- For the chapter in The Great Hunt called "Falme", see The Great Hunt/Chapter 42.
Falme is the largest town on Toman Head, with a population of around twenty-five thousand citizens.[1] Residents of Falme are called "Falmen".[2]
History and geography[]
Falme is a harbor on the Aryth Ocean which lays to the west. It is the largest town in the area of Toman Head and on the Almoth Plain, though actually not very big,[3].
The town is found on the site of the ancient city of Miereallen while a part of the nation of Safer during the Compact of Ten Nations.[4]
The unwalled [5] town contains streets of cobblestone,[6] dark stone buildings, and docks also of stone. The town rises up from the high cliff slopes of the hollow that make the harbor.[7]
Among the buildings in the town is the Three Plum Blossoms inn.
The people[]
Fashion in Falme involves copious embroidery for both rich and poor. The wealthy sport intricately embroidered shirts, vests, and dresses,[7] while a woman of a more modest country life will wear embroidery on the chest of her long fleece coat.[2]
There is a community within Falme called Do Miere A’vron, meaning The Watchers Over the Waves. Located in a tower atop a cliff that overlooks the harbor,[7] they watch the sea and wait for the return of Artur Hawkwing’s armies that were sent to conquer lands across the Aryth Ocean.[8] However, when those armies do return at Falme in the form of the Seanchan, the Do Meire A'vron were punished, accused of watching for the wrong thing and forgetting what they should have been remembering. Their leader, the First Watcher, was placed in a cage, hung from one of their towers overlooking the harbor in Falme, and left to die. When the First Watcher died another was named and placed in the cage.[7]
Residents of Falme are called "Falmen".[2]
Recent events[]
Falme was the original landing point for the Seanchan's return. It was also the site of several important events.
- Egwene al'Vere was leashed with an a'dam, and vowed never to be leashed again. Her fury and display of the One Power after her escape played a part in precipitating the battle that followed.[9]
- The Battle of Falme the Horn of Valere was sounded and the Seanchan were defeated. Rand acquires his never-healing wound on his left side from Ba'alzamon's charred wood staff which will eventually kill him at Tarmon Gai'don fulfilling the Prophecies and by killing him, he destroys the Power-forged, Heron-marked sword of his father.
- Rand meets with the Daughter of the Nine Moons in Falme. Fearing his darkness, Tuon resists the pull of ta'veren and rejects his peace offering.[10]
Regarding the Nation of Almoth[]
While we know that Falme was part of the nation of Darmovan in the Free Years and that this encompassed both Almoth Plain and Toman Head, whether it was also part of Almoth after the War of the Hundred Years is maybe less clear. The description of Almoth Plain in the Companion reads as "the former site of the nation of Almoth lying between Tarabon and Arad Doman along the Aryth Ocean". The hilly and forested Toman Head penninsula is not part of this region, however, nor is there mention of Almoth in references to Toman Head in the books, The World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time or the the Companion. Nonetheless, it stands to reason that Falme is likely to have been part of some nation. While we don't know the location of the lost nations Mosara or Irenvelle, it seems a simpler solution to assume the same geographic unity as Darmovan and Safer and put the lack of mention of Almoth down to the relative antiquity of the nation.
Parallels[]
Falme and the nearby Almoth Plain may get their names from Falmouth, a town and port in Cornwall, England or from Falmouth, a town and port in Massachussetts, USA.
External links[]
Notes
- ↑ The Wheel of Time Companion, Falme
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Great Hunt, Chapter 42
- ↑ The Great Hunt, Chapter 9
- ↑ TWORJTWOT, Chapter 10
- ↑ The Great Hunt, Chapter 34
- ↑ The Great Hunt, Chapter 45
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 The Great Hunt, Chapter 29
- ↑ The Great Hunt, Chapter 7
- ↑ The Great Hunt, Chapter 46
- ↑ The Gathering Storm, Chapter 35