Yavana Jordayne

**Yavana Jordayne** is the current **Lady of the Tor**. She was born to Trebor Jordayne and Meria of the Greenblood in 74 AC as the second child following a turbulent period of miscarriages and stillbirths.

Her elder brother Gerris died in the Fourth Dornish War and she has one sister, Yessa, who is presently her heir.

## Appearance and Character

Yavana is a reasonably tall woman, standing at 5'7" (5.583 cm) in height. Her dark brown hair is often worn long, and complements well the dark brown of her eyes. She has inherited the olive complexion of the Rhoynar from her late mother, and she carries herself with a slender yet buxom figure.

## History

### Early Life and Childhood

Yavana was born in 74 AC, the second child and first daughter of Lord Trebor Jordayne and his wife Meria of the Greenblood. A long period of unfortunate miscarriages and stillbirths had followed the birth of Gerris in 63 AC before Meria finally brought another healthy child to term.

As such, Yavana's birth resulted in a great deal of celebration around the Tor. A fortnight after she was born, a grand feast was held at the castle and another again on the girl's first nameday.

From an early age Yavana took a keen interest in her surroundings, particularly the flora around her family's keep. Naturally this was encouraged by her mother Meria and the castle's maester, who particularly enjoyed the young girl's enthusiasm. It was not, after all, every nobleborn child that wished to be educated on matters related to botany, and so the maester ensured that much time was set aside to nurture this particular interest. Hours upon hours were spent in the lands around the castle, and even into the desert on occasional, specially supervised excursions.

For a time her mother lived apart from the family, back home amongst those that had been her first family on the Greenblood. Meria had grown homesick for the river and the simple life of the orphans, and more than that she desired a more tranquil place in which to rest and recover after the tribulations that many failed pregnancies had brought to her body.

From 78 to 81 AC, House Jordayne provided fosterage to Doran Dalt, the heir to Lemonwood. Yavana's elder brother Gerris and Doran became fast friends, sharing interests in martial pursuits and in the pleasures of women. Many a day did their steel clang against one another in the training yard, the two young men frequently engaging in friendly competition (but each always wanting to best the other).

Yavana soon came to look upon Doran as a second older brother during this time. His ultimate departure back home to the other coast of their homeland came as an immense disappointment to the girl, by then seven years of age.

In 83 AC, tragedy struck House Jordayne. Gerris was felled in combat outside Skyreach during the Fourth Dornish War. In the stroke of a single day Yavana's life was changed - no longer was she the second child, but the heir to her family's legacy. Upon his return from the conflict Trebor was a shell of the man that had left, diminished in strength and will. Uncle Emric stepped to the forefront, taking on ever more duties.

Emric was not as indulgent of Rhoynish influence at the Tor as his lord brother, whose frequent withdrawals allowed the steward to expand his influence. Whenever Meria was away to visit with her kin on the Greenblood, Yavana was forbidden from speaking the Rhoynish phrases that her mother had been teaching her, causing the girl to constantly backslide in any advancement in learning that tongue.

### A New Passion

By 86 AC, her father had started down the path of recovery, becoming a more animated man once more. Like many periods of happiness for their family seemed destined to end, however, this would come to a close during one of Meria's return trips to the Tor. She did not see the venomous serpent that struck until it was too late, having driven its fangs into her leg.

Although the Jordayne castle was the nearest keep with a maester, her party was not able to arrive before the venom had irrevocably worked its poison throughout the woman's body. She was bloated by the time they arrived, her skin mottled all sorts of ugly colors, a frightful sight for her surviving children.

Or so one would assume. In the days that followed her mother's untimely demise, distraught turned to intense curiosity gave way to question after question after question, all posed to Maester Berwick. A newfound passion had been awakened in Yavana in the wake of Meria's death, one that might as well have been an all-consuming hunger. Lessons on botany were now supplemented by ones related to poisons - the properties of both common and rare examples, ways to treat when possible, how to identify, and so on. Yavana may only have been a girl of twelve, but she took to this new pursuit with steadfast determination.

Over time the learned maester would come to express some concerns to both Lord Trebor and Emric, for on occasion a vial or two of a poison would disappear from his stores. Naturally he always suspected Yavana behind the pilfering, and indeed she was. How else was she to truly understand these poisons, if not to use them? Small animals were starting to turn up dead, but no one was ever able to find where Yavana hid the stolen vials and naturally she denied any such activities.

