Daes Dae'mar

From A Wheel of Time Wiki

Daes Dae'mar is known as The Great Game or The Game Of Houses.

It refers to the political and social maneuvering employed by the nobility of various nations to gain status or wealth, or to cause the downfall of others.

The Great Game is perhaps played the most heavily in Cairhien, where the most seemingly irrelevant act can cause lords and ladies to speculate endlessly about one's motives; even servants of the Cairhienin nobility play their own version of Daes Dae'mar. Conversely, it is rarely seen in the Borderlands, as Borderlanders are more concerned with Shadowspawn and the Blight than individual power, status or wealth.

Perhaps one of the most accomplished players of the Great Game in current times is Thom Merrilin, who developed his skill at court in Caemlyn. He has used his skill more than once to come to the aid of Rand al'Thor; first in Cairhien while Rand was hunting the Horn of Valere, and later in Tear after Rand proclaimed himself the Dragon Reborn to keep the Tairen High Lords off-balance enough to leave him alone.