AIEL bio approved - Mordre - Wise One - CCed by the WT

[Mystica]

See revised bio further in the thread.

 

Full name: Mordre

Age: 40

Clan: Dragonmount

Role: Wise One

 

Physical appearance: Mordre is a willowy woman who appears not to notice the things going on around her. Her expression is usually smiling, which lightens her features and her brown eyes are usually dancing with humor. She wears her deep brown hair in a braid that wraps her head like a wreath, but short hairs escape to frame her face, adding to her slightly disheveled appearance.

Physical weakness: Mordre’s lack of muscle development leaves her prone to injuring herself if she overdoes it. Her bones are becoming more brittle as she gets older and she has to be ever more careful about falling.

Physical strength: Mordre loves to do acrobatic stunts and does them well. She’s very limber and lithe, which makes movements easy.

 

Personality: Mordre has a very ethereal personality. She seems like she’s not paying attention, or that she’s daydreaming. She has a very easy laugh and is really more on top of things than she appears.

Personality weakness: Sometimes, Mordre would really prefer to be with the Maidens than dealing with people and their issues. At these times, she is easy to annoy and tends to snap at people who irritate her.

 

Personality strength: People take for granted that she’s not listening and usually say things around her that they wouldn’t want others to hear.

 

Special: None

 

History:

 

Mordre grew up in a house full of people. Her father was killed during a raid on another clan when she was six, leaving her and her brother alone with their mother. After a few years, her mother wed Borman, a man who already had one wife, and added them to his household. The household was happy and she often had time to steal away and watch the Maidens practice. She determined to become one and set about mimicking their movements behind her house after dinner.

 

When she was thirteen, she put herself forward to begin training with the Maidens. Shri, the Wise One whose approval she needed, forbade it, claiming that her bone structure was far too frail to stand up to the rigors of being a Maiden. This angered Mordre and she set about building up muscle strength, learning acrobatic stunts and practicing with a bow until she grew proficient enough. She showed off at each opportunity she was presented and even earned the approval of many other Maidens as her stunts grew more and more daring. Each year, she put herself forward for training with the Maidens and each year, she was denied for the same reason.

 

All of that changed when she was seventeen. Her mother was approached by one of the clan’s Wise One, who then spirited her away to begin her training. She was honored by this, but still longed to train with the Maidens, instead. She spent the years in training trying to suppress the urge, though she was often reprimanded and given punishments for not paying attention. One of the Wise One told her she couldn’t understand why she didn’t have the ability to Dreamwalk, since she tended to spend all of her time day dreaming. She set about proving to them that she could be the best Wise One they’d ever trained, though her expression still made them think she wasn’t paying attention. Only through laborious testing was she allowed to prove that she had not only been paying attention, but that she could do what they were asking her to do.

[Elgee]

There are a few points here that bother me:

 

Physical appearance:

 

Brown eyes: there's no mention of any Aiel ever with brown eyes. In fact, Mat's Maiden makes mention that she's never seen brown eyes.

 

Deep brown hair: very unusual, but ok not unheard of.

 

Wears her hair in a braid that she wraps around her head in a wreath: All Aiel women except Maidens wear theirs flowing loose and kept out or their faces with folded kerchiefs.

 

Physical weakness: Mordre’s lack of muscle development leaves her prone to injuring herself if she overdoes it. Her bones are becoming more brittle as she gets older and she has to be ever more careful about falling.

 

Bones becoming brittle at the age of 40?? That sounds extremely unlikely. The Aiel have been in the 3 fold land for 3000 years. I'm pretty sure any genetic defects have been bred out of them long ago. Never heard of an Aiel with a lack of muscle development either. Just look at Sorilea, Bair, etc - all VERY old, yet they run along with the rest for a whole day.

 

And just after that, she says: Mordre loves to do acrobatic stunts and does them well. She’s very limber and lithe, which makes movements easy.

So either she's limber and lithe and can do amazing acrobatic stunts (not any kind of Aiel thing I've ever heard of, again) OR she has a lack of muscle development. It can't be both.

Then a question: Why did the Wise Ones choose her for training, especially since they seem to be a bit ... hesitant about her abilities? Does she have the spark inborn or the ability to learn how to channel?

[Mystica]

lots of questions lol I'll try to answer as best as possible.

 

The eyes. It is true that brown eyes are extremely rare, but just because one Aiel in hundreds of thousands has never seen them doesn't make it an impossibility. There is nowhere an indication that it is a genetically impossibility among the Aiel, just very unusual. That is why I let it pass.

 

Brown hair, same reason as the eyes.

