For Use In: General Purpose RPs, can be used as Sitter.
Name: Mariella Jerin (NSW)
Age: 200
Land of Origin: Altara
Appearance: Mariella is a round woman, with dark, olive skin and dark hair with more than a little white in it. She favors dresses divided for riding and also tends to wear silks and finely woven wools usually Blue although she does vary from time to time. She could never be called pretty, but is extremely soft spoken and the more time spent with her, the more one comes to look at her as a grandmother or mother or a favorite aunt.
Character History[]
The day she had come to the White Tower had been the what she thought would be the first day of the rest of her life. The Sister who had tested her gave her a small smile and a nod of approval and said that her name was to entered into the Novice Book and that she would train here at the White Tower to become Aes Sedai. Foolish, perhaps more ignorant than anything, Mariella believed that like any of her studies in arithmetic or grammar, becoming Aes Sedai would take a year or so, perhaps two at the most. Reasonable considering at the end she’d wear a shawl and use the One Power and a million other things which she thought were quite advantageous.
Reality slapped her harder than anyone else had when she donned the white wool dress that Novices were required to wear and was informed that training for Novices was neither easy nor enjoyable, but that it was a necessary step in become Accepted and finally Aes Sedai. It took a decade or more for some, though usually those girls would never reach the shawl anyway, but the shortest time was about four years to take the test to become Accepted. Then a similar time was spent as Accepted, if not more, before one would be permitted to take the test for the shawl. What had she signed herself into? She had sworn her soul to the Dark One, that was for sure!
Being a Novice was exhaustive and difficult, but under such strains, girls were bound to come up with activities to release their frustrations. Pranks became commonplace and they would have competitions with one another to see who could do the most without being caught in one week. If you were caught, that automatically negated any pranks you had previously committed. Mariella was never the winner of those competitions, but her pranks were ingenious and copied by Novices that were to come afterwards. As an Accepted, she was even more free to commit such horrid yet hilarious acts and was idolized by younger Novices. She was quite a bit more studious as an Accepted though, applying herself rigorously to her personal queries as well as taking as many private lessons she could and teaching well over the expected amount of Novice classes.
Not long before her test for the shawl, she realized that she had been marked out for the Blue Ajah. Suddenly, all of the Sisters who taught her were Blue, and they all managed to slip in bits of history about the Ajah and smile at her as she passed them in the Halls. She was sent on countless errands, but the majority of those were to the Blue Quarters. What was miraculous was that at the time, she had not realized they were leading her decision. She genuinely thought that she was just the right personality for the Blue Ajah and admired many of their Sisters. When finally she did take the test, it was a shock and the following day, when they Mistress of Novices lead her back down to the room where she had taken her test, she was accepted into the Blue Ajah and lead to her new apartments.
Through the years, Mariella learned much about the organization of Aes Sedai and the Blue Ajah in particular. Customs, which were unknown to initiates were suddenly made near equal with Tower Law. One that simply crushed her was what she had been told by the First Selector, the Head of the Blues on the first day of her sisterhood. Amongst the Sisters, regardless of Ajah, strength determines who defers to who. The stronger someone is than you, the more you defer to them and vice versa. As well, the stronger you are than another sister, the more she is expected to defer to you. Being weak in the Power made such a situation both difficult and frustrating for Mariella, and it took years for her to discover methods of breaking through that system and working around it. It took years for her to consider herself equal with the other Sisters, who seemed to know more about being Aes Sedai and the Tower than she could ever learn. Though when she did, Mariella became a respected Sister in the Ajah and devoted herself to seeking out girls with the spark passing through Tar Valon, which was quite a rare occurrence, and teaching classes to Novices and private lessons to Accepted. It helped endear many girls to the Blue and even if they did not choose the Ajah, they looked at Mariella as a kind woman with whom they would not pull any power trips upon being raised to full sisterhood.
Mariella became a Sitter during the reign of Karana, and is still currently a Sitter in the DR PSW.