Simoene Alvaewhin

• Full Name - Simoene Ielille Alvaewhin Aes Sedai
• Position - Aes Sedai of the White Ajah.
• Character Summary - Simoene Alvaewhin is the youngest daughter of Master Coelen Alvaewhin, a scribe and scholar in Cairhien, and his wife Teriese. Simoene's childhood was a happy one, in her parents rambling yet meticulously ordered house in Cairhien. Her father was a scholar in service to many houses of the wealthy, tutoring the children of such households in the Old Tongue as well as in the sciences of logic and reasoned debate. Simoene was schooled beside her brother Eindrid who was destined for a career in the courts at the King's Bench. Simoene eagerly assisted her father in his works, in turn becoming something of a secretary to him.

  When Simoene was thirteen she accompanied her father on a country jaunt with the callow sons of the merchant House of the Red Lily and it was there that she was accosted by several of the young men, drunk and arrogant, assuming that she would hold her tongue to ensure her father's continuing employment and threatened to have him ruined if she spoke up. Torn between exposing them and preserving her father's livelihood, Simoene fled with naught but a purse of silver and the fine mare of one of her father's pupils. Having nowhere to turn, she rode straight to Caisenhel, a small river-town on the Erindrelle. She sold her horse in exchange for passage on a ship headed to Tar Valon, and it was there that she encounted Suraya Ashalde, an Aes Sedai of the White Ajah who took an interest in Simoene and suggested that she enroll as a novice upon her arrival. Simoene had not the spark, but decided that she would try to learn. Suraya's descriptions of a serene life of contemplation and study appealed to Simoene so it came to pass that she did write her name in the novice book and applied herself.

  Simoene was fortunate. She was revealed as having the capacity to learn to channel, and spent the next four years as a diligent novice, and in turn Accepted upon her passing the tests on her seventeenth naming day. As an Accepted she became Suraya's protégé and secretary, and often worked closely with Jirainya Tansaya, the elderly White believed to head the White Ajah as 'First Reasoner,' and it is believed that Jirainya came to place the secret legacy of the White Ajah in Simoene's hands while she was attending Jirainya Sedai on her deathbed.

  Ultimately, Simoene was deemed ready for her Raising to the Shawl, and to the surprise of no one, chose the White Ajah. Since her raising, while she was short of her twenty-fifth naming day, she has traveled extensively, collecting artifacts and interviewing scholars in the Great Cities, activities that seem to earn her the derision of her more stationary White sisters, even as it brings her into the confidences of many Browns. She chose a warder, as it was logical to gain an armed protector as she travels, a Tairen named Estivan Espones. Estivan Gaidin has a pathological hatred of all things Illianer, and Simoene is teaching him to overcome his predispositions through the light of reason.

• Affiliation - White Ajah, White Tower
• Nationality - Domani
• Character Description - A tall strapping woman with a smooth bronze complexion and long russet hair, with veins of silver near starting at her temples and running through, Suraya Ashalde looks clearly to be Domani born, although she largely eschews her birthright of feminine wiles and seductive languor. She is handsome with bright copper-colored eyes and full lips, islands of emotion in a serene Aes Sedai face. Her dress is cut from flowing silk, a rich cream color, with wide sash of brocade belted off-center on one hip. Thick silvery embroidery flows along her hems and sleeves, a rich scrolling pattern mimicked in silver and seed pearls on the left side of her bodice breast. Her hair is worn loose and flowing after being gathered in an intricate looping knot at the back of her head, and pinned with pearls. Around her slender hips, atop the sash, she wears a belt of bleached leather from which hangs her purse and jambiya, the hilt wrapped in silver wire, with a coin-sized ice-ruby set in the hilt. She wears a necklace of carved ivory around her slim throat, and her Great Serpent ring shines on her dusky finger. She wears her shawl slung over her shoulders, the Flame of Tar Valon picked out against a white disc only by black stitching, hanging the midst of her back, and long silky white fringe swaying with her movements.
• Associates:
• Jiellen Kerwein: A quiet, pensive young girl, Jiellen is Murandian, the daughter of middling successful merchants. Suraya has taken an interest in her studies as a novice.
• Taresia Hurad: A morose, introverted young woman, Taresia is an Accepted from Shienar, one of the few survivors on a Trolloc raid on her home town. Quite skilled in working with Fire, Taresia is being courted by the Greens, for all that she is appalled by the idea of war and violence. Taresia is favored by Suraya, and often serves as her secretary and traveling companion.
• Varella Obajian: Tempermental and surly, Varella Sedai of the Yellow Ajahis one of the most adept Healers in the Tower, specializing in battle wounds and other significant trauma. Unfortunately for her patients, she is less than gentle as she Heals, for although she feels fulfilled as a Healer, she blames the wounds on the men who sustain them, always resorting to brawn and blades, in her view.
• Aifey Dewall: Motherly and well-liked, Aifey looks very much like a goodwife plucked from a quiet country hamlet or farm. Although she is well regarded by her sisters of her Ajah, she is more aloof than even most Whites and spends long periods away from the Tower, often returning with sun-bleached hair and tanned skin. She is believed to have the Talent of Fate-Twisting, able to replicate the ta'veren effect to a lesser degree, and the more shrewd suspect that her Talent is at the heart of her mysterious journeys.
• Marande Belora: A sophisticated, charming woman, Marande often is mistaken for a noblewoman or fashionable marchande, for she is newly raised and lacks the ageless features. Affecting a sleek, elegant style, she is far from the usual Brown sister, hosting poetry readings and discussions on literature. Indeed her cause among the Browns in the classification of fine literature and poetry from the famed scholars of old Essenia, and she hopes to compile them into a definitive series of reference works.
• Carmara Belantes: Suraya's closest friend in the sisterhood, Carmara Sedai is a sister of the White Ajah, and currently the advisor to Queen Healle of House Cordaevell, Queen of Cairhien.
• Simoene Alvaewhin: a young White sister, and friend of Suraya.
• Malinde Alleron: an Aes Sedai of the White Ajah and another Sitter for the White, and is an icily bitter rival of Suraya Sedai. A tall, spectacularly beautiful Mayener woman, Malinde Alleron is the recently selected replacement for Darra Sedai. Malinde is rather young for her seat, only ninety or so, despite the wisps of silver in her inky tresses. Malinde is a flamboyant dresser, especially for a White, often adding scarlet embroidery to her gowns, or wearing choice bits of ruby and firedrops, a not-so-very subtle political message.
• Roel Bernaevin: Suraya Sedai's warder, a slim, intense Cairhienin swordsman.

• Suraya's Personal Page