Security Measures for Ter'angreal

By Linda

Various security measures prevent unauthorised persons from removing items of the Power from accumulations throughout the mainland.

Caemlyn

Elayne’s portion of the Ebou Dar cache was kept in her rooms. She took at least some with her when she went to Merrilor, for example the library ter’angreal and the Shadow warding dagger, but it may be that many of the items in her store were lost in the sacking of Caemlyn by the Shadow and its torching by the Light.

The Knitting Circle, the leaders of the Kin, knew of the Ebou Dari cache, but not how or why it was gathered. They followed their rule to check periodically that it was safely hidden, but would not use any items because that is too close to pretending to be Aes Sedai (Robert Jordan, Kin notes). THie need to keep the size and extent of their organisation secret precluded handing any item from the cache over to Aes Sedai or the White Tower.

Cairhien

According to Robert Jordan,

the ter'angreal and so forth that came from Rhuidean are still in Cairhien for the moment, warded by Rand so they aren't accessible to anyone but him.

- TOR Question of the Week

Plus Cairhien is full of women who can channel (Lord of Chaos, Prologue), which keeps the Forsaken away.

Rhuidean

Prior to Rand’s battle with Asmodean, Rhuidean was warded by machinery of the Power that the Aes Sedai placed (The World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time). Significantly, the battle was part of Rand’s second visit to Rhuidean, and the warding may have been broken by his second entry, or by his duel with Asmodean. Men customarily only made one, and women two, trips to Rhuidean because it was believed that more is fatal (The Fires of Heaven, Rhuidean). For some time after Rhuidean was ‘full of women who can channel’ so the Forsaken kept away (Lord of Chaos, Prologue). However, in Towers of Midnight, Rhuidean is denuded of all ter’angreal except the glass columns and the three rings. Aviendha assumed the Aiel removed them (Towers of Midnight, Near Avendesora). However, Moridin has a huge ter’angreal store and some of those items may have come from Rhuidean.

Tear

Prior to the fall of the Stone, the Great Holding of ter’angreal was not warded; the fortress being enough in itself, particularly as Aes Sedai are not welcome in Tear. Callandor was inaccessible behind a warding of both saidin and saidar attuned to the Dragon Reborn.

Since Rand took the Stone, the Great Hold is warded with a nasty trap that will hold a woman fast if she tries to pass through or untie it. A similar trap would apply to the men, since none have tried to take anything (Lord of Chaos, Prologue).

Callandor was separately protected against channellers by an inverted ward. When Narishma tried to free Callandor according to Rand’s instructions, he found that the instructions were inaccurate and he was nearly killed (The Path of Daggers, Answering the Summons). It is quite possible that a Forsaken added a trap of their own with the aim of killing Rand when he came to get Callandor and hopefully allowing them to take it. (They would not imagine that he would entrust anyone else with it).

White Tower

According to Tower law, all ter’angreal are

the property of the White Tower, no matter who happened to possess them for the present. Very seldom did the Tower insist, at least when possession lay somewhere like the so-called Great Holding in this very Stone of Tear—eventually they would come to the Aes Sedai, and the White Tower had always been good at waiting when it needed to—but those actually in Aes Sedai hands were in the gift of the Hall, of individual Sitters. The loan, really; they were almost never given.

- A Crown of Swords, Unseen Eyes

Even the ter’angreal Elayne made are in the hands of the rebel Hall, except for one dream ter’angreal and the original twisted ring ter’angreal (A Crown of Swords, Unseen Eyes) and her recently created protective medallions.

Sitters have a right to use any ter’angreal they wish, but there are proper procedures they should follow when doing so, according to Seaine (The Path of Daggers, The Extra Bit). (We don’t know what these are.) No Accepted or novice should have a ter’angreal in her possession (The Dragon Reborn, A World of Dreams). After all, even Aes Sedai must have the permission of a Sitter to use them.

When women are put out of the Tower, they are searched before leaving, because one in three tries to take an object of the Power or something that she believes is one (A Crown of Swords, The Triumph of Logic).

The smaller ter’angreal are in a storeroom (The Dragon Reborn, Punishments) under the Tower. There may be at least one other storeroom where the larger ter’angreal are stored. Ter’angreal that are really big, or used frequently, may each be left in a room of their own. Currently, the White Tower has guards and wards on their strongrooms, inside and out, and they count everything four times each day (Lord of Chaos, Prologue), much to the disappointment of the Forsaken. Now that Aes Sedai know how to Travel, Egwene planned to move the ter’angreal to different storerooms frequently and keeping the storeroom location secret and warded (The Gathering Storm, To Be Forged Again).

Moridin

Moridin has a large accumulation of ter’angreal in his fortress:

The narrow room was lined with shelves. And on them were dozens—perhaps hundreds—of objects of Power. Darkness within! She thought. Where did he get so many?

- Towers of Midnight, Writings

Some of them may have come from Rhuidean. Others may have come from Sammael’s store that Taim and Rand had the Asha’man dismantle after Sammael was killed. How ever he got them, hardly anyone knows about the store or would dare steal from it.

Tower of Ghenjei

The Aelfinn and Eelfinn have a store of ter’angreal:

Brandon: Some item of power, something like that…of which they have great stores…

[what???]

Matt: ...Really…heh, so the obvious question, where did the Finns get great stores of ter’angreal, angreal, and is that part of the Pact they made.?

Brandon: RAFO…but if you just think about it, we don’t even have to go to the notes for this if you think about it logically, we know of them providing certain items of power to certain individuals that they were able to match very nicely with certain requests very easily. If you run the statistics on that it’s either a huge coincidence or they have very many to choose from.

- The Gathering Storm, book tour

Not that anyone is going to get away with any too easily...

CONCLUSION

Ter'angreal are not toys; they are tools that are dangerous if not used correctly, tools of which the original purpose and correct operation are now often unknown. The safest ter'angreal we have seen so far would be those for which their makers' original intentions are obvious or known, such as the fan-cloth making ter’angreal, the jewellery defense systems and Elayne's invisibility disc. Otherwise, the only safe ter'angreal would be one the user made themselves or acquired complete with detailed specification and instruction booklet from a trusted source!

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Written by Linda, August, 2005 and updated March, 2013 and June, 2019