Yes, the oaths are powerfull, but they depend entirely on both the wording of the oath, and more importantly the perception of the one bound by the oath. Most likely in the AoL where they fully understood how the rod worked, the specific oaths were very carefully analyzed for any potential weaknesses and loopholes before use.



Not even Semirhage could actually overcome the oaths through torture alone. The problem is that it does not matter how much the subject WANTS to obey the torturer, the oaths work despite that. I suppose if you tortured someone for so long that they went utterly and completely insane then some of the oaths might be bypassed since the perceptions would be distorted.

For example, it is likely that even if LTT had been under an oath not to use the power as a weapon, then he would still likely have been able to kill his family. This is because he was likely so utterly insane at the time that his mind truly failed to realise what he was doing and so the oaths would not have kicked in to stop him since in LTT's mind he actually was not killing.



I am pretty sure nothing would happen. The oaths dont work retroactively. We have seen this with AS who have said something as truth that they believed to be true, only to later be proven wrong. For example AS said that healing stilling was "impossible", and yet now that they know the truth they have suffered no harm.

All it means is that once they realise their mistake, they cannot repeat it. So an AS could no longer say that healing stilling is impossible, since they now know that this is not the case.


The perception is a potential weakness that the Seanchan could use however. To give an example, if an oath prohibited helping the Seanchan, then they would just have to brainwash the damane into believing that the sul'dam were actually NOT from Seanchan. Once the Damane truly _believed_ that, then the oath against helping Seanchan would no longer work.

Or lets say using OP as a weapon. The oath states that OP can be used as a weapon only in self defense, or the defense of a warder or _another sister_. If an AS damane could somehow be completely convinced that since she is property of the Empire, all female seanchan are her sisters, then she could use the OP as a weapon to protect any female soldiers in danger(her sisters).