Aro Danivaran

*“I remembered you. But I didn’t know your name. I wanted to thank you.” - Maia Drazhar to Aro Danivaran*

**Aro Danivaran** was a noblewoman who chaperoned Maia Drazhar during the funeral of his Chenelo Drazharan, and remembered him fondly. She was the wife of Osmer Danivar and the mother of Thiriän Danivin and the current head of the Danivada.

## Appearance

When Maia first met Aro near the end of her life, she was “propped up on a great bank of pillows, looked infinitely frail, her face as flawlessly white as her hair, the cheerful pinks and yellows of her bed jacket seeming a cruelly chosen irony, although surely nothing could be further from the truth.

She opened her eyes when she heard their approach: pale green and protuberant, they were the only part of her Maia recognized. She croaked a slur of sound that was probably meant to be “Serenity". Her hands were like claws.

## Life

Aro's husband "was Drazhadeise through his mother’s line”, and Varenechibel IV acknowledged their family as cousins of the Drazhada. Aro chaperoned Maia during Maia's mother's funeral.

The Danivada were "ruinously poor", but Varenechibel IV "gifted them with a small estate on the birth of their first grandson, some five years” prior to the start of *The Goblin Emperor*. Aro's husband died two years prior to the story start, and their son ran the estate, though Aro maintained the family presence at court. Two days before the destruction of the *Wisdom of Choharo*, Aro suffered a brainstorm, and became bedridden. When Maia had Csevet Aisava make inquiries as to her identity, in order to possibly visit, Thiriän told Csevet that Aro "would be both honored and pleased. And that she tends to be most alert in the evenings." Maia visited the Danivada and spoke with Thiriän, and even sat with Aro for a time, then, at Thiriän's request, had Csevet supply the Danivada with extra coal at no charge.

During the ball to celebrate the arrival of Maru Sevraseched, Thiriän called Maia to visit Aro one last time before she died.

## Relationships

#### Maia Drazhar

Aro said of Maia after the funeral: that he was "polite and quiet". She's one of the few people at the Untheileneise Court whom Maia thought fondly of, for she was the only person who was kind to him when he was young, and he cherished his time with her.

## Quotations

* Maia, on being chaperoned at the funeral: “It was his father’s fault, he understood, and this his father’s court, and he imagined that it would please them to see him weep. So he had not wept, not then, although he had wept every night for a week in the cold, musty bedroom he was given at Edonomee. Probably, he thought ruefully, he had frightened that noblewoman very much”.
* Maia to Csethiro Ceredin, about Aro: “She was very kind to us at our mother’s funeral. The only person who was.”

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Addison, Katherine. “16. News from Barizhan.” *The Goblin Emperor*, English 1st ed., Tim Doherty Associates, New York, NY, 2014.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Addison, Katherine. “4. The Funeral at the Ulimeire.” *The Goblin Emperor*, English 1st ed., Tim Doherty Associates, New York, NY, 2014.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Addison, Katherine. “29. A Ball and a Death-Bed.” *The Goblin Emperor*, English 1st ed., Tim Doherty Associates, New York, NY, 2014.