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Why the Sea Fok are That Way

So many readers hate the Sea Folk. Or, they think a lot of things about the Sea Folk are cool, until they get to aCoS, and the Sea Folk fail to bend over backwards in awe and admiration of Our Heroes, and Opinions regarding them take a sharp nose-dive.  Even the occasional Sea Folk fave like Shalon having an affair with Ailil as they attempt espionage against each other, or Talaan wanting to run away to the White Tower, tend to be viewed as further reasons to hate on the Sea Folk, for suppressing Talaan’s dreams or condemning Shalon to a life of heteronormativity.  

So why the hate for the Atha’an Miere?  From what I can see, it largely has to do with their demeanor and lack of respect for the characters the readers identify with. Many also view the bargain they made with Nynaeve and Elayne as excessive and hate that it gives them a leg up over our girls the Aes Sedai and, to a lesser degree, Rand.  Many readers make certain assumptions about the roles of those two parties, namely that they are supposed to be In Charge and leading everyone else at Tarmon Gaidon. Except, of course, that is because that’s how the characters see it, and Robert Jordan had other things in mind, and was now pulling the rug out from under their complacency.  Because fighting the Shadow is supposed to be a cooperative effort, not a march to glory for the Dragon Reborn and Amyrlin Seat (and their best friends, of course).  The Sea Folk coming into the story mostly in a book named after the pains and irritations of power, is not an accident, and part of Jordan’s way of telling us “Well, actually...” in regard to the aforementioned misconception.  (Cadsuane shows up here too, is part of this same trend in the narrative, and is also hated by a great many readers for many of the same reasons).  I’ll get into why they behave as they do, under a cut.

So why are the Sea Folk such pushy assholes? Because they are the Sea Folk.  They live on the sea, almost entirely.  Crossing the ocean is not a necessary evil for them, it is their home and lifestyle.  Which means sailing on ships, with strict discipline and tight teamwork absolutely necessary for survival.  In the wetlands, there is a lot of margin for error.  The Coplins and Congars screw up in the Two Rivers, it doesn’t drag down the rest of the community too much, their neighbors can give them some minimal aid to get them over the hump, and look down their noses at them until they start pulling their weight.  In the Three-fold Land, a screw up dies of thirst or exposure, or gets killed in battle, and life goes on.  But in the ocean, the optimal operation of a ship is what protects you from death, and anyone who endangers that, can doom everyone else, no matter how good the rest of the team is, or how hard they are working.  Bayle Domon is not being an asshole when he kicks Floran Gelb off his boat; failing to tie down a boom is lethally dangerous.  It takes out a Trolloc in armor, so imagine what it would do to a smaller and squishier sailor or passenger.  And that’s just with the ship anchored for the night.  Imagine it suddenly swinging out of control while they are moving swiftly down the river. Even if all it does is distract the crew, that could put them on the rocks.  At least that river can be swum if the worst happens.  A comparable error on the ocean, and everyone is dead. 

This explains, as is referenced in the text, their discipline and hierarchy and expectation of absolute obedience. It also explains the curt manner many Sea Folk authority figures have, that rubs the wetlander PoV characters the wrong way.  When you need to give life or death orders, there is often no time for formalities and ceremony (for instance, the Aiel “I see you” greeting being used even when reporting to a chief in the midst of a battle) and they very often have to give orders in stressful conditions and in environments where hearing and sight are compromised (such as the middle of a storm).  This could also explain the way they get snitty about courtesies being followed and displays of ceremony at other times.  Displays of respect when life-or-death orders are not being given helps reinforce the status of the person with the authority so it sticks in one’s mind that this is a person to be obeyed, while also demonstrating to the authority figure that those showing respect understand the hierarchy.  With outsiders, respect is necessary for equitable dealings,  People who don’t respect you, will not feel compelled to hold up their end of the deal, hence the need for such demonstrations even in the real world, even between mortal enemies.  A shorebound official who fails to honor the Sea Folk properly is one who might not feel compelled to honor their agreements, either. Maybe it is innocent ignorance or miscommunication, but ignorance and  miscommunication can also ruin a deal with no malice intended.

