Viviana di Corra

For use in: General purpose RPs.
Name: Viviana di Corra (NSW)
Age: 252
= Character History =
Born the unexpected seventh child to an elderly couple, Werner and Liselle di Corra, Viviana grew up to be a thoughtful, quiet child. Her brothers and sisters were all much older then she was, the youngest next to her being nearly thirteen when Viv was born. So at age four, when her sister left the house to work as a maid at one of the neighbouring farms, Viviana was the only child in the house.
Her parents loved Viviana very much, but they were not used to young children anymore. So from a very early age on they talked to Viv like she was an adult. They involved her in many important decisions and slowly, as her parents got older and less vital, Viviana took over the household from her mother. The night for her fourteenth birthday her father fell ill. He had fallen from the ladder a week ago, when he was trying to fix the roof. Already a few weeks before that fall he had been complaining about sudden feelings of dizziness, and how his eyesight was blurred at times. After his fall he became more absentminded and started to forget many things. After dinner he would sit in his chair and fall a sleep, the night before her fourteenth birthday Viv tried to wake her father up because there was a neighbour to see him. But her father wouldn’t wake. Viviana started to panic, until her father opened one eye, and then the other one. Relieved Viv started to tell about the neighbour, and how he wanted to talk to him. Her father didn’t seem to understand as he started to speak with a slurred tongue. His words didn’t make any sense to her, and fear engulfed Viv. There was something terribly wrong with her father.
The neighbour had quickly gotten the town’s wisdom, which arrived within minutes. She entered the room and knelt next to Werner. She spoke a few words, looked at his eyes and shook her head. “There is nothing I can do for him anymore.” She said. Liselle started crying hysterically and pulled Viv against her chest. The wisdom gently opened Liselle’s grasp and gave Viviana a potion to give to her mother. It almost instantly sent Liselle to sleep. Then the elderly woman sat down at the kitchen table and looked solemnly at Viv. She explained that her father would die soon, and that there was nothing they could do except for making his last days as comfortable as possible.
And so it happened that Viviana at age fourteen took complete care of her father and mother. Liselle had collapsed completely at the thought of loosing her beloved husband. The wisdom came every day to give Werner something against the pain, until after six days he drew his last breath and died. Liselle couldn’t cope with the fact that Werner was now really gone, and in her mourning she pulled out all her hair and torn her clothes. The day of her father’s burial Viviana came down and found her mother bleeding next to her father’s coffin. Liselle had cut her wrists. The wisdom did all she could, but Liselle had lost too much blood. She died two days later. So at age fourteen and two weeks Viviana di Corra was an orphan.
She spent a few months with the Wisdom, learning about all kinds of sicknesses, both of the body and of the mind. But it wasn’t her destiny, Viviana could feel that. So when her brother sent a letter that she could come and visit him, Viv took the chance with both hands. She thanked the wisdom profoundly, for the woman had been like a mother to her. Helping her deal with both her father’s and her mother’s death. Letting her realise that it was not in any way her fault.
The trip to her brother’s house was long and uneventful, but Viv enjoyed the change of scenery tremendously. Her brother and his wife were very nice to Viviana, they had four children, among them twin girls. The girls used to have each a room of their own, but they had generously offered to share a room so Viviana could have a place of her own. The next couple of months were like heaven to Viv, she didn’t have to do the entire household by herself, and her brother even encouraged her to join in on the lessons his children got. Viviana could read a bit before she arrived at her brother’s house. But after three months there she could read and write!
Time flew and before she knew it, it was the week before her fifteenth birthday. Viv had become a bit silent as she remembered the events of the year before. Her brother felt sorry for her, so he decided to take his little sister in to town. As her brother went to several shops to get his groceries, Viviana wandered through the small town. At the town’s square she saw a big group of people, who were shouting, and some even throwing eggs, sticks and stones, at a man in a cage on a cart pulled by two sturdy ponies. The man had a wild, crazy, look in his eyes and he was sitting perfectly still in his cage. Curious Viv made a path through the people to take a closer look. Suddenly the man jumped up and started to pull at the bars of the cage, he was yelling and spit at one of the women who walked next to the cart.
The woman didn’t seem to notice, her face remained completely unmoved. The only things she showed was pure determination and concentration. As the cart passed them the man started to throw some of the things thrown at him back at the audience. A stone just missed Viviana, who could do a step back just in time. But that caused her to step on the toes of the man behind her. She turned around to apologise, and almost jumped away. The man was tall and broad, and his eyes glittered with danger. “Watch where you’re going, girl.” He said, his voice low and dangerous. Viviana took another step back, and lost her balance. If it hadn’t been for the agile woman standing next to the man, she would have fallen in front of one of the ponies. The woman appeared out of nowhere and pulled Viviana away from the streets. Then she stepped in front of the man, and placed her hands in her side.
“You are such a jerk sometimes, David. Look at what you did; you scared the Light out of this girl. Light knows what Mirina would have done if this girl had fallen in front of those ponies. Now apologise to her.” All the time the woman with short blond hair was jabbing her finger in the mans stomach. Viv had been looking at the scene with open mouth, and as the man turned to her and apologised her mouth fell even wider open. She stammered an apology in return and looked at the man and woman with wide open eyes. The woman smiled and said, “Hello I am Brittany, and this grumpy looking man is David. He’s really nice once you know how to look past the chagrin on his face.” Viviana smiled back and told her name, then she asked if they knew why the man was in the cage.
