Tower Memes: Part One

This article started out as a regular article, but it quickly turned into several pages. Therefore it will be cut up into a series of articles, that will expand over the coming months into a more complete guide of the memes.

First, a quick look on the definition of memes. A meme is a cultural expression, an idea, saying or part of knowledge that is preserved within a population. Memes are said to undergo the same principle as genes: evolution. A good meme survives, a bad meme does not. Fire was a good meme! The populations who knew how to use fire survived and prospered.

It's also said that the spreading of good memes inside a population strengthens the population. :wink :wink And that is somewhat the purpose of this article.

I'm going to begin by highlighting three of our Membership Groups in Part One of this article, the Yellow Ajah, Green Ajah and Mahdi'in d'ma Dieb.

Yellows: The Tea Brewers

The journey sets place in the darkest corners of the pre-pre-precessor of Tar Valon's boards. Eleven years ago, in the 11th of May, http://thewhitetower72546.yuku.com was founded. A Yellow Aes Sedai, Sharradin, set up a yellow tent, more than a year later, and wrote "Sets up tent, makes up cots with soft sheets and place out clean clothes. Then sets a table with cool water and other light things for the recently healed".

The thread is 28 pages long and well worth a read. To help the healing process the Yellow Sedais bring their vict... err... patients tea. Some become unconscious, other start to foam at their mouths, snarl, and growl. From there the meme had its own evolution. If an Aes Sedai ever brings you tea, you should be suspicious! They even have a rank for it. "The Tea Brewer", which currently is held by Samarasin Tavaral. The purpose of the title have changed over the years. Originally The Tea Brewer was a secretary to the Head of Ajah. Today The Tea Brewer works as guest facilitators.

And oh, that special tea pot which contains the special tea? It's called the Purple Cannister. Some who drank the tea in that forgotten forum thread turned purple. My guess is that the Cannister earned its name because of that.

Another Yellow meme is the "Random Acts of Yellow". It's used when there's an organized Yellow event out on the boards, but the Yellow organizers are... not slightly organized. Lastly, a person who have access to the Yellow Ajah's forums, whether they are Yellow Aes Sedai or not, is called a Yellow Fellow.

Greens: The Loving

The Green battle Ajah have more memes than possibly can be listed and explained here. It should be known that the Green Ajah is the secretive Ajah, with memes that only are explained for the newly raised Accepted first when she have taken the shawl. The fourth oath is something that no mortal, except Green Aes Sedai, know about, nor probably ever will know about. (I pay in homebaked cookies for any insider information!)

The Green Ajah, the battle Ajah, the Ajah with many warders... some say they are... flirtatious, or loving, if you so will. Their motto is “Al dival, al kiserai, al mashi” which is Old Tongue for "For light, glory and love". And it is known that they have a fondness for boots, which is postulated with the acronym "FMBs". To keep this article PG-13, that abbreviation shan't be spelled out. It ends with "me boots". The Green Ajah also have an official drink called Balefire. And unsurprisingly enough the contents are secret (though I'm sure your friendly Green Aes Sedai would be happy to tell you how to make it, for a bit of a price!)

Back in 2007 five Green Aes Sedais were expecting new little ones. The Green Aes Sedai Lireina Dormerus t'al'Bearach was one of the expectees. "One of our Gaidin guests said something like 'Wow, what is it in the water in the Green Halls?', and we make a joke out of it. It has since grown into a more frequently used phrase." Ever heard "Oh no, I'm not drinking the Green Water..."? If you do, you might get pregnant!

MDD: The Ones Your Mother Warned You About

I will conclude this first article of many with the infamous company Mahdi'in d'ma Dieb, or MDD. Their meme base is possibly a tad more shallow, but they make up for it with the ingenuity of their mocking remarks. Zashara Sedai was bonded to a Gaidin of MDD, Jeryn Lekar, and says that the members of MDD have their own sense of humor and makes fun of people, but mostly each other. "I know that most people think of MDD as Gaidins thare are mocking other people, but we probably mock each other more. We just do it in private."
I ask her to describe MDD for a 10 year old, and she gave me this ingenious respone: "We're the kind of people your mom warned you about."

MDD also have the famous, or infamous, MDD-awards. They are basically Mahdi'in d'ma Dieb version of the Member's Choice Awards. They have categories like "Most Likely to Ignore the #wheel Chat Ops", "Most Dramatic Ajah/Company" or "Most Likely to Overreact to Receiving an MDD Award". They are usually well received.