Ji'e'toh

From A Wheel of Time Wiki

Ji'e'toh is the complex system of honor and dishonor that the Aiel follow. Ji'e'toh determines all interactions in Aiel life; fighting, housing, even intimate relationships and marriage. The term is from the Old Tongue and means, literally, honor and obligation.

Ji is honor, and toh is obligation. The greatest ji comes from touching an enemy in battle without killing him. This incurs a great deal of toh, and the person who is touched usually becomes gai'shain, which in the Old Tongue means "pledged to peace in battle." A gai'shain serves his or her captor for a year and a day, touching no weapon, doing no battle, and wearing only white. A Wise One, blacksmith, woman with a child, or a child under the age of ten may not be made gai'shain.

The least amount of ji comes from killing an enemy, as the Aiel believe that killing is easier than leaving an enemy alive.

Encompassing duty and custom, law and life, all Aiel live by this honor system. The ways and workings of the system are convoluted and twisted, and non-Aiel attempting to understand it almost invariably come out little more knowledgeable than before.