The Women’s Circle is informal, but influential, a gathering of the leading women of the clan, who follow Ernalda's instruction to ‘find another way.’ Their links with sisters, aunts, and cousins in other clans provide informal channels of conversation between the clans helping to resolve disputes without law or violence.
Those women who are part of the clan council sit on the Women’s Circle, as do the grandmothers, priestesses, and female god-talkers of the clan. The mothers of the Women’s Circle view the world with the concerns of generations to come in mind, not the now of the men.
Their attitude toward the rebellion typifies this. The women remember the ill-fated Starbrow's Rebellion. Kallyr Starbrow drove the Lunar Empire from Sartar and into Alda-Chur. The Empire rallied and returned in force to crush the uprising; those who supported the rebellion, such as the Culbrea tribe, suffered reprisals. The Women’s Circle is not quick to recommend joining the rebel cause.