Post by Alira Asuwan on Nov 28, 2019 4:41:55 GMT
Name: Alira Asuwan
Age: 133
Nationality: Amadician
Place of Birth: Amador
Place of Residence: The White Tower, Tar Valon
Affiliation: The White Tower, the Red Ajah
Rank/Title: The Highest
One Power Strength: 7
Air: 6 | Earth: 8 | Fire: 12 | Spirit: 7 | Water: 2
Date they were raised to Novice: 1000 Third Age
Date they were raised to Accepted: 3 Fourth Age
Date they were raised to Aes Sedai: 9 Fourth Age
Date they were raised to the Highest: 78 Fourth Age
Weapon Skills:
Martial: 3 | Hand-Held: 6 | Mounted: 7
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 130 lbs
Build/Complexion: Slender/Pale
Eye/Hair Color: Blue/Blonde
Distinguishing Features:
Alira Asuwan is a stern-looking woman with an ageless, expressionless face. She carries herself with the bearing of someone experienced with violent conflict, and the confidence of someone who believes they will always be victorious. Her right shoulder is an ugly mess of scars and old burns that she keeps covered with the fine, high necked dresses she prefers. Unlike most Aes Sedai, she carries a small dagger at her hip, plainly visible.
Alira Asuwan would describe herself as a woman tempered: one who has passed through the fire and been honed by it, a blade against the dark and chaos. She is not a creature of hate, but one of purpose and clarity. A woman of cold tempers and merciless calculation.
Others might describe her as the shadow of a once vibrant woman that looms, large and dark, over others.
Alira is not loud, or provocative, or rash. She is indomitable, willful, and possessed of a clear vision and the willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve it. She is willing to test her will against any challenge to her objectives or authority and has garnered a reputation for insight, cunning, and determination...and little tolerance for disagreement or disapproval.
Alira was born Alira Sherrin, daughter to one of the Children of the Light in the dark days before Tarmon Gai'don. She was born and raised in Amador, in the very shadow of the Fortress of the Light. The people of Amador believed, heart and soul, in the teaches of the Children, or at least professed so in fear of Questioners' irons, but Alira was different. She was old enough to remember the disease that had almost claimed the life of both herself and her mother, a wasting thing that left her with bone-deep pain for months. Alira would surely have perished if her father had not saved her life by turning to the one thing that could save both herself and her mother: the witches of Tar Valon.
Aes Sedai saved both Alira and her mother in secret, and Alira would never forget the sight of her father clutching at the dress of a kindly woman with an ageless face. Never again could Alira believe the Children.
That doubt likely would have had consequences, had not the world been upended so spectacularly. Her father was slain fighting invaders on distant Toman Head, and it wasn't long after that both Alira and her mother were forced to flee Amador ahead of those very same invaders, and once more found sanctuary in the most unlikely of places: Tar Valon, with the Aes Sedai. Alira jumped at the opportunity presented by the Tower's new policy on Novices and allowed herself to be tested. Alira could channel, and channel strongly. She signed the Novice Book the same day.
The Tower proved to be her salvation. Her mother had never fully recovered from the disease that had almost claimed their lives, and travel was hard for the older woman. In exchange for taking the Novice white, Alira's mother was given a place to stay and wanted for nothing. Alira herself spent only a few years as a Novice, though she spent far more time as an Accepted. She proved both willful and whimsical, and her time as an Accepted was full of misadventures and challenges. When she finally was raised to the shawl, Alira joined the Red to find and recruit others like her who needed the direction and the resources the Tower could offer, for that seemed the only appropriate way to give back considering her talents did not lie in the direction of healing.
Alira spent almost seven decades traveling the world looking for those of talent, most of those accompanied by Cormanes Asuwan. He was an Asha'man of the Fire Legion, the male counterparts to her own Red. Their first encounters were conflicting, confrontational things, replete with arguments, anger, and on more than one occasion near violence. Yet no matter how often they parted on difficult terms, they soon found one another again, and their hearts began to change. Cormanes was kind, kinder than Alira believed she'd earned at times, and though neither was particularly levelheaded they soon found that their own forms of overconfidence buoyed the other quite well.
To friends, and Alira's elderly mother, it came as little surprise when the pair married in 19FA.
From then on, Alira and Cormanes were inseparable and formidable. The pair had bonded one another, and their disparate talents in the One Power combined to make them a match for anyone foolish enough to misuse the One Power. When word of the Blight reached them, they made more than one excursion to the Borderlands, crushing all of the newly called forth Dreadlords that had the misfortune to cross their paths.
