Hall of the Tower

The Hall of the Tower belongs to the workings of the White Tower shown from The Great Hunt, onward. It is the central council of the Aes Sedai: twenty-one Sitters, three chosen by each of the seven Ajahs, who make the Tower's policy, vote its laws, and carry out or check the decrees of the Amyrlin Seat. Custom hedges it thickly. The Amyrlin presides, yet she may not enter the Hall unannounced; the Keeper of the Chronicles announces her, and may not enter otherwise; and matters are decided by Sitters rising to stand, the gravest requiring the greater consensus and the rest the lesser. The balance between Amyrlin and Hall is the oldest tension in Tar Valon, for a strong Amyrlin can steer her Sitters, while a determined Hall can bind an Amyrlin tight in law. How the balance tips has shaped the Tower's course for three thousand years.