Who are Mat and Perrin *CAUTION SPOILERS AND YELLOW TAPE*

[Renoard]

I'm pretty sure the male leader of the Taes Sedai is the Tamyrlin At least I picked that up from some obscure passage I can't cite.  But my impression is that historically the men and women trained and lived apart until the became accepted in order to minimize the danger in teaching the correct (gender based) means of achieving Saidin/Saidar.  It would stand to reason there would be a gender based division in the political structure that grew from that unconsciously.

That would also have left the political structure of the White tower as stagnated as it is, because removing the men would have been little disruption.

[Vyrance]

I've never heard of people called Taes Sedai .  Although Tamyrlin was supposed to be the name of the first person to channel (and I have a feeling he was male.)  Also, there was a ring called the Ring of Tamyrlin that Lews Therin wore while he was First among the Servants.  The ring was supposed to be an extremely powerful sa'angreal.  And that would make sense considering Lanfear mentioned to him once how there were 2 sa'angreals that Rand could use that were stronger than Callandor (one being the Male half of the Choedan Kal.)

[douglas]

Vyrance, do you have any references for your information?  As I recall, the "World of" book only mentions that Lews Therin had the Ring of Tamyrlin and had nothing more than speculation (and not very much of it) about what the name meant or what it did.  Also, I'm pretty sure Lanfear's statement was about sa'angreals in general, not just ones that Rand could use, and she meant both of the Choedan Kal.

[Vyrance]

no hard evidence on the name of Tamyrlin, I just read that Tamyrlin was rumored to be the name of the first channeler.   i'm not sure where the thought originally came from, but i know its on the wheel of time wiki (i know, its a wiki. ) this is the only source i could find for it, but i myself, havent read that version of TEOTW:

Scott Mocklin tells us that the new glossary in To The Blight (vol. 2 of the YA version of TEOTW) has the following entry:

    Ring of Tamyrlin (TAHM-ehr-lin): a legendary ring, believed mythical by most people, worn by the leader of the Aes Sedai during the Age of Legends. Stories about the Ring of Tamyrlin include that it was an angreal or sa'angreal or ter'angreal of immense power. It supposedly was named after the first person to learn how to tap into the Source and channel the One Power, and in some tales, was actually made by that man or woman. Despite what many Aes Sedai say, no one knows whether it was a man or a woman who first learned to channel. Some believe that the present title of Amyrlin is a corruption of Tamyrlin.


as far as what Lanfear says,

TITLE: Shadow Rising
CHAPTER: 9 - Decisions
"I cannot trust you fully, Lews Therin. Not yet." She [Lanfear] came closer, and he [Rand] considered simply seizing her. He was bigger and stronger by far - and blocked as he was, she could wrap him up with the Power like a kitten tangled in a ball of string. "Not with that, certainly," she added, grimacing at Callandor.  "There are only two more powerful that a man can use. One at least, I know, still exists. No, Lews Therin. I will not trust you yet with that." "Stop calling me that," he growled. "My name is Rand. Rand al'Thor."

she does say that a man can use, so that's why I think it's probably that ring.  unless of course, you count being able to use both choedan kal by linking, but i tend to think she meant direct use by a man.

[Rrikor]

I am in the middle of my reread and just went through a part that gives some credit to the theory that all people are reborn.   The scene is with Hopper and Perrin when Perrin is talking to him about Hopper being dead.   Hopper states that all brothers and sisters that are,  have been, and will be exist in the dream world.  If we take there long memories of running with humans we can say that it applies to humans as well because they were at one point the brothers and sisters of wolves.