BROWN AJAH

Unlike the other Ajahs, the Brown is headed not by a single woman but by a ruling council. The head of this council is known as the First Chair. They are also the most knowledgeable Ajah when it comes to the Tower and lore of the One Power, although they are also generally knowledgeable in many subjects.
The Brown Ajah is devoted to the study and collection of knowledge. Brown sisters can often be found in the Great Library of the White Tower, which they administer, searching for new knowledge and subjects to study. While abroad, Browns frequently carry note and sketchbooks in which they document nearly everything they come across. They often lose touch with the rest of the world, leading most, including Moraine Damodred, to believe that Browns are somewhat distant and naïve; one exception that proved the rule was Verin Mathwin, who had deep perception of current events. Certain members of the Brown Ajah are also permitted to know about the 13th repository, the secret library in Tar Valon. They act as librarians caring and maintaining the library and these sisters are the only ones other than Sitters, the Amyrlin and her Keeper and unofficially the Ajah heads who even know of its existence as knowing about it, is itself a crime unless one hold one of these positions.
For the past few centuries the Brown Ajah have had some disagreements with the Blue, though they still share a positive working relationship and many Browns are part of the rebel Aes Sedai. Recently the Brown Ajah has put Min Farshaw's viewings and Perrin Aybara's status as a Wolfbrother under much scrutiny.
Verin Mathwin: Verin is an Aes Sedai of the Brown Ajah, and secretly the Black Ajah. Verin has grayed hair and is considered to be one of the oldest Aes Sedai alive; likely over 200 years old. Like all members of the Brown Ajah, she devotes herself to knowledge and the pursuit of it; as a result, she has a tendency to go on fruitless tangents in dire conversations, and appear lost in thought at inopportune moments. Unlike other Brown sisters, however, she may only appear to be in these reveries to disguise her intentions, as she is at times very sharp and insightful, a trait very uncommon among true Browns. Moiraine Damodred remembers her particularly fondly from her days as a Novice and Accepted as Verin used to have the cooks leave sweets out for her and Siuan Sanche. Verin also told Morgase Trakand that there was no real need for her to remain in the Tower as she would never be able to do much with her limited talent even with teaching. Her rooms in the Brown Ajahs quarters are located next to a tapestry of two Kings who lived before Artur Hawkwing. Her rooms are full of books, scrolls, maps and skulls. There is also a Brown Owl that sits on a skull that is kept to keep the mice down as they chew paper. She elects plain garb, shying away from the finer silks and fabrics the other sisters prefer. She almost always keeps a writing case on her belt in order to jot down notes on certain goings-on when she feels it is important. Her notes take up many cupboards and chests in her room in the Tower. The notebooks are written in a cipher to prevent anyone reading what she is really writing about; she recently recorded this cipher and passed it on on with a collection of her notes so that her work would not be lost at her death. Her skills in the power can be counted as average: her Healing skill is no more than normal, and her skill with Earth is quite feeble; she has, however, discovered a weak form of Compulsion, similar to the form Liandrin of the Black Ajah uses. This was purely an exercise in curiosity at first and was done by piecing together fragments of wilders tricks to get people to do as they wished. In The gathering storm, we learn that Verin is actually a member of the Black Ajah; however, she had only joined to prevent her own death. She later made the decision to study the Ajah in order to eventually betray them to the Light. Using a loophole in her oaths to the Dark One, Verin poisons herself and then reveals all of her secrets to Egwenw al'Vere as she is about to die.