Leander Varned

[Leander Varned]

Name: Leander Varned
Age: 137


Nationality: Kandori
Place of Birth: Ravinda
Place of Residence: Black Tower
Affiliation: Black Tower
Rank/Title: Captain of the Fire Legion, Central Theater


One Power Strength: 8
Air: 6 | Earth: 11 | Fire: 9 | Spirit: 8 | Water: 6


Date they were raised to Novice/Soldier: 2 FA
Date they were raised to Accepted/Dedicated: 6 FA
Date they were raised to Aes Sedai/Asha'man: 11 FA
Date they were raised to any other rank: Captain of the Fire Legion 78 FA


Talents: None
Weave Affinities: None


Weapon Skills:
Martial: 6| Hand-Held: 7 | Stave: N/A| Thrown: N/A | Ranged: N/A | Mounted: 5

APPEARANCE

Height: 5'11
Weight: 160
Build/Complexion: Fit/Fair
Eye/Hair Color: Hazel/Light brown
Leander is a fairly ordinary looking man who mostly considers fussing over his looks and clothing to be a waste of his time. He wears his hair short and is rarely seen in anything other than his black uniform. His friends like to joke that he doesn't own anything else. He does, but just finds it simpler to stay in uniform most days. He is, however, particular about ensuring that he is always clean and neat, feeling that neglecting this aspect of his appearance reflects poorly on the Black Tower.

Distinguishing Features:

• There is a thin, puckered scar running down most of his left side. This is the most obvious of his scars, but he bears multiple smaller ones from old cuts scattered along his chest, back and arms.
  
• Leander lost the hearing in his right ear during the Last Battle. Most often he uses the enhanced senses saidin gives to compensate for this. As a result, he generally will be holding it even during an ordinary conversation. If for any reason he can't, he then resorts to turning his head to the right, which allows him to hear more clearly using his left ear.
  

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PERSONALITY

Leander is warm, friendly and expressive. He genuinely cares about the men who serve under him and makes a point of showing interest in their lives. Possessing an excellent memory, he can usually recall the name of anyone he's met once. He is a good friend to many, and willingly helpful to almost anyone, but is not the best listener. He'll try, but while he is a good problem solver and loves a challenge, he doesn't really understand the point of listening to someone's difficulties without taking action to deal with them.

A hard worker, he is prone to overwork, and is often up long into the night. He believes that acting otherwise would be pure laziness, something Leander has absolutely no tolerance for. Though generally easy to get along with, anyone he perceives as not contributing enough will find himself or herself on the wrong end of Leander's temper. He can be harsh and overly critical in this situation, but is often regretful and apologetic once the initial anger passes.

While he has high standards for others, Leander holds himself to them even more strictly. No matter how much he does, he is sometimes plagued by the feeling that he just isn't doing enough. At these times, he largely forgets everything he's accomplished in his many years, thinking only of what he has not done and wishes to achieve. He is driven by a need to serve his chosen home, and while he cares for others, his sense of duty results in a man who is not always as attentive to his own needs and desires.

HISTORY

Leander's life began in a small, rundown home on the outskirts of Ravinda. Barely big enough for two, it was all Leander's mother could afford after his father left her just before his birth. Most of Leander's early childhood was spent being watched by neighbors while his mother worked as a maid, but they still never seemed to have enough. The little boy's clothes were often too small and heavily mended, shoes something he wore only in the middle of winter, and it wasn't unusual for him to go to bed still hungry. They might not have had much, but what Leander did have was the love of his mother, who was always ready with a song or a story when she was home. The two of them formed a close-knit little family, doing the best they could with the little they had.

As he grew older, Leander became more aware of how poor they were, and began taking on any odd jobs he could get. Those jobs were mostly dull, simple chores such as sweeping floors and washing dishes, and while it pleased him to provide what he could for his mother and himself, he had to admit that he wished to find work that truly interested him, rather than doing whatever he could just to get by. Without much money, however, there were few ways a young man like himself could accomplish that, and it was for this reason that Leander chose to enlist in the Kandori army.

Having never so much as held a sword before, Leander expected his life as a soldier to be difficult, and at first, it was. He was constantly exhausted and often frustrated, but he forced himself to keep working, unable to stand the thought of returning to his mother's home in shame. As time passed, the effort he put into learning made him a competent swordsman, and he came to appreciate his place in the army and the feeling of belonging he found there.

He was quite content with his duties patrolling near the Blight and anywhere else he was sent, until he and those he served with began to hear of strange events happening in the world. There were random fires and floods developing out of nowhere, outbreaks of illness that killed entire villages, and food going bad overnight. There was even a morning when Leander awoke to find his sword blade melted into a shiny pool, and he later discovered that all the metal in the camp had done the same. It was as if the Pattern itself was trying to unravel, and when the call came, Leander marched with the rest of his company to the Last Battle.