Then came the war between the two Towers.
Cormanes and Alira both had risen high in the ranks of their respected Towers over the years; Alira was likely to be chosen as Sitter soon, and Cormanes was a Captain of the Fire Legion. When Rahlin began to agitate against the White Tower, it was the Fire Legion that was most vocally opposed led by Cormanes himself. Rahlin would not be stopped, and the first blood shed during the siege of Tar Valon was in Caralain; Cormanes and another Fire Legion Captain were murdered for insubordination before the forces of the Black Tower marched.
Alira wasn't there; she'd not been allowed in Caralain for over three years, ever since Rahlin had closed their borders. But she felt it when Cormanes died; the force of their bond severing was a mental assault beyond anything she'd experienced, and it drove her nearly to madness. Six decades of love, and companionship, and camaraderie supported by a bond so close that she could hear his thoughts ended in mere seconds of bloodshed.
Rahlin's ill-fated war lasted for little more than three years. Alira missed much of the siege of Tar Valon to her near-madness, alternately weeping and raging. When Alira returned to something like a shadow of herself, however, she refused to leave the front line. She had always been skilled with fire, but those years fighting the Black Tower--murderers and traitors--honed those skills beyond anything she'd ever imagined. When the war ended and there was nothing and no one left to burn, Alira left to mourn.
She told no one where she'd gone. She told no one what she'd done. But when she returned, her fire had turned to ice. Pevara Tazanovni, the Highest, had stepped down. The Red Ajah was a shell of itself, devastated by losses and crippled thanks to their close ties to the Black Tower. Alira ascended to the role of Highest almost uncontested: no one else was up for the challenge, and this newly frigid Alira would not back down.
The Red Ajah under Alira is still the closest tie the White Tower has to the Black. There remain Sisters bonded to Asha'man, and their duties require them to cooperate and coexist. But Alira put a stop to the practice of bonding Asha'man as a 'temporary measure.' They could no longer be trusted, she'd said; madness had seized men once before, and it seemed to have done so again. That the Black Tower had returned to lucidity now did not mean they were no longer a threat.
Alira has spent her years as the Highest building up the Red Ajah to once more defend the world from the threats it could not contemplate: rogue channelers, Darkfriends, and the threat of madness. They still led recruitment for the Tower, but the Red under Alira have regrown quickly from the damages of the war, and their close ties to the Black Tower have been used to keep an eye on their potential threat.
Age: 133
Nationality: Amadician
Place of Birth: Amador
Place of Residence: The White Tower, Tar Valon
Affiliation: The White Tower, the Red Ajah
Rank/Title: The Highest
One Power Strength: 7
Air: 6 | Earth: 8 | Fire: 12 | Spirit: 7 | Water: 2
Date they were raised to Novice: 1000 Third Age
Date they were raised to Accepted: 3 Fourth Age
Date they were raised to Aes Sedai: 9 Fourth Age
Date they were raised to the Highest: 78 Fourth Age
Weave Affinities: Starfire Light
Angreal Possessed: Small copper and gold knife
Weapon Skills:
Martial: 3 | Hand-Held: 6 | Mounted: 7
APPEARANCE
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 130 lbs
Build/Complexion: Slender/Pale
Eye/Hair Color: Blue/Blonde
Distinguishing Features:
Alira Asuwan is a stern-looking woman with an ageless, expressionless face. She carries herself with the bearing of someone experienced with violent conflict, and the confidence of someone who believes they will always be victorious. Her right shoulder is an ugly mess of scars and old burns that she keeps covered with the fine, high necked dresses she prefers. Unlike most Aes Sedai, she carries a small dagger at her hip, plainly visible.
PERSONALITY
Alira Asuwan would describe herself as a woman tempered: one who has passed through the fire and been honed by it, a blade against the dark and chaos. She is not a creature of hate, but one of purpose and clarity. A woman of cold tempers and merciless calculation.
Others might describe her as the shadow of a once vibrant woman that looms, large and dark, over others.
Alira is not loud, or provocative, or rash. She is indomitable, willful, and possessed of a clear vision and the willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve it. She is willing to test her will against any challenge to her objectives or authority and has garnered a reputation for insight, cunning, and determination...and little tolerance for disagreement or disapproval.
