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| - Biography |
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Name: Soraya Namida
Age: 20
Nationality: Andoran
Social class: commoner
Height: 1.65m / 5'41"
Weight: 56kg / 123Lb
Hair color/length: Long dark brown
Eye color: Brown
Soraya is kind hearted and naive. She's not very bright and trusts people way too easily. She is very shy and thinks very lowly about herself. Her right arm has been broken once and because it was healed badly she never regained full use of it. She can move her wrist and fingers a little but not more than that. She also has several small scarrs on her face.
Overall strength in the One Power: average
Strength per element:
Water:strong
Air:average
Spirit average
Earth: weak
Fire: very weak
Talents: Cloud dancing, Reading Residues, Wave dancing
BLOCK: she can only channel when she's very sad
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History:
Soraya was born and raised in an small village in Andor, to the west of Caemlyn, not that far from Four Kings. Most of the inhabitants there were farmers, and the Namida family farmed several types of vegetables, chickens and pigs. They also owned one horse for the plough. Soraya was the second daughter out of four children, and her parents allways favored her brothers over her. Her father had rather had only sons and was displeased when his wife gave birth to a girl. Whenever Soraya did something he did not like he not only beat the child but also her mother. In the village they lived woman barely had any rights at all and it was not uncommon for men to beat their wife and children so Soraya endured the beatings from her father, as she believed she probably deserved it. Her father didn't find it nesessary to waste money on education so she never learned to read or write, instead, from a very young age she helped her mother in the kitchen, cleaning the house, doing laundry, cleaning the stables and feeding the pigs. Like her mother she was treated like a slave by her father and brothers. Her oldest brother Bano picked up the habit from his father and beat Soraya often for no other reason than running in his way, to the amusement of his father who encouraged the boy with saying things like "That's right son. Let her know her place."
Soraya didn't know any better that assuming everything she did was wrong, and endured humiliation and severe beatings. When she was 13 her mother died after being ill for several months and little Soraya had to take over the entire household for a while. Only a little more than a year later though her father got married to another woman. Soraya's stepmother Deena did take over some of the work in the house, but because she also got beaten by her agressive husband who treated her badly she let it all out on Soraya. Nothing the girl did was ever good enough and even though Soraya really did her best, everybody in the household kept treating her like trash.
Then one day when she was 15 a man named Hages came to visit. He was the local farrier who had inherited his late father's business, and came to check on the shoeing of her father's horse. Off course she had seen him in the village before, but she had allways shyly looked away when he smiled at her. When he was done with what he had come for he had looked at Soraya and then at her father. "You have a really nice daughter." he had said. Soraya was startled. She had never heared anyone call her nice before, exept for her mother, but her father had told her the things her mother had said to her had all been lies, because mothers are allways nice to their children. The man's comment made her father laugh loudly. "You honestly like that ugly useless child? You can have her if you like." It had sounded as if they were trading merchandise, and Soraya hadn't listened. Her father arranged the marriage. Even though 16 was the usual minimum age of marriage, in small villages like this one it was not unusual to get married at 15. Hages was a well known man in the village, but even though it seemed like many women really liked him, he was allready 27 years old and was still not married. The large difference between their ages was frowned upon off course, but the wedding took place nontheless.
Soraya just did whatever he asked, cleaned his house and prepared his food, glad at least he did not beat her, he actually said he found her pretty. He often left at night and she had no idea where he went, but he allways returned, and she was relieved when he did. But after a little over a year he suddenly changed. He became meaner. Started calling her names said she irritated him. Soraya didn't really understand. And then after two years all of a sudden she got sent back home. The marriage was
annuled, on grounds that Soraya had not been of legal age at the time of marriage. Her father was very angry and beat her so badly he broke her arm, which made him even more angry because now she was also useless in the household.
Surprisingly her stepmother didn't behave that brutal anymore and took care of Soraya's arm as good as she could. Deena now had a son herself, a little halfbrother to Soraya, and it seemed to have made her kinder. The girl cried from the pain, and told her stepmother she didn't understand why Hages had sent her away. "That's because you are really stupid" her stepmother had said, but then her face softened and showed pity for the girl. "No woman is so stupid to be willing to get married to Hages Mues anyway. He might be the father of half of the children in this village. But you would have been a good match for him I suppose. Because you would have simply accept the fact that he cheated on you, and bear his official children." She sighed and shook her head. Soraya's mouth fell open. What that why he sometimes went out at night? "Unfortunately..." Deena looked at Soraya, who had tears in her eyes. "You're really pretty useless as a woman if you can't even have babies." she said with a sarcastic tone "Nobody will want you for a wife now." With those words she left the room. Soraya kept crying. Was it really true? How could her stepmother know she couldn't have children?" Soraya sat by the window, the tears flowing from her cheeks. Little drops of rain against the window made her look up. The weather had turned and the rain soon started pouring from the skies. Soraya felt as inconsolable as the wearther. She became very ill for a while after that day but because of her sadness and the fact that she was weak because of her broken arm, she didn't really wonder why she felt sick. It was the pain and the sorrow taking it's toll.
