The Wheel of Time Season 3 Visits the Aiel Waste With a Prophecy Reminiscent of Dune

One of the most interesting cultures in the world of The Wheel of Time is that of the Aiel people, who dwell in the desert to the east of the Dragonwall mountain range. Like those in the West, they have a prophecy about the Dragon Reborn, but to them he is the car’a’carn, or Chief of Chiefs: one who will unite the disparate tribes of the Waste. There’s also another key difference we wanted to talk about with showrunner Rafe Judkins and Ayoola Smart, who plays the Aiel Maiden of the Spear known as Aviendha.

“One thing that I loved the first time I read the books was the Aiel,” Judkins tells Den of Geek. “I think they’re one of the cultures that is most representative of Robert Jordan’s ability to build something that feels as if it could be real. The Aiel don’t feel like, ‘Oh, these are some fantasy tropes we’ve thrown together, and this is how they make sense for this group.’”

Tropes aside, the Aiel prophecy about an outsider savior sounds a lot like Dune’s Fremen prophecy of the Lisan al Gaib, or “Voice from the Outer World.” But besides that commonality (and the desert setting), their view of the car’a’carn is quite different. Beyond the fact that the prophecy was not manufactured as it was in Dune (this is fantasy after all), there is very little reverence for the supposed messiah, as evidenced by Aviendha’s attitude towards Rand in The Wheel of Time.

Smart explains, “When the myth of a prophecy turns into a reality, I think how that’s going to make you feel or what you expect or what it is that’s actually being fulfilled — and in this case who that person is — you don’t know how that’s going to affect you. [Aviendha] spent all of this time thinking about the idea of this person and not the reality of who that person is, and she’s not that impressed.”

Aviendha’s opinion might have something to do with the fact that the car’a’carn won’t just unite the Aiel; he will also destroy them, a fact that makes their culture feel more grounded. “They feel like a real people with a real culture, real history, real beliefs, real systems of honor,” says Judkins. “I think that the authenticity of them in the books was something that we were all really excited to bring to life, and all of the departments worked together to infuse every bit of the Aiel that you see on screen with what was there in the books in terms of building their culture.”

Smart believes Aviendha’s initial contempt for Rand is part of the same journey of discovery for her character that the others are going through. “One of the things for a lot of these characters, particularly a lot of the younger characters, is that there is a process and a journey to each of their understanding of the worlds that they live in, and also where they fit in that world,” says Smart. “And Aviendha has to learn a lot about what it means to interact with Rand.”

In the end, Aviendha provides an important ingredient in Rand’s rise to power: humility. As he travels to the Aiel Waste in The Wheel of Time season 3, he’ll find a very different attitude towards his role than he has experienced with the Aes Sedai of the West. As Smart puts it: “I think Rand has to learn a lot before he’s able to step into the shoes that all of these different people expect him to fill… and Aviendha needs to keep him grounded.”

Not all Fremen believed Paul Atreides was the Mahdi, their off-world deliverer, and it’s likely that the Aiel tribes will also be divided in their level of confidence in the Chief of Chiefs. But in the end, there’s nothing quite like an army of desert warriors to make both Dune and The Wheel of Time season 3 as action-packed as possible.

The Wheel of Time season 3 premieres on Prime Video on March 13, 2025.

The post The Wheel of Time Season 3 Visits the Aiel Waste With a Prophecy Reminiscent of Dune appeared first on Den of Geek.