Seanchan Bio - Menala Seroth - NSW - No CC Needed

[keyholder21]

Character Name: Menala Seroth

 

Division: Seanchan

 

Rank: Der’Sul’dam

 

Age: 63

 

Place of Birth: Noren M'Shar, third largest city in Seanchan

 

Appearance: 5’2 feet (1m55), 125 pounds (57kg), pitch black hair, hanging down to her shoulders and usually kept back with a pair of silver combs to either side of the temples. Dark, blue eyes, almond shaped.

 

Personality: Menala is the silent type, who doesn’t make friends often. Not because she’s mean or anything, she just prefers not to get too close to people for one never knows when one may lose someone close to you. She has a strong sense of justice and is utterly devoted to the Empire, before even the Empress herself. A dangerous preference, but one she feels is right. Of course, the Empress is the Empire, so in the end it comes down to the same thing. She is a student of human nature, which has helped her more times than she can count and has landed her the position of Der’Sul’dam quicker than anyone else.

 

Strengths/Weaknesses: Menala is fair, just but distant. This is both her strength and her weakness. She is considered one of the best Sul’dam alive, but has never been able to secure the friendship of anyone. People respect her, admire her and trust her, but they do not feel any sympathy or closeness to her. In Menala’s mind, these things are not needed for her to do her duty. As a result, she has never felt the need to address that gap in her life. Indeed, she has never felt it as a gap to begin with.

 

OP Score:

 

Character History:

 

Menala was born as the daughter of da’covale parents. Her whole childhood was focussed on grooming her to step in to her mother’s footsteps and become a Lady’s maid in her own right. Her parents served the Lady Morien Dinae Sinteal, as their parents have served the Lady’s mother and so forth for seven generations. From the moment Menala could understand words, she was thought by her mother never to attach herself to anyone, including her own family. Be it her parents or her children. Menala often wondered about that and then finally asked her mother why she had ever married and had children if she felt that way. The answer was both expected and cold. It was the duty of their family to serve the Lady’s Bloodline and that meant producing offspring that would serve the descendents of that Bloodline in the future as well. Marrying and having children was as much a duty to the Blood they served as anything else they did. Her parents had not been in love, but shared a common dedication to duty. Her father’s Master had been assassinated and so were all his kin, leaving her father without a family to serve. By marrying her mother, he had adopted her family’s duty and made it his own. As was often the case in their family’s history. Menala’s mother and father grew, over time, to care for each other but were carefull never to let that affection get too high. For one never knows when you might be seperated and the duty to the Blood can never be second to one’s own sorrow. It must, always, come first. That was the secret of Menala’s family honor. An honor that had withstood the test of time and had earned the da’covale family the respect of both da’covale and Blood alike. Menala’s brother had received the honor of being allowed to take his own life when his Master died. An honor that was usually not bestowed on da’covale of her family’s level, but only awarded to those in higher standing. They had all witnessed her brother’s suicide rite and Lady Morien had awarded him the supreme honor of attending the rite in person. Her brother had been very greatful and her parents had been very proud. But Menala, only ten years old at the time, had felt the pain of the loss for despite her parent’s urging, she had loved him dearly. Eventhough she had never admitted it or gave any indication to it. That was when she learned the wisdom behind her mother’s teachings. A wisdom she would never again forget.

 

Four years after her brother’s dead, the Sul’dam came and all girls her age and older were tested. For the Empire didn’t risk losing any potential damane or Sul’dam simply because they happened to be born in a family of da’covale. When they put the collar on her neck, Menala kept her face still but inside she prayed as hard as she could for the Light to help her fail the test. The Light was listening and the collar came off again. She was then instructed to put on the bracelet that was linked to one of the damane the Sul’dam had brought with them. Almost immediately she felt a tingle in her wrist, which travelled all the way up her arm and up to her head. She was instructed to tell the Sul’dam her sensations and as she did, it was decided that she would be trained to become Sul’dam. Her parents stood in shock for a while, looking at her. Then, against everything she had ever taught her daughter, Menala’s mother began to cry and embraced her for the first time in her life since she was a babe. Menala underwent the embrace stoically, though inside her heart was trying to beat itself out of her chest. She left that day with the Sul’dam, never looking back to her parents who stood for a long while watching the direction in which she had dissapeared. She would never see them again.

 

Her training went without a glitch and Menala turned out to be an excellent student. Picking up on anything the Sul’dam put before her. By the time she was raised to full Sul’dam, she already had established a reputation of excellence in handling damane. She was immediately put to work with the most difficult damane in the Empress’ kennels and each one turned in to a perfect damane. After ten years, she was given to one of the High Blood as a favor to be used at his discretion and during that time the High Lord served the Empire faithfully and dilligently. Untill he died of old age and Menala was returned to the Empress’ kennels. By then, her reputation had reached almost legendary levels and the other Sul’dam and even some of the Der’Sul’dam threated her with respect and admiration. None became close to her, however, as she had never forgotten that lesson and would not allow it. She spent another twenty years in the kennels, training the most difficult damane and serving in the most dangerous campaigns. After those twenty years, the First Der’Sul’dam of the Empress decided it was time for Menala to start training Sul’dam apprentices. As with the damane, Menala produced the best Sul’dam of the Empire for the next eight years until the Daughter of the Nine Moons herself took note of her remarkable talent of handling the most difficult of charges, both with damane as well as with Sul’dam apprentices. She confiscated Menala for herself and that is where she was serving when the call came for the Return to begin.

 

Menala was raised to Der’Sul’dam a year before the Return started and would accompany the Highest Daughter on this most important of missions.