Rhuarc

Rhuarc led a band of Aiel warriors far from home, east of the Dragonwall in the country along the River Erinin. It was strange ground for the Taardad to walk, and he had not come to it lightly. Dreams had brought him: his own dreams, taken to the Wise Ones for interpretation, and it was their reading of those dreams that sent a clan chief himself across the mountains rather than any lesser man.

He was a principled leader and a cautious one. The customs of his people were not ornaments to him but obligations, and he held to them with conviction even among wetlanders who understood nothing of Aiel ways. That same steadiness made him a capable hand in matters of diplomacy; where others heated, Rhuarc kept his equanimity, and political tension seemed to break against him without leaving a mark.

What showed most plainly in him was the seriousness with which he took the Wise Ones' word. Whatever it cost to lead Taardad warriors so far into unfamiliar lands, he counted the dreams reason enough. When the Wise Ones told him what his dreams meant, he listened, and he went.