Mandira Cantlin

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Mandira Cantlin
man-dee-rah cant-lin
Created by Adanys
Information
Nickname(s) Mandi
Gender Female
Occupation Novice
Affiliation The Grey Tower
Nationality Andoran
Attributes
OP Strength 4.5
Affinities Spirit, Water, Air, Fire/Earth

Mandira Cantlin is an Andoran Novice of the Grey Tower.

Description

Mandira, or Mandi, Cantlin used to be a bubbly, carefree girl who loved nothing more than to dance in the rain. She was a painter, and more often than not, her pieces included rain, clouds, river, dew, or some other form of water. Rain, thunder, and lightning were her favorite thing, and she felt an immense peace and contentment during a rain. Until her parents were murdered during thunderstorm that is.

Now Mandi is withdrawn, and thunder and lightning set her on edge. She has withdrawn from the few friends she had, and painting is the only way she releases any of her emotions. Despite having lived with her aunt, uncle, and their two girls for two years, she was never very close with them.

She discovered she had a knack for helping sick or injured people. She’s not good at being a source of emotional support, but she can keep calm and focused in a crisis and this seems to help those she’s helping. These situations always take a lot out of her, because subconsciously she’s still trying to heal her father, or make up for not being able to save him. And she believes that finding out who killed her parents is what will finally give her closure.

Mandi has long brown hair that she usually wears pinned up and pulled back. She has a soft, round face, with large brown eyes, and a small nose. She has a habit of biting at her lower lip when she's feeling self conscious or anxious. Standing at 5’3”, she doesn’t cut a very imposing figure. She has a full bust and hips, and she does her best not to draw attention to them, often dressing in plain clothes and muted colors. Her somber expression and sad eyes often make her look older than her 22 years.

Biography

Mandira Cantlin stepped outside and looked up at the nearly black sky. The thunderheads had finally rolled in and she could hear thunder rumbling softly. She grinned and spun around with her arms outstretched. It was going to rain. She turned her gaze to the road, and on a distant hill, she could see a wagon approaching. It seemed as though her parents were back early. Humming to herself, she headed to the barn and prepared the stalls for the horses, putting down fresh hay and checking on their water.

As she stepped out of the barn, she could no longer see the wagon. Odd, that they hadn’t cleared the last hill yet. She pursed her lips and glanced up at the dark sky just as lightning flashed. She shrugged and jogged down the road to meet her parents. As she ran, the first droplets of rain began to fall, she laughed and ran faster. She crested a hill and her heart nearly stopped. In fact, it might as well have.

At the bottom of the hill, 50 feet in front of her, was a disaster. The wagon was stopped in the middle of the road, but her parents weren’t on it. Instead, they were lying 10 feet away from it, motionless. She could see the blood from here. Letting out a strangled cry, she flew down the hill and threw herself down next to her mother.

“Mama! Mama! What happened? Please, Mama, speak to me!” she sobbed and picked up her mother’s limp hand. Selenia didn’t move. Mandi couldn’t make herself look at the wound in her mother’s stomach. Thunder crashed again and the rain fell harder, but she didn’t notice. “Mama, please,” she begged, “you have to wake up!” She heard a faint groaning from her right, from her father!

She choked on a sob and scrambled towards him, putting his head in her lap. “Papa! Papa! Who did this to you?” She stroked his face gently.

His eyes opened and he looked at her. “My dear girl, I’m so sorry. So very sorry.” His hand clasped hers in a firm grip. “We never meant to leave you all alone in the world. But there were two of them, both mad, and we couldn’t stop them. There was nothing we could do..” his voice trailed off weakly. He gasp and shuddered, his eyes sliding shut.

“NO!” Mandi yelled, clasping his face in her hands. “No, Papa! No! You can not die! Do you hear me? I can’t go on without you!” She wailed but continued to beg him to be okay, to not die. Every ounce of her begged for him not to die. She willed him to get better, to be okay, to stay with her.

