Cadsuane Melaidhrin
From A Wheel of Time Wiki
| [[Image:]] | |
| Cadsuane Melaidhrin | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 705 NE |
| Died | |
| Race | Far Madding |
| Nationality | |
| Rank | Aes Sedai |
| Title | |
| Position | |
| Occupation | |
| Affiliation | |
| Gender | Female |
| Height | |
| Weight | |
| Hair | Iron grey |
| Eyes | Nearly black |
| First Mentioned | |
| First Appeared | ACOS 18 |
Cadsuane Melaidhrin is an Aes Sedai of the Green Ajah who has approached legendary status among her fellow Aes Sedai sisters; in fact, most believe her to be dead. Thought to have been born around 705 NE in Far Madding (which would make her the oldest living Aes Sedai) she was also the strongest in the One Power found for 1,000 years before the discovery of Egwene al'Vere, Nynaeve al'Meara, and Elayne Trakand. Although of the Green Ajah, over the years she has confronted and captured more men who could channel than any other living sister, including those of the Red Ajah; a little known oddity is that the men she brought to the White Tower tended to live much longer after being gentled than those brought by other sisters.
Cadsuane Melaidhrin makes her first appearance in A Crown of Swords (not counting the prequel New Spring, in which she made a surreptitious appearance), proving to two other sisters that she is not dead, and shocking them with her arrival. She also attempts to assert herself with Rand al'Thor, but fails to get through to him immediately.
Cadsuane later assists Rand in escaping from a "bubble of evil" outside of Cairhien and helps him get back to Cairhien. As of late, she has taken the place of Moiraine Damodred as one of Rand's primary advisors. Her ultimate motives are unclear, beyond a promise made with Sorilea - the strongest in personality of all the Wise Ones- to make him "remember laughter and tears."
Cadsuane regards as one of her two bitterest failures not learning "what Caraline Damodred's cousin had been up to in the Borderlands until the knowledge was years too late to do any good." WH 307
[edit] Hair ornaments
Cadsuane owns a set of hair ornaments consisting of an angreal and various ter'angreal, in the form of "small dangling golden fish and birds, stars and moons", dating from the Breaking of the World.
Of the ornaments:
- a bird that looks "a little like a shrike" is an angreal (Winter's Heart, Chapter 35)
- the hummingbird is a Well (Winter's Heart, Chapter 34)
- one representing intertwined golden crescents, goes cool when flows of Saidar are handled around her - perhaps operating along the same lines as Mat Cauthon's foxhead medallion (The Path of Daggers, Chapter 12)
- an eight-pointed star vibrates in the presence of men who can channel, moreso with increasing numbers (Crossroads of Twilight, Chapter 23)
- a swallow detects the One Power being channelled and in which direction, though does not indicate distance. Priority is given to the detection of pure Saidin over Saidar and linked users of the One Power.
Three other ornaments, two fish and one moon, have purposes that Cadsuane does not know.
The circumstances under which she acquired the set remain somewhat unclear. She was given them by a "toothless wilder" called Norla who resided in the Black Hills. It seems that Cadsuane's encounter with her was pivotal in her development as an Aes Sedai. How this woman came into possession of the ornaments and why she passed them on to Cadsuane is unknown.