The maritime lifestyle of the Sea Folk means that there are not a whole lot of crops or natural resources available to them on the ocean, and ships are expensive.  So they make their living as traders.  Not transporters, as in hauling  others’ cargo and passengers, or selling their own goods, but as middlemen, buying low from one part, and selling high to another, which necessitates their famous bargaining skills, to buy goods at the lowest possible price and sell them at the highest possible price, to maximize their income.  Where a transport business or a merchant in common commodities needs to adhere to the maxim that the customer is always right, because the former is in a service industry while the latter can be easily replaced by a competitor, the Sea Folk appear to specialize in trading rare and valuable commodities (silk, porcelain, ivory, lenses) not readily available to others, but which they can obtain with their ability and willingness to sail where others can or will not, and for which the demand will almost always overcome suspicion of outsiders when they offer them in trade. 

However, being a mercantile culture also means that you need to be reliable and trustworthy. In a society where there is no enforcement of contracts or whose authorities lack the ability to fully enforce contracts, reputation is critical.  If a merchant can’t be relied upon to deliver what they promise, or pay for what they want, doing business with them is ruinous, no matter the value of their goods. This means that however hard they might bargain, the Sea Folk need to earn and keep a reputation for delivering what they promise, especially on top of the resentment they face as successful outsiders.  We get a few glimpses of this trait in their dealings with Rand and Elayne.  Zaida persuades Elayne to allow the Aes Sedai in the Royal Palace to teach the Windfinders as a gesture of good faith while awaiting the completion of their bargain, but after the city comes under siege, she allows the employment of Windfinders in making gateways to supply the city and Palace, in payment for that teaching.  It was not part of the original agreement and a strict-constructionist interpretation of the deal would say that they had no obligation to Elayne, since she set no price for the teaching.  Though the extra teaching was given in token of the promise of Aes Sedai teachers, it was not part of their original bargain, so the Sea Folk felt an obligation to repay it.   We see also in Harine and Shaon’s conversation that while earlier in the same book she had been stridently demanding her end of the Bargain made with Rand, she is also operating out of loyalty to him.  While she wants to find Rand, it is not solely to nag him for the lands and other perks of the Bargain, she is also seeking to protect him from the machinations of the Aes Sedai, even, she claims, at the expense of retaliation for the inadvertent insult offered her (and by extension, the Atha’an Miere as a whole) by the First Consul. 

“I would like to put Aleis’ eyeteeth on a string - walking away from me without so much as a word! - but not at the expense of letting Cadsuane mesh the Coramoor in some trouble here.”

Rand has not asked this of her, nor has he given her anything to make Harine feel she owes him in return.  In the eyes of the Sea Folk, who adhere to a strictly delineated and unified chain of command, Cadsuane has to somehow be working for the Coramoor, so they approached her to demand his fulfilment of the Bargain, only to be subject to the wrath of Cadsuane, which makes both Aes Sedai and rulers nervous. While she may have set them straight on her relationship and subordination to Rand (or lack thereof) their experience with Cadsuane cannot have endeared Rand to them. If anything, his failure to provide an authorized spokesman to deal with them is another problem they have with him.  But in spite of all that, Harine is still doing her best to help and protect Rand.  She might have negotiated for a deal that requires more of him than he wishes, but she is committed to Team Rand, above and beyond the strict provisions of their Bargain. 

The customs of the Sea Folk, and their necessity in following them, affects their perception of the shorebound, and that, in turn, informs their dealings.  The first word we have of the Sea Folk’s relations with outsiders is their discussion of Jullin Sandar. 

The thief-catcher is a good man, even considering that he is shorebound ...Twice he has found those who pilfered from us, and found them quickly.  Another shoreman would have taken longer so he might ask more for the work.

