Approved Freelander bio for Andraste - please CC

[CorenYi]

Character Name: Andraste [no given last name]

Email address:

 

mere[dot]nothing[dot]x[at]gmail[dot]com

Division: Freelanders

[berserker] mercenary, [sea] merchant guard, [soon to be, perhaps] Kin?

 

Age: early 20s

Gender:  Female

Physical Description: 5'5 ", 100 flat, well-muscled but small and thin features [facial and body], cold pale blue eyes, platinum and light brown hair [just above shoulder length], leathery fair skin, dresses in furs and silk, scar across the left side of her forehead, [appearing deep] scar [perhaps jagged knife]—right of back [near kidneys], other obvious fighting scars

Place of Birth/Raising: found alone at a young age north of Maradon of Saldaea, nearing the Blight, raised by a lesser noble-born older border guard and wife, early on left for Bandar Eban of Arad Doman , grew restless and took to the sea with merchants [visiting many port cities], temporarily settled in Ebou Dar of Altara

Character History:

 

Though slight in physical form, it was often said that Andraste was supposed to be a boy.  Perhaps was.  And although disrespectful behavior, especially to females, is not tolerated in the Borderlands, as an orphan she was the blunt end of many quips made by the other kids.  She had no friends, and often found her [foster] parents antiquated and dull.  At a young age, she managed to purchase a throwing axe and began to practice; then a former warder, for some reason of his own, took interest in her and taught her the sword.  And though this upset many of the women of Maradon, much to the amusement of this ex-warder, he simply quipped that "women as well as men must know how to bear a weapon in the borderlands—for they can die just as easily on a blade of our foes".  After many attempts of socializing her gender, the women of Maradon finally surrendered after she brought back the head of a trolloc after a raid and carved a knife out of one of its ram's horns.

 

Andraste found much pleasure visiting the Blight, or at least the edge of it, though severe punishment was given when this information was discovered.  Her foster parents always wondered if it was because of the rumor spread by some that she was discovered there.  "Children often try finding their real parents as they grow older," was what her father explained to her mother after one such expedition.  After the death of her father, it was this same manly, "audrenline-junky" behavior that took her, barely over 15 though several blade years, and her throwing axe and saber off to Arad Doman with some merchants as a merchant guard.

 

Upon delivery of merchandise, Andraste became a mercenary, fighting for whoever could pay of the warring factions.  She developed berserker tendencies and roamed from city to city, visiting taverns, in gluttonous search of blood, alcohol, and other various pleasures, developing Domani tendencies.  Tiring of mercenary thrills, she took to sea as once more a merchant guard and a year later found herself in the hands of the Seanchan, slaying a few in her capture.  They insisted she could channel, though she felt nothing when they prodded but their torturous seemingly mental blows produced from the metal leash.  She asked no questions and remained silent except when forced to speak.  She was on one of the last ships over, after her brief capture, to the other side of the world.

 

Not far into the sea, the ship wrecked in a storm on some reef.  Andraste was beached and discovered that the Seanchan and Falme had fallen to, what some people claimed is, the Dragon Reborn.  Still physically, emotionally, and mentally scarred, she took off, wild and reckless and stubborn as ever, south to get as far away from such preposterous claims and settled temporarily in Ebou Dar of Altara, ignoring all rumors concerning any neighboring countries.  Her ways began to fit more with fellow women, learning a little of the politeness of the Altarans and behavior of ladies, but her seething temper festers.  She often fights as many as 7 duels in a day, and not just with women as is customary, and plays festively at her former roots in the Domani Daes dae'mar.  Her behavior stirs much interest and sometimes she is hired by a Lord or a Lady to assassinate someone.  Every day she runs from the idea that what the Seanchan claimed, that she could channel, could possibly be true.

[Andraste]

who do I need to get to CC this? And how?

[Guest Estel]

gah, this should've been CCed when it came up.  But here goes

 

two problems I have with the bio:

 

1)  It is next to impossible for her to have been trained by a former Warder. Ex-soldier, yes, but ex-Warder is not possible.  Warders serve for life and their only release happens when their Aes Sedai dies in which case they becoe suicidal and just about the only way to save a Warder is to re-Bond the.

 

2) Damane.  For Andraste to have survived the boat wreck, she would have had to be uncollared.  She cannot ove the collar, nor touch the collar.  It would take a Seanchan to open the collar and that would not happen.

 

Sorry hon, not trying to damper your creativity or anything, it's just not feasible.

[Wayfarer]

Also, sul'dam can break pretty much anyone with the level of control they have.  They've been at it for about a thousand years now, they know their craft :)

 

The bio as it stands would need....  Well, it'd need TheDon to sign off on the Seanchan bit, the warders for the ex-warder, CotS for the blight stuff.

 

Also, seven duels a day, that means in a Randland week (ten days) she can kill up to seventy people.  After a month (three weeks), that means she's killed easily over a hundred, someone would have made it their responsibility to kill her by then. :P  Sooner or later you'd have killed some blademaster's relative and BAM.

[CorenYi]

I warned you it'd likely be a problem Genna. I'll get to talking to folks and see what we need to do to work this out. You may have to make some changes.

[Wayfarer]

Whoa there, back up tiny.  You mean you did see the issues, but instead of presenting alternatives and helping her with her bio so it would get CC'd, you just chucked it up and left it for over a week until Andraste had to chase it up? 

 

You keep up the good work there Daniel.

[Ghaul]

  You could have been less sarcastic, James.

[Wayfarer]

I figured the sarcasm might soften it a touch.

[bcxanth]

Ok guys, lets all simmer down a bit. :P  It's just a bio after all, we've all seen hundreds of them. No need to get testy. :)

[silhouette]

  You could have been less sarcastic, James.

 

I don't know, I think this deserves a little sarcasm at the very least. I've checked bios for the White Tower and the Warders division, and I agree with Estel in this case. There are issues with this bio. I also agree with James: The issues should have been solved before putting the bio up for cross checking. CorenYi has shown in the past that he's perfectly capable on blocking a bio on technicalities, so one has to wonder why this bio, which has some clear issues which he was aware of (as stated in his own reply above) was put up for cross checking. If Estel hadn't been alert, this bio and its issues would have been passed.

 

If this is how bios are to be checked in the future, then I suggest that we let people post their bios directly on this board, without going through the bio checker of the division. It would save them the time of going through a bio checker who can't be bothered to help them out in the first place.

 

So in short: I find this appalling. The very reason bios are sent to the divisions before approval is to make sure that the bios posted here are without major issues. And yet here we are, discussing a bio that should have been corrected before it even got here, but instead got passed with a:

 

I warned you it'd likely be a problem Genna. I'll get to talking to folks and see what we need to do to work this out. You may have to make some changes.

 

Do your division and the rest of the bio checkers a favour, CorenYi, and make sure this is done before you put it up for cross checking next time.

 

[Ghaul]

  I'm not saying that the Bio does not have issues. If nothing else, I know from personal expirience that the 7 duels per day things is compleate non-sense. I think that James should have gone for the direct approach rather than sarcasm, but that is just my own opinion, it was his choise

[bcxanth]

Ok guys, I'm stepping in as part of the FL staff and getting this thread locked down. The bio hass issues, and it's now between Coren and Andraste to resolve them. Until that time this is locked. End of discussion.

[Guest Arie Ronshor]

Locked by me. Any more arguements/thoughts/options can be directed to Freecastle@gmail.com