Senara Thayne

[Senara Thayne]

Name: Senara Thayne
Age: 25


Nationality: Andoran
Place of Birth: Whitebridge
Place of Residence: White Tower
Affiliation: White Tower
Rank/Title: Accepted


One Power Strength: 2 (4)
Air: 4 (7)| Earth: 1 (3) | Fire: 1 (2) | Spirit: 3 (5) Water: 1(3)


Date they were raised to Novice/Soldier: 102
Date they were raised to Accepted/Dedicated: 110
Date they were raised to Aes Sedai/Asha'man: Not yet.
Date they were raised to any other rank: N/A


Talents: None
Weave Affinities: None


Weapon Skills:
Martial: 0 | Hand-Held: 0 | Stave: 0 | Thrown: 0 | Ranged: 0| Mounted: 0

APPEARANCE

Height: 5'3
Weight: 115
Build/Complexion: Feminine/Pale skin, almost appears translucent

Eye/Hair Color: Light brown/Auburn, somewhere between wavy and curly

Senara's hair reaches the bottom of her shoulder blades and is always worn up, most often in a severe bun. She has small, delicate features and high cheekbones. She is particular about keeping her dress clean and her hair neat, hating to appear anything less than perfectly put together. Her taste in clothing runs heavily to simple woolen dresses in middling shades of grey, blue, and purple, nothing too dark or light.

Distinguishing Features:

• Senara's fine hair often slips free from hairpins. It is a source of great irritation for her, and she can often be found putting it back in place.
  
• She doesn't drink alcohol, not even watered wine.
  
  
• Faint wrinkled scarring on right hand and wrist from house fire.
  

PERSONALITY

Ever since she learned she could channel, Senara has been determined to possess the power an Aes Sedai holds. Even as a child, she thrived on giving her siblings orders and knowing they would obey. Despite this, she deeply resents her parents for leaving her sibilings' upbringing to her. Being a parental figure for most of her childhood left Senara feeling capable of ordering the lives of others, but helpless to change her own. She dreams of a day when she alone will decide how she lives her life.

To achieve this, she has become outwardly diligent and submissive, though the last is only an act she puts on to please the Aes Sedai. Senara works hard to present herself as the model of what an Accepted should be, and is very particular about her room, clothing, and assignments. As an Accepted, she has developed a love of teaching for the sense of control it offers her. She is strict with her students, having absolutely no tolerance for disobedience, but is also extremely patient, another trait learned from her childhood. She will devote endless hours to a novice she feels is truly struggling.

With others, Senara is friendly on the surface, but ultimately distant. She has a wide circle of acquaintances, but few actual friends. She is very picky about who she allows to know her more than on a superficial level, and can turn on a supposed friend quickly and without warning if she feels slighted. This most often occurs if someone says or does something that might affect Senara's carefully cultivated image. When this takes place, or if someone pushes her far enough to provoke actual anger, Senara will stop associating with that person more than she absolutely must. Once offended, she will hold it against the person involved for years, and her forgiveness is virtually impossible to earn.

Secretly, Senara has a need for recognition. She won't push herself forward for attention, but she craves approval and acknowledgment. She gravitates towards anyone who will offer her this, and can be easily manipulated by anyone who provides her with the smallest bit of praise.

HISTORY

Senara was born the eldest daughter of a prosperous blacksmith and his wife. For the first year of her life, her mother, Lirelle, doted on the baby, almost constantly holding her, playing with her, or singing to her. When Senara began to walk and talk, however, her mother became easily frustrated with the energetic toddler who'd replaced her baby. The little girl was more and more often left to entertain herself, and as she grew, Senara developed into a somber child who almost never cried.

Her first memory is of watching her mother rock her newborn brother, barely bothering to shush the two younger girls as they fought over a doll. Senara, just seven, was trying to read, but found it too hard to concentrate with the little girls screaming. Lirelle had long since left the room, and a frustrated Senara finally yelled at them to stop, eventually showing them how to take turns once they were calm enough to listen. What seemed a small incident at the time quickly set a pattern for Senara's childhood, as Celyna and Valia came to turn to her for help and settling fights more often than they did to Lirelle.

