I was just thinking about Seanchan and it occurred to me, what kind of impact do you think the whole a'dam testing procedure has on young girls in that society, and on the society as a whole.

I mean in the Seanchan society, absolutely every girl is tested to see if they can channel once every single year until they reach the age of 25. So basically if you are a girl living in Seanchan, every single year someone comes and sticks a collar around your neck to see if you have the ability to channel inborn, and if you do you are basically screwed forever. And you know it.

Now I would say everyone in Seanchan knows about the damane and how they are treated. I wonder what kind of effect this SHOULD have on any young Seanchan girl? I mean most people don't know they are channelers at first, so in most cases you likely would have no way to know if you are going to be held by the a'dam or not.

Should this not be something that absolutely terrifies everyone? I mean if you knew about the damane, would you not freak out every year when the time of testing came, knowing that if you had the bad luck to be able to channel you would be taken away to be tortured and brainwashed and then treated like an animal for the rest of your life, a very LONG life. Even if you believed that collaring was proper, you would still have to be very scared.

In large cities or towns, everyone would likely see this happen occasionally. Friends and family who are perfectly normal suddenly fail the test without warning. If you were say a 10 year old girl and your 19 year old sister failed, what kind of hell would your life be until 25 given the potential genetic factor? Or even the friends of the 19 year old who would have had no idea and who must realise that this means that it COULD happen to them aswell.

This would also likely be something that cruel children would use to terrorize others with, especially boys towars girls. We know bullies exist, creating a fake collar and slapping it around the neck of some girl would likely be a very effective way to cause fear and pain.

I also wonder what other implications this would have on a society.

For instance, I wonder if there is somekind of party or celebration in the family when a girl finally reaches 25 and fails the testing for the last time. I mean before that, there must always be a small doubt in everyones mind, "what if she can channel, what if she fails and is taken away". Would this perhaps cause some parents to stay distant from their female children out of fear and to avoid potential grief?

And what about relationships? I wonder if marriages would be more common with women past the 25 after men can be certain that their wife won't suddenly be taken away to be an animal in a kennel somewhere. What if you DID marry at say 16-20 and had a girl child, only to have the mother fail. What would the father think, knowing that the baby girl had a real chance of sharing her mother's fate someday. What would the child once she was old enough? Surely there would be a permanent stigma on the child. Would anyone want to marry her even if she failed the test herself, knowing that HER children could inherit their grandmothers channeling ability.

I wonder if people try to run away from the testing out of fear. Would there be somekind of underground or something that opposes the practise. One would think so, there are enough people that some must realise the immorality of it despite the pressure from the culture, even if they are few in number. Also I wonder if there exists bribery and such or other attempts to avoid the test just to be safe.

Seems to me that there are many ways that the damane system/testing would and should have a significant impact on the Seanchan in the ways I have described and many more that I have not thought of.

Thoughts?