Virya Fandin

Virya Fandin
Ver-ya Fan-din
Created by	Bridget
Information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah
Affiliation	The Grey Tower
Nationality	Altaran
Attributes
Talents	Stretching Shields ✦✦ Dreaming ✦✦
Masteries	Weave Mastery (Unweaving)
OP Strength	3.0
Affinities	Spirit, Earth, Air, Water, Fire

Virya Fandin is an Altaran Blue Oathsworn Aes Sedai of the Grey Tower.

Description

Virya is a tall woman, and towers over most. Her posture is impeccable, and she rather enjoys looking down her nose at others. She wears her snow white hair in no-nonsense buns; Virya keeps her hair long, but prefers to keep it out of her face. Her brown eyes tend to be piercing and calm. Her face is long and oval shaped, and her slightly hooked nose reminds some of birds. Virya’s mouth is small, but prone to sarcastic little smiles. She is not a beauty, but her face is lively and interesting. Virya wears every color under the sun, both muted and bright, except for Red; as demanded by her Ajah. Instead she wears a plethora of red gemstones, which look extremely out of place on her fingers, neck, and hair. She is not a woman who tends to wear jewelry, which makes her gaudy gemstones even more of a statement.

In fact, she perhaps would have chosen the Red if the option had existed in her youth. Although she has a strong sense of justice, it has never been personal. Instead of seeking a cause in her younger days as an Aes Sedai, when she dispensed justice as often as she could, Virya simply followed the letter of the law. She has perhaps become more of a Blue in her old age, and has embraced the cause of pushing the Grey Tower towards change and flexibility. She has a deep well of patience inside of her, although Virya no longer curbs her tongue. She is witty and acerbic, and more than willing to say the sort of things that most would not even think in polite company. Virya is hard working, and has a deeply entrenched sense of duty to the world, and to all channelers, not just the Tower.

She has little tolerance for stupidity or incompetence. Ever since becoming Aes Sedai, she has had no problem pointing out those traits in those below her. Now as the Keeper, Virya is more than willing to tell all Aes Sedai and even Sitters when they are being idiots. She is frank to the point of cruelty, and has never bothered with Aes Sedai word games.

Biography

Virya was born to a member of the Kin, in Altara. From her birth, she was surrounded by saidar. Her life was a simple one, in her youngest years; she simply followed the directions of her mother and all of her aunts. She was happy, for the most part, and even happier when her mother declared she was old enough to learn to channel the One Power. Virya took to it like a duck to water, and found great joy in learning. Saidar was her pride and joy, and she was a prideful young girl. It was this folly that caused her to find herself in novice white. While in a nearby town to barter for supplies, Virya could not help but brag to a gorgeous young boy of the feats she could accomplish. She wanted to impress him, for she knew that she was no beauty, and channeled for him.

But an Aes Sedai saw as well, and there was nothing the Kin could do. In the back of her mind, Virya understood that; that to help her would reveal the existence of the Kin, that it had been Virya’s own fault that she was being dragged away by the ear. But she was only seventeen years old, and it was a long time until she was able to forgive her mother and her aunts.

The White Tower was not a pleasant place for Virya. With the Kin, she had known everyone, and they had known her. In the White Tower, unpleasant Aes Sedai would not give her the time of day. They insisted on calling her a wilder, even though she was nothing of the sort. She stayed a novice just long enough for her tendency to argue and talk back to be beaten out of her; the education Virya had received with the Kin was more than comparable to that of a novice. For that, she was a curiosity to the Aes Sedai; Virya had been forced to claim that it was her mother who taught her, until her mother had passed away in childbirth, leaving her to the care of her aunts. It was not a very good lie, but she was young, and presumed to be slightly traumatized. In any case, most Aes Sedai were more interested in the little weaves she could perform that they had never seen before, and not her slightly suspect story.

Life as an Accepted was eye opening for Virya. With her new free time, she was able to finally see the advantages of becoming Aes Sedai. In her mind, the power and respect given to an Aes Sedai more than made up for what she knew would be a diminished lifespan. For all that she had grown up wanting to be a member of the Kin, the Kin would never have the influence of an Aes Sedai. Virya found that she was able to more easily accept many things, like the general stupidity of most Aes Sedai, to acquire that influence.

She was raised to Aes Sedai ten years later. For Virya, it had been a test of her endurance, and she took to being an Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah quickly and gratefully. She left the White Tower quickly, having no more patience for Tower politics, and a driving desire to see the world. Virya spent many years traveling, righting small wrongs. She quickly proved herself to have an unbreakable respect in the law, which she followed to the letter wherever she went. During her travels, Virya eventually returned to Altara to visit the Kin. Her approach was met with tension, but her reunion with her mother soothed it. She spent a few years there, and it was her mother who taught her that she had a talent for Dreaming. It was her dreams, flavored with foretelling, that taught her that it was not the world that needed fixing, by means of settling small disputes, but the Tower itself.

It was the White Tower that was rigid, unchanging, and often stupid. Virya returned, older and the wiser for it, after more than sixty years away. It was years before she admitted to herself that the White Tower would not change, and perhaps was incapable of it. Her dreams and her own intellect suggested the Grey, but it took another year for Virya to take that plunge.

At the Grey Tower, it was a few years before the Blues accepted her as one of their own. She swore the Three Oaths once more, and selected the Blue Ajah for the second time; this time, it fit her much better. It took her some time to reach a position of influence, due to her unconventional arrival and lack of strength in the One Power. But Virya did not give up, and used her talent of Dreaming to further her aims and and eventually claim a seat in the Hall of Sitters after a little over twenty years. The position of power did wonders for her personality; no longer did she hide behind patience and tight lips. Her dry wit shone through, and brought some measure of quiet laughter to her closest friends and allies, as well as a little humiliation to those that she did not hold in high esteem.

It was during her first year as a Sitter for the Blue that she first saw Carraidhin, a fiery haired novice. She dreamed of her for several nights, a brilliant backdrop of Red. It took a long time, well into Carraidhin’s first year as an Accepted, for Virya to finally suspect that her dreams meant that there must be a Red Ajah once more. Virya understandably took an interest in the girl after that, and made sure that thoughtful and well meaning Aes Sedai offered her lessons. She watched like a brooding hen as Carra quickly finished her little time as Accepted and took the test for the shawl. Virya was ready, and entered the Hall to fight for the girl and her Ajah.

She left Carra mostly to her own devices after that, although she did flaunt her support for the Red in the multitude of rubies and garnets she wore. She continued to support the Red in the Hall, to the best of her ability; the Blue would not stand for a true alliance with the Red, no matter that it was not the Red of old.

Virya was proud but unsurprised when Carra was raised to Amyrlin; her dreams had caused her to suspect as much. But she was surprised when Carra selected her as her Keeper, although the choice made clear sense to her in retrospect. Although Virya has become accustomed to seeing history unfold in her dreams and in the waking world, she is more than willing to become part of history herself.

Career History

• Novice
• Accepted
• Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah