Shara

When I was browsing the glossary of ToM, I noticed a detailed entry about something that I did not remember being named in the books, Shara. All I remember that was close to mentioning it was a mention about a place where silk comes from east of the Aiel Waste, and nothing else. Does anybody know of a more detailed mention of this place?

Yes there is a fair bit about Shara known



Shara


Shara is the Westlander name for the land east of the Aiel Waste. Various people have different names for this land, such as Shamara, Co'dansin, Tomaka, Kigali and Shibouya.Shara is bordered to the south-west and south by the Sea of Storms, and to the east by the Morenal Ocean. As with the Westlands, it is bordered to the north by the Mountains of Dhoom and the Great Blight.

Geography
Shara lies to the east of the Aiel Waste, from which it is separated by the Cliffs of the Dawn and the Great Rift. Significant mountain ranges longer than the Spine of the World lie to the east of both features, further inhibiting travel into Shara. The Cliffs of the Dawn are easily scalable only in six locations. The Sharans have built heavily-fortified towns in each of these locations, where trade is permitted with westerners (Aiel and those gleemen and peddlers from the Westlands the Aiel permit to cross the wastelands). In each of these towns the residents go veiled at all times, and the walls are so tall that it is impossible to see in or out of the towns from outside. Westerners are not permitted to travel through these towns' eastern gates into Shara proper. Those who try, disappear.
South of the cliffs lies the Great Rift, an immense canyon which separates the Sharan interior from the Aiel Waste. No successful crossing of the rift has been recorded. The southern edge of the rift, which may be passable, is separated from the rest of the Aiel Waste by the Termool.

Click to see maps

Shara, to the right, in relation to the other continents of the world.Shara extends much further south than either the Westlands or the Aiel Waste and its southern-most tip crosses the equator. Shara's south-western coast is extremely mountainous. The only easily-accessible harbors are located along the south coast itself. There are only five known ports on the south coast, and these are similarly classified as open trading ports by the Sharans. Sea Folk and western vessels are permitted to dock, but again traders are not permitted to travel outside the cities. The same immense walls are to be found here, but in this case they extended even across the harbors themselves.
Traveling to the east of the eastern-most trading port is extremely hazardous and most vessels which attempt this vanish. Nevertheless, over the centuries enough Sea Folk vessels have managed to return after conducting inconclusive surveys to put together maps showing the Sharan coast. These maps suggest that Shara extends for approximately 2,000 miles from the Aiel Waste to the Morenal Ocean and for approximately 4,500 miles from the Mountains of Dhoom to the Sea of Storms. The Mountains of Dhoom tumble into the sea similarly to the way they do in the Westlands, and there is at least one large island off Shara's east coast. Its name is unknown.

History
The land of Shara is shrouded in mystery, and as such, not much of its history is known. It has been traveled to by very few Westlanders, the most notable of which being Jain Farstrider.
It is known that Shara was united as one nation shortly after the Breaking of the World and has endured until the present day. Shara suffered during the Trolloc Wars, although the extent and duration of the invasion and the damage it caused is unknown. The Sharans themselves claim to have never suffered political upheaval or civil war, and most also deny that the Trollocs invaded their land, although a few isolated reports that they did suffer an invasion also exist.
In FY 993, Artur Hawkwing dispatched a large fleet to invade Shara under the command of one of his daughters. This fleet was equal in size to the one he sent to Seanchan the year before, meaning it consisted of up to 2,000 ships and possibly as many as 300,000 troops. The Sea Folk recorded at the time that the invasion force had successfully landed in several locations on the western and southern coasts of Shara. However, later reports suggested that the ships were ablaze in the bays and inlets where they had landed, indicating the invasion had been defeated. To this day, Sharan traders deny all knowledge of such an invasion taking place.

At the present time, rumours have come from across the Aiel Waste that there is anarchy and chaos in Shara, with a segment of the population apparently sparked off by the disappearance of the rulers of the country. The people of Shara allegedly ask when the Dragon will appear to destroy the world, leading Rand al'Thor to believe that he is responsible for the anarchy Whether these events will have any impact on the Last Battle remains to be seen.