Her arm never fully healed, and she never could use her right hand again. She could move the wrist and fingers a little but could not make a fist or lift objects with it anymore. But she learned to manage and soon took up her tasks in the household again. Hages sometimes came to her or invited her to come to his place. When she walked in the street though she could here the people whisper. Men sometimes whistled and slapped her behind. She tried not to mind them and allways was friendly to them. And when she was sad it allways seemed to rain outside. She had coped with the fact that she would have to live in her parents' house for the rest of her life.
When she was 20, one of her younger brothers, Cador, became very ill. Her father sent her to Kerraden, a small city nearby to get medecine for him. Soraya was very glad to be sent there to get the medecine. She had never been outside the village before, so it seemed like a real adventure to go see a city. She was given exact directions on where to go and what place to visit in the city, and she could ride along with a small cart that traveled to the city for supplies. She brought a little food with her, money to buy the medecine and one coin she got from Deena to spend one night in a room in the inn.
They left in the morning and arrived in Kerraden in the late afternoon. Soraya got the medecine she needed from the physician and booked the cheapest available room for the night. She was really amazed by the city, the big and fancy houses and the lots of people. She wished she had the money to drink something in the common room so she could stay and look at all the people there, but she didn't dare to spend the little money she had left. Her father would certainly count every coin when she returned home. Just when she was going toward the stairs to go to her room, she noticed a very remarkable group of people. A woman in a long green dress of a beauty Soraya had never even imagined. She had long goldblond curly hair that seemed to glisten in the light of the candles of the table. Her face looked as if it had been carved out of marble and she sat at the little tavern table with a grace Soraya had never seen. She was accompanied by three men who looked like guards. They must be nobility, Soraya thought. Maybe she is a princess. Her mother had told her stories when she was little, about kings and queens and beauful castles. Soraya was very surprised when the woman actually looked back at her and she quickly lowered her eyes and instinctively bowed, clumsily. Then she ran upstairs, exited and scared at the same time. She suddenly felt giddy like a little child and while she sat on her bed she knew she was never going to forget this day, as it probably would be the most adventurous in her entire life.
She was very surprised when a knock came on her door a little while later. She was even more surprised to hear that the lady downstairs requested to speak with her. The man who had knocked on her door introduced himself as Gerion. He was a young handsome man, with long blond hair bound together and warm darkbrown eyes. He was friendly and polite, like he didn't know she was just a farmer's daughter. Soraya couldn't help but blush, and tried not to look at his face. He brought her to another room, where the noblewoman, and her other two companions waited. When the woman asked for her name Soraya was speechless. She started to believe that it was a joke, that some of the townsfolk were messing with her. It wouldn't be the first time they pulled a prank on poor trustful Soraya. After she finally had squeezed her own name out of her throat the woman introduced herself as Lady Delena, the other two men were Lorek and Kerris. She remembered seeing the woman giving orders to the men wich was weird, and in Soraya's mind very wrong, but it was probably alright for a noblewoman to speak like that to her servants. Everything happened in a blur after that. They asked her where she came from and where she lived. Soraya would have to travel with them to Tar Valon, later she didn't remember if that was before or after Delena had told her she was an Aes Sedai. Having heared scary stories about Aes Sedai Soraya had been terrified but didn't dare to go against them. Delena Sedai had tried to calm her down saying those rumors where all lies and in fact most likely Soraya would become an Aes Sedai herself once. It was all too much for the little farmergirl and she had passed out at some point. She didn't know if it had been out of fear, or disbelief, or confusion or something else, but Soraya just couldn't handle it all. Gerion who had still stood beside her caught her before she hit the ground.
The days after that Soraya's father was informed about Soraya's departure by Delena Sedai, while Gerion stayed with Soraya in the inn in Kerraden. She had been given the choice to go say goodbye to her father and brothers, but Soraya was too scared to go tell her father she would have to leave home, and had given the medecine for Cador to the Aes Sedai. When Delena Sedai and her other 2 warders came back she didn't dare ask how the reaction at home had been. She feared she would have to go back there soon anyway, when it turned out there was nothing she could do in Tar Valon. She didn't believe she really was a channeler as Delena Sedai claimed, and was sure she would be sent home when it turned out she was just an ordinary farmergirl.
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