The White Tower has stood for thousands of years as the pinnacle of Aes Sedai power—female Aes Sedai power. It is known that back in the Age of Legends, before the Breaking of the World, both men and women could become Aes Sedai, and great things were achieved by men and women wielding the One Power together. The knowledge of such feats has been lost, and with the Dark One’s taint upon saidin, the White Tower set itself to prevent male channelers from the eventual madness and slow, decaying death that channeling the male half of the One Power guaranteed.

Yet times have changed. Men now walk the grounds of the White Tower wearing novice whites, and one day, may even bear the striped hems of Acceptedhood and the sash of a male Aes Sedai. How did this come to be? If you’re considering writing for a male channeler in the White Tower or are simply curious, you’re about to find out.

The Legacy of the Dragon Reborn

When Rand al’Thor proved to the world that he was the Dragon reborn, the Aes Sedai in the White Tower knew that the prophecies surrounding him would soon come to pass. The Dragon would break the world’s nations and bind them to him, he would upset all order and bring chaos to the lands. He would lead the world into Tarmon Gai’don, the Last Battle, and would be the last hope of keeping the Dark One imprisoned.

But Rand al’Thor not only shook nations, he shook the whole world to its very core. With the help of one of the most powerful female channelers since the Breaking—Nynaeve al’Meara, Aes Sedai of the Yellow Ajah—he cleansed saidin of its taint. The Dark One’s touch lifted from the male half of the True Source, male channelers were no longer cursed with the knowledge that they would one day go insane and kill those around them.

The Dragon Reborn also founded the Black Tower, located a few miles outside of Caemlyn in Andor. It is a haven for men who can channel and want to develop their abilities to fight against the Shadow, and be prepared for Tarmon Gai’don. In only a few months, the Black Tower went from a simple farm to a growing institution: the M’Hael, leader of the Black Tower, built walls to encompass four square miles, and had structures built to house the growing numbers of soldiers, Dedicated, Asha’man, their families and other workers needed to make such a facility function. Its numbers swelled quickly, and the White Tower could no longer ignore the threat that so many men channeling together posed.

An Unstable Tower

Therelise Carillion, the Amyrlin Seat, was raised from the Green Ajah. She served as the Amyrlin Seat for over twenty-five years, and knew from her eyes and ears reports that the Dragon had been reborn and that the Last Battle approached. She did her duty as the Amyrlin to begin readying the White Tower for the Last Battle, sending out recruiting parties to build the Tower’s numbers—both in channelers, Warders, and for the Tower Guard—but her grip on subtlety and politics (and some say sanity) began to waver. Her ability to juggle different Ajah’s interests began to lose her support in the Hall, and her single-mindedness when it came to readying the Tower for battle began to weaken its relations with other nations and correspondents. Even the coffers’ seemingly endless supply of gold were being used too quickly for the speed at which they could be replenished.

Then, Therelise began to contrive of schemes and plans in which the Light could gain advantage over the Shadow. One such scheme, which almost came to fruition, was capturing the Dragon Reborn to keep him “safe” at the White Tower until the Last Battle. Another scheme was to level the Black Tower so that insane male channelers could not rebel against the Light. She sent Red sisters to attack the Black Tower, but when news reached Tar Valon of the Dragon Reborn’s escape and the Aes Sedai’s capture at the Black Tower, Therelise’s days as Amyrlin were numbered. And only a few months after the raising of the new Amyrlin, word reached Tar Valon again that saidin had been cleansed.

A New Chapter

The Red Ajah, and other Ajahs, now aware of the true size and nature of the Black Tower as well as the cleansing of saidin, understood all too well that times were changing. The Black Tower stood in its own right, and its students had been tried and tested in battles. Each of their soldiers, Dedicated, and Asha’man were deadly tools against the Shadow, or whatever foe opposed them on the battlefield.

The horrors witnessed at battles like Dumai’s Wells and against the Seanchan turned Aes Sedai stomachs. The necessity of the Three Oaths had never before been so obviously demonstrated as they had in recent times—channelers, used or trained as weapons, caused death and destruction tenfold, even a hundredfold, to what men could already do to themselves. Even the Green Ajah, with its day on the horizon, spoke out vehemently against the use of the Power in such a way. The Red Ajah argued that these men, these members of the Black Tower, were at fault for teaching their channelers to be weapons.

On a momentous occasion, and a vote that passed by twelve to nine, the Hall agreed to begin allowing men to don novice white and study at the White Tower, to learn how to use the One Power to serve and protect the people, not to destroy. To be a channeler required as much study of the One Power as it did other things, and the White Tower made its duty to do just that for all channelers, men and women.