Government
Shara is ruled by absolute monarchs, the female Sh'boan and male Sh'botay. Every seven years, the ruler dies and their consort takes the throne and remarries. Sharans call this The Will of the Pattern. The last known Sh'boan and Sh'botay were Chiape and Shaofan. Both rulers are currently held as pets by Graendal
The author of one text however makes the charge that the Ayyad are the true power behind the government. The ruler is surrounded with Ayyad servant women and advisors. As well as the fact that they pass down almost all judgment, and speak for the ruler. Speaking with the ruler is considered a great honor, rarely ever bestowed on anyone

Culture
Little is known about Shara or its people, beyond what little information trickles out through limited trade. The Sharans are apparently renowned liars, so trade with them is risky. However, Shara is the sole source for silk and ivory, so traders are willing to take that risk. They only allow the Atha'an Miere to dock at specified walled ports and the Aiel to trade in specific walled cities. Anyone attempting to pass the walls is never heard from again.
It is possible that a Sharaman was briefly encountered in Knife of Dreams, Chapter 21. He is described as very dark, with a peculiar coat without collar or lapels, once white but now stained, and having a musical accent. The kidnapped rulers, too, are described as very dark-skinned and with curly hair, both slender and of great beauty.

The Ayyad
These are both male and female channelers that live in secluded villages, cut off from the rest of the kingdom. If anyone who is not Ayyad comes into these villages they are killed. Permission must be granted for the Ayyad to leave these places, although anyone seeing one outside the village would just assume one had permission anyway. They tattoo their faces to allow identification, anyone bearing these tattoos are confined to Ayyad villages.
Male Ayyad are not allowed to learn to read or write, or do anything at all really. They can feed and dress themselves and that is about it. They are used to breed more female Ayyad, and as such their bloodlines are traced like horse breeding stock. Males are communally raised, called simply "the male", instead of "he". When they are sixteen they are taken from the village and are hooded and cloaked, and are matched with women who desire children, which is sometimes several. When he is twenty-one, or shows signs of channeling, he is taken from the village as if again to go breed and is instead killed and cremated.

Slavery
Chattel slavery is also an extremely common practice in Shara. The entire Sharan culture is built upon the enslavement of the many by the few.

Exactly where did you get all of this? Not that I doubt you, I just want to see how I could have missed all of this.

We do have one article on Shara in the TarValon.Net Library, here: http://library.tarvalon.net/index.php?title=Shara

Axis's post looks to be straight out of the Guide

The wikii for this one

http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Shara

our library is good too though.

So, I take it the BWB maps are considered reliable, at least in this?

The above maps of the world are correct yes.

Noal goes on about Shara for a few pages in one of the books. A fair portion of this came from there, and a few remarks from a Matt memory, if I recall correctly.

I'm sure some of it is also from the wheel of time guide book.



My question is, is it known if the Aes Sedai have ever had any diplomatic relations with Shara? Either now, or before?

We're never going to see anything more of Shara than we already have, so its a bit pointless.

But no it doesn't seem that the Aes Sedai have had much to do with Shara at all.

perhaps there are some things sealed in the records that may have happened, but its certainly nothing we are aware of as documented.

ive always thought that Shara could be Demandreds hiding spot, given that there are a ton of channelers there not connected to Rand or tower, and is entirely secluded from events on other side of waste. just a thought

CalebMSmith90 said:

ive always thought that Shara could be Demandreds hiding spot, given that there are a ton of channelers there not connected to Rand or tower, and is entirely secluded from events on other side of waste. just a thought

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No. Demandred is hiding as Bela. It's the only explanation.

Does it seem odd to anyone else that such epic things are happening on 'our' side of the Aiel Waste but there are these huge other parts of the world (that would obviously be affected by the Last Battle) that we barely see and know very little about? Like when the Seanchan were first introduced, they had their own prophecies about the Last Battle...does the rest of the world have similar things? Wouldn't they also come hunting for the Dragon Reborn or whatever they call him?

Not that I think we could take many more cultures and peoples in this series, but it's SO epic that now it seems odd to know there's a lot more out in the world that hasn't been part of the story.

It doesn't seem all that odd to me. The whole galaxy wasn't involved when the Rebels defeated the Empire. From a world-builder point of view, considering the level of detail RJ has put into the lands west of the waste, filling out the whole world would be an immense task, and not really worthwhile if you're telling a story that only involves a small (smallish) area of that world.

That doesn't mean I like the exclusion of the rest of the world, just that I can see the reasoning for it.

I just think it's especially odd in Shara's case because it's been mentioned by name so many times, but never any explanation given. Why not pick other random places from outside the sphere of the story? That it's ALWAYS Shara make it feel somehow significant.

Megana Vallentin said:

I just think it's especially odd in Shara's case because it's been mentioned by name so many times, but never any explanation given. Why not pick other random places from outside the sphere of the story? That it's ALWAYS Shara make it feel somehow significant.

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The only other "random place" is The Land of Madmen and that barely rates any mention. Shara only does probably because its connected to Randland.

Also, it is fairly unknown by anyone besides Atha'an Miere