RJ’s notes Part 70 by Linda Taglieri
The ability to channel is regarded by the Seanchan as evil, the cause of the Breaking and perhaps a thing of the Dark One. A dark taint, as Tuon said. The Seanchan believe that women who can channel are dangerous because they will use the Power against others to gain advantage, therefore for the safety of society they must be collared with an a’dam, a ter’angreal that creates an involuntary link between two women with the sul’dam bracelet-wearer in control (see Ter’angreal article for how the ter’angreal works), or else be killed.
But killing them is now regarded as extremely wasteful. Free, these women are too dangerous to be allowed, but collared they are more than useful, they are a cornerstone of Seanchan society and civilization. The prototype was created by Deain, an Aes Sedai in Seanchan, in an attempt to curry favor with Luthair Paendrag. She eventually was collared herself, after it was learned that women who could learn to channel but had not yet learned could wear the bracelet.
The percentages [of channellers] run higher among the Seanchan than among people east of the Aryth Ocean because, although they have been culling men who can channel out of the population as vigorously as is done anywhere, they have not removed any women who can learn from the breeding population. Thus, the number of women who have some ability (inborn or otherwise) runs at something over 1.5%, as opposed to the 0.5% east of the Aryth Ocean…Since the position is one eagerly sought, very few, if any, women who can become sul’dam fail to do so if they can manage it!
Once a woman has been tested with the collar, and passed by failing, she is tested with a bracelet, to see if she can link with the damane wearing its collar. Women who can do so become sul’dam, with only a few refusing this position. It is the law to search for sul’dam, even in newly conquered lands where they might not share the Seanchan attitude to enslaving channelers.
Once identified and collared, the damane no longer has any rights as a citizen, or even as a human. Traditionally, all her possessions were burned, but current custom is that the clothes she was wearing at the time are burned—as happens with novices and apprentice Wise Ones. The remainder of a damane’s possessions go to the Empress, who redistributes ninety percent of her possessions, in some cases to the family of the woman if the loss of it would cause hardship.
There is shame for a family in the discovery that a daughter of theirs has the potential, yet this shame is mitigated somewhat by aiding in the discovery. Families act as if the one discovered is no longer of their blood, and those who have the means, especially nobles (no one is exempt from the searching, not even the Imperial family), actually have records changed to erase the existence of the girl.
These women are regarded, in a way, as no longer really human (though no one would put it that way), as if they had suddenly been revealed to actually be vicious leopards. For the safety of everyone such a beast cannot be allowed to run loose in the streets, yet their nature is altered somewhat by being collared. There is still a thrill of terror at being close to a collared woman, yet it is like seeing the leopard in a cage under the control of an animal trainer.
As what the women can do is evil (despite so much in Seanchan society depending on it; perhaps better to say potentially evil if uncontrolled, the true current view), so the women themselves are tainted by evil. Some purists (a scarce handful) believe the women should be killed just as males discovered channelling are, but their usefulness as weapons and in other ways keeps this from being more than a very minority view.
By far most of them are the property of the Imperial family, yet many of the Blood will own several, and non-nobles also are allowed to acquire one. More than one, for a non-noble, would be considered getting above their station. They are quite expensive, though. Like a racehorse.
Among nobles and the wealthy it is a status symbol to own at least one. The more owned, the more status, yet the owners must be careful, since they are powerful weapons, not to own so many that it seems they might be acquiring a stockpile of weapons, which can bring the attentions of the Seekers. To counter their status as weapons, it is the custom among nobles (and those wealthy non-nobles who dare to ape the ways of nobles to some extent) to use the collared women in as many frivolous ways as possible. (Example: giving a ball where the lamps contain no oil (or there are no lamps) but illumination is provided by a collared woman or two. Or having one perform tricks with the One Power for entertainment, mixed in with jugglers and tumblers and musicians, of course, so that it is plain she is no more than a dancing bear or trained leopard.)
The clothes she wears, the food she eats, the bed she sleeps in, are all gifts from the sul’dam. and if a sul’dam chooses that she go naked, eat dirt and sleep in a stable, so it will be. In actual practice, other sul’dam would not allow such long except as punishment; damane are valuable, for one thing. For another, it is viewed in the same way that we would view someone mistreating or abusing a horse or a dog. Threatening these things is part of the training method used by some sul'dam with new damane. The normal attitude of most sul'dam toward damane is that of someone toward a well-trained dog or horse; real affection is often present. Frequently, it is returned.
The discovery that they “have a dark taint” and are unnatural to the point of not being human is horrifying to Seanchan damane.
Some would like to die. Most regard what has happened to them as right and proper, almost as a fitting punishment for their “crime and evil” and a chance to expiate same through service. Very few would feel any injustice (or desire to escape), and most of those see it more as fate dealing them an unjust hand than as any injustice on the part of those who picked them out or the [sul’dam] who control them. Most but not all of the rebellious ones are from the nobility, perhaps thinking that their station in life (their former station) should have kept them from this in some way.
Conversely those former damane that have been released from their collars on the mainland who have gotten used to freedom would still have feelings of near guilt at not being properly collared. Most if not all might well be tempted to turn themselves in to the Seanchan forces given a chance.
Damane look upon sul’dam with fear or respect mixed with gratitude that the sul’dam are guiding and sheltering them and keeping them from doing the awful things that they must surely do if they were allowed to run free. (Good medieval Catholics accepting their penance.)
Until Tuon led the way, few sul’dam tried to learn any of the weaves that the Aes Sedai damane know. However, a few weaves, such as Healing, have been taught to Seanchan damane, because of their usefulness. (Even though many Seanchan don’t allow the Power to be used on them.) So far, Aes Sedai damane have not been forced to reveal the method of testing for women who can be taught to channel.
The trainers of damane (sul’dam) and their owners (the Blood) are aware that damane live long lives and age very slowly.
They accept this as an attribute of those who can channel and take it as a sign of how unnatural they are. The Aes Sedai they faced on reaching Seanchan did not use the Three Oaths, thus did not have curtailed lives: a lifespan of 700‒800 years or more was not uncommon for those Seanchan Aes Sedai who escaped assassination.
While damane do die, and in fact, being used in combat, they are exposed to great risks, there are certainly damane who show considerable age and who are as much as 500, 600 or even possibly 700‒800 years old (i.e. born perhaps as long ago as 200 NE). There will have been damane who had been Aes Sedai when Hawkwing’s armies began their conquest of Seanchan who died only 300‒400 years ago.
The result of the long life is that although damane have been recruited in Seanchan exclusively from women born with the spark, there are a very large number of damane, compared to the numbers of Aes Sedai. For the last thousand years, only those women who had the inborn spark, those who would channel without training, have been removed from the gene pool, and for over two thousand years before that, even they were not. As a result, there are many more women among the Seanchan population who either have the spark inborn or who can be taught than there are in the population east of the Aryth Ocean, where for over three thousand years Aes Sedai have cloistered themselves in the White Tower and had children seldom.
