Cairhien, “Hill of the Golden Dawn” as it is known in the Old Tongue, came about at the end of the Hundred Years War under their new king, Matraine Colmcille. For the next four centuries, the Cairhiens experienced a time of great prosperity and wealth. The Aiel granted them safe passage across the Waste in repayment of a past good deed, and Cairhien merchants brought silks and ivory from Shara to increase the nation’s coffers.

In addition to safe passage across the Waste, the Aiel presented the Cairhiens with a trimming of the Tree of Life, Avendesora, which they named Avendoraldera. For four hundred years, the sapling would grow to be a huge tree, but would ultimately be the nation’s downfall. Twenty years before Tarmon Gai’don, King Laman of House Damodred decided he would have a throne unlike any other. He cut down Avendoraldera, and sealed his nation’s fate.

The Aiel called this Laman’s Sin, and four clans crossed the Dragon Wall in 976 NE to avenge it. No nation could stop the Aiel, though all the countries of the Westlands banded together to try. Two years later, on the slopes of the Dragonmount, King Laman was killed. The Aiel retreated back to the Waste afterwards.

This was the end of House Damondred’s hold on the throne. Galldrian of House Riatin ascended to the throne. He ruled until his assassination several years before the Last Battle. Though an heir was apparent, House Damodred kept any Riatin from ascending.

When the Dragon crossed from the Waste with a horde of Aiel, Cairhien submitted to his will. He ruled as overlord until appointing Dobraine of House Taborwin to rule.

House Taborwin still rules as stewards in Cairhien. They have completed repairs on the city since the Aiel War, and the Sun Academy flourishes.

The Cairhienin invented Daes Dae’mar, the Game of Houses. They can read volumes from an upraised eyebrow, a lift of a finger. Noble houses compete with each other for any advantage. Though strictly separated by custom, even servants play their own version of the game.

Though the nobility in Cairhien are often noted for their sense of propriety, this is often turned on its head during festivals and celebrations - most notably, during the Feast of Lights, held in the city each year.

The clothes worn in Cairhien differ dramatically, depending on whether the wearer lives in the Foregate or in the inner city. The nobility tend toward darker colours in silks and satins; coats and dresses are often made of colours such as dark blues, greens and black. Dark ivory lace often adorns the neck and wrist, and narrow horizontal slashes of colour across the chest and body in House colours indicate rank. For formal occasions, wide skirts of even finer materials are worn, supported by hoops, and hair is usually worn in elaborate styles. Men wear silk shirts and breeches with thigh-length coats, and wear their hair long with flat or bell-shaped velvet caps.

Commoners, in contrast, tend to wear skirts, shirts, coats and shawls of bright colours, though they are often ill-fitting and shabby.

Military dress is also quite dark, with slashes of rank worn across the chest. High-ranking officers wear white plumes an their bell-shaped helmets, wearing their hair long in back, shaved and powdered in the front, while lower soldiers wear their hair in a standard bowl cut. Liveried servants may wear a few slashes of colour on their cuffs as well as their House badge embroidered on their breast; some have their House colours covering their collar or sleeved, while higher servants feature more colour still.