Abby Soulane

Abby Soulane
ah-REN-drin soo-LANE
Created by	Leala (player)
Information
Full name	Arendrin Soulane
Gender	Female
Occupation	Novice
Affiliation	The Grey Tower
Family	Torianin Soulane (adoptive mother)
Nationality	Taraboner
Attributes
OP Strength	8.6
Affinities	Earth, Water, Air, Spirit, Fire

Arendrin "Abby" Soulane is a Taraboner Novice of the Grey Tower.

Description

Abby can be described as an odd child, if one does not take the time to know her. She can usually be found with her nose in a book, a pen in hand. When she is engaged in conversation, she is polite and considerate, and very interested in studying and learning. Abby is friendly, and wants to make friends, but her shy nature, along with the shell that she retreated into after her trauma, it can be difficult but not impossible. She is likely to respond to conversations about books or histories. She does realize that since she is now a novice, she will be expected to take some initiative in making connections with fellow students, and her teachers. Since being adopted by Torianin Sedai, her stammer and some of her shyness has gone away. While she still keeps her area clean, she has trained herself to pull away from the need to clean excessively.

Standing at 5'3", Abby inherited the dark hair and small frame of the Domani from her mother, and the fair skin and light eyes of the Taraboner from her father. She is a physically healthy girl, despite the neglect and negative experiences of her early years. Abby’s long dark hair is usually brushed and left down when she is relaxed, and pulled back and away from her face in some way when she is nervous or studying. She prefers wearing simple dresses, preferring the color blue or yellow. She wears a thin silver chain with a fire drop under her dress, a gift from her father, and carries with her at least one book at all times. Now that she is a novice, she wears the stark whites of her station, and her necklace is now in her adoptive mother's rooms.

Biography

Abby spent most of her childhood with her doting parents. Her mother was a Domani woman who was a renowned historian and scholar. Her father was a successful Taraboner merchant who had met his wife while negotiating a trade deal with a local lord in Arad Doman. When Abby was born, her mother of course wanted to educate her daughter as much as possible. Thus, she began reading at a very young age, always wanting to read things more and more advanced. Her mother had taken to calling her “Abby,” because of her tendency to think abstractly while reasoning out concepts more advanced than other children could grasp. Her father provided for his family, bringing home trinkets from his deals for his wife and daughter. All of this added up to a wonderful childhood, giving Abby a sense of security, routine, and love.

All of this came to a halt when her father made a certain deal. Abby never knew the details of her father’s trades, preferring to study with her mother, but this deal saw her father robbed. It seemed he was manipulated into giving over his savings as well. Perhaps he was targeted by thieves. Perhaps his guards finally turned on him. Abby never knew. What she did understand from the magistrate’s report was that her father was murdered, found in the streets in a pool of blood, robbed of his possessions. Her mother changed after they buried him, and rather quickly. She told Abby increasingly bizarre things, and she seemed to be out of her mind. While she still conversed with her daughter, the woman seemed to be in another world. One evening, she guided Abby to the docks of Tanchico, and invited her daughter to come with her. Abby, at this point, saw her mother’s intentions clearly. She was going to walk into the ocean. Her mother stamped her foot and insisted that she was going to see her husband, with or without her. Then, she stepped into the water.

Devastated, Abby stayed at the docks until the bubbles stopped surfacing, wishing that her mother would resurface. Weeping, she ran back to her home, much smaller than the one they had had to sell after her father’s death. Holed up in her room, she stayed until she was forced to leave, when it was found that no payments had been made on the rent. A few books in hand, she tried her hardest to live on the streets, but it didn’t last long until she was scooped up by more opportunistic adults. They offered her food and shelter, but she sensed that they didn’t mean what they told her. Still, they took her. She found herself in the service of a Kandori merchant who remembered her father.

Her new life as a slave was difficult at first. Her owner was abusive, but seemed to either hesitate or strike not as hard when she was busy cleaning. She made it a point not to listen, to forget the terrible things that she heard from the other side of doors and walls. Abby’s owner moved to Hama Valon, and during the long trek, she made sure to keep as busy as possible. She was not allowed outside the house when they arrived, but she could see the Grey Tower from windows sometimes. She managed to keep her owner from beating her too much for a while , then finally, an Aes Sedai and Asha’man of the Blue Ajah ousted her owner as a darkfriend. He was taken to trial, and the girl was taken from his home.

She didn’t very much care what the outcome of the trial was. The caretakers at the Mar siolin’an were kind. They allowed her to clean, to read, to study, and she spoke with Aes Sedai and Asha’man about her aspirations. She was quieter than perhaps they would have liked, though. The other children were put off by her shyness as well, but she didn’t mind.

It wasn’t until the Grey Tower was attacked that she began to draw close to someone. She met an Aes Sedai named Torianin that was very patient with her, but still got her to talk about what she liked. During the siege, Torianin protected Abby against her twin sister, who very nearly took both of them as prisoners. Even after that, the Aes Sedai would visit her to check in on her, and still chatted with her until she was relocated to the Mar siolin’an. It wasn’t very long after that that Torianin Sedai made an unexpected visit in the middle of the day to announce that she was adopting Abby.

Abby thrived in Torianin's care. She was able to visit the Library, as long as she respected the Browns' books, she took classes with Aes Sedai on occasion, and discovered a love of history. Her life was stable, her new mother teaching her the best she knew how, sharing with her her own story. Over the years, many other Aes Sedai, and even some Asha'man pushed for Abby to be tested for the ability to channel. Torianin firmly told them that she would only be tested when she was ready. After five years, Abby finally found it within herself to ask for that test. Torianin was happy to find that Abby could be taught, and she was enrolled as a novice that day.

Career History

• Westlander (26 August 2016)
• Novice (24 April 2018)