When she was six-and-ten, the heir to the Tor chose to spend time amongst the villagers in her family's demesne. During these times, she dressed as simply as one of them, undertook all the same tasks, no matter how menial or unfitting a noblewoman. Her first public use of poison came when a group of bandits unwisely chose to attack a village where she was staying.

There were no survivors after one of their own inexplicably turned on them, driven mad by what Yavana later proudly claimed was basilisk venom. Its application had caused one of the bandits to attack his own compatriots, and in the confusion she was able to rally the villagers to defend themselves. Her own daggers struck swift and true, both coated with a poison of their own.

### A Bastard Birth

Two years later, Doran Dalt returned to the Tor for an extended visit. Now a man of twenty-nine years, he stood tall and proud, stronger than he was in the years when he'd warded at the Jordayne castle. Yavana, now eight-and-ten, also quickly noticed that he was a very handsome man, and a flirtation almost inevitably began between the two soon thereafter. Undeterred by the fact that she had once looked up to him as an older brother, that flirtation soon enough turned into a dalliance, Yavana tumbling eagerly into the older man's bed on more than one occasion.

By the time that Doran took his leave from the Tor, the tryst resulted in something new - a pregnancy. In the days that followed, Yavana was unafraid of loudly affirming that it was the heir to Lemonwood that had fathered this child upon her. Each suggestion from members of her family hat she employ the use of moon tea to terminate the pregnancy was met with Yavana's vociferous opposition, as she felt no shame in the least and was determined to bring the child to term.

While she harbored no ill feelings towards Doran, her lord father and uncle, on the other hand, held a great deal of animosity afterwards the man that had left her with child. So, too, for the man's own grandfather, Lord Drazenko Dalt, for both men refused to publicly acknowledge the child, who was named Anora upon her birth.

### Time on the Greenblood

Although her new passion for dabbling in poisons had helped Yavana cope with her mother's death, the young woman had not forgotten the Rhoynish beauty, whose singing and exuberant spirit remained indelibly in her memory. Perhaps it was inevitable, then, that Yavana herself would feel the call of the rivers.

When Anora was three, Yavana departed the Tor, leaving her daughter in the care of her sister and father. A long journey to the Planky Town was in store for the young woman, who insisted on taking it alone despite her father and uncle's demands that she take guards. To circumvent their desires she slipped out in the dark of night on the back of a sand steed.

Over the weeks that it took to travel to the place where her mother and father once met, Yavana's botanical knowledge came in useful more than once. Her provisions were lighter than she'd anticipated needing, and some went bad following exposure to elements and storms in the deeps of the desert. Often she was forced to forage for berries and other items upon which to subsist, as well as cacti from which to secure water to sake her thirst.

By the time Yavana was arrived at the Planky Town, she was dehydrated and ill. Orphans quickly took her in once she was able to relay her heritage, with a wizened old woman named Yana recognizing the niece that she'd never met. Aided by kin that she'd never known, Yavana was nursed back to health, and in so doing found a sort of second home.

Beyond that, she also found new mentors. Yana herself was well-known up-and-down the Greenblood for her own mastery of plants and poisons both, particularly of the sorts known more to the Rhoynish than the rest of their fellow Dornish. Maester Belwick was but a purveyor and novice compared to her aunt, who might as well have had a magical touch in turning even the smallest amount of venom from a scorpion or a snake into something very deadly. Oftentimes the two practices were combined, venom from an animal and poison from a plant, to create an entirely new item.

Yavana's favorite was a lethal concoction of her own design. A mixture of the plant known as Devil's Trumpet, or Jimsonwood, with manticore venom, it would cause hallucinogenic effects at the same time as great pain and convulsions until the venom would reach the victim's heart and kill instantly.

### Home Again

A year later, in 96 AC, her father's heart finally gave way and Lord Trebor went to join his wife, their son, his brother, and his parents. Yavana was recalled home, although she initially attempted to resist uncle Emric's demands. Her time with the orphans was not yet over, she felt, especially not in the arms of an olive-skinned man she'd taken for a lover.

In the end, though, her uncle and the demands of duty could not be ignored, no matter how desperately she still wished to immerse herself in the language and customs of her ancestors. Even after a year living on the poleboats, moving up and down the murky rivers, she had not mastered the Rhoynish tongue.

Since her return home, Yavana has tried to put her mind to ruling in the same way as her trio of passions (botany, daggers, and poisons). Whether she will prove herself a true Lady of the Tor remains to be seen.

## Meta

### Character Build

**Attributes**

* Gifted
* Elusive