Katreine din Ziago

[Katreine din Ziago]

NOTE: This author is inactive, but the character is now being played by The Lace of Ages

Katreine din Ziago
Age: 135
Nationality: Atha’an Miere
Place of Birth: Qaim
Place of Residence: Tar Valon
Affiliation: White Tower, Sea Folk, Clan Takana
Rank/Title: The Watcher of the Seals, the Flame of Tar Valon, the Amyrlin Seat

One Power Strength: 7
Air: 11 | Earth: 5 | Fire: 4 | Spirit: 7 | Water: 8

Years as Novice:  n/a
Years as Accepted:  1 - 4 FA
Years as Aes Sedai:  4 FA - present
Years as Amyrlin Seat:  109 FA - present
Talents: Listening to the Wind
Weave Affinities: Cloud Dancing, Healing

Weapon Skills:
Martial: 5 | Hand-Held: 3 | Stave: 0 | Thrown: 6 | Ranged: 0 | Mounted: 0


appearance
Height: 5’1”
Weight: 105lbs
Build/Complexion: Slender, almost boyish/Golden dark
Eye/Hair Color: Dark brown/Deep cinnamon-y brown

Distinguishing Features:
▪ Wind and star tattoos on her right hand

Katreine is diminutive, standing at barely five feet tall. What she lacks in stature, however, she makes up in sheer presence. Though she is not much larger than a child, one look at her confirms that she is anything but. Her dark eyes are intelligent and observant, rarely missing even the most subtle nuances. Her hair is ruddy brown dreadlocks that reach her waist. Katreine has three small scars in her right ear and two in the left where she previously wore rings to signify her rank among the Sea Folk. She removed the rings when she decided to stay in Tar Valon and the piercings have long since closed. Unlike most other Atha’an Miere Aes Sedai who often wear multitudes of rings and bracelets, Katreine wears only her Great Serpent ring on her right hand and a thin, woven bracelet on her left wrist. Her right hand bears two tattoos, black lines swirling from the webbing between her thumb and index finger spreading across the back of her hand to encircle a three pointed star in the middle.

personality

Katreine is a hard woman to ignore. She has a very forceful personality and is very stubborn. She also has a temper that she keeps tightly in check. Because of her heritage, Kat strongly believes everyone should know their role and perform the duties that role entails. She abhors procrastination, laziness, and excuses; and she is impatient when progress is stagnant. She is a hard taskmistress, but she is never cruel or unfair in what she expects from others.

Despite the hard exterior she projects to the world, she is very empathetic. It is what lead her to the Yellow Ajah. She is quite good at reading people and that allows her to put those around her to tasks they will excel at. Her ability to bring out the best in others is almost a Talent. As a result, she and those she surrounds herself with make a highly effective team.

Katreine has always been sure of herself so long as she has known what her role in society is. Her confidence as the newest Windfinder apprentice was as unwavering as her confidence as the Amyrlin Seat, though for different reasons. She is the type of person who is content so long as there is a job to be done and is always striving to better herself, others, and the world at large. This quality, perhaps above all others, has helped her to rise to the highest echelons of power.

history

Katreine was born on a darter at harbor on the Sea Folk island of Qaim in 977 NE to a low-ranking Windfinder mother. She spent the formative years of her childhood like most Atha’an Miere, traveling between the Sea Folk islands and learning to sail. At 14, she left the darter she had been born on to become a deckhand on a raker that traveled to and from the mainland.

A year later, it was discovered that she had the spark and Katreine was transferred to another ship to begin her training as a Windfinder. She was a hard worker, as all Atha’an Miere were expected to be. The sea is unforgiving to the lazy or undisciplined. She was also a fast learner, only having to watch a thing a handful of times before understanding how to do it herself. Strength in Air is not uncommon among Sea Folk channellers, but Katreine’s affinity with the element was notable. Jorin din Jubai White Wing, the Windfinder in charge of Kat’s training, would brag to other Windfinders of her apprentices ability to weave a dozen wrist-thick strands, propelling their ship faster than most fully trained Windfinders could manage. By 17, Katreine had earned the second ring in her left ear, but her progress slowed considerably after that when she was transferred to the raker White Star to train under Nestelle din Sakura South Star due to the perceived favoritism of Jorin.