 

Hair. Braiding is a rare occurence but not an absolute no, according to my research (cfr result of my research on the Aiel site)

 

physical weakness.

Breeding doesn't exclude the possibility of a physical weakness 100%. The only way to achieve that is through medical genetic manipulation of a race. Breeding is a natural phenoma and in those anomalies always occur once and a while. While breeding can severely reduce certain elements in the whole of a race, it does not stop individual rarities to occur.

The muscles weakness was an oversight from a previous adjusted version of the bio where the weakness was solely the muscles which would be indeed unlikely among Aiel, since muscles are something that can be trained. Still, comparatively it is possible for one Aiel to be perceived as 'weak muscled' if you compared them to other Aiel (which they would, since before the Dragon appears they'd only have Aiel to compare to, considering all wetlanders as inferior for comparison material).

But you're right, that sentence should be altered to reflect the bones only, not the muscles.

 

Concerning those bones, it is entirely possible to have weaker bones and still have the endurance of an Aiel. Weaker bones imply a higher need for prudence against falling. Walking and running for long periods at high speed is more a matter of muscle development, training and endurance, lung capacity and blood circulation.

 

Wise One training. Yes, Mordre has the spark inborn and no, it didn't manifest itself sooner than at the age of 17 which is totally realistic. Even in the wetlanders there are girls that are not considered for training because they don't spark early enough. White Tower dogma of taking in girls up to a maximum age is a manmade condition, not a condition of nature to have the spark or have it manifest itself. In the Seanchan culture women are tested till they are 25. The Aiel are known to always find those that can channel. They don't put an age limit on the finding of channelers.

 

To be a Wise One is not conditional upon being able to Channel, Dreamwalk or any level of physical condition. It is a call to serve the people and even those women who don't have the ability to channel are heavily pushed to become Wise Ones should the other women decide the woman in question has abilities that should be used for the benefit of the Aiel as a whole and not just her own little niche of it. While non-channelers can refuse, the Wise Ones would make it very hard for them to refuse once they've made up their mind that she should become one of them. That is heightened by the fact that Wise Ones are extremely high respected, adhered to even by Clan Chiefs in most everything and to become one of them is considered an honor by almost all Aiel.

 

 

Hope this answered your questions

[Taymist]

All Aiel men, and the women who are Maidens of the Spear, wear their hair cut short except for a tail on the nape of the neck. Women who are not Maidens wear their hair shoulder length and longer, but rarely braid it or gather it up. They frequently pull it away from the face with a scarf.

 

- TBWB pg 187

 

I'd have to agree with Myst here. The use of the words "rarely" and "frequently" make it unusual but not unheard of for hair to be braided in such a way.

 

 

 

The hair colour I'd accept too as again it appears rare but possible:

 

These tall and fair-haired people

 

- TBWB pg 179

 

And from the Books (WoT Concordance cfr):

 

black hair rare among Aiel (VII: 36)

 

Black hair is rare among Aiel (VIII: 215)

 

Aiel hair color ranges from reddish brown to platinum blonde. (II: 506)

 

Aiel hair color ranges from white blonde to red, to darker. (IV: 368)

 

 

 

The eye colour is unacceptable though:

 

no Aiel have dark eyes. (IV: 407)

 

Aiel can have green eyes (VII: 27)

 

Aiel eye color ranges from pale sky blue to purple twilight, though some have sharp green (VIII: 213)

[Mystica]

what does IV:407 mean?

 

And can I get an answer on the bones/muscles thing please. I'd rather let her change everything in one go than have her go through the trouble of re-submitting for every little thing.

[Elgee]

Tay's covered the physical appearance, so I'll just comment on the physical conditions and how she came to be chosen for Wise One training.

 

Physical Conditions:

 

Yes I agree that breeding wouldn't exclude a genetic trait or defect 100% under ordinary circumstances, but after 3000 years? In the Aiel Waste? With no interbreeding that we know of with other peoples? The chances of a genetic trait like brittle bone disease surviving under this combination of extraordinary circumstances is so vanishingly small as to be dismissed by a bio checker. That leaves outside influences, like ... ok in our world the only thing I can think of would radiation sickness. I'm sure there are more, but my point is if she wants to include something this extremely unlikely in her bio, the onus is on HER to provide the backing argument based on evidence from the WoT, not on us to find it for her.

 

As to why she was chosen to train as a Wise One:

 

There is no justification for it in the Bio as is. According to her own words, the Wise Ones think she's not paying attention, etc - so why WOULD they have chosen her? If she had the spark inborn, that would explain it - but it has to be mentioned in the Bio, otherwise it makes no sense.

