The Aiel (pronounced: eye-EEL) are a race of people who live between the "wetlanders" in the Westlands and the Sharans in the east, in a desert which the Aiel call the Three-fold Land and which everyone else calls the Aiel Waste. They have earned a reputation as exceptionally skilled warriors; little else is known about them in the wider world. Physically, Aiel can be recognized through their unusual height, characteristic pale eyes and light-colored hair, as well as their distinctive clothing.