Her father suddenly gasped and his eyes shot open, his back arching. He looked up at her, eyes clear again. His body relaxed and he smiled softly. “I love you so much, sweetheart, I want you to know that, never forget how much we love you.” Elwin’s body relaxed completely and she saw the life drain from his eyes, a soft smile still on his face.

Mandi wailed up at the sky as the thunder continued to crash. She felt a piece of her die right alongside her parents.


Mandi set her paintbrush down and swiped a strand of hair from her face when she heard her aunt, Norah, call up the stairs that dinner was ready. Wiping her hands, she looked at the canvas in front of her. Harsh slashes of reds, golds, and browns seemed to shout up at her. Her landscape was all angles and corners, and hidden in those lines was an orange fox. It was staring straight at her, and she couldn’t tear her eyes away. She had somehow managed to make the creature look menacing. She had not intended for this picture to come out looking as fierce as it had; in fact, she hadn’t even known what she wanted to paint when she had started it two hours ago. Once she had a brush in her hand, or even just some paint right on her fingers, it was impossible to direct her hands. Her mind and her heart took over, slapping colors onto the canvas in a near frenzy. Not having someone to confide in often left her feeling like lightning in a bottle. And if she couldn’t paint her pent up words and feelings and emotions, she was afraid she was going to explode and hurt those around her.

“That picture looks so violent,” her aunt said softly, suddenly behind her. Mandi hadn’t even heard her come up. She was about to defend her piece when the sounds of shouting from the street filtered into the attic. She whipped around and followed Norah, who was already dashing down the stairs.

A woman was pulling a cart down the street, shouting for the doctor. A crowd was already gathering around her, trying to peer inside the cart. Mandi elbowed her way towards the woman, growling at a few people who obstinately continued to crowd around the cart. “Madam, what is it you need? I might be able to help. I’m Doctor Laryn’s assistant.” Everyone called him Doctor Laryn, but as far as she knew, he’d never received any official training, he was just good at helping people.

The woman glanced at her, then around at the crowd which was now backing off at Norah’s insistence. Finally, she set the cart down and wailed, “He’s bleeding bad, miss. You have to help him. There’s so much blood.” The woman crumpled to the ground, Norah rushing forward and wrapping her arms around the sobbing woman.

Mandi stepped up to the cart, feeling her breath steady. Two years had passed since her parents had been killed. She still grieved their loss, still felt her father’s life drain out of his body, still had nightmares of them lying on the road. So she’d been as surprised as anyone when she’d hired herself out to Doctor Laryn 6 months ago. She’d always liked helping people, and as it turned out, she had a knack helping sick and injured people. As well as keeping them calm it seemed, for she often felt more attuned to her patients and what they needed the more hysterical they were, or the more desperately they needed her care.

She quickly assessed the man in the cart, the woman’s husband most likely, and determined his leg needed her immediate attention. Tearing the pants away, she saw a rough gash at least 5 inches long and most likely deep enough to have reached bone. He had severed an artery and was losing blood quickly. She felt the calm fill her and she willed the blood to stop pouring from the man, even as her hands were tearing a strip of fabric from his shirt and pressing it to his leg. The commotion around her drained away, and the quiet inside her deepened. Her hands continued to work, and the blood slowed, slowed, and then stopped entirely. The man shuddered, and Mandi wrapped his leg tightly. Only then did she glance up. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw a boy running back with the doctor close behind. He glanced over her work, patted her shoulder, and climbed in beside the man, digging in his bag for his tools.

Mandi assisted him and helped get the man stable enough to move. Once they were done, the doctor told her she’d done good and to take a break. She gratefully backed away and collapsed onto the nearest porch, trembling. As the crowd died away, a tall red-haired man stepped towards her. She’d only seen an Aiel once before, but she was sure this man was an Aiel. He was very tall, at least a full foot taller than her, and she found herself shrinking back slightly. When he spoke, he sounded friendly. "I came here to test a young man to channel, but it seems you need no such test. I come from a place that can teach you what you need."

Career History

  • Novice (5 June 2018)