 

Btw, if she has the spark inborn, they would be able to pick up on that, even though she'd not sparked yet. Moiraine knew Egwene had it in her, even though she hadn't actually sparked yet. The Seanchan don't have the knowledge / training for this any more, which is why they have to test people with the adam.

 

I'm sorry, but I have to run now - I'll check over what I've written later, and add more if needed.

[Taymist]

Yeah, I hadn't read the bio yesterday, just the comments you'd both made so my post was really for clarification on the appearance. Having read it all through now, I tend to agree with Elgee. The whole brittle/weak bones thing makes no sense to me amongst a race like the Aiel. Whilst I'd accept that it might be like albinoism in humans, i.e. rare but still possible, I think in this case it's extremely unlikely.

 

Physical condition may not be a primary concern for Wise Ones but it's clear they do consider it... look for example at the punishments both Avi and Eggy have to undertake...very physical stuff. People with bone conditions who have to be worried about falling or bumping into things would be at great risk during such activities and it's a bit of a stretch to say they'd still be lithe and limber at the same time, not to mention doing acrobatic stunts which would put the person at constant risk. Such diseases don't just effect the bones, but also the joints and ligaments. I can't find any reference within the Books to any Aiel or even Wise Ones with anything like such a severe problem. All of them seem to be in superb physical condition.

 

I'm not going to say a definite no on this, that decision is the bio checker's. But imo this is on the outside limits of what's believable for this kind of character. I'd want to see something a bit more concrete in terms of justification before I'd personally approve it.

 

 

I think it's Book number and chapter Myst, not entirely sure how they reference things. But it's all from the Concordance. Should be an explanation on the site of how they number everything.

[Elgee]

I've reread this, and between Tay and myself I think we've covered all the problems. If you need any further clarification on what we've said, ask away though, and I'll try to expand on what's already been said.

[Mystica]

Ok, revised bio. Revisions are in RED.

 

 

Full name: Mordre

 

Age: 40

Clan: Dragonmount

Role: Wise One

 

Physical appearance: Mordre is a willowy woman who appears not to notice the things going on around her. Her expression is usually smiling, which lightens her features and her sky blue eyes are usually dancing with humor. She wears her reddish brown hair in a braid that is usually covered with a scarf, but short hairs escape to frame her face, adding to her slightly disheveled appearance.

Physical weakness: none

Physical strength: Mordre loves to do acrobatic stunts and does them well. She’s very limber and lithe, which makes movements easy.

 

Personality: Mordre has a very ethereal personality. She seems like she’s not paying attention, or that she’s daydreaming. She has a very easy laugh and is really more on top of things than she appears.

Personality weakness: Sometimes, Mordre would really prefer to be with the Maidens than dealing with people and their issues. At these times, she is easy to annoy and tends to snap at people who irritate her.

Personality strength: People take for granted that she’s not listening and usually say things around her that they wouldn’t want others to hear.

 

Special: None

 

History:

 

Mordre grew up in a house full of people. Her father was killed during a raid on another clan when she was six, leaving her and her brother alone with their mother. After a few years, her mother wed Borman, a man who already had one wife, and added them to his household. The household was happy and she often had time to steal away and watch the Maidens practice. She determined to become one and set about mimicking their movements behind her house after dinner.

 

When she was thirteen, she put herself forward to begin training with the Maidens. Shri, the Wise One whose approval she needed, forbade it. Worse, she gave no real reason for her rejection. Mordre’s impatience needed an outlet. She worked off that impatience by learning acrobatic stunts and practicing with a bow until she grew proficient. She showed off at each opportunity she was presented and even earned the approval of many other Maidens as her stunts grew more and more daring. Each year, she put herself forward for training with the Maidens and each year, she was denied for the same lack of a reason.

 

All of that changed when she was fifteen and she learned the real reason why Shri had forbidden it. Her mother was approached by one of the clan’s Wise Ones, who claimed that Mordre had a gift, then spirited her away to begin her training. She was honored by this, but still longed to train with the Maidens, instead. She spent the years in training trying to suppress the urge, though she was often reprimanded and given punishments for not paying attention. One of the Wise One told her she couldn’t understand why she didn’t have the ability to Dreamwalk, since she tended to spend all of her time day dreaming. She set about proving to them that she could be the best Wise One they’d ever trained, though her expression still made them think she wasn’t paying attention. Only through laborious testing was she allowed to prove that she had not only been paying attention, but that she could do what they were asking her to do.

[Elgee]

Since Owen is on LoA, I'll cc it

[Mystica]

thanks sis