It was chaos like nothing Leander had never seen before, and the scope of it made him feel small. He followed orders and fought the Shadow as hard as he could, working with others to bring down Shadowspawn. He saw countless men fall, including some he counted as friends, and knew there was a good chance that he would join them before the fighting ended. Many times, his death seemed almost inevitable to him, especially when he witnessed what the One Power could do on the battlefield. It was amazing when used by the forces of the Light, completely terrifying when wielded by the Shadow.The memory of a force so powerful that his sword was useless against it stuck with him even after the battle finally ended.

Leander left Merrilor somewhat surprised that he had lived through it when so many other good men had not. For days, his ears rang with the echo of the many explosions he'd heard, his hearing never to return to what it had once been, and he imagined he could still smell the running blood. Along with other survivors of the Kandori army, he was permitted to travel back home to check on his family. He hurried back to Ravinda, wanting to prove to his mother that he lived, but when he arrived, most of the town had been reduced to nothing but blackened remnants where homes and other buildings had once stood. Among them, to his horror, was his mother's home, and though he never saw her body, Leander knew she was gone.

Having no reason to remain, he returned to the army still grieving and half blaming himself for leaving, even if a more rational part of knew there was nothing he could have done but die there with her. There was little to distract him from his loss as he traveled around the country, helping areas to rebuild, and he came to the slow realization that he would be better off leaving Kandor and the army behind for somewhere that didn't hold so many painful memories. He wasn't sure where that would be at first, there being little need for a trained soldier under the Dragon's Peace, but he kept remembing the incredible Power that had been so effective during the Last Battle. When his time with the army ended, Leander traveled to the Black Tower, wanting to know if he might be one of the few who could learn to do what he'd seen there.

A new part of his life began when he was told that he could learn to channel and became part of the Black Tower. The rhythm of the place was very like his early days training with the army, and Leander found it easy to adapt. He made friends easily, worked as hard at learning the use of the One Power as he had when he'd learned to use his sword, and rose quickly to the level of Dedicated. He worked with every Legion, searching for his place, but it was a chance encounter while traveling with a member of the Water Legion that showed Leander where he belonged.

It was intended to be a quick visit, a Healing of a man suffering seizures for which the Dedicated's limited ability would be sufficient. The screams Leander heard as they approached the man's home were something he hadn't even heard from the dying at Merrilor, piercing and terrible despite his diminished hearing. They were welcomed in and rushed towards the man's room, but what Leander saw when the Asha'man opened the door engraved itself in his memory, never to be forgotten. The dark haired man, hardly older than Leander himself, had arched his back entirely off the bed, still shrieking his pain-filled cries. The Asha'man he was working under quickly closed the door and pulled Leander aside to explain that what they were seeing was the impending death of a man born with the spark of channeling who had not managed to learn control of the One Power. Healing would do nothing; the only way he could have been saved would have been if he'd been found while he could still learn.

Leander spent most of that afternoon and evening sitting by the man's bed so that he wouldn't be alone while the Asha'man talked to his family. Though they left the house before his passing, the event brought Leander to decide that he wanted to be part of searching for these men, to prevent any other channeler from suffering the same fate. He began to work exclusively under the men of the Fire Legion whose duty that was, and when he earned his second pin, the Fire Legion became his Legion.

He was sent to Cairhien to work on recruitment and search for wilders there. As a young, newly raised Asha'man, he was most often assigned to work with other members of the Fire Legion and on occasion, with their Aes Sedai counterparts from the Red Ajah. Leander found the work satisfying and meaningful, and made several friends with both Fire Legion members and Red sisters during this time. As he became a more experienced recruiter, he began to be given more assignments that he could carry out alone. It was during one of these that Leander met the woman who would become his wife.

Sofie Telera was an innkeeper in Maerone, a town Leander frequently visited. A man of habit, he stayed in her inn during every trip, and it wasn't long before he noticed that she was paying rather more attention to him than to the rest of her patrons. One evening, when he'd returned to the inn later than he usually did, he found her just finishing her work and asked her to join him for dinner. She agreed, and the two of them spent a pleasant evening together. She shared his serious, hardworking nature, which earned Leander's admiration, and it wasn't long before he found himself coming up with reasons to be in Maerone.

What he'd at first thought just a close friendship quickly blossomed into love, and then into marriage. Unable to guarantee that he wouldn't be reassigned from Cairhien, Leander arranged for them both to live together in one of the homes the Black Tower kept for married Asha'men. He felt guilty for asking Sofie to leave her country and business behind her, but she only smiled and told him it would all be fine, as long as they were together. A cheerful and outgoing woman, Sofie had no trouble making new friends among some of the other wives, and the early years of their marriage were happy ones.

When war broke out with the Seanchan, Leander was sent to Tarabon, leaving his wife safely behind in Caralain. He offered to bond her before he left, so she would know where he was and that he was safe, but Sofie only smiled and insisted that it wasn't necessary and that she trusted he would return to her alive. Leander wasn't happy to be separated from her, but he knew it was necessary, and did as he was told. He wrote to her, and she to him, as often as either could, and he was pleased and proud when Sofie told him of her plans to open another inn in the growing city of Caralain. When the war ended, he was thrilled to reunite with his wife, and hoped he'd never be asked to leave her again.

