A little back-history for the casual fans:
1. Rand discovers in book 4 (The Shadow Rising) that his mother was Aiel only by adoption, but he doesn't learn until book 6 that she was Tigraine of House Mantear, the daughter-heir of Andor that disappeared, leading to the Succession by which Morgase of House Trakand (Elayne's mother) ascended the throne. This makes him distantly related to Elayne, but not close enough to worry about. All of the major Houses of Andor are directly descended from Ishara, the first Queen of Andor.
2. Ishara's grandfather, Joal Ramedar, was the last king of Aldeshar (Ishara's mother, Ramedar's daughter, was a regional governor under Artur Hawkwing's rule). Aldeshar, definitely the strongest of the pre-Conquest nations, was the last nation to fall to Hawkwing. Mat has 'Finn-given memories of being Culain, who was Joal Ramedar's general; in fact, he specifically remembers dying after the battle where Aldeshar was finally defeated.
3. Oddly, the coloring of the Andoran royal line is similar to the Aiel coloring, with the light eyes and red-gold hair. This fact is what led me to be suspicious, whilst I was reading the bit where Rand goes through the glass columns in Rhuidean. Here, he sees the history of the Aiel through the eyes of his paternal line (via his father, Janduin, who was clan chief of the Taardad Aiel).
This is near the end of the Breaking, over 2000 years before Hawkwing. Some years before, the Aiel had reached the Aryth Coast, where they decided to turn around and head south.
RJ said:
CHAPTER: 26 - The Dedicated
Adan lay in the sandy hollow clutching his dead son's weeping children, shielding their eyes against his ragged coat. Tears rolled down his face, too, but silently, as he peered cautiously over the edge. At five and six, Maigran and Lewin deserved the right to cry; Adan was surprised he had any tears left, himself.
Some of the wagons were burning. The dead lay where they had fallen. The horses had already been driven off, except for those still hitched to a few wagons that had been emptied onto the ground. For once he took no notice of the crated things the Aes Sedai had given into Aiel charge, toppled carelessly into the dirt. It was not the first time he had seen that, or dead Aiel, but this time he could not care. The men with the swords and spears and bows, the men who had done the killing, were loading those empty wagons. With women. He watched Rhea, his daughter, shoved up into a wagon box with the others, crowded together like animals by laughing killers. The last of his children. Elwin dead of hunger at ten, Sorelle at twenty of fever her dreams told her was coming, and Jaren, who threw himself off a cliff a year ago, at nineteen, when he found he could channel. Marind, this morning.
He wanted to scream. He wanted to rush out there and stop them from taking his last child. Stop them, somehow. And if he did rush out? They would kill him, and take Rhea anyway. They might well kill the children, too. Some of those bodies sprawled in their own blood were small.
Maigran clutched at him as if she sensed he might leave her, and Lewin stiffened as if he wanted to hold tighter but thought himself too old. Adan smoothed their hair and kept their faces pressed against his chest. He made himself watch, though, until the wagons wheeled away surrounded by whooping riders, after the horses that were already almost out of sight toward the smoking mountains that lined the horizon.
Only then did he stand up, prying the children loose. "Wait here for me," he told them. "Wait until I come back." Clinging to each other, they stared at him with tear-stained white faces, nodded uncertainly.
He walked out to one of the bodies, rolled her over gently. Siedre could have been asleep, her face just the way it appeared beside him when he woke each morning. It always surprised him to notice gray in her red-gold hair; she was his love, his life, and ever young and new to him. He tried not to look at the blood soaking the front of her dress or the gaping wound below her breasts.
1. Since his wife had red-gold hair, it's probably safe to assume that his daughter Rhea did as well.
2. They appear to be near the Mountains of Mist, which is close enough to Aldeshar/Andor to make this theory believable.
3. Rhea. This is the most convincing piece of evidence by far. Rhea, the mother of the gods, particularly the mother of Zeus. Rand has quite a few Zeus parallels, and Zeus has quite a few (al')Thor parallels as well! But mostly damning is this:
wiki said:
Lion Throne, anyone? Also, the lions were important to Aldeshar - Mat notes that the men of Aldeshar were called the Golden Lions:
RJ said:
CHAPTER: 3 - Pale Shadows
Mat muzzily considered the song he had been singing and grimaced. No one had heard "Dance with Jak o' the Shadows" since Aldeshar fell; in his head, he could still hear the defiant song rising as the Golden Lions launched their last, futile charge at Artur Hawkwing's encircling army. At least he had not been babbling it in the Old Tongue. He was not as juicy as he looked by half, but there had indeed been too many cups of oosquai.
The Golden Lions of Aldeshar became the White Lions of Andor.
And more of Mat's memories of that battle:
RJ said:
CHAPTER: 3 - A Fan of Colors Tuon let out a long breath that did not sound won over in the slightest. "Do you remember Hawkwing's face, Toy?" Mistress Anan blinked in surprise, and Selucia sat up on the bed frowning. At him. Why would she frown at him? Tuon just continued to look at him, hands folded in her lap, as cool and collected as a Wisdom at Sunday.
Mat's smile felt frozen. Light, what did she know? How could she know anything? He lay beneath the burning sun, holding his side with both hands, trying to keep the last of life from leaking out and wondering whether there was any reason to hold on. Aldeshar was finished, after this day's work. A shadow blotted the sun for an instant, and then a tall man in armor crouched beside him, helmet tucked under his arm, dark deep-set eyes framing a hooked nose. "You fought well against me today, Culain, and many days past," that memorable voice said. "Will you live with me in peace? With his last breath, he laughed in Artur Hawkwing's face. He hated to remember dying. A dozen other encounters skittered through his mind, too, ancient memories that were his, now. Artur Paendrag had been a difficult man to get along with even before the wars started.
Drawing a deep breath, he took care choosing his words. This was no time to go spouting the Old Tongue. "Of course I don't!" he lied. A man who could not lie convincingly got short shrift from women. "Light, Hawkwing died a thousand years ago! What kind of question is that?"
Also, Perrin has something resembling a past life memory in a dream:
RJ said:
CHAPTER: 4 - Shadows Sleeping
He stared into the mirror, a part of him not comprehending what he saw, another part accepting. A gilded helmet, worked like a lion's head, sat on his head as if it belonged there. Gold leaf covered his ornately hammered breastplate, and gold-work embellished the plate and mail on his arms and legs. Only the axe at his side was plain. A voice – his own – whispered in his mind that he would take it over any other weapon, had carried it a thousand times, in a hundred battles. No! He wanted to take it off, throw it away. I can't! There was a sound in his head, louder than a murmur, almost at the level of understanding.
Could Perrin have been the last king of Aldeshar in a past life? Mat was apparently Aemon, last king of Manetheren, in a past life - either that, or he was descended from Aemon, because he remembers being Aemon before he visits 'Finnland - so it's not too out there that Perrin might have been Joal Ramedar.
So.....apparently, both of Rand's parents - and Elayne, and all the other Andoran nobles - are descended directly from Adan, father of Rhea. Just thought I would share.