We see from this, that despite sailing all over the known world, and staying as brief a time in foreign ports as they can manage (especially since they would not be using Tear for refitting or overhauling the ship), the Wavedancer’s crew has had multiple instances of theft in Tear alone, as well as presumably other shorebound ports, and have had sufficient experience of local hirelings that Juilin Sandar stands out to them for his competence and integrity.  The forefront concept is the positive depiction of Juilin (which needs perhaps a small bit of buffering in the Wondergirls’ eyes after his [unwilling] betrayal previously), but how bad have their experiences with both thieves and law enforcement, been that basic good service is remarkable to Coine?

A modern reader might huff over the prejudicial assumptions which Coine shows no qualms of repeating to a couple of shorebound passengers, but this is not prejudice, this is experience.  There is no “pre” about it.  The Sea Folk do not have the full picture of the shorebound and their history and culture, as we see in Shalon’s ignorance of the history discussed in Far Madding, all they have to go on is their experience in dealing with the shorebound themselves. 

Real world observation of mercantile cultures, or at least minority cultures whose members fulfil a mercantile function within a majority culture, shows us the Jews in Europe, Lebanese in Africa, Armenians in Turkey and the Chinese outside of China, in most countries with a Pacific or Indian Ocean coastline. Even a cursory knowledge of world history will show how the trading services of these peoples fail to be appreciated, and the ethnic groups in question not exactly embraced.  The Sea Folk might have ships to escape the pogroms and other dangers of being a minority who profits from dealings with the majority, but they do still need to do business to make a living, and the high cost of acquiring their trade goods and bringing them to their customer means they need to push hard to achieve a sustainable income.  Doubtless the endemic thievery the Wavedancer has encountered, and desultory efforts by local authorities to rectify these incidents, as well as extortionate services provided by local contractors, are manifestations of these resentments.  It is noted in the Big White Book and in Mat’s stream of consciousness, that southerners have a reputation for hard work and industry to the rest of the wetlands, but this is not apparently the experience of the Sea Folk, whose major trading partners would all be coastal and southern nations of Tear, Illian, Mayene, Altara and Tarabon (as well as Arad Domon, who have their own issues with negotiation ethics).  In many ways, the Sea Folk have a situation like the folk of Luca’s menagerie, who immediately begin packing to leave following a confrontation with Seanchan soldiers.  Despite the local authorities cracking down on the attempts to cheat the show, and despite their warrants from the same authorities, in practice, an intolerant population will find ways around the most tolerant authorities, regardless of the long term detriment to the people themselves.  When the Jews were expelled from Spain, it was the Catholic primate of the country who asked “Who will make our shoes?”  His congregation did not care.  Hence the Sea Folk habits of bargaining hard, and not trusting the shorebound any more than they have to and not giving Our Heroes the respect readers believe they are entitled to as protagonists, knowing that Rand and Nynaeve and Elayne would never be a party to such abuses (on the other hand, Egwene, whatever her personal feelings on war crimes, seems to lean toward the side of pragmatism and anti-authoritarianism when it comes to giving orders that might upset one’s racist followers or curtail their tendency to racially motivated violence; who can say how she would handle a crisis in her jurisdiction with her constituency attacking or cheating the Sea Folk, if she really thought it would endanger her political position - you can’t say for sure, even with the good guys).

The primary issue that sets the Sea Folk at odds with Our Heroines, is the use of channeling by their Windfinders.  As with their hierarchy and discipline, the Windfinders are critical to their survival.  Deep sea sailing vessels need reliable winds and are at the mercy of the weather they encounter.  Storms can destroy them in spite of the crews’ best efforts, and a lack of wind on the open sea can kill the crew.  The Sea of Storms, south of the main continent is roughly an equivalent distance from the equator on the world maps, to what are called the “horse latitudes” in the real world, south of the cemaros, or trade winds, we see bringing the Seanchan invasion fleet to Ebou Dar.  Horse latitudes are called such, because in these belts, there was little wind and calm seas, which slowed journeys across the oceans so much, that it was often necessary to kill the horses aboard to either save on watering them or in some cases, to eat.  Traveling between the main continent and their islands might very well take the Sea Folk into those dead areas, where they need Windfinders just to move their ships.  They are also needed to suppress storms, help defend the ships, and any number of other things for which the One Power is an irreplaceable or impossible-to-match resource. And beyond their value as assets, they are kindred and compatriots of the other Sea Folk.  They love them and need them. 

