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Aes Sedai Testing
During the Age of Legends approximately two to three percent of the population possessed the ability to channel the One Power, or the ability to learn how to channel. Some women have the spark - they will eventually channel whether they are taught or not. These women live in great peril if not discovered by an Aes Sedai, as nearly three in four women die trying to teach themselves to channel. Other women simply have the ability to learn to channel. Women with the spark first show the ability between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one. Women who can learn to channel can be discovered at any age. Finding women with the spark who have already begun to channel on their own is extremely simple for an Aes Sedai. They can sense the woman, from about five to ten feet away, as a kind of "kindred spirit." Discovering women who have the ability to learn but have not yet channeled is not too difficult either. A trained Aes Sedai channels a small amount of the Power to create a tiny flame between herself and the candidate. It is then up to the candidate to feel the flow of saidar. If the candidate has the ability to channel, or the ability to learn, she will be able to feel the resonance of the Aes Sedai’s flows. During the Age of Legends, no woman died for the lack of a teacher. In the current day, though, Aes Sedai do not actively search out women who can channel. Instead the White Tower relies on women coming to the Tower to be trained. This is certainly part of the reason why the Tower’s numbers continue to dwindle. The testing process itself is simple - it is the actively searching for women who can channel which is difficult.
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