For nearly five years, Kat studied under Nestelle, learning much and becoming ever stronger, but she knew she was able to go faster. She tried not to seem arrogant or proud of her own skill, though she struggled at times. Katreine knew she was strong and it chafed to hold herself back for the pride of those around her. Often the lessons we most need to learn in life are the most hard won. Keeping her hubris in check was one such hard lesson for Kat.

On a cloudless, moonless night, Kat strode anxiously up and down the deck of the White Star as it sat at anchor in Ebou Dar’s harbor. She sensed a storm, so close she should be able to taste the water in the air around her, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The contradiction of the weather and what she could feel had her agitated. Nestelle leaned against a mast and watched Katreine pace. She did not have Kat’s Talent for predicting the weather.

Suddenly a forked bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, striking another ship, splintering it and throwing its sleeping crew into the water. The Windfinder and apprentice looked at each other in horror. There was no mistaking the lightning for anything natural. It had come from a completely cloudless sky and besides… They had both seen the flows used to weave it. Of course, they had heard the stories of the Seanchan, of the women they collared and used as living weapons, but they had never encountered a Seanchan vessel themselves.

Without a word to each other, both women ran to rouse the sleeping crew of their ship. Within minutes, men and women crawled through the rigging and swarmed over the deck. The anchor was rising, orders were being shouted. Katreine and Nestelle watched as more lightning and fire streaked from the strange ships swarming into harbor. Kat opened herself to saidar, but at a barked “No!” from Nestelle, she closed herself off again.

“They will see you,” Nestelle said, and grabbed Katreine’s hand. The two women had never been particularly close; Kat had always chafed at Nestelle’s restrictions, wanting to go faster, to learn more. Now, however, they clung to each other as they waited for the ship to be ready to sail. They both knew what the Seanchan did with women like them. As soon as the ship was ready, both women, still holding each other’s hand, opened themselves to saidar and began to weave Air as quickly as they could manage, filling the White Star’s sails.

They didn’t get far. Before the ship had moved its own length from where it had been anchored, a shield slammed into Nestelle, cutting her off from the source. She screamed in frustration. Katreine was stronger in the One Power and could feel the shield trying to do the same to her, but she managed to fight it off as she pushed the ship closer to the mouth of the harbor. Beside her, Nestelle sagged in defeat as the line of ships anchored stern to bow came into view.

“No!” Katreine screamed at the sky. She had never made lighting, but she had seen the weaves of it all around her. She was smart, a fast learner, she would use their own tricks against them. She slowed the movement of the ship as she diverted some of her flows of Air and, weaving them with Fire, hurled lightning back at the Seanchan. Nestelle gasped and straightened, hope shining in her eyes.

A strange beating of wind hit Katreine only a moment before the dark, winged shape came into sight. She had only time to register that the strange creature was coming straight at her before something hard hit the side of her head. The last thing she heard was the sickening, wet crack of her own skull as she fell to the deck.

Kat’s eyes fluttered open and the room came slowly and grudgingly into focus. There was not much to see. Whitewashed stone walls, gray flagstone floor, a small table in a corner on which sat a pitcher and a basin. She turned from her side to her back and groaned, then shoved her knuckles into her mouth to stifle the sob she let out as her eyes found the silvery leash hung on a hook on the wall.

She sat up quickly and grabbed the collar around her neck, pulling in an attempt to yank it off. The nausea that rolled over her doubled her over and her hands sprang away from the collar almost of their own accord. Panic swelled in her, but she stamped it down. Breathing heavily through her mouth, her eyes traveled up the length of the cord to the bracelet hung on the hook. Kat sat up on her knees and reached for it.

“I wouldn’t,” a soft voice said from the doorway. It belonged to a plump, kindly-looking woman in a blue and red dress, whose chestnut hair was graying at the temples. Katreine hesitated a moment, then grabbed the bracelet anyway and was rewarded with another wave of nausea for her efforts. The woman, who had moved farther into the room now, clicked her tongue in vexation. “I warned you, but I suppose we can’t all be smart enough to listen to reason.”

She reached up to remove the bracelet from its hook and snapped it open and then closed around her wrist. “Next time, you will do better,” she said and Katreine jumped as she felt a swat land on her backside. The other woman smiled genially. “Now that that unpleasantness is behind us, let me introduce myself. I am Elonith. And you… You we shall call Vivi.”

