Streith is a type of material popular during the Age of Legends. It is normally white or silvery in appearance, but changes color and transparency to match the mood of its wearer.[1][2] The first mention of streith occurs during the Rhuidean flashbacks where the Aes Sedai Solinda is described as wearing an "old-fashioned" streith gown.
Moghedien wore a dress of streith in Tel'aran'rhiod, but Nynaeve did not know what it was. Moghedien's streith was probably a construct of the Dream, as she never wear such a dress in the real world. Moghedien's streith dress "seemed to be mist, sometimes silvery and opaque, sometimes gray and so thin as to show her limbs and body clearly".[3]
The making of streith was lost during the Breaking of the World, but a number of pieces of streith clothing have been found in stasis boxes. In 999 NE Graendal made one such discovery. She eventually wore it during a conversation with Sammael, where its properties were displayed as her emotions changed.
Color interpretation[]
The spectrum of colour seems to only range between red and blue with additional functionality for black/white and shades of grey. Transparency is a separate indicator. There are no examples of colours created by the addition of the green element of the RGBA [1] spectrum such a green, yellow or brown. The following colours are described with reference to what triggered the color change and the stated or inferred mood.
Black: When Graendal enters Sammael's apartments they are anachronistic with the current age and filled with artefacts of the Age of Legends. Similarly, Graendal's dress turns black when Aran'gar suggests that Moridin would assume that Aran'gar was not seeking an alliance with Graendal, but rather trying to get into bed with her. Annoyance.
Blue: Graendal controls her streith from black to blue. In the Rhuidean flashbacks, Solinda is described as being the calmest Aes Sedai and wearing a streith gown of pale blue. Calm.
Pale Rose: In response to a veiled threat from Sammael that Rand would come for her. Anger.
Deep Rose: The deeper the level of anger, the redder the hue. Fury.
Violent Red (ripples): After Sammael hints he had been promised Nae'blis and forced her to reveal what she knows about the other Forsaken. Anger, fear, shame.
Transparency: In the Rhuidean flashbacks, Charn meets a woman wearing a streith gown that becomes opaque "with embarrassment". The level of transparency seems to be therefore related to how open or vulnerable the wearer feels.
The reader's perspective on streith is also limited by the fact that we only see a point of view from Graendal, usually while she is not in a good mood with her company. We don't see reactions from other common emotions such as joy, pleasure or sadness, which may account for colors noted as absent above.