Erlene Hortencia

Name (first and last) of this character: Erlene Hortencia 
State whether this is a Traditional or a Salidar character: traditionalAge of this character * (Traditional = 14-19 / Salidar = 20-70): 16Name of country where this character is from: Murandy
AppearanceHair: strawberry blonde and tightly curled 
Eyes: peacock blueSkin: fairHeight: average (5 feet 2 inches)Voice (low? high? any other characteristics? ie what does she sound like): low and richOther: 
OptionalSpecial Skills: can read Old Tongue, but not speak it and was an apprentice cookKnowledge Weakness: believes everything she reads is truePhysical Weakness: a love of good food and winePersonality Weakness: has a hard time asking for help
Personality: Typical of Murandians, Erlene has a full bodied temper once she gets going, and it takes very little to provoke it. But she is twice as quick to smile and laugh, grudges and old arguments forgotten seconds later. She is loud both in expressing joy and anger.
 
Growing up the daughter of a lord’s pet scholar she has an intense respect and love of books-perhaps putting too much faith in them. She loves to dance and flirt-fully aware of how her budding body draws the male eye. She is uncomfortable with the idea of running around with her hair uncovered, and often reaches up to adjust a hair scarf that isn’t there. She has a habit of keeping her eyes closed when recalling events.
History:
Born to a cook and scholar, Erlene had an unconventional childhood as far as most Murandians are concerned. She grew up running through the local lord’s fortified mansion being educated along with the lord’s sons at her father’s insistence (he had been hired to tutor the lord’s sons and stayed on as a secretary). She spent most of her younger years immersed in books and became enchanted with the idea of starring in a gleeman’s tale. As she grew, her mother began to teach her how to run a kitchen in a large estate.
She was thirteen when her life began to fall apart. Her mother died from a pox during the winter and war came to her home that spring. The war raged for years, though she and her father were spared the worst of it living on the estate. She watched as the old lord died in battle; slowly followed by his sons over three separate years.
The new lord was nothing like the man she had grown up with. He was debauched and kept her father on only so that he could try to gain Erlene’s affections without marrying her. Her father and she quickly picked up on this, fleeing to the one place her father had always wanted to see: Tar Valon.
The city was everything the books had said it would be, and Erlene was enchanted. Her father found a job working in one of the money houses and the two of them took a suite of rooms in a permanent boarding house. She was in the market when a woman with the ageless look she was coming to recognize approached her. She was told that she needed to go to the Tower right then. Fearing she had done something wrong, she tried to tell the woman she would go first thing in the morning or as soon as she could tell her father where she was. Booking no nonsense, the Aes Sedai practically frog-marched her to the Tower.
Erlene was practically shaking by the time things were explained to her about how they thought she would be able to channel the one power someday and that all the Aes Sedai wanted to do was a simple test. Curiosity overcoming the small bit of lingering fear, she agreed to the testing. The Aes Sedai placed a green gem the size of her palm in her hands and covered them with her own. She did everything the Aes Sedai asked-concentrating on her voice and imagining a blooming flower. She watched as a faint light flashed in the gem before going out and coming again. Slowly, she thought she felt something-something bright and joyous flashing in her before going out.
Disappointed, she gave the gem back to the Aes Sedai convinced that she had failed whatever the test was. Surprisingly, there was a smile on the other woman’s face. “Congratulations, you’ve touched the source for the first time.” They were the words that truly changed her life forever. Her name was written in the Novice Book and a letter was hastily scrawled explaining everything to her father.
Category:Novice Bios