Verdan Shaokere

Verdan Shaokere
ver-DAN shou-KEER
Created by	James Waag
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Soldier
Affiliation	The Grey Tower
Nationality	Caralain Grass
Attributes
OP Strength	5.6

Verdan Shaokere is a Soldier of the Grey Tower from the Caralain Grass.

Description

Personality: Verdan loves to read, and often gets lost in thought. He is an "outside the box" thinker as well. He has difficulty remembering things, unless it is something that draws his interest. He also has a penchant for being completely oblivious as to his surroundings.

Appearance: Verdan is about five feet tall. He has dark hair and gray-blue eyes. His skin is tanned from both farmwork and travelling. His hands shake when he works with things that require dexterity.

Biography

Verdan Shaokere was born and raised in a small village in the Caralain grass. He inherited a large amount of farmland, and grew rather wealthy from selling his crops to traders on their way to Tar Valon. He used much of this wealth to buy books, as he enjoyed reading. After a time, he grew bored as the merchants passing through would either have few books, or would not sell them in the hopes of obtaining higher prices from brown sisters in Tar Valon. Dissapointed, Verdan sold his crops and land in exchange for a large amount of letters of rights, and began a trek to the nearest stedding.

It was there that he met an ogier named Arent son of Halon son of Gelnid. Verdan and Arent soon took to discussing theoretical matters. Verdan stayed at the stedding for a while, until one day Arent brought up the subject of heroes and heroism. Arent said that heroes from books were all well and good, but that he wondered if there were any actual heroes in that day and age. After a time, Verdan and Arent decided to travel together to see if they could find an actual hero.

After a time, they went to Amador, where they met a Whitecloak named Beranden, who travelled with two Whitecloak initiates named Damid and Dagren. Beranden had met Ogier before becoming a Whitecloak, and agreed to let Verdan and Arent travel with them. After helping them apprehend a "darkfriend," Arent and Verdan decided that the Whitecloaks were not heroes, and parted ways with them.

While traveling to the borderlands, Arent and Verdan came across a bandit named Ondrue. After some discussion, it became clear that Ondrue had once been a very skilled blacksmith, but had become a bandit because he wanted to be famous. Verdan convinced Ondrue that it would be better to try to become famous as a hero instead of as a bandit, and Ondrue decided to travel with them.

While in the south of Kandor, Verdan and company came across a woman who called herself Orphea Parthin. Orphea at first claimed to be the world’s first gleewoman, but eventually admitted that her lute and her patched cloak were both stolen. However, she did actually want to be a gleewoman, and decide to travel with them because it looked like it would make a good story.

In northern Kandor, they finally found an actual hero, a wolfbrother named Forzik. It was here that Arent and Ondrue parted ways with Verdan and Orphea, Arent because he wanted to study an actual hero, and Ondrue because he felt that he could still be famous as a hero’s sidekick. Verdan said that his journeys until then might make him qualify as a hero, but Orphea insisted that he was a "not-quite hero." After a bit of quibbling, Verdan decided to embrace the title.

After Verdan tried fruitlessly to obtain an authoritative book on shadowspawn from a Kandori library, Orphea agreed to steal one for him. However, she stole the book from a brown sister named Parista, who later spotted the book in Verdan’s possession. Verdan and Orphea subsequently fled Kandor.

While in Andor, Verdan came across one of Taim’s early recruiting parties, where Verdan tested positive for channeling ability. However, before Verdan could be taken to the Black Tower, two red sisters showed up and Verdan and Orphea left in the confusion.

They later went to Caemlyn, where Orphea discreetly discovered the conditions in the Black Tower, and informed Verdan of those conditions, at which point Verdan decided not to go train there. He also discovered, by accident, that Orphea was an assumed name, and that his companion was actually the legendary thief "Silvereyes." Uncomfortable at the thought of traveling with someone who knew her identity, Orphea parted ways with Verdan.

Some time later, Verdan managed to run afoul of some dragonsworn. However, he managed to escape with the aid of a huntress for the horn named Noriko Shaijin. Verdan and Noriko traveled together for some time, but eventually parted ways. It was around that time that Verdan heard about the Gray Tower, and decided to go there and finally learn to channel.

Possessions upon entering the Tower:

- A power-wrought stiletto that Orphea gave him as a parting gift. It has a silver eye added to the hilt-guard in enamel.
- A backsword, well made but not power-wrought. It was made by Ondrue as a parting gift, and has an inscription that says "For my good friend Verdan, who is not quite a hero. May he use it for feats that are almost heroic in nature."
- A black cloak that is the perfect shade of gray for fading into the shadows. Was a parting gift from Orphea.
- A book that has "The Adventures of the Not-Quite Heroes, By Arent son of Halon son of Gelnid" written on the front in large handwriting.
- A book titled "The Encyclopedia of Shadowspawn." Someone has almost succeeded in obliterating the words "Property of the White Tower" from the inside cover. Almost.
- A book with "The Continued Adventures of the Not-Quite Heroes, By Verdan Shaokere" written on the front cover in handwriting that is almost completely illegible. The handwriting inside isn’t any better.
- A book entitled "Lost Arts of the Age of Legends."
- A book entitled "An In-Depth Study of the War of Power and the Breaking."
- A book entitled "The Hundred-Years War and Its Long-Term Ramifications."
- A book entitled "An In-Depth Study of the Trolloc Wars and Its Aftermath." It is by the same author as the "War of Power and the Breaking" book.
- A book entitled "A study of Aiel Humor." It was written by an ogier.
- A book entitled "The Creator, the Dark One, and the Pattern: An Examination of Philosophy."
- A book entitled "Nations of the Westlands."
- A book entitled "An Outsider’s View on Aes Sedai."
- A book entitled "The Exploits of Silvereyes."
- Various letters of rights, worth a total of 15 gold crowns.
- 4 silver pennies.
- 1 silver crown.
- A silver bracelet with a blue crystal on it that Noriko gave him as a parting gift.
- A title-less book filled with nearly illegible handwriting.

Career History

• Soldier