HISTORY
Alira was born Alira Sherrin, daughter to one of the Children of the Light in the dark days before Tarmon Gai'don. She was born and raised in Amador, in the very shadow of the Fortress of the Light. The people of Amador believed, heart and soul, in the teaches of the Children, or at least professed so in fear of Questioners' irons, but Alira was different. She was old enough to remember the disease that had almost claimed the life of both herself and her mother, a wasting thing that left her with bone-deep pain for months. Alira would surely have perished if her father had not saved her life by turning to the one thing that could save both herself and her mother: the witches of Tar Valon.
Aes Sedai saved both Alira and her mother in secret, and Alira would never forget the sight of her father clutching at the dress of a kindly woman with an ageless face. Never again could Alira believe the Children.
That doubt likely would have had consequences, had not the world been upended so spectacularly. Her father was slain fighting invaders on distant Toman Head, and it wasn't long after that both Alira and her mother were forced to flee Amador ahead of those very same invaders, and once more found sanctuary in the most unlikely of places: Tar Valon, with the Aes Sedai. Alira jumped at the opportunity presented by the Tower's new policy on Novices and allowed herself to be tested. Alira could channel, and channel strongly. She signed the Novice Book the same day.
The Tower proved to be her salvation. Her mother had never fully recovered from the disease that had almost claimed their lives, and travel was hard for the older woman. In exchange for taking the Novice white, Alira's mother was given a place to stay and wanted for nothing. Alira herself spent only a few years as a Novice, though she spent far more time as an Accepted. She proved both willful and whimsical, and her time as an Accepted was full of misadventures and challenges. When she finally was raised to the shawl, Alira joined the Red to find and recruit others like her who needed the direction and the resources the Tower could offer, for that seemed the only appropriate way to give back considering her talents did not lie in the direction of healing.
Alira spent almost seven decades traveling the world looking for those of talent, most of those accompanied by Cormanes Asuwan. He was an Asha'man of the Fire Legion, the male counterparts to her own Red. Their first encounters were conflicting, confrontational things, replete with arguments, anger, and on more than one occasion near violence. Yet no matter how often they parted on difficult terms, they soon found one another again, and their hearts began to change. Cormanes was kind, kinder than Alira believed she'd earned at times, and though neither was particularly levelheaded they soon found that their own forms of overconfidence buoyed the other quite well.
To friends, and Alira's elderly mother, it came as little surprise when the pair married in 19FA.
From then on, Alira and Cormanes were inseparable and formidable. The pair had bonded one another, and their disparate talents in the One Power combined to make them a match for anyone foolish enough to misuse the One Power. When word of the Blight reached them, they made more than one excursion to the Borderlands, crushing all of the newly called forth Dreadlords that had the misfortune to cross their paths.
Then came the war between the two Towers.
Cormanes and Alira both had risen high in the ranks of their respected Towers over the years; Alira was likely to be chosen as Sitter soon, and Cormanes was a Captain of the Fire Legion. When Rahlin began to agitate against the White Tower, it was the Fire Legion that was most vocally opposed led by Cormanes himself. Rahlin would not be stopped, and the first blood shed during the siege of Tar Valon was in Caralain; Cormanes and another Fire Legion Captain were murdered for insubordination before the forces of the Black Tower marched.
Alira wasn't there; she'd not been allowed in Caralain for over three years, ever since Rahlin had closed their borders. But she felt it when Cormanes died; the force of their bond severing was a mental assault beyond anything she'd experienced, and it drove her nearly to madness. Six decades of love, and companionship, and camaraderie supported by a bond so close that she could hear his thoughts ended in mere seconds of bloodshed.
Rahlin's ill-fated war lasted for little more than three years. Alira missed much of the siege of Tar Valon to her near-madness, alternately weeping and raging. When Alira returned to something like a shadow of herself, however, she refused to leave the front line. She had always been skilled with fire, but those years fighting the Black Tower--murderers and traitors--honed those skills beyond anything she'd ever imagined. When the war ended and there was nothing and no one left to burn, Alira left to mourn.
She told no one where she'd gone. She told no one what she'd done. But when she returned, her fire had turned to ice. Pevara Tazanovni, the Highest, had stepped down. The Red Ajah was a shell of itself, devastated by losses and crippled thanks to their close ties to the Black Tower. Alira ascended to the role of Highest almost uncontested: no one else was up for the challenge, and this newly frigid Alira would not back down.
The Red Ajah under Alira is still the closest tie the White Tower has to the Black. There remain Sisters bonded to Asha'man, and their duties require them to cooperate and coexist. But Alira put a stop to the practice of bonding Asha'man as a 'temporary measure.' They could no longer be trusted, she'd said; madness had seized men once before, and it seemed to have done so again. That the Black Tower had returned to lucidity now did not mean they were no longer a threat.
