue; the meaning is uncertain, as with many words in the language, but what...

Some other differences include:

1. A woman's shield for her dreams is a crystal barrier between the dreamwalker and the dream, while a man's shield for his dreams is described as a barrier showing dreams as if looking into "muddy water."
2. Women can detect the ability to channel in another woman but a male must weave Saidin for a long period of time, until they sense a resonance of the power in them. This appears to be an equivalent of a man's ability to feel a woman channel automatically, while a woman must perform a complicated weave to feel a man channel (if possible at all; see above).
3. The weaves for healing with saidin are specific to each ailment, while for a woman, or saidar, the same weave is used no matter the degree of the condition. (This may not be true because Aes Sedai use a very primative method for healing whereas Asha'man healing is more advanced because of Damer Flinn. It is known that the Yellow Ajah began discussing how Nynaeve's use of all five powers in healing could be woven in different ways to treat different ailments.)
4. A female gateway for Traveling is made by "folding" the Pattern of an Age, making the two places to be Travelled as one. A male gateway is made by "boring" a hole through the Pattern, from one place to another.

In The Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan, the One Power is the force that maintains the continuous motion of the Wheel of Time. ... In The Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan, the One Power is the force that maintains the continuous motion of the Wheel of Time. ... In The Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan, the One Power is the force that maintains the continuous motion of the Wheel of Time. ... The Aes Sedai[EYEZ seh-DEYE] are a society in the fictional universe of Robert Jordans The Wheel of Time book series. ... The Ashaman are an organization of men who can channel in the fictional world of Robert Jordans fantasy series The Wheel of Time // The name Ashaman means guardian or defender in the Old Tongue; the meaning is uncertain, as with many words in the language, but what...

Balances of Power Between Men and Women

In wielding the Power, male and female channelers have differing advantages or disadvantages when compared to the other sex, that ultimately equalizes them as channelers. The primary advantage that men have against women is their greater relative strength in wielding it. The proportion is described as about the same as the difference between the physical strengths of most men and women. There are of course, exceptions to the rule, but in general men are more powerful than women. In balance to that, women tend to be more dexterous weavers of the Power, being able to weave flows of saidar faster than men can weave saidin.

The main advantage women have over men is their ability to form circles of women who wield the Power in unison together to amplify their potency. Men can be included in a circle, but they cannot make one without a woman. Two women in a circle can usually best a man who is in the same comparative power level, even if they are weaker than he individually. However, in counter to this, this makes women weaker to forced rings or bonds, like the a'dam. A female a'dam is primarily flawless, and will allow the sul'dam complete control over the damane as long as they are linked; a male a'dam however is flawed: it requires two women to safely handle and maintain the link, though one would do for a short time, but the man is eventually able to reverse the flow of control to some extent, causing the three to fight for dominance. In other words, forced bonds do not work on male channelers nearly as well as they do on female channelers.

One last set of balances is in the detection of the opposite sex's weaving. Men who channel are able to tell when a woman embraces the Source or channels nearby by a prickling in the skin, the appearance of a set of goosebumps. Women have no way to tell without the Power when a man embraces the Source or is channeling. However, a new Weave has been discovered that can allow a woman to tell when a man is channeling, and see the weave to some extent, at least to the point of knowing direction; also, a woman can mask detection by a man with a certain weave. Whether or not a similar weave that allows men to detect women's channeling exists is still undetermined.

Aes Sedai

Main article: Aes Sedai

The current Aes Sedai are the third largest organized group of women who wield the One Power, second to the Aiel Wise Ones and the Kin. The Aes Sedai headquarters, the White Tower, is on the island city of Tar Valon. Other groups of organized channelers have sprung up on the mainland (the "Westlands"), such as the Kin and the Daughters of Silence, but they have either kept themselves totally secret or been neutralized by the Tower. Some Aes Sedai will refer to any female channeler who is not affiliated with the Tower as a "wilder", although this is not strictly correct. Many of the peripheral cultures in the Westlands have their own independent associations of female channelers, separate from (and frequently unknown to) the White Tower. The Aes Sedai[EYEZ seh-DEYE] are a society in the fictional universe of Robert Jordans The Wheel of Time book series. ... The Aes Sedai[EYEZ seh-DEYE] are a society in the fictional universe of Robert Jordans The Wheel of Time book series. ... This article is about the countries, cities, towns, and other important locations in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time fantasy fiction series. ...