“My name is Katrei…” A hundred blows pummeled her from all sides. Katreine huddled in on herself, trying and failing to block the invisible switches.

“That was another life, child, and now your name is Vivi.” Kat looked up at the woman with a sneer and spat at her feet. Elonith sighed as the stinging blows resumed. “My, you are a spirited one, aren’t you? Well, that’s alright. You will learn to be a good girl in time and you will be my special pet. I do enjoy a challenge.”

The beatings and nausea occurred often over the following weeks as Katreine continued to refuse to learn her “place,” as Elonith called it. Her place, Kat knew, was on a ship, no land in sight and the wind at her call.

Every night she cried quietly into her pillow in her barren room. One night after a particularly grueling day, as Katreine laid wracked with sobs, Elonith slipped into her room and sat on the edge of the bed. Kat tried desperately to stop crying, but her body only shook the harder. Elonith put her hand on Katreine’s back and Kat stiffened but her tears would not stop.

“There, there,” the grandmotherly woman soothed. Kat turned her face into her pillow and wailed like a child. Elonith moved her hand to Katreine’s hair and began to gently pet her as Kat’s crying reached a fever pitch.

She was broken. She had no more fight in her. She had been beaten and sick every day for...how long? How long had it been now? Weeks, for sure, maybe months. She could no longer be certain. She turned in her bed, wrapping her body around Elonith’s side, longing for the other woman to comfort her. She hated herself for it, but she couldn’t stop it anymore than she could stop the sun from rising each day.

Katreine sobbed for what seemed like hours while Elonith pet her hair and made soothing sounds. When she had finally cried herself out with a last exhausted sigh, Elonith rose from the bed and turned to her. The older woman cupped Kat’s chin in her hand and gently lifted her face. “Tomorrow will be better,” she said in the same gentle voice she always spoke in. “You will do better and tomorrow will be better and you will be my special girl.” Kat’s stomach turned at the feeling of contentment that settled over her.

The days that followed after blurred one into the next. Wake, wash, exercise, train, sleep. Wake, wash, exercise, train, sleep. The will to fight had gone out of her.

One night as Katreine lay in bed, her eyes unfocused on the ceiling in the moments before sleep, her door opened and then closed again quickly. Her night vision was ruined by the light that had seeped in and she lay, unmoving, squinting into the darkness by the door. If Elonith had come to see her, or any other sul’dam for that matter, they would have announced themselves already.

“Who..” she started but cut off at a sharp “Shhhh!” from near the foot of her bed. A whispered “Hold your tongue, girl,” followed.

Nestelle. She had only seen her teacher in passing in the time since their capture. What was Nestelle doing in her room? Better yet, how was Nestelle out of her own room without a sul’dam? The other woman had moved up the bed and was sliding her fingers over the collar around Katreine’s neck. There was a soft click and the weight that Kat had grown so accustomed to was gone. She drew in a sharp breath.

“Nestelle,” she pitched her voice as low as she could. There were so many questions racing through Kat’s mind, so many things she wanted to say to the other woman. All she could manage was a half-strangled “How?”

In reply, Nestelle pressed her fingers against Kat’s lips. She realized there were tears running down her face, but she did not care. Katreine’s fingers fumbled through the darkness to press against Nestelle’s lips.

“Stay with me and stay quiet, do as I do until we reach the ships,” the older woman whispered. “If I should fall, keep going. Get to the ships. Turn their nasty little tricks they’ve taught you against them. Do not stop, for anything. Get to the ships and get out to sea. At any cost. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Kat whispered back as she stood up from her bed. She silently followed Nestelle to the door. Nestelle looked back at her, nodded once, then cracked the door open to look out. The hallway outside was empty and so she slid out the door, Katreine at her heels.

They made their way quickly down the hall. Every so often, Nestelle would move close to a door, turn the handle and quickly push the door open. Behind each one waited a Windfinder, some Kat knew and others not, and they would hurry out into the hallway, pulling the door shut quietly behind them.

They made it much farther than Katreine expected without incident, especially considering there were fifty-three of them in all. They saw Seanchan at distance down hallways as they crossed, always with their backs turned. They seemed to have the Dark One’s own luck. It was only a matter of minutes until they were outside, the Palace a hulking shape fading into the night.

