Three Oaths

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Before an Accepted is raised to be Aes Sedai she must swear three oaths on a ter'angreal called an Oath Rod that completely binds her to keep those oaths. The Three Oaths are as follows:
#To speak no word that is not true
#To make no weapon with which one man may kill another
#Never to use the One Power as a weapon except against Darkfriends or Shadowspawn, or in the last extreme defense of her life, the life of her Warder, or another Aes Sedai
==History and Introduction==
According to the glossary entry in the books for the Three Oaths and The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, the second Oath was adopted after the War of Power. This is confirmed by the Companion which explains that it came about through tales of that war and those adopting did so knowing it would reduce their lifespan, so strong was their motivation. Later generations were not told of this effect and so the knowledge was lost.
The First and Third Oaths were adopted some time before the start of the Trolloc Wars, as much as 500 years beforehand, in response to the common people's distrust of Aes Sedai. It is noted that all three oaths were concretely in place by the end of the Trolloc Wars. This seems somewhat contradictory, but can be explained if all three oaths were not made mandatory until the Trolloc Wars, imposed only on some members of the White Tower or intermittently, with various Amyrlins or Halls adopting different policies.
By the end of the Trolloc Wars, the Oaths had been integrated into the ceremony for raising Accepted.
== Aes Sedai lifespan and Agelessness==
Recently it was discovered that use of the Oath Rod was actually reducing the Aes Sedai lifespans by half. In the days after the Time of Madness, Aes Sedai expected to live as much as seven hundred to eight hundred years, barring accidents. With the use of the Oath Rod their lifespan was reduced to a maximum of approximately two hundred to three hundred years. The oldest age any known Aes Sedai has reached is 306 for Gitara Moroso.
The cumulative effect of taking Three Oaths as opposed to fewer resulted in the phenomenon known as Aes Sedai "agelessness", the difficulty in being able to place an age on an Aes Sedai. This effect takes several years to take effect, as evidenced by the Aes Sedai chosen to capture Rand al'Thor. These women were specifically chosen so that Rand would not be able to identify them as Aes Sedai as they had not yet achieved the ageless look and they include Marith Riven, Janine Pavlara and Beldeine Nyram. The last of these three was raised 2–3 years before. 
There was not agelessness during the War of the Shadow, of course, nor during the Compact of the Ten Nations. Sammael notes that the so-called Aes Sedai of the Third Age "bind themselves like criminals", perhaps hinting that the ageless look is a sign of those bound several times, but may just refer to the original use of the Oath Rod as Binders.
== Recent thoughts ==
After discussion with Siuan Sanche, Egwene al'Vere comes to agree that the Three Oaths are the heart of what it is to be Aes Sedai. She has also openly discussed the possibility of releasing Aes Sedai from the oaths upon retiring, letting them live out their full lifespans in peace and joining the Kin. Romanda Cassin vehemently opposed this idea, despite being close to the end of their life expectantly.
There is still uncertaintly about what would happen to a woman who is much older, such as Aloisia Nemosni, if she were to take the Three Oaths already being older than the maximum age. Despite speculation by Elayne Trakand that such women might fall over dead, it seems more sensible that they would just age faster in their remaining years, not that this would be much consolation. It is also uncertain what would happen to women such as Sharina Melloy who are physically old at the time of swearing.
== Loopholes ==
The prohibition on lying does not prevent an Aes Sedai from speaking words that are false, but that she believes to be true. It also does not prevent them from saying an obvious untruth with sarcastic intent. It does, however, prevent them from being able to lie in a letter in the same way. 
The prohibition on using the One Power as a weapon except in cases of extreme duress does not prevent an Aes Sedai from killing by more conventional means. Mat thinks to himself that the Oaths "didn’t say anything about using knives.” 
== Removal of the oaths ==
Initiation into the Black Ajah involves forswearing all Three Oaths upon the Oath Rod. They are free to lie, craft weapons, and to harm others using the One Power, and must then swear the Black Oaths upon the Oath Rod instead.
The Oaths are also automatically removed if the woman who swears them is stilled, as the weave of spirit that binds her to the Oath Rod is broken when she no longer has access to the One Power.
== Sheriam's Statement==
There is some confusion over a statement made by Sheriam Bayanar during Nynaeve al'Meara's test for Accepted where she says that "Once, Aes Sedai were not required to swear oaths. It was known what Aes Sedai were and what they stood for, and there was no need for more...we swear these oaths, that we are known to be bound, allows the nations to deal with us without fearing that we will throw up our own power, the One Power, against them. Between the Trolloc Wars and the War of the Hundred Years we made these choices, and because of them the White Tower still stands". This apparent contradiction may be solved partly through imperfect knowledge of the Aes Sedai, partly through the fact that Sheriam is secretly Black Ajah, and quite high up in that organisation. Her information might come from the fact that the Three Oaths taken by the Black Ajah were introduced during the Trolloc Wars, likely to offset mismatching between aging and agelessness between regular sisters and those that serve the Shadow.
== External links ==
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