Officially, the White Tower does not recruit, but in practice, we see how Aes Sedai deal with a woman whom they want to train who does not reciprocate their eagerness.  The White Tower prefers to be asked and petitioned, over asking themselves, but they have all sorts of ways to make people ask for something the Tower wants to do, and ways to make those who get stubborn about asking, regret it.  In practice, the Aes Sedai perspective is that all channelers should come to the Tower for training, and the attitude of various PoV sisters who observe a population of female channelers who are not doing so, is not to lament their unwillingness, but a determination to see that they do come.  Furthermore, Egwene and Elayne, the two main characters most sympathetic to the Aes Sedai, sincerely believe the White Tower could and would coerce would-be Windfinders to come to the White Tower as initiates anyway. 

With that in mind, how can you blame the Sea Folk for believing the exact same thing, that the Tower wants all women who can channel, and can and will take them.  This is a belief widespread in both the wetlands, the Three-fold Land and among the Sea Folk, whose perception is “Supposedly the White Tower was like some mechanical contrivance that ground up thrones and reshaped them to its will.”  Their strategy is hide their channeling population from the Aes Sedai by keeping them away from sisters, and pretending they are not hiding anything, but that there is very little worth looking for.  

So for Nynaeve and Elayne to show up at the flagship of the entire Sea Folk nation, asking to talk to the Windfinders, is both a power move and a threat. Any Aes Sedai doing as much to any ship would be like having a uniformed SS officer knocking on your door and asking to speak to the Jews hiding in your attic. The girls are just going to the top to get face time with someone who can authorize their request, as they have become accustomed ever since being sent out of the Tower carrying warrants from the Amyrlin Seat, and in their dealings with the Tairens as friends of the Dragon Reborn, with the Aiel as acquaintances of the leader of their expeditionary force, with the Panarch of Tarabon, the Prophet of the Lord Dragon and Tylin, but for the rank-and-hierarchy conscious Sea Folk, it comes across as sending a message.  Then they lay the news on the Atha’an Miere leadership that they have a line on an artifact that appears as legendary to the Sea Folk as the Horn of Valere would be to the shorebound. 

This conveys a sense of immense danger to the Sea Folk.  Mentioning the Bowl of the Winds makes them seem impressive, and the casual demonstration of how much of what the Sea Folk thought were well-guarded secrets they already knew, signals the threat is not merely theoretical, but practical.  Their primary defense is gone, the Tower knows their weakness.  Now they have to prevent the Tower from doing the thing they have feared for 3,000 years, taking away their relatives (e.g. Harine, who would not just lose her closest advisor and most valuable member of her crew, but also the big sister who raised and cared for her and comforted her when she was afraid of the dark) and personnel assets they crucially need to maintain their lifestyle and economic survival. 

When you boil it all down, that’s what the bargain they make with Nynaeve and Elayne is all about. The survival of their people, through a guarantee that the White Tower will not take their Windfinders. All the various provisions within are a means to that end.  Ostensibly, it is a trade of knowledge, because in politics, it is rude to try to answer threats that have not been explicitly made, and makes you look fearful, and it’s bad bargaining to try to negotiate against a gambit that has not been played. So while the Aes Sedai, in the persons of Nynaeve and Elayne, are asking for the unique weather skills of the Windfinders to fix the  Dark One’s alterations to the world’s climate, the Sea Folk ask in return, knowledge to balance what they are giving.  Rather than a figuratively huge piece of lore that no other channelers can match (as we later learn from Moridin’s PoV, not even in the Age of Legends), the Sea Folk instead ask for a quantity of more common knowledge to match in scope what they will be giving the Aes Sedai in scale.  