They crept down back alleys, as silent as the night itself. They were halfway to the harbor when a Seanchan patrol rounded a corner ahead of them, heading straight at them. There were two pairs of damane and sul’dam walking at the front. One of the younger Windfinders towards the back of the group panicked and embraced saidar. An answering glow immediately surrounded the damane and a fireball streaked at the group of Sea Folk women, who all embraced the source almost simultaneously.

It was impossible to know what happened in the next minutes. One moment Katreine had been walking as calmly as possible toward the docks, the next Nestelle had grabbed her by the hand and they were running full tilt. The others were running too and there was shouting all around, spreading out across the whole city as fire and lightning streaked the sky.

Kat and Nestelle threw no lightning themselves, just ran and held on to saidar for dear life. Nestelle was nearly a head taller than Katreine and she practically dragged the younger woman along though Kat was running for all her worth. The harbor was in sight, they could see the men and women on the ships. They were so close Kat could tell the brightly colored sash holding up one sailor’s baggy breeches was a different shade than another’s, even if she couldn’t quite make out the exact hue.

Nestelle rounded a corner two arms’ lengths in front of Kat and screamed as she flew sideways. A fireball had exploded on the ground a few feet away, doing little damage to Nestelle, but throwing her to the ground. It seemed mere luck that it had not slammed into Nestelle herself, as it appeared to have been flung at random, by a damane or a Windfinder was impossible to tell. Nestelle herself was slumped against the side of the building on the other side of the alley.

Katreine ran to her, realizing for the first time that they were not alone and that there were, in fact, several Windfinders who had stayed with them. Nestelle was alive and conscious, but barely. Her eyes rolled, unfocused.

“Nestelle!” Kat screamed into her face, shaking her shoulders. “Nestelle, snap out of it!” She slapped the other woman across the face.

Nestelle’s eyes focused, then narrowed. “Run, you fool!” She hissed, pushing Kat away from her with all the might she could muster. Katreine stumbled backwards and would have fallen if a Windfinder she didn’t recognize hadn’t caught her elbow. “Release saidar! All of you!”

Katreine was confused at the order, but after only a second’s hesitation she did as Nestelle said. The glow winked out of existence around the other women too. “To the ships!” Nestelle shouted for them all to hear then, quieter for Katreine’s benefit, “I’m right behind you.”

They all turned and fled, the sounds of men and women fighting and dying all around them. Fires roared and explosions sent the sides of buildings crumbling inward or showered stone down on the streets. The group of Windfinders reached the nearest gangplank and rushed aboard. Katreine turned to see Nestelle nearly where she had fallen. She glowed like the sun as a unit of Seanchan soldiers advanced on her.

“We belong to the sea!” Nestelle’s voice was loud enough to reach the skimmer even over the sounds of fighting. “We are not yours to leash!” The glow around her grew brighter.

“What is she doing?” One of the Windfinders aboard asked as the ship lurched into motion. They were moving toward the mouth of the harbor which was, mercifully, free of the Seanchan barricade that had blocked their escape the last time they were on their ships. Several of the Windfinders were channelling, some to move the ship and others to hurl lightning and fire at the Seanchan.

Katreine gripped the rail and watched her mentor. “She’s saving us,” she responded quietly to whomever had asked. As Kat spoke, a huge bolt of many-forked lightning streaked out of the sky into the oncoming Seanchan. Again Nestelle struck. And again. Again. The glow around her intensified until suddenly, it was gone. She turned to run to the ships, but she must have known she’d never make it. Nestelle had burnt herself out, Kat knew. She would never be used as a weapon again.

Katreine felt something welling up from the very bottom of her soul, building until it escaped as a wail to pierce the night. The other women encircled her, their arms bracing her as she too embraced saidar and added her strength to the fight. Six of them. There were six Windfinders aboard this ship as it slipped into the darkness of the ocean. How many had made it to other ships? How many, like Nestelle, were lost forever?

The battered Atha’an Miere fled to Cindalking. On the Sea Folk island they licked their wounds and regrouped. Of the fifty-three Windfinders that had escaped the Tarasin Palace with Nestelle and Kat, less than half had made it safely to Cindalking. Eleven of them were apprentices. In an understated ceremony that included the other apprentices, Katreine was given her salt name. Tempest Winds, for the winds she helped harness to bring the Atha’an Miere to safety, for the lighting she had turned against the Seanchan, for the destruction she had left in her wake, for the storm that raged in her heart.

