For Use In:General purpose RPs.
Name: Maera Aporos (NSW)
Age: 36
Character description: A strikingly beautiful woman with soft looks. Her hair is chocolate brown and styled into soft ringlets that flow over her shoulders to her tiny waist and her large eyes are a soft blue in color. Her skin is soft and browned by the sun and her lips are a soft, petal pink and hardly ever turn up into a smile. When she does smile though, it is absolutely stunning. She is a petite woman, probably around 5'2", and her lithe form moves with a practiced grace.
Character History[]
Maera Aporos was born in Jarra, Ghealdan, the only child of Haliver and Cora Aporos. Maera never knew her mother as the woman died giving birth. Haliver,her father, was nothing more than a drunken fisherman who liked to gamble but had no luck in his hobby. From the time Maera was born, Haliver had incurred such a debt that it would take both his and his daughter's lifetimes to pay off and when Maera was 13 years old, her father used her to pay off his last debt. Maera was sold to a crooked innkeeper who taught her to read, to write and to do basic mathematics so she could keep books for him. He, as stated, was a crooked man and very greedy. So greedy in fact that he took this 13 year old girl's innocence from her and then would peddle her to different drifters or local men in exchange for tabac, jewels for his wife or just coin. Whenever Maera would try to resist this brutality, she would be whipped or put into a solitary room with no lights or furniture or heat and left there for a few days with no food or water or most of the times, both. When she was being 'good' her so called guardian would allow her into the small library at his inn and she would sit for hours engrossed in whatever book she found that caught her fancy. The books helped her pass the time and they kept her alive by giving her hope, without them, she'd have been dead before her 15th birthday. It was then that Maera began to lose herself in those books, sort of keeping the happy part of her stored away in the stories, safe from her real life and the monsters that lurked there.
She was about 16 years old when she first met her hero, or heroin, as the case may be. She had been sent off on an errand for her 'guardian' when she was forced to the ground by a few men that she recognized from the inn. The things they had threatened to do to her would certainly shatter the tiny shard of herself that she'd worked so hard at keeping in tact, so Maera did the only thing that she could do and that was scream bloody murder. This howl, somehow managed to catch the ears of a very unlikely rescuer. One moment, Maera was being suspended off the ground by the hair on her head and the next, there was a flash of white and she was on the ground again with her attackers lying around her in crumpled heaps. She gasped for air and that was when a hand was lowered to her. "You are safe now, child," the gruff voice said to her, "We will see to these...Darkfriends." The last was said as though the word was being spat from the voice's owner's mouth. Maera slowly cracked an eye open and saw the familiar Golden Sunburst against a stark white uniform and the man standing before her. A man, A Whitecloak. Maera screamed and tried to back away.The Whitecloak, of course, took this as an insult and then proclaimed her a Darkfriend. He closed in on her and drew his sword, "Do you know what we do with Darkfriends, child?" He asked, raising his weapon.Maera squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away, awaiting the blow....but it never came. When she opened her eyes, the Children were gone and a smallish woman stood before her. "Come with me,child," the woman said in a soft, warm tone that Maera no longer trusted. The girl shook her head and choked out, "No..." Then, she was asleep.
Maera awoke the next morning, the events of the day before foggy in her mind. She sat up and blinked a few times before catching sight of the man sitting in a chair across from her. "No! Not again!" she cried just as that woman came into the room. "Peace, child " she said gently as she glided to the bedside, "We're not going to hurt you." She reached out to sponge Maera's forehead and the girl cowered.
"Where..." Maera began and the woman stopped her. "Are you?" she finished, "You are safe and will be. We know who you are and you will be taken care of." Maera stared at the woman whose voice was so soft, but fighting to maintain her distrust. "Who are you?" she asked, forgetting about the sponge against her head. "You don't need to worry over that, child," the woman crooned, "And you won't be going back to that place either." Maera opened her mouth to protest and then thought better of it, she had gotten the feeling that this seemingly gentle woman was no one to be trifled with. She shot a very uneasy glance at the man sitting in the corner and inquired about him and the woman finally decided to talk. Aes Sedai? Here? But the Children! It wasn't long after that discussion that Maera found herself in the White Tower and in Novice whites. That was ages ago.
Her Novice years were typical: she cooked, she cleaned, she worked on her studies. She spent ample amounts of time in the Tower library reading whatever she could get her hands on and questioning the Brown Sisters about anything and everything that she could think of. She loved the knowledge that these women possessed and she loved the books. There were times that she would lay in her bed at nights and read by the candlelight, despite her body begging for sleep.Maera had never seen so many books in her life! Maera, after a long while, finally became more trusting of women and would even be seen giggling with a group of girls her age throughout her Novice years. Of course, due to her history, she could never force herself to trust a man. In fact, a man so much as accidentally brushing her arm in passing was enough to send her screaming to her rooms and cowering in the corner between her wardrobe and the wall. This behavior was noticed by Maera's mentor at the time and then brought to the attention of the Yellow Sisters who worked with the girl on this problem.
Several years had passed and Maera had made some progress, with the help of the Yellow Sisters, with her problem. She could now stand to have a man talk to her, but the urge to run and hide from them was still there and she continued to see the Yellow Sisters for help between trips to the library, chores, and studies. She had been a Novice for ten years before she was called to test for Acceptance and to the surprise of many, she barged through that first Arch on her first time as if she owned the ter'angreal. The horrors that she faced in those Arches though, would haunt her for most of her Acceptedhood.
Maera spent more time in the library once she became an Accepted and she picked up a habit of becoming so engrossed in what she was reading or researching, that she tended to lose track of time or anything else for that matter. For her, while reading, hours could feel like minutes and she could sit at one table, hidden behind a stack of the dustiest books until the library was closed for the night. And she'd only know that when a Sister would come get her and remind her that she needed to sleep sometime. This of course caused many problems as she found herself late for class more often than not during her early Accepted years. Ten more years had passed and Maera,for the most part and again thanks to the Yellow Sisters, had seemed to have gotten past her fear of men and at times would be bold enough to look one in the eye and smile. And the day eventually came that she was to be tested for the Shawl, and she had long since known which Ajah that she'd choose.
The test was exhausting, trying and the Sisters conducting it managed to push every button she had and dance on her last nerve but in the end, Maera preserved and she attained the shawl of a Brown Sister. Finally, after all those years of work, her goal...the dream she didn't know for the longest time that she had even had, had come true.