The Taint on Saidin

In the current age, the Dark One's taint on saidin causes male channelers, even those who survive the struggle to learn to channel safely, to inevitably go mad and succumb to a wasting sickness which causes the sufferer to rot alive (these curses may come in either order, or concurrently, at varying speeds for each male channeler). The taint came into being at the end of the Age of Legends, when Lews Therin Telamon and the Hundred Companions (actually 113 male channelers) re-sealed the Dark One into his prison, but not before the Dark One caused saidin to become tainted, driving all of those attempting to seal him in immediately and irrevocably insane (other male Aes Sedai took longer for the taint to affect them). The ensuing chaos and destruction caused The Breaking of the World or the Time of Madness. Men who can channel, in short, are a threat. With this in mind, members of the Aes Sedai formed a faction, the Red Ajah, dedicated to the hunting down and gentling of male channelers before they can cause (much) trouble. As with all severed channelers, these men rarely live for long afterwards, and few have children. In a possibly connected affliction, fewer and fewer people of either gender are born with any channeling ability, a fact the logic-worshipping White Ajah have compared to the breeding-out of distasteful traits in domesticated animals. However, the exact cause(s) of the decline of channeling remain unknown, as there have been increasingly more powerful channelers discovered throughout the series. The Dark One is a fictional entity and primary antagonist of The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. ... This article is about the fictional world history of Robert Jordans the Wheel of Time fantasy fiction series. ... Lews Therin Telamon is a fictional character in Robert Jordans The Wheel of Time fantasy series. ... This article is about the fictional world history of Robert Jordans Wheel of Time fantasy fiction series. ... This article is about the concepts and terminology in Robert Jordans fantasy fiction series The Wheel of Time. ... This article is about the concepts and terminology in Robert Jordans fantasy fiction series The Wheel of Time. ...

At the conclusion of Book 9, saidin has purportedly been cleansed through the use of two of the most powerful sa'angreal ever made, called the Choedan Kal. They were used by Nynaeve al'Meara and Rand al'Thor in a linked Circle. The complex process destroyed the ruined city of Shadar Logoth and was "felt" by most, if not all, channelers of both genders in the Westlands. However, some have confessed doubt over the effectiveness of the cleansing, due to three thousand years of fear. Winters Heart (abbreviated as WH by fans) is the ninth book of the Wheel of Time fantasy series written by American author Robert Jordan. ... This article is about the concepts and terminology in Robert Jordans fantasy fiction series The Wheel of Time. ... The Choedan Kal are the two most powerful saangreal in Robert Jordans Wheel of Time fantasy series. ... Nynaeve alMeara (pronounced NIGH-neev al-MEER-ah) (formally and currently elNynaeve ti alMeara Mandragoran) is one of the main characters of The Wheel of Time fantasy series by Robert Jordan. ... Rand alThor is the protagonist and main character of The Wheel of Time, a series of fantasy novels by Robert Jordan. ... In the fictional world of Robert Jordans fantasy series The Wheel of Time, Shadar Logoth, formerly known as Aridhol, is a city located in what is now Andor. ...

Book 10 leaves the question of whether saidin was actually cleansed almost untouched, however in Book 11 both Rand al'Thor and various Asha'man confirm that saidin has been cleansed completely of the taint. However, any taint absorbed by a male channeler before saidin was cleansed was not removed from that channeler. For this reason, any channelers who were driven mad (or partially mad) by the taint were not suddenly sane again, however they will not suffer further deterioration. Crossroads of Twilight (abbreviated as CoT by fans) is the tenth book of The Wheel of Time fantasy series written by American author Robert Jordan. ... Knife of Dreams (abbreviated as KoD by fans) is the eleventh book in the fantasy series The Wheel of Time by American author Robert Jordan. ... Rand alThor is the protagonist and main character of The Wheel of Time, a series of fantasy novels by Robert Jordan. ... The Ashaman are an organization of men who can channel in the fictional world of Robert Jordans fantasy series The Wheel of Time // The name Ashaman means guardian or defender in the Old Tongue; the meaning is uncertain, as with many words in the language, but what...

Asha'man

Main article: Asha'man

Formed by Rand al'Thor in preparation for Tarmon Gai'don, the Asha'man are an all male group of channelers. Their name, an adaption of the Old Tongue word for "guardian" or "guardians", is meant to distinguish them from the now all female Aes Sedai. In addition, the type of guardian that Asha'man describes is one who will not fight for an unrighteous cause. The Ashaman are an organization of men who can channel in the fictional world of Robert Jordans fantasy series The Wheel of Time // The name Ashaman means guardian or defender in the Old Tongue; the meaning is uncertain, as with many words in the language, but what...