Brittany and David exchanged some looks and David slowly spoke, his voice still low, but with a hint of friendliness in it. “That man is a male channeller. He completely destroyed a nearby town, killing seven people in the progress. The women you see surrounding him are Red Sisters, Aes Sedai from the White Tower specialised in capturing and bringing male channellers back to the Tower. They are keeping the man Shielded now, so he can do no harm anymore.”
Viviana listened carefully and she shivered as she glanced towards the man, she wondered if anyone here really realised how dangerous that man was. That last thought she voiced out loud, before Brittany or David could reply a beautiful woman spoke. “I doubt that anyone here can realise how big a danger we have shielded them from, child.” Her voice was warm and she smiled at Viv. Viv looked up the woman and suddenly felt very in awe. The woman didn’t seem very old, little grey streaks started to form in her hair, but the look in her eyes was much older then her body seemed. Next to Viviana David and Brittany bowed, “Mirina Sedai,” they said in unison. Not knowing exactly what to do, but inspired by David and Brittany’s bow, Viv curtsied to the woman.
“Good, I see your parents have taught you manners. That’s a thing I don’t see much lately. Where are they by the way?” Mirina Sedai asked. Viv explained how her parents had died the year before and that she was living at her brother’s house. The Aes Sedai nodded and exchanged a quick look with her Gaidin, because that was what Brittany and David were to her. Brittany looked thoughtful for a moment, but a smile broke through on her face when David slowly nodded. Brittany took a small pendant from her neck. The necklace had a green gem in it. She handed the necklace over to Mirina Sedai, who held it out on the palm of her hand towards Viviana. “Look at the stone, child. Try to look inside the stone. Concentrate!”
Viviana gazed at the stone, almost hypnotised by the beautiful green gem and Mirina’s voice. She had lost all her surroundings; the stone was the only thing she saw. She started to feel a bit dizzy and felt that she needed to blink, but some strange urgent feeling inside told her that it was very important that she kept on looking at the stone. Just as Viv knew she couldn’t look at the stone anymore a flash of light appeared to come from the middle of the gem. She abruptly lifted her head to look to Mirina Sedai who smiled. “That flash of light was yours, child. It means that you have the ability to learn how to channel inside you. But that is a thing you must learn at the White Tower. Will you come with me back to the Tower to learn?” the Sister said. Viv couldn’t do anything but gaze up to the Aes Sedai and slowly nod.
----
And so it came to pass that Viviana di Corra entered the White Tower as a Novice shortly after her fifteenth birthday. The Mistress of Novices at the time, Sabine Sedai, gave her Mirina as her mentor. The Green Sister, who had given Viv a short lesson on Tower history and the workings of the Ajahs on the way to the Tower, was a demanding but fair teacher. With her help and Viviana’s own determination Viv rose to the ranks of Accepted rather quickly. Once she had finished her Arches and the month of hard labour and chores after that, Viv asked Mirina if it was possible to train with the Warders. Mirina told her to be at the yards at sunrise the next morning, not knowing what to expect Viv arrived finding Brittany and David there. The two Gaidin trained her in stamina and strength for the next couple of weeks until she was fit enough to run for miles through the woods and do hundreds of push and pull ups afterward. Then they took her to the armory to choose her weapons of choice. Viviana selected the quarterstaff and daggers.
Over the years Viviana spent as Accepted she was in doubt on which Ajah she would choose. She highly respected Mirina Sedai, and the mission of the Green Ajah, but somehow it wasn’t her destiny. Her choice became crystal clear when about two years before her Raising Mirina Sedai returned to the Tower, from a mission, devastated. She had accompanied a group of Red Sisters in their pursuit of a runaway male channeller, who had been wreaking havoc in the country of Andor. As they had been trying to capture the man, he had lashed out with Saidin and killed Brittany and David as they protected their Sedai.
Every attempt Viv did to try and help Mirina failed, she didn’t know what to do anymore, until and older Green invited her over for tea and explained that all Mirina needed was time, and the knowledge that her minty was there for her if she needed her. As time went by Mirina recovered indeed, but she never returned to her old cheerful self. This experience made Viviana vow to dedicate her life in to stopping people from getting hurt by those crazy male channellers. She started to seek out the Red Ajah more and more, learning all she could about Saidin, the Taint, Shielding. It was no surprise for anyone when Viv chose the Red Ajah upon her Raising to Aes Sedai.
Over the decades that followed Viviana went on every mission involving run away male channellers. She has been involved in the capture, Shielding and Stilling of almost all male channellers since her Raising. She has seen men in all the various stages of madness, from men who seemed still completely sane, up to men who didn’t have a clue what they were doing and who they were. Though it had been hard, she has ignored all desperate pleas for mercy, and comforted men before and after their Stilling. She has nursed their festering wounds they had gotten from the Taint.
In the main timeline Viviana is a highly respected Sitter of the Red Ajah. She is one of the elder Sisters in the Ajah. Even though she knows that the Dragon Reborn needs to be able to channel at Tarmon Gaidon, she also feels that he cannot be let loose on the world without guidance. She was a firm supporter of the attempt on bringing the Dragon to the Tower, but she disagreed with the kidnapping attempt. She blames the Red Sister leading the party for the failure.
Category:Biographies
Category:White Tower Bios
Category:Red Ajah Bios
Category:NSW
Category:WT NSW Bios