Aes Sedai is an order of female channelers organized into what is known as the White Tower who influence the world and promote cooperation between nations. Only those women accepted by the White Tower can be called Aes Sedai, and all other channelers are known as wilders.

It is said that during the Age of Legends, the order of Aes Sedai was comprised of both male and female channelers, however, since the taint placed on saidar by the Dark One, some Aes Sedai have made a crusade of gentling, or castration from the flow of the One Power, all male channelers before the madness and destruction which caused the Breaking of the World inevitably overtakes them.

It is said that an Aes Sedai cannot lie, but the truth they speak is not necessarily the truth you think you hear.