Alira has spent her years as the Highest building up the Red Ajah to once more defend the world from the threats it could not contemplate: rogue channelers, Darkfriends, and the threat of madness. They still led recruitment for the Tower, but the Red under Alira have regrown quickly from the damages of the war, and their close ties to the Black Tower have been used to keep an eye on their potential threat.
Katreine din Ziago's ascension to the Amyrlin Seat and her attempts to mend the relationship between the Towers have changed her calculations, somewhat. The upstart Amyrlin's plans are dangerous, and Alira has been at the heart of traditional opposition to her efforts in the Tower.
TIMELINE
979TA - Tomas Sherrin, Child of the Light, marries Reni Veras.
981TA - Alira Sherrin is born to Tomas and Reni.
991TA - Reni and Alira contract a wasting disease beyond the skill of Amador's healers. Tomas contacts the White Tower in secret and begs their aid. A Yellow Sister meets them in Amadicia and saves their lives.
1000TA - The world is upended spectacularly by the invasion of the Seanchan and Tarmon Gai'don. Tomas dies fighting the Seanchan and Toman Head, and Alira and Reni flee Amador ahead of their advance. The pair make their way to Tar Valon, where it becomes known that Alira can learn to channel, strongly. In exchange for a home for her mother, Alira becomes a novice of the White Tower.
3FA - Alira is raised to Accepted, though willful and whimsical as she was she finds her time as an Accepted much more difficult.
9FA - Alira is tested and raised to Aes Sedai, choosing for herself the Red Ajah. She travels the rebuilding Westlands in search of young women who can channel.
12FA - Alira stumbles into the company of Cormanes Asuwan, a Cairhienin Asha'man of the Fire Legion. The two often find themselves at odd with one another, nearly coming to blows on one memorable occasion in Far Madding. Despite this, the two continue to run into one another, and anger soon gave way to something else.
13FA - Alira and Cormanes become dedicated traveling partners, rarely leaving each other's company.
19FA - Alira and Cormanes marry, holding ceremonies in both Tar Valon and Cairhien for their respective family and friends. They bond one another, deepening their marriage in a way that had grown increasingly common between members of the Red Ajah and Fire Legion.
22FA - The war with the Seanchan begins in earnest. Alira and Cormanes prove to be a formidable duo, facing down the Seanchan in some of the deadliest battles of the war.
29FA - The war with the Seanchan concludes, having resulted in untold devastation. Despite the respite, Alira and Cormanes feel restless and unsatisfied, often traveling for months or years at a time.
57FA - Word of the reawakening Blight reaches Alira and Cormanes, and the travel to the Borderlands to face off against Dreadlords and Trollocs.
72FA - Caralain closes its borders to Aes Sedai. Cormanes begins to spend more time in Caralain in an effort to calm M'Hael Rahlin's rhetoric. He ascends to Captain of the Fire Legion.
75FA - Rahlin declares war on the White Tower. The prelude is the capture and murder of dissident members of the Fire Legion, including Cormanes Asuwan. Alira was in Manetheren at the time and is rendered insensate when her bond with Cormanes is severed. Alira spends much of the next year bedridden, lost alternately in tears and unbridled rage.
76FA - Alira returns to a shadow of herself and joins her Sisters on the front lines of the war against the Black Tower. While she was always strong in Fire, she begins to use it almost exclusively as a weapon against the Asha'man, always pushing the Three Oaths as far as they could bend, often putting herself in harm's way specifically to allow her to bring saidar to bear.
78FA - The end of the war nearly broke Alira. Without an enemy to fight to focus herself on, there was nothing left for her. She vanishes for several months, returning a changed woman who seizes control of the shattered Red Ajah through force of will.
79FA - The Red Ajah begins to rebuild, with a prohibition put in place on bonding Asha'man of the Fire Legion. Alira turns her attention to ensuring the Red Ajah and the White Tower would be strong enough to stand against rogue channelers and the madness of men. The close ties that continue to exist with the Fire Legion are used, in part, to monitor the Black Tower.
111FA - The delegation with the Black Tower is a setback, and Alira begins to plan new ways to restrain the influence of the Asha'man.
112FA - The M'Hael is assassinated and rumors implicate the Red Ajah, forcing Alira to soften her stance to the Black Tower and improvise.