She was assigned to a new Windfinder and her training resumed. Her strength in the Power had been forced nearly to its apex. She was encouraged to reach her full potential quickly now, to be prepared for what may come. The drumbeats of war seemed to thrum through the Sea Folk people, they all knew they were on a collision course with the Seanchan and, bigger still, with the Dark One himself.

Several months later, word came of an agreement with the White Tower and the Aiel Wise Ones to train and be trained among each others’ societies. The best and the brightest of the Windfinder apprentices, Katreine included, were put forward to train in Tar Valon and the Waste. Kat quickly found herself transported to Tar Valon via a gateway, wonder of wonders!, and began training alongside the novices and accepted of the Tower.

Katreine excelled in the White Tower as she had among the Windfinders, and in the process discovered a passion and Talent for Healing. There was plenty of Healing to be done as the days marched inexorably towards Tarmon Gai’don. And when the Last Battle did come, Kat was put to use at a hospital in Mayene.

In the months that followed, as life slowly returned to something resembling normal, Katreine returned to her studies at the White Tower. Eventually the time came for her to return to the Sea Folk. All Atha’an Miere belong to the sea, but Kat felt that she could be of more use if she were to remain in the Tower and continue to further her ability in Healing.

It was decided due to the years she had already spent training as an apprentice Windfinder that she would immediately test to become Accepted. She removed her earrings along with the rest of her clothes before entering the ring Ter’angreal, and never put them back in. She still keeps the hoops in a small wooden box.

She spent four years in the banded dress of the Accepted before being raised to Aes Sedai. They were largely uneventful years. It was no surprise to anyone when she chose the Yellow Ajah upon her raising. Suana Dragand, the First Weaver of the Yellow, had taken note of Katreine’s passion for helping others when she was still in training and took Kat under her wing after she was raised. Suana, unlike most Yellows, found value in healing herbs and taught Kat their uses. While she obviously had more efficient methods of healing, Katreine could see the value in studying traditional healing methods as well.

During the years of Seanchan aggression, Katreine seemed to be anywhere and everywhere the fighting was. The years were spent lending her aid and also building up a sizeable network of informants. Though many Yellow sisters still did not see the need for an extensive network of eyes-and-ears, Kat certainly did, and she found their current network woefully inadequate. With the ability to Travel, a sister could be anywhere in a matter of minutes, and the amount of people who were still dying from outbreaks of disease was alarming. By the time the Seanchan had been routed, Kat’s own personal network rivaled that of the entire Yellow Ajah and it made sense for her to take over as the Ajah’s spymaster. Under Suana’s tutelage, Katreine created a network of informants that was second only to the Blue Ajah.

In the years following, Kat devoted herself to bettering the welfare of everyone in the Westlands. She spent considerable time, effort, and money establishing hospitals in major cities, clinics in secondary cities, and making sure that smaller villages had trained medical professionals. She continued to grow her network, bringing in Wisdoms and other healers located anywhere that people settled, making sure they were trained in the most effective ways to treat the most common ailments.

Katreine felt that the Yellow Ajah had been satisfied with its own self-importance for too long when in fact it had been failing horribly at its stated mission. With the support of the First Weaver and the Yellow Sitters, she taught her Ajah sisters the benefits of healing herbs, to the chagrin of many of them. However, Kat insisted it was useful knowledge to have to be able to teach non-channeling healers how best to help themselves. She, along with the leadership of the Yellow Ajah, encouraged experimentation with herbs and non-channeling healing methods. Each Yellow sister was scheduled to spend time traveling to more remote regions to teach healers and to be sure that no diseases were allowed to run rampant before word could reach Tar Valon. Even the most remote villages could expect to see a Yellow sister at least a few times a year.

Kat herself was frequently out of the Tower, but in the time she did spend in Tar Valon, she established a large garden on the Tower grounds where she propagated healing plants from all over the Westlands. As resistance to the study of medicinal plants waned, many Yellow Aes Sedai joined in her efforts, expanding the garden and studying the healing properties of the plants it contained.

It came as a surprise to Katreine, though probably not to anyone else, when she was recalled to Tar Valon in the year 109 FA after the retirement of Silviana Brehon to be raised to the role of the Amyrlin Seat. She has continued her life's mission in the years since by founding a school for medical research and training in Tar Valon. The school is still being built, but is expected to open within two years.

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