Estivan Espones

• Full Name - Estivan Aluan Espones
• Position - Warder to Simoene Alvaewhin of the White Ajah.
• Character Summary - Estivan was born of simple fisherfolk, Eralon and Mara Espones, in a small hamlet of stilted houses deep in the Fingers of the Dragon, the marshy delta of the Erinin. His parents were poor and his early childhood was one of hardship and privation. Occasionally, when out setting nets with his father and brothers, he would catch glimpses of grand Tairen carracks and galleys setting out to sea, and even more rarely, a Sea Folk Soarer or Raker! These hints at the wider world put him in mind of traveling. When Estivan was seven or eight, his father's small boat was seized and sunk by a party of raiding Illianers, and when his father and older brother Rodrian tried to resist, they were killed. This left Estivan eldest boy in the house, and their meager life grew even worse, and burned into him a raging hatred of Illian and all its people.

  When he was fourteen, and his village was stricken by Marsh Plague, his mother packed up her remaining children and went up to Tear to live with her sister. There Estivan, or Estan as called by his family and friends, was intrigued by the lords and ladies, and wealthy merchants, and briefly enlisted with the Tairen Defenders, as he was quite good with a sword and spear. But the High Lords indifference to the grinding poverty of the people outside the capitol disheartened him, and he knew he could not stay there forever. Seeking contentment elsewhere, he decided to travel, first to Far Madding, then on to Caemlyn, and ultimately into Tar Valon.

  In Tar Valon, he became fascinated by the Aes Sedai sisterhood and their protectors, the Gaidin. It wasn't long before he enrolled in the Warder Academy. His rise through the ranks was swift and methodical, focusing on the Path of the Star. Finally, on a snowy winter afternoon, when a Proven, he was approached by a little slip of an Aes Sedai, Simoene Alvaewhin of the White Ajah, who suggested to him that she be the one to take his bond, using persuasive logic. And so, Estivan became sworn protector and companion to Simeone Sedai.

  When finally elevated to Gaidin, Estivan takes pains to dress himself well, as if he were born of the lesser nobility or well-to-do mercantile class, eschewing traveling leathers and brigantines for finely cut wool coats and velvet cloaks. In truth, Estivan fancies himself a man of style and sophistication, and even wears his warder cloak rarely, for Simeone Sedai, as a White, is often stationed in Tar Valon or other cities.

• Nationality - Tairen
• Character Description - Sleek and agile, Estivan Espones is man of middling height with curling brown hair and bright blue eyes. His face is a comely one, with a straight nose and a strong chin, atop of which is poised a small neatly trimmed beard, matched by a curling mustache. Juran wears a fine coat of burgundy wool cut in the High Tairen style, with puffed sleeves striped in black, white Jaeracruz lace trimming the high collar, and well formed black breeches with satin piping up the sides, all in all, the clothing of a well-to-do merchant or lesser lord who appears to be traveling. A wide belt of studded leather girds his waist, hung with his purse, two large daggers in matching sheaths, as well as a smaller brace of knives for throwing. His curved sword hangs on his back, the baldric across his torso finely tooled and embossed with the Tairen maze pattern. Juran Gaidin has donned a fine cloak of deep wine-colored velvet, trimmed in black miniver, worn jauntily over one shoulder, the braided cord slung across his chest, not the legendary color-swirling cloak of a warder. His boots are glossy black, and fringed in gold, fine indeed! He wears several rings on his hands, and a small garnet gleams at his left ear. .
• Associates:
• Simoene Alvaewhin: A young Cairhienin White, Simoene was given a rigorous education by her father, a tutor to the wealthy in Cairhien, prior to arriving in Tar Valon. She was discovered by Suraya Ashalde of the White Ajah, after she fled her home after a scandal to preserve her father's reputation. While an Accepted, she was an attendant to Jiranya Tansaya, the elderly former First Reasoner, who is beleived to have placed in her hands a ‘secret legacy' as she lay dying. She is a well-traveled sister, close with many Browns, with a hobby of collecting artifacts and interviewing scholars in the Great Cities, earning her the derision of her more stationary and sedate sisters of her own Ajah. She is currently stationed in Caemlyn at the Amyrlin's direction.