Their mother, never content with the children she had, continued to bear children. To support his growing family, their father was constantly working at his forge. When Aldan was home, he mostly drank, paying his children no more attention than their mother did. Years passed during which Senara assumed the role of caretaker for the younger children and for the house. While she enjoyed the responsibility of being the maternal figure for her siblings, Senara began to despise their parents for leaving their raising entirely to her.

By the time Senara was thirteen, she had five younger siblings to look after, and Lirelle was pregnant again. She was napping and their father at work when a spark drifted from the fireplace, landing on the wooden floor. Senara, busy trying to get Ruan to nap, didn't notice until Tera started shrieking. When she looked up, part of the floor was blazing and the flames had begun to spread to the nearby wall. Grabbing Tera by the hand and carrying Ruan on her hip, Senara rushed them to the door, the older children following after her. Once outside, she counted the five of them multiple times, then put Ruan down, placed Tera's hand in Celyna's, and went back inside to wake their mother.

By then, most of their small home was on fire, and Senara fumbled through the flames, burning her hands on the door latches as she slowly made her way to her parents' bedroom. To her surprise, Lirelle was still sleeping soundly, and Senara had to shake her to get her to wake up. She pulled her mother by the hand through the fire and out of the house, but as soon as they reached safety, Lirelle turned and struck her across the face, berating Senara for not paying enough attention to the fireplace.

Senara glared up at her mother, badly wishing to hit back but keenly aware of the small eyes watching her, learning how to act from her example. Saying nothing, she turned her back on Lirelle and strode across the yard as far as away from her as she could get, trailed after as always by the younger children. She refused to speak to her mother for the rest of that day or any of those that followed, leaving her parents to decide what to do with six children and a home that could no longer be lived in. She was relieved when they finally decided to send all six of them to Tar Valon to stay with Lirelle's sister until their house could be rebuilt.

Their aunt, Lemora, proved to be a very different sort of person than her sister. She kept her own home in perfect order, and while Senara had chores, she was not forced into the amount of work required to keep up with five younger siblings. The freedom was exciting at first, but Senara quickly realized she didn't much care for it. She missed having her siblings constantly around, being the central figure of importance in their lives, and it bothered her that their aunt seemed to be quickly taking over the place which had once been hers. Her efforts to regain it by supervising their chores or trying to discipline them when necessary resulted in numerous conflicts between herself and Lemora, and as time went on, Senara spent as much time as she could away from the house.

She took long walks, learning her way through the city, and was sometimes lucky enough to catch a glimpse of an Aes Sedai moving through the streets. In Whitebridge, they had seemed to be no more than characters in the stories she read to her siblings, but in Tar Valon, Senara quickly learned that they were very real women, gifted with incredible power. That power was something she longed to have for herself, and when she was fourteen, Senara walked to the White Tower to be tested, never returning to her aunt's home.

Used to having to look after herself, at first Senara struggled to obey as a novice was required to do. After the first few months, however, she adapted to it, and was rarely in trouble. She paid careful attention to her chores and lessons, often reminding herself that she would not be a novice forever. After eight years, she was summoned to the arches and became an Accepted.

She has been an Accepted for three years now, and is as focused and hardworking as she was as a novice, with a reputation for being good with the younger girls. Senara has not yet chosen a particular course of study, and the lessons she sets up for herself cover just about every imaginable subject. She has found that she enjoys teaching, and willingly takes on extra classes. She still dreams of the day when she will wear the shawl of an Aes Sedai, and works hard to ensure that that day will not be far in the future.

TIMELINE

87-Marriage of Lirelle and Aldan Thayne.

88-Born, eldest child of 7.

90-Sister, Celyna, born.

93-Sister, Valia, born.

95-Brother, Galvin, born.

97-Sister, Tera, born.

99-Brother, Ruan, born.

101-House fire, mother pregnant with seventh child. Children move to Tar Valon to stay with aunt.

102- Sister born, name unknown. Becomes a novice in the White Tower at age 14.

110- Raised Accepted at age 22.


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