Seaine was 5'6" tall, and had blue eyes and thick black eyebrows. After many years, a touch of Lugard still clung to her voice. When she sat thinking, she pressed her fists beneath her chin in the way her furniture-maker father did. Many considered her a highly logical woman, almost a prototypical White. She reasoned out highly complex puzzles and riddles for relaxation. She had a very small ability with Earth, little better than Pevara. She always had a fondness for cats, and she kept carved figures of them, many in amusing poses. Strong-willed and confident, she was frequently as blind to the world around her as any Brown; Whites were often like that, all logic and no judgment.
With the exception of the Sitter who was killed in the fighting, Seaine was the only Sitter excluded from the gathering of the Hall where Siuan Sanche was deposed who did not flee the Tower and join the rebels. She remained because she believed in the law and its forms. She would not have stood to depose Siuan—she had, after all, proposed Siuan for Amyrlin in the first place—but once it was done, with however small a nod to the law, she felt she had no choice but to remain. Elaida went to Seaine to have her get evidence that Alviarin was a traitor; Seaine misunderstood and thought that Elaida was charging her to find the Black Ajah. Elaida chose Seaine for the primary reason that no one would suspect Elaida of going to her because she had proposed Siuan for Amyrlin, and also because of her logical and deductive skills. Seaine went to Pevara to ask for help, which was given. Together they discovered the ferrets sent from Salidar and bound them to help in the search. Other Sitters—Yukiri, Saerin, Doesine and Talene—noticed them sneaking about and also became part of the search. Their first discovery was Talene, who helped them find other members of the Black. Seaine and Talene Minly had been friends despite Talene standing to depose Siuan; she accepted Talene’s reasons, though she didn’t agree with them. After Talene was revealed as Black Ajah, Seaine felt as though Talene being a Darkfriend meant their friendship was a lie and a betrayal; she knew that did not really make sense, but she could not shake the feeling. Seaine’s nose was a little out of joint over the new arrangements in the Black Ajah hunting group, though she told herself she was being illogical. She and Pevara had acted as co-equals, ignoring the strength difference between them because they were friends. With the advent of the others, though, the formal strictures of hierarchy took over. Saerin assumed leadership, and Pevara and the others accepted this, but Seaine couldn’t help thinking that it was she who was chosen for this task originally, and now she was outranked by just about everybody except the fifth column and their prisoner, Talene. Seaine and the rest continued their search until Verin’s notebook made it unnecessary; then she helped Egwene learn more about the Forsaken.
She was part of the battle in Tel’aran’rhiod against some of the Black Ajah at the White Tower until she and others were taken out of the dream on Amys’ orders.
After Taim was forced out of the Black Tower, Seaine went there to bond an Asha’man Warder.
Sealbreaker. The name Gabrelle gave Logain, because he broke the seals on the Dark One’s prison during the Last Battle.
Sealdre. An Aiel Wise One and dreamwalker at the time of the building of Rhuidean. She was married to Mandein and encouraged him to go to the Jenn Aiel in Rhuidean. She had long golden hair.
Sealed to the Flame. A term referring to information that was kept secret from everyone but the Amyrlin and those with whom she chose to share it.
Sealed to the Tower. A term referring to information that was kept secret from anyone outside the White Tower.
Seana. A Wise One of the Black Cliff sept of the Nakai Aiel. She had gray-streaked dark hair and bluish-gray eyes. A dreamwalker who could not channel, she was killed by a Draghkar in the attack on Cold Rocks Hold.
Seanchan. A land lying three thousand leagues west of the main continent, and its people. Its capital was Seandar, where the Court of the Nine Moons held the seat of the Empress or Emperor, the Crystal Throne. Its Imperial sigil was a golden hawk in flight, clutching three lightning bolts in its talons. The Imperial banner was white, bordered in royal blue, with the sigil in its center. If the Empress or Emperor was present, it was fringed in gold; if the heir to the throne was present, it was fringed in blue.
In FY 992, Artur Hawkwing sent his son Luthair and another son across the Aryth Ocean with about two thousand ships and three hundred thousand soldiers and settlers. When they landed in Seanchan, they discovered a shifting quilt of nations often at war with one another, where Aes Sedai often reigned. Without any equivalent of the White Tower, Aes Sedai worked for their own individual goals, using the Power. Forming small groups, they schemed against one another constantly. In large part it was this constant scheming for personal advantage and the resulting wars among the myriad nations that allowed the armies from east of the Aryth Ocean to begin the conquest of an entire continent, and for their descendants to complete it. During this conquest, the descendants of the original armies became Seanchan as much as they conquered Seanchan.
After Luthair received word of his father’s death and then nothing further, he planned to gather the might of his conquered nation and return to the mainland and reclaim his father’s empire. While it took more than eleven hundred years, in 998 NE, a force of Seanchan arrived with five hundred ships at Falme. They called themselves the Hailene, or the Forerunners; they planned to retake the continent if necessary for the Corenne, or the Return. Though they lost a battle at Falme, High Lady Suroth gathered the Hailene and took Tanchico and Ebou Dar; the Corenne, a fleet of thousands of ships and hundreds of thousands of soldiers, craftsmen and others, soon followed.
Luthair was helped in his conquest of Seanchan also by the invention of the a’dam. Invented by Deain, one of the Aes Sedai, to curry favor with Luthair, it was used to subjugate and control the Aes Sedai, although it required sul’dam, women with the ability to learn to channel, to be used. That the sul’dam could learn to channel was suppressed and eventually forgotten. In time, all young women came to be tested for the ability to become damane or sul’dam; if she was the former, she was immediately collared and written out of family records and citizen rolls. If she was the latter, she gained prestige and honor.
Damane were used in many facets of Seanchan life, including construction, warfare, the finding of ores, and even entertainment; they could produce a display called Sky Lights, which resembled a fireworks display, but which were thought by Seanchan to be superior. A man who could channel was immediately executed and his name removed from all records.
From the time of Luthair’s conquest, the Seanchan were ruled by an emperor or empress. The throne on which the ruler sat, the Crystal Throne, was a ter’angreal causing anyone approaching to feel great awe and wonder; only the reigning monarch was ever allowed to sit on it. The Emperor or Empress encouraged potential heirs to contend for the throne, and would choose the child felt to be the strongest. Those contests were not limited to simply bettering one’s rivals at court; assassination was common. Empress Radhanan favored her daughter Tuon to succeed her; Tuon accompanied the Return. Semirhage killed the entire royal family remaining in Seanchan; Tuon became empress, taking the name Fortuona.
The Empress or Emperor ruled with the help of a number of groups. The most honored were the Deathwatch Guards, who were the personal bodyguards of the Imperial family. Some Deathwatch Guards were human, and da’covale; the remainder were Ogier and were not owned. The Seekers for Truth were a police and spy organization; Seekers were property, but they held wide powers and could arrest anyone who did not answer their questions or cooperate with them. They held their prisoners in the Tower of Ravens. Listeners were secret spies for the Empress of Seanchan. They were always hidden, and had no authority whatsoever. Their duty was to report everything they saw, heard, or learned.