History

The large continent of Seanchan lies three thousand leagues from the west coast of the main continent. After the end of the Breaking of the World, Seanchan consisted of a turbulent map of constantly shifting nations, principally ruled by female channelers, who used their power liberally in order to attempt to seize rival nations, with temporary alliances being formed and broken continuously.

When Luthair Paendrag, sent by his father Athur Hawkwing with an army to conquer the lands overseas, landed on the new continent, the strife and political chaos that was present lent itself to his attempts to seize the land. His persistence led the natives to refer to him as The Hammer, but even so, it still took three hundred years for the conquest – known as the Consolidation – to be complete, and two hundred further years before Paendrag's descendants – a nobility known as The Blood – to totally rule their land in what was as close to peace as they could achieve.

It was during the Consolidation that one of the Aes Sedai in Seanchan developed a ter'angreal known as an a'dam. An a'dam connected two female channelers in such a way that one channeler could control the other's access to the True Source, and trigger sensations of pain and pleasure. The emotions of the channeler being influenced could be monitored by the other channeler. What is more, is that the channeler being influenced could not carry the other end of the a'dam, nor move far without another channeler on the other end without a feeling of great nausea.

Luthair had a deep distrust of all Aes Sedai, but appreciated the potential of such a device – especially after it was discovered that the dominant partner in the link, the leash-holder or sul'dam, need not be capable of channelling, but just have the potential to channel. Luthair and his descendants had every Aes Sedai on the continent 'collared' with an a'dam, and all girls with the in-born ability to channel were also leashed. Those who could be taught to channel were taken as sul'dam, a highly honoured position.

Seanchan is also remarkable for the many strange animals in their armed forces. Known as 'exotics', these animals were taken from parallel worlds via Portal Stones in the distant past, possibly to combat the Shadowspawn that now are peculiar in their absence from the continent.

Luthair set out with the intent to conquer Seanchan for his father's Empire. When contact was lost with it, he determined that something had gone wrong. His motivations for conquering Seanchan changed: he was to use the new branch of the Empire for building up an invasion force that would, if necessary, re-conquer Hawkwing's kingdom.

After Seanchan was Consolidated, and some semblance of nationwide peace held, a massive army was gathered, called the Corenne. The Corenne – old tongue for 'the Return' – sent out a smaller army: the Forerunners, or Hailene, that numbered around five hundred ships of varying sizes. The purpose of the Hailene? To determine whether or not the Empire still stood, and to make way for the Return if it did not.

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