They were married for many years, remaining very much in love. They chose not to have children, instead devoting themselves to their chosen work and to each other. Though he still needed to travel for his recruiting work, Leander did his best to be at home with Sofie as often as he could manage it. As her hair grayed and her pace began to slow, he used his seniority to ensure that his assignments were ones which would allow him to be at home every night. He was by her side, helping her with everything she could no longer manage alone, until the night she passed away peacefully in her sleep.

Leander had known when they married that Sofie would not live the hundreds of years he could expect to see, but her death still came as a terrible shock to him. He couldn't stand living alone in the home they'd shared, filled with memories of her, and requested to be sent to Kandor, where the Blight was beginning to regrow. Struggling with his grief, he kept to himself more than he might have otherwise, and therefore missed the early signs of tension between his Legion and the newly elected M'Hael.

The situation only began to concern him when word came that the borders of Caralain had closed. Leander could see no good in that decision, and a great deal of potential harm. He tried to convince himself that the War Council would handle it, and to focus on the dangerous task of hunting down Dreadlords, but every letter he received from his friends within the Black Tower suggested that the conflict continued to worsen, with no sign of intervention from the War Council. Leander decided that he needed to see what was occurring for himself, and returned to the Black Tower just days before the recall of all active Asha'men.

It didn't take long for him to come to the conclusion that Rahlin, raving about the Aes Sedai, was not acting in the interest of the Black Tower. Leander counted several Aes Sedai of the Red as personal friends, knew many others as the wives and partners of Asha'men of the Fire Legion, enough of them to be sure that they were not the evil force the M'Hael described. He spent the few days before the recall meeting with his friends in remote parts of the Black Tower, trying to come up with a way to convince the War Council of the danger Rahlin posed. Before they ever had a chance to do anything other than meet and share ideas, however, the M'Hael declared war on the White Tower and announced the execution of a handful of Asha'men he deemed traitors to the Black Tower. Among them were three of the leaders of the Fire Legion, all men Leander had served under at some point during his career. Unable to do anything to prevent it, Leander forced himself to bear witness to what the M'Hael called execution and he simply called murder.

They were to go to war the next day, and Leander spent that night laying in bed with his eyes open, agonizing about what to do when morning arrived. Not normally one to disobey or rebel against authority, the orders Rahlin had given were orders Leander could not bring himself to follow. He could not participate in the unjust war, but the soldier he'd once been refused to even entertain the thought of returning to Kandor to ignore the war completely. Instead, after thinking about it for most of the night, Leander made the decision to turn against the M'Hael and the Black Tower to lend his strength to the women of the White Tower.

War was unfortunately familiar to him, but Leander found it especially terrible to engage in battle with men he'd thought of as friends. All that kept him fighting was his belief that he'd made the right choice for himself and the knowledge that he still would have been warring with friends even if he had obeyed orders. Physically and emotionally drained by the end of it, he felt nothing but relief when Rahlin was finally captured, deposed, and executed.

Instead of returning to his post in Kandor, Leander chose to stay at the Black Tower, where few men from the Fire Legion remained. Too many of them had died in the Tower War, often fighting beside their Aes Sedai, which meant that the survivors of their Legion were largely young, well-meaning, but inexperienced men. Seeing their need for direction, Leander stepped in, answering questions and sharing what he'd learned in his many years within the Fire Legion. It was for these efforts that he was promoted to the rank of Captain not long after the end of the war, a position he still holds today.

TIMELINE

976 NE- Leander is born.

994 NE- Enlists in Kandori army.

1000 NE- Fights in Last Battle. Mother dies during burning of Kandor.

2 FA- Joins the Black Tower.

6 FA- Raised to Dedicated.

11 FA- Raised to Asha'man of the Fire Legion, assigned to recruitment efforts in Cairhien.

16 FA- Marries wife, Sofie, and receives permission to relocate to Caralain to live with her.

24 FA- Sent to Tarabon to join the Black Tower's force against the Seanchan.

28 FA- Seanchan war ends. Leander asks to return to Caralain, which is granted.

68 FA- Sofie dies of old age. Leander requests to be sent to Kandor, where he assists with the successful capture of a handful of rogue channelers.

75 FA- Leander takes leave and returns to the Black Tower, having heard multiple disturbing accounts of Rahlin's rule from other Fire Legion members remaining there. When war breaks out, he makes the difficult decision to join with many other men of his Legion in fighting on the side of the White Tower.

78 FA- After the end of the Tower War, and the raising of a new M'Hael, Leander is promoted to Captain, remaining in Caralain, and begins working to rebuild his Legion from the heavy losses they sustained.

112 FA- Presently, Leander continues to reside primarily within the Black Tower. His duties have shifted more towards training the newer, less experienced men who now represent a majority of the Fire Legion and working with interested Dedicated. He continues to keep track of potential dangerous channelers and still prefers to look into these matters personally.

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