Desandre Casban

For use in: General RPs, or sitter.
Name: Desandre Casban (NSW)
Place of Birth/Raising: A small town by the western border of Amadicia (on the Amadicia side), and then a small village on the Tarabon side from the age of 16.
Age: 210
Physical Description: Desandre is an imposing woman in that she seems to stand a head or so taller than many of her peers. At 5’10’’, Desandre is most definitely a tall woman, and she knows full well how to use her height to intimidate other people, particularly those she is Healing – or attempting to Heal, as is often the case. She is thin and lithe, weighing only 150 lbs at most, and has a graceful quality to her movements that speaks of many years of walking with a book on her head as a young girl. Her posture is impeccable, and when she walks she seems to glide rather than walk, almost as though she is dancing from place to place instead of simply moving. She stands poised, with her shoulders back and her body straight, as though she is daring others to get in her way. She has long arms and legs that are thin, and not especially muscled. Her fingers are long and the tips of them are callused from playing the harp, perhaps her only hobby. She has no visible scars or blemishes, mostly due to the fact that she is even headed enough to avoid situations where she could become injured, and has always bonded a good Warder when she bonded at all. Her ears are pierced, and she is fond of elaborate earrings – among other things.
Desandre’s neck is long and swan-like and serves to make her seem taller than she is. Her face is finely boned, much like the rest of her. She has high cheekbones and a fine jaw that make her look delicate. A small, slightly upturned nose sits in the center of an oval face, unobtrusively there. High arched eyebrows are thin and rest above cool blue eyes. Her lashes, the same dark brown as her hair, are a deep contrast to the pale, creamy colour of her skin. She wears cosmetics, but she has been alive long enough to know how to properly apply it – she wears it, but applies it so delicately that it looks as though she isn’t wearing any at all. Her lips are thin and slightly down-turned, giving her a superior look. She rarely smiles, but when she does it looks forced. She has dark chestnut hair that falls in thick waves to the middle of her back, when it is loose. However, Desandre wears it, more often than not, in some elaborate hairstyle or another; she loves nothing better than to sit around for an afternoon and experiment. She rarely leaves her room without beads, gems, or flowers at least braided into her hair, though usually she does something more elaborate than that.
Desandre favors fancy, attention-drawing dresses in pale colours such as pastels. Light silks and meshes make up most of her wardrobe, the dresses all cut appropriately and fashionably – though she has dresses in fashions from her days as a Novice, Accepted, and a young Aes Sedai as well, tucked at the back. They are mostly made up of light, impractical fabrics that do not last very long or stand up under rough handling. However, these are her ‘public’ dresses; when she is working in the infirmary or travelling she has a more practical set of sturdy clothes, still fashionable. She doesn’t care if those get bloodstained or dirty. Most of her dresses are pale pink, green, blue, and yellow, but there are the occasional bright red and blues thrown in for when she is feeling adventurous. She never wears white; almost thirty years in the colour made her more than a little sick of it.
== Character History ==
Desandre was the only daughter of Alysindra and Garth Casban, the middle of four other brothers. Her two older brothers, Admer and Daved were both much older than her – six years between Desandre and Daved – due to her parents apparent inability to have more children, but once Desandre was born her two younger brothers, Jarid and Thad, closely followed. The youngest three children were closest in their youth due to their similarity in age, and it was clear from a young age that Desa was quite a little leader. She was the one who led the games of tag and hide and seek, and when her brothers decided they wanted to play Children against Darkfriends, she would willingly play the maiden that the evil Darkfriend had kidnapped. She was a rather mature young lady as well; she would accept responsibility for her actions, usually, and usually kept herself and her brothers out of trouble. Her parents weren’t sure if she was keeping out of trouble or if she wasn’t getting caught, but to them it didn’t really matter; as long as an annoyed neighbor didn’t show up at their door with their children in tow, they were happy.
As she grew older, though, Desa began to grow away from her brothers. At twelve or so she’d finally decided that boys were gross and discovered the world of dresses, cosmetics, and hairstyles. She had her mother would spend hours beautifying themselves, which was their bonding time. She learned a lot during these hours, and not all of it was things she was supposed to know. For example her father, who was a hedge-doctor, was often helped by his wife in secret – a huge secret for someone living in Amadicia. Desa wasn’t stupid, and she knew that if she, or anyone else, let that slip that it would probably be the end of their family. If her mother wasn’t arrested by the Children, one of the villagers would burn their house down. She also knew that she would have done the same if she hadn’t been related to her mother; however, because she was related to her mother, she knew that she couldn’t be a Tar Valon witch. Could she?
Of course she couldn’t be. These weren’t the only secrets young Desa learned, but it was this secret that weighed on her mind the most. She had no particular interest in herbs herself, but she did find it fascinating that her mother did. She wasn’t sure if it was a genuine interest or a form of rebellion; it had always been a well-known fact that Alysindra didn’t really approve of the Children of the Light, as she dismissed them as over-zealous. However, Desa didn’t think that her mother was stupid enough to rebel in such a dangerous manner, which meant that it was genuine interest. If she was that interested, though, why didn’t she convince Garth to move from the country? They were close to the border; close enough that moving wouldn’t be much of a hardship for the family. However, she was still young, and did not spend much time speculating, and instead mentioned the idea to her mother in passing.
