Also known as the Snake people and the Fox people, they are the beings that inhabit the dimensions accessed by the twisted red doorway ter'angreal and the Tower of Ghenjei. This realm was called Sindhol in the Age of Legends. The Snake people or Aelfinn have the ability to read the future while the Fox people or Eelfinn have the ability to grant wishes. They also collect memories, both past and future, from their visitors. They have also been known as Shadoweyes.

Snakes and Foxes#

The children of the Westlands play a game known as Snakes and Foxes. It is a board game. The game begins with a rhyme, "Courage to strengthen, fire to blind, music to dazzle, iron to bind." Players then move their pieces along lines while trying to avoid other pieces representing foxes, marked with a triangle, and snakes, marked with a wavy line. Only children play Snakes and Foxes, as they quickly learn that the only way one can win is to break the rules.

References (Possible Spoilers)#

  1. In The Shadow Rising
    1. TSR,Ch15 - Mat, Rand and Moiraine each visit the Aelfinn through the twisted red doorway and get some answers.
    2. TSR,Ch24 - Mat goes through the twisted red doorway in Rhuidean and visits the Eelfinn. He gets no answers, but some gifts he was not expecting.
    3. TSR,Ch28 - In the wolf dream, Perrin travels to a large metal tower. Birgitte tells him it is the Tower of Ghenjei, that it is a doorway to the lands of the Aelfinn and Eelfinn, and that the way to beat them is to break the rules as in the game of Snakes and Foxes. "Courage to strengthen, fire to blind, music to dazzle, iron to bind."
  2. In Lord of Chaos
    1. LoC,Ch22 - Olver has a Snakes and Foxes game that his father made for him.
    2. LoC,Ch26 - In response to one of Rand's questions the Snake people told him, "If you would live, you must die."
    3. LoC,Ch33 - Mat plays Snakes and Foxes with Olver. The only way one can win is to break the rules. Pieces representing foxes are marked with a triangle; snakes have a wavy line. The same symbols are on the twisted red doorway. The game begins with a rhyme, "Courage to strengthen, fire to blind, music to dazzle, iron to bind."
  3. In The Path of Daggers
    1. TPoD,Ch14 - One of Rand's questions to the Snake people was how to cleanse saidin. Their answer was a riddle that Herid Fel said stated "sound principles, in both high philosophy and natural philosophy."
  4. In Winter's Heart
    1. WH,Ch18 - Olver play Snakes and Foxes every night with either Mat or Riselle.
    2. WH,Ch30 - Mat promises to play Snakes and Foxes with Olver now that Riselle is getting married.
    3. WH,Ch35 - Cyndane was stronger in the One Power before she was held by the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn.
  5. In Crossroads of Twilight
    1. CoT,Ch28 - Olver plays Snakes and Foxes with Thom and with Tuon.
  6. In Knife of Dreams
    1. KoD,Ch10 - Mat finally reads Thom's letter and realizes they must go to the Tower of Ghenjei to rescue Moiraine from the Aelfinn and Eelfinn. Mat thinks they have a link to him because he remembers dying in some of the memories he got from the Eelfinn.
    2. KoD,Ch10 - Olver remembers Birgitte telling him that the Tower of Ghenjei is the way to the land of the Aelfinn and Eelfinn. Make the sign of the start of the game Snakes and Foxes with a bronze knife to open the door.
    3. KoD,Ch18 - Rand recalls that he asked the Aelfinn, "How can I win the Last Battle and survive?" They answered, "The north and the east must be as one. The west and the south must be as one. The two must be as one. To live, you must die."
    4. KoD,Ch25 - When Mat sees Olver and Noal playing Snakes and Foxes it reminds him of the Eelfinn and possibly the Aelfinn being in his head.
    5. KoD,Ch36 - Mat tells Tuon he knew she would marry him because of the Aelfinn in the twisted red doorway but she does not believe him.
  7. In The Gathering Storm
    1. TGS,Ch34 - Mat's memories from the Eelfinn have smoothly blended with his own.
  8. In A Memory of Light
    1. AMoL,Prologue The realm of the Aelfinn and Eelfinn was known as Sindhol in the Age of Legends.

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