But how do you match one piece of knowledge against another?  The thing about bargaining for knowledge, is that you don’t know, by definition, what is available.  Imagine an alien from a high-tech society owes you a favor, so he gives you a credit marker for one item of technology that you can use freely and replicate all you want here on Earth.  You walk into their workshop or warehouse or equivalent of Best Buy, and what do you ask for?  How do you know what they can do?  Do you ask for a space ship, only to find out after getting it that they have interstellar teleportation, or that the ship is not compatible with purposes we would want it for?  What would you offer a primitive tribesman if the tables were turned? How would you know what you have that would most suit his needs?  Wouldn’t he be the best judge of that?  So the Sea Folk don’t bargain for a specific piece or area of knowledge, but instead for the service of a group of teachers for a time, to give them the opportunity to find out the capabilities of the Aes Sedai, and to better arm themselves against the day if and when the Tower comes for their girls anyway.  They also obtain the right to go to the Tower to study, to keep the Tower from dumping a bunch of weak or ignorant noobs on the Sea Folk as teachers.  They insist on the teachers living under Sea Folk law, because what if the teachers refuse to teach, or stall, until the year of service is up?  They need to be able to enforce the repayment of their bargain. 

All of this might seem extreme, but remember, firstly the general human experience of middleman minorities, and the particular Sea Folk experience of shorebound that they A. steal frequently, and B. don’t make honest efforts.  Sure, there are Juilin Sandars among the shorebound (Nynaeve and Elayne, most notably) who would deal straightforwardly with them and make a sincere effort, but they have no way of identifying them. On top of this, is their perception of the White Tower both in its worldly power, and its trustworthiness.  And they are not wrong in this matter.  

First of all, while the Tower might not directly rule the nations or control the rulers, they can use various other forms of influence to make life difficult for the Sea Folk in any port.  The Sea Folk, for instance, tolerate a Tairen pilot even though they don’t need his help, because they want to be welcome back in Tear.  They want sovereign territory from the rulers they negotiate with, precisely because they want to be relieved of their constant worry about rulers interfering with their trade or local laws being twisted against them.  The White Tower might agree to leave the Windfinders alone, only taking those who come voluntarily, and then all of a sudden, the Sea Folk might find that they are not allowed to dock or trade in any port, and Aes Sedai are murmuring sympathetically while dropping hints that they could use their influence to reopen the ports, if the Tower gets a sufficient quantity of “volunteer” novices from the Sea Folk... 

And the Aes Sedai absolutely do negotiate in bad faith.  We see an example when Coiren makes a deal with the Shaido.  When Sevanna places a condition, Coiren says “...your service deserves what you ask.” Katerine’s perspective confirms that the wording was deliberate, to make the Shaido believe Coiren had agreed, when of course, she has done nothing of the sort.  Here’s the thing, though.  Coiren is bound by the Three Oaths.  She can’t say something she does not believe is true.  Coiren believes the Shaido deserve what they are asking for, but she still arranges for the Aes Sedai to cheat them. Later on, we see they do, in fact, fulfil their end, so it’s not like they had some objection to the demand, they simply leave themselves an out to cheat the Shaido of their reward if it had been convenient or more practical for the Aes Sedai down the road.  

While the Sea Folk do not know about this particular incident, even remote backwater places like the Two Rivers have heard that “the truth an Aes Sedai tells is not always the truth you think you hear” and that “an Aes Sedai’s gift always has a hook in it.”  Marin al’Vere, misandrist extraordinaire, and dispenser of awful relationship advice, tells her daughter that the stories about Aes Sedai are just fool men’s nonsense, except we see with Moiraine, considered by many fans to be the ideal sister all the others should aspire to be like, in her conduct with the Two Rivers folk, that those aphorisms are, in fact, dead on the money: Moiraine gives the three ta’veren a gift with a One Power weave that makes them susceptible to her orders and allows her to track them.  If that is not a  figurative hook, then nothing is.  And when Perrin returns home and observes Tam & Abel trying to keep that saying in mind in their dealings with Alanna and Verin, he notes how in his experience, Aes Sedai set the hook anyway, even if you won’t take her gift. 

If these sayings have penetrated the Two Rivers, and the Two Rivers’ characters’ experience has not changed their outlook by nearly the middle of the series, while spending more time with one of the best Aes Sedai, you can bet the Sea Folk are aware of that reputation and are keeping it in mind when negotiating to save their people, their kin folk and their way of life. 

