Long ago, according to Legend, the Horn of Valere was hidden to keep it safe until it was needed in the Last Battle. The Horn is much more than a musical instrument, for it can call back the dead heroes from the grave to fight against the Shadow. On it is the inscription Tia mi aven Moridin isainde vadin, in the Old Tongue: The grave is no bar to my call. Prophecy states that it will be found in time for the Last Battle. Between the end of the Trolloc Wars and the beginning of the War of the Hundred Years, a hunt was called. Many heroes searched for the Horn, and though none found it, their stories became legends that are now part of the Great Hunt of the Horn, a bardic cycle that takes several days to tell in its entirety.

Almost four hundred years after the last hunt, a new hunt was called in Illian on the Feast of Teven. Hunters gathered from every nation of the world to seek the Horn, or at least immortality in story and song. The city celebrated their coming adventures with a grand carnival of costumes, fireworks, song, dance, and the telling of legends. Prizes were given to gleeman, the greatest prize going for the best telling of the Hunt cycle. The Hunters were sworn to their quest and sent forth from Illian with much pomp and circumstance.

Since the heroes departure there have been rumor of the Horn appearing in Shienar, and in Falme some said they saw an army of heroes from legend charging to the song of a triumphant Horn, but no one has yet returned the Horn to Illian.

It is believed that he never held any field commands, though he did take part in a number of battles on some level, and he served as a governor of conquered areas. By and large, his administrations were not particularly horrific compared with others of the Forsaken, though it should be remembered that all the Forsaken did such things as allow Mesaana's mobs of children free rein, cooperate with Aginor's "harvesters" to gather people, and make men, women, and children available rations for Trolloc garrisons. The one atrocity which was specifically his, has been overlooked by some historians because it involved fewer people. It should not be. Artists of all sorts of whom he disapproved were blinded and/or otherwise maimed. Any artist - writer, musician, any at all - could become an object of Asmodean's displeasure, but it was most particularly aimed at musicians and composers who had been considered his rivals before the war. The horror of this can only be compounded by the fact that there was no torture involved, as such; the unfortunate was simply made incapable of producing his or her art again and then released.

East of the Dragonwall and west of the cliffs and chasms of Shara lies the Aiel Waste. Called Djevik K'Shar, "The Dying Ground" in the Trolloc tongue, it is a harsh, rugged, and all but waterless land that appears uninhabitable. Yet this Waste is home to the Aiel, a race of people as fierce and hardy as their rugged environment. These tall and fair-haired people are lethal fighters and skilled trackers, with both men and women serving as warriors. Believed to be the most deadly fighters on the continent, if not in the world, they veil their faces before they kill and have established a well-earned reputation for defending their land from outsiders. They call the Waste the "Three Fold Land", for they believe it is first a shaping stone to make them; second, a testing ground to prove their worth; and third, a punishment for their sin -- though the exact sin is apparently unknown. Only those select few on friendly terms with the Aiel dare to enter the Waste: peddlers, gleeman, and the Tuatha'an Tinkers. At one time the merchants of Cairhien were also welcomed, but that welcome was revoked when Laman destroyed Avendoraldera. Everyone else is considered an enemy.

The Aiel were not always a warrior people. Recently discovered historical information reveals that the Aiel not only evolved their warlike tendencies after the Breaking, but are actually related to the peaceful Tuatha'an, whom they avoid, but never harm.