Her father agreed to the idea when she was sixteen, and they moved to Tarabon that year, much to the annoyance of her Jarid and Thad, who both were reluctant to move – they had all of their friends in their small village. However, the move turned out to be a thing of fortune, at least for Desandre. They were hardly settled into their new home when an ageless woman and a dangerous man arrived in the town and took a room at the new inn; Desa recognized them for what they were instantly, her mind full of childhood tales that portrayed Aes Sedai as the ultimate evil. However, this so-called witch didn’t look too bad, and so she decided that she would get a closer look. After all, what could it harm? She snuck into the inn on the pretense of an errand for her mother, and was disappointed to find that she couldn’t see them in the common room. She was turning to leave when she walked straight into the man – warder. He was quite intimidating, and she nearly ran right then, but forced herself to stay put. After all, he couldn’t be that evil if he hadn’t killed her yet, and she figured a few more moments wouldn’t hurt. If he was going to kill her, he would, and if he was, he wouldn’t. Unfortunately, sticking around attracted the attention of the woman he was traveling with. The Aes Sedai smiled and asked politely if she’d like to be tested. For what, Desa wasn’t sure, but she agreed to it anyway. Of course, when she was asked to stare into the depths of a clear diamond, she couldn’t help but wonder if this woman was setting her up for one of the famed Aes Sedai mind tricks... and then it flashed, weakly. Desa stared at it, and broke into tears right at the table when the Aes Sedai, Rhyne Sedai, informed her that she could channel. She didn’t want to believe it, but on some level she knew that it was true and besides, she knew that Rhyne Sedai’s warder was perfectly capable of physically carrying her all the way to the White Tower if he had to. She was allowed to go home to explain to her parents, the Aes Sedai in tow, and wasn’t surprised when her parents promptly disowned her. They were kind enough to give her a chance to pack, and then she and her bags were put out of the house.
The journey to the Tower and her first few days as a Novice were spent in shocked silence, as Desa tried to absorb all that had happened. It was on the fourth morning, when she was woken by a second Novice arriving in the room she’d been given, that she truly realized that she was a Novice of the White Tower. If she’d arrived at the Tower a year previous, she would have rebelled – she would have ran, or something. But now she wasn’t so sure; she was more practical than that. She had no place to go if she ran, and she supposed that if she had the ability, it would make sense to use it. So she threw herself whole-heartedly into the whole business of being a Novice. She was no stranger to hard work, as her family had hardly been well off, and she caught up quickly on her education. Even so, it took her ten years in Novice white before she was even given a chance at her Arches.
She refused them the first time. Her fears were too great, and she didn’t believe herself ready. For, unbeknownst to anyone, she had been fighting off fears of rejection for ten years. Even at twenty-six she was worried that the Tower would not accept her, and not because of her birth but rather because of her lack of ability. On some level she wanted them to send her away because she wouldn’t ever have the ability to become Aes Sedai, because then she would be able to go home to her family again, but even deeper than that she knew that she wanted to become Aes Sedai. However, these conflicting emotions led to a rather confused little girl, and it took several talks with a young Yellow Sister before she had the courage to attempt her Arches a second time. The young Sister took several sessions to work out Desa’s self-confidence issues, but when she was finished a strong, mature young woman entered her Arches.
Unfortunately, the sudden increase in self-confidence caused her interest in her studies to diminish suddenly, and she spent her first few years as an Accepted completely unproductively. She did not study more than she needed to, and failed her classes more often than not. Chores were done only well enough to be deemed barely acceptable, and she began acting more like a young Novice rather than an Accepted. However, more discussions with the Yellow Sister who had helped her forced her back on track – unfortunately, three years of her life were wasted in this manner. She spent a large amount of time in front of the Mistress of Novices, and in her second year as an Accepted she spent six months at the Farm for channeling inappropriately.
After thirteen years as an Accepted, it was no surprise when Desa chose the Yellow Ajah upon her Raising. She had been showing the tendencies of a Healer since her Arches, especially after she’d decided to apply herself again. She would spend a large amount of her free time in the Infirmary, tagging along in the vain hope of picking up some Healing weaves. Her interest in them was mostly borne from the fact that they were considered some of the most difficult weaves a woman could learn, and what was even better was that she seemed to show some sort of an aptitude for them. What came easily to her was very difficult for many of her peers, in the area of Healing, while she was hopeless at things that involved Fire or Earth.
As a Sister of the Yellow Ajah, Desa proved again and again that she was a skilled Healer; she quickly earned herself a name as a kind, self-aware young woman who had a special skill with children. She was adept at calming people, and her bedside manner was definitely better than many of her Sisters. Unfortunately, she also had a knack for getting herself into trouble; whenever she left the Tower, it seemed, she got herself into some mess or another. Eventually she was told that it was probably best to remain in the Tower, and she agreed at the time. She was still young, only about a hundred or so, and had lost her first Warder, Canler. She took it hard, and spent much of her time seclusion after that. She rarely left the Tower after that, and instead focused on inter-Ajah relations. She became more adept at the Great Game, not as skilled as a Gray or Blue sister but most definitely skilled for someone of her level, particularly when it came to playing with Aes Sedai. She was a levelheaded young woman, and as she grew older she regained her name as a strong, reliable Sister. It was no surprise, then, when she was chosen for the position of Sitter at the age of 195.
Category:Biographies
Category:White Tower Bios
Category:Yellow Ajah Bios
Category:NSW
Category:WT NSW Bios