More than a few people complain about how the Sea Folk treat the Aes Sedai who teach them, but again, they are operating under the assumption that shorebound in general and Aes Sedai in particular, will try to cheat.   What experience they have with what teachers they get, does nothing to change their minds, as the Aes Sedai make every effort to evade fulfilling their obligation, and Merilille, who made her own agreement to teach, actually runs away, while the sister they bring home from Caemlyn makes similar efforts. 

And let’s not forget the White Tower’s view of the bargain, that everything else is “small potatoes next to” letting the Sea Folk sisters quit being Aes Sedai. 

In fact, it was part of the bargain with them that Atha’an Miere sisters be allowed to give up being Aes Sedai and return to their ships. The Hall of the Tower would not half howl about that.

Most of what seems to get under the skin of the readers empathizing with the point of view characters, is their demeanor and attitude of superiority, but in practical terms, for the Aes Sedai, that’s not worth mentioning, usually.  Egwene believes, and Siuan does not challenge this belief, that if they can get the Hall to accept letting the Sea Folk sisters quit, the rest won’t cause any problems worth considering.  And honestly, it shouldn’t.  Knowledge is the one commodity you don’t lose by sharing or selling, and one year of inconvenient service out of a life expectancy of three hundred equates to less than a summer vacation in a normal lifespan. 

As a final note, I know some people have spoken huffily about the attitude of Sea Folk toward teachers in general (except it only seems to be shorebound teachers, see above re: cheating and shirking experiences) like teachers are some sort of elevated vocation or profession due great reverence.  I can’t really understand this perspective. I spent 8 years as a high school history and math teacher and it was some of the easiest, most self-indulgent and low-input work I have ever done.  I honestly felt guilty taking a paycheck for it.  Maybe teaching children is something else, but no one is asking the Aes Sedai to teach people younger than high school age. Furthermore, if anyone deserves to be subjected to an abusive teaching experience, it is the Aes Sedai we see getting lessons in Tel’Aran’Rhiod from Nynaeve and Elayne.  Not once is their arrogance and dismissive attitude toward their students, and demands for the respect due a superior even slightly suggested to be a personal idiosyncrasy Anaiya et al.  having in common.  Rather those attitudes are directly attributed to their being Aes Sedai, and the implication is that any other sister would be just as bad in receiving their lessons.  

Some readers question the need for the Aes Sedai to be the ones to pay this price, considering their altruistic motives. After all, they are seeking the Sea Folk’s aid to save the world from the Dark One.  But that is exactly why it is incumbent on the Aes Sedai to pay the price.  By claiming for themselves a monopoly on channeling, even on objects of the Power which might permit ordinary people preternatural abilities, the Aes Sedai morally undertake a responsibility to provide preternatural solutions to any problems requiring them.  If you disarm a person, you have a moral duty to protect them.  Whether or not the Aes Sedai are justified in concentrating all authorized channelers under themselves, the fact is, they have stripped the people of the wetlands of their ability to cope with problems like the preternatural drought the Dark One is imposing, so it falls upon the White Tower to pay whatever price is necessary to make it right.  Likewise, the Sea Folk had nothing to do with that situation.  The Tower and the wetlands have done nothing to help them, and they stand to benefit less than the shorebound from a restoration of the natural weather, at least in the short term.  Yes, eventually the famine will catch up to them, but you could also say the same thing about the Aes Sedai, who will be the last to go hungry in the wetlands, which no doubt has something to do with their willingness to foist off fixing the weather on a couple of new not entirely legitimate sisters with a couple of retirees monitoring them on the side while they engage in their primary mission of making sure no one who decided the Tower civil war was not something they wanted from their teachers, and departed, gets away with it.  The Wondergirls aside, we are not talking about a benevolent organization or admirable group of people here!  Expecting the Sea Folk to bend over backwards and put themselves at risk to help the Aes Sedai do what they should be doing anyway (although Romanda’s expressed attitude toward fixing the weather, and dissatisfaction with the results, should inspire horror in anyone with the slightest comprehension of meteorology, and gratitude that the bargain removes the Bowl of the Winds from her or anyone with her perspective) is kind of insane.  

Earlier I made the analogy of the SS asking for the help of Jews on a big project (considering the Nazis labeled physics. among other disciplines, as “Jewish science” such a scenario is not entirely outlandish, had they faced a similar existential threat as the Dark One’s drought), but if such a thing were to happen, would anyone blame the Jews in question, and their allies, for demanding safeguards as well as the means of enforcing the agreement they come to?  Would anyone accept “cross my heart, hope to die” in that case?  Yes, yes, Three Oaths, but the books clearly show that they are bullshit at restraining the Aes Sedai from deceiving or breaking the spirit of a contract or slaughtering people en masse with the One Power, if they feel like it. 

in summation, the circumstances of the Sea Folk, in both their lifestyle and dealings with outsiders, inform their ways of doing things, their perceived need to press hard for advantage and for their due, and the established behavior of the Aes Sedai demonstrates the need for them to do so in this case as well.  They are not cheating, and if they ask for a lot, it is because their contractual partners cause them to need to do so.  The bargain they make with the Aes Sedai through Nynaeve and Elayne obtains a reasonable price for the extraordinary and irreplaceable service they provide, at relatively little cost to the Aes Sedai, who are morally obliged to pay whatever the Sea Folk would ask for that service, and the part the Aes Sedai consider to be the worst provision of the bargain is nothing more than what should be the status quo.  That they need to bargain for the freedom of three sisters to quit the White Tower, all on its own, absolutely condemns the Aes Sedai as the party at fault in their dealings.  

Some ArtFight attacks/revenges,

My ArtFight profile: [ X ]

Pisces

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Jaime x Brienne fic rec : favorite authors edition

Part 6 : Miss_M writes dark AU which will haunt you for days

- Lilies Grow on the Bottom of the Sea explores the Jaime-Brienne-Cersei triangle with a fairy tale infused with magic realism and water-related greek and celtic myths.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/959130/chapters/1878482

- On the Night's Watch is a modern AU where Brienne is transfered to the infamous Night's Watch, King's Landing police department nightshift. Partnered with Jaime Lannister, she'll try to find a missing Sansa Stark.

- The Dark, Dread Toyshop is a fusion of ASOIAF and The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter. I love this atmospheric tale.

WoTober Day 10. Prompt: Sea Folk

Elayne cajoled her into coming up on deck for fresh air. Nynaeve glared at the sun sinking in a firery sky. If it wasn’t for the smell of salt and sea spray she associated with a heaving stomach, it might have been nice.

It was the sort of thing that might be very nice indeed, if Lan were here. Not that she needed him! But perhaps her stomach would not be so out of sorts, except for the butterflies he always seemed to evoke.

The ship lurched and, green-faced, she was over the side again.

She ignored Elayne’s tiny sigh.

Axolotl family :3

We need less elegant mermaids and more mermaids that flop on the land like seals

Dread Knight Môr // when good does not prevail

I will teach this unique workshop, 'Three Ages and Dark Faces of Water,' based on modern research about folk afro-caribbean traditions related to deities of water, rivers, and seas in South America. A unique Online Symposium focusing on witchcraft, spirit work, shapeshifting, sorcery, cunning ways, and enchantments from the aqueous realms. November 10th, 11th, and 12th Online! Watch live and receive the recordings! Which will be available for 6 months after the conference.

2023 Registration is OPEN!

Yesterday, Yemen engaged in a 2 hour naval battle that ended with a direct hit on an American warship and 2 American commercial vessels turning around

Today

for my mom! sea otters are her favorite animal in the world

What is your lamb's opinion on Plimbo?

He’s a valued connection to lands beyond and they make sure to keep their promise of protecting his waterways

Maybe Grand Reef Cookie shouldn't always try to make the things he finds into some sort of tea or meal....

✨⭐️YOU CAN NOW PREORDER LUNAR BOY!!🌟✨

It's Princess Kaguya meets the Little Prince with an entirely Indonesian cast of characters! A graphic novel drawn and written by yours truly!