Character Biography
Full name: Amarea Helsen
Pronunciation: Ah-ma-RAY-uh HELL-sin
Nickname(s): Rea
Age (IC): 19
Gender: Female
Preferred Pronouns: She/her
Nationality: Murandy
Place of birth: Lugard
House: None, commoner by birth
Clan: Brown Ajah, White Tower
Title: Aes Sedai
Current Residence: Tar Valon
Education: Homeschooled
Physical Description
This young Murandian woman wears a simple apron covered in flour. Her blonde hair has gentle curls and would fall all the way to her middle back if it were not tied back with a ribbon. She has a broad, warm smile and piercing blue eyes.
Height/Weight: Your height is 5 feet, 2 inches, and you weigh 120.0 lbs.
Relationships
Spouse: Never married
Father: Jaeril Helsen, bakery shop owner
Mother: Tathera Helsen, baker
Siblings: Janun (brother, 16); Ilois (sister, 14); Amaine (sister, 12); Mys (sister, 10); Caul (brother, 8); and Erys (sister, 4)
Children: None
Warder: None
Mentor: Liia Sedai of the Brown Ajah
Friends: Amarea has formed friendships with a number of her fellow Accepted, especially Maddy, Rize, and Perenelle.
Channeling Traits
Strength in the One Power: 18(6) (Scale: https://wot.fandom.com/wiki/One_Power)
Element Affinity: Unusually strong in Earth, moderate to strong in Spirit
Element Weakness: Very weak in Fire
Block (previous or current): None currently. A wilder by nature, Amarea discovered when she joined the White Tower that she had never knowingly touched the Source of channeled, but likely began around age 13 or 14. She learned that she had a block preventing her from channeling unless she was within three paces of a source of water large enough to put out a small campfire. Amarea studied this with the help of several Aes Sedai of the Brown Ajah, but it was ultimately Aelrena Sedai who eventually helped her break the block (viewtopic.php?f=102&t=18484).
Talents: Delving, specifically the variety that involves searching for and extracting ore from the ground (suspected but not yet confirmed); Earth Singing; Traveling. Amarea has a particular and unusual strength in weaves that intersect with ley lines, including the Locate Object, Locate Life, and Traveling weaves.
Background
The firstborn of seven children to Jaeril and Tathera Helsen, who own and run the Lugard Bakery, Amarea's childhood was extraordinarily average. From a young age, Amarea was always found beaming a smile that endeared her family as well as customers visiting the family bakery. Exposed to the joys of baking from early on, she was constantly peppering her mother with questions about why she made a recipe the way she did, or techniques on how to mix the perfect pastry doughs or prepare the most eye-catching decorations. As her family grew, Amarea readily adapted to the life of the oldest sibling, and she learned to take on responsibilities for her younger brothers and sisters. As she entered adolescence, Jaeril and Tathera came to rely on Amarea for her patience, kindness, and eye for detail.
Around her thirteenth nameday, however, Amarea suffered from an unknown malady for several months that worried her parents greatly and at times led her to be intermittently bedridden for days at a time. To add insult to injury, it was around this time that Amarea and her family experienced a tragedy that still traumatizes her today. As she was baking some bread by herself, while her parents were at the market purchasing more groceries for the bakery, a fire in the kitchen grew wildly out of control. Amarea miraculously suffered only minor burns in the process, but the fire spread rapidly throughout the kitchen and shop. The damage to the building was extensive, and Amarea's two youngest siblings, who were 4 and 2 at the time, both suffered from smoke inhalation and took months to fully recover. The family was able to restore the bakery, but only after taking on an expensive additional loan, running their family into debt and poverty from which they still have not fully recovered. Seeing open fires still gives Amarea anxiety, although no longer to the level that sends her into a full panic.
By her eighteenth nameday, Amarea had become a mainstay at the bakery. She diligently supported her parents with the shop, watched after and gave school lessons to her younger siblings, and helped with bakery prep in the evenings. Amarea grew so skilled at baking that sometimes, when kneading the dough, she simply knew that the product would bake perfectly before she even pulled it from the oven. This earned her adoration from her parents as well as recognition in her community, once even winning a prize for the best honeycakes in town during the Feast of Abram.
As much as Amarea enjoyed her quiet life, she developed a growing sense of wanderlust and started questioning whether there is more to the world beyond her small city and her family's bakery. So, when her favorite aunt invited her to a vacation in Alindaer, she knew that she needed to find the time to visit the Shining Walls of Tar Valon, and maybe even see an Aes Sedai like in the stories from the adventure books her father read to her in her youth. Little did she know that this would be the first step that would set her on a path to an entirely different life than she had ever possibly conceived, resulting in her donning the novice whites and being inducted into the White Tower.
Throughout her time in the White Tower, Amarea discovered a passion for research and found herself drawn to the values and mission of the Brown Ajah. She has explored the effects and nuances of a number of individual weaves, including Healing serious wounds, Warding versus Evil, and especially weaves that intersect with ley lines such as the Locate and Travel weaves. As she advances in her studies and strives to prove herself worthy of the shawl, she aims to grow her personal knowledge of intricate details of channeling so she can disseminate this information widely, strengthening the Tower in the war against the Shadow.
Significant Lifetime Events
Written into the Novice book:
IC: 20th day of the month of Amadaine, year 1544 by Keshara Sedai
OOC: November 28, 2023
Attended Novice Orientation:
IC: 20th day of the month of Amadaine, year 1544
OOC: November 28, 2023
Advancement to Wearied Novice:
IC: 14th day of the month of Tammaz, year 1546 by Chloro Sedai
OOC: December 10, 2023
Completion of the Arches to Gain Acceptance:
IC: 7th day of the month of Saban, year 1548 by Erulisse Sedai
OOC: December 20, 2023
Started Apprenticeship with the Brown Ajah (Liia Sedai):
IC: 17th of the month of Taisham, year 1554
OOC: January 27, 2024
Advancement to Tower Accepted:
IC: 17th of the month of Taisham, year 1554
OOC: January 27, 2024
Raised to the Shawl of the Brown Ajah:
IC: 12th of the month of Maigdhal, year 1614
OOC: February 10, 2025
Advancement to Elder Sister:
IC: 9th of the month of Maigdhal, year 1618
OOC: March 8, 2025