Physical & Mental Attributes:

Demetri is a tall, striking woman, more handsome than pretty. With blonde hair that falls just past her shoulder in one sheet of gold, her face is lined not with the past, but with the scars of her Seanchan warrior heritage. Thin and lithe, as she embarks on her journey through Acceptance, she will become the warrior that she was before, but may not know why just yet. With penetrating green eyes, she sees with the tricks that Ariana’s memories provide her but possesses a darker aspect to her nature that Tierney’s past influences. She has a singular strength in the One Power, and that is in her ability to channel Spirit, while all other Powers give her a headache to try and weave. She can barely light a candle and can’t lift a book, but it will be her ability with Spirit that sets her apart, even if she continues to try and blend into the crowd.

Biography:

We won’t bore the reader with tales of her deeds before the change happened in her. Instead, we will gloss over much of her earlier life, touching only upon the things that truly matter. Demetri da’Faile was born of a long line of those of the Blood, and when she was born to her mother and father, was bestowed the honor given any child of the Blood. She trained at horsemanship and swordplay, and indeed, she learned quickly, was an apt student. Her family’s holdings were the most northern lands in Seanchan, and with it came their ever-eternal battle against the Blight and the Shadowspawn that attempted to cross the mountains and come south. The da’Failes were the barrier against the Shadow and Demetri learned her lessons well, if harshly.

Indeed, although she came to the White Tower to train, there seems to be some confusion as to certain matters. When she was 14 winters, she was tested for both damane and sul’dam, and in both instances tested negative. She was tested once more at the age of 20 winters, once more with the same negative result and was never again bothered. She could not channel, nor did she have the ability to train damane. This situation suited her well, Demetri wished to continue her battle against the Shadow, and indeed, did so until the Corenne.

Being of the Blood, she was, of course, required, nay, obligated to cross the seas. The travel was rough and it was then that Demetri discovered she did not have sea legs as many of her companions did. It was a long, grueling and harsh way to travel, and it too many weeks to arrive. Yet arrive, they did, and the Forerunners discovered a land that had forgotten them. They fought valiantly against those who did not remember their Oaths, and without much effort, took the port city named Falme, teaching those to remember their Oaths. Yet the battles were not over, and although Demetri made a name for herself in the Army, showing great leadership and strength of character, she was still needed further. Demetri was not in Falme when it was attacked and it was said that men danced in the sky that day, she had traveled south and east to a country that was named Altara, to the city of Ebou Dar .

Once more, Demetri showed great ability in battle and was among the first to take the palace with her commander. But something happened in the time spent at Altara. Demetri spent many weeks wondering precisely what happened to her and what had caused the change, yet she could not discern the reason. But it was then that something inside her warred in itself. She found herself backing away from arguments more often. When she might have snapped at a man for something, she found herself smiling kindly and offering a comforting word. When she might have stepped into a skirmish among her people, she instead found herself calming both sides and soothing the wounded feelings with smooth words meant to allay violence, not provoke it.

And it was then that she felt the tug, nay, the desire to go north. She didn’t know what was there, but the voice inside her that guided her at times, urged her to travel north and that she would discover what it was that she needed to go to. The urgings only increased and became more difficult to ignore, nor could she dissuade that feeling to go. She tried to ignore it, but it only got worse, and then she began to see things that weren’t really there. Damane would do something and she might see something rope-like gyrating around them as they controlled them, or webs of color dancing across the sky. It frightened her, yet she dared not go to her Lord of this problem. He would believe her mad and order her killed. It was then that Demetri gave into the voice, into the urges, and deserted the Army, lowering her shame further than any of her line had ever done before. She was worse that da’covele at that moment, yet something inside her soothed her to indicate that when she arrived at her destination, all would be well and she would be taken care of.

Never would Demetri have expected to arrive at the White Tower , yet it was there that her feet led her. She entered Tar Valon, her Seanchan helmet long since discarded, yet the plated armor still shining, and ignored the stares of shock from the guards who tended the gates. She moved through the streets as if she knew precisely where she was going, and it was to her surprise, that she did know. The White Tower spread into the sky, a beacon that beckoned her home. Home. Its very presence before her was like warmth that seeped into her and for a moment she wanted to weep with relief and longing. As she entered the grounds of the White Tower , that urge to continue moving ceased. She was left with her own revulsion and wonder.

Entered into the Novice Books, as it were, it was not without a lot of confusion as, during her first five years as a Novice that she recognized hallways she’d never traversed and knew faces from when it seemed they were younger. And the voice. Oh yes, that voice was a torment to her when it first began, and torture to her sensibilities as it spoke more frequently and attempted to control her movements and words. She sought desperately for a way to remove those voices, but when they were gone, the price she had paid for them seemed more dear than she had ever expected to pay.

When it was all said and done, she knew that it hadn’t been her own will driving her down to the storerooms of the Tower and into a place that few women could enter without pain or death. When the fog had finally lifted, she knew that it had been the instinct of a woman long dead and gone that had driven her forward. Her hand had lay upon the necklace that later would be returned to Madeline, but not before she had placed it about her own neck.

Tierney Neala Demetrius, Deiene Igareda, Deacon Soterios Kolovos, Kariina Damodred, Ariana ni’Darine Nequa.

Forsaken. Dilettante. Sychophant. Noble. Amyrlin.

They were names unknown to her but for one. And they were her memories of lives lived past, long lived yet not forgotten. Madeline accepted her story, but with skepticism, and in when the meeting adjourned, it was with confusion on both parties, but the message was clear to Demetri. She was bound to the Tower and it was in the Tower that she would stay. And she remained, learning faster than before, crippled by her weakness to channel anything but Spirit but learning to use her weaknesses as strengths. In the manner that only a general can assume, she has accepted her weakness in the other Four Powers and focused on those things that make her stronger. Just as a smaller person is less strong, but more agile, she has found her strengths.

As an Accepted, Demetri began to believe these concepts further as her Talent for Dreamwalking was discovered and she began the quest in walking the World of Dreams. The ensuing five years that she spent as an Accepted and she began to learn that her own strengths outweighed her weaknesses. She also learned to cope with the memories inside her head and integrate them into her life; assimilating them and using these memories to guide her has helped Demetri to become a stronger woman for the effort.

Demetri never had the easiest time in learning where she would fit into the Pattern with the White Tower and felt for the longest time that she would join the Red due to her ability with Spirit and what she could add to the collective of the Red Ajah. Guidance came in the form of Demetri watching a gentling and discussion with him after; in this discussion, Demetri learned that the evils of the Dark One could not be gentled from a man and that her fight was not in this place, no matter where the Red Ajah might turn for the future, and it was here that Madeline stepped in to help guide her toward the Green Ajah. She showed Demetri not only that the best offense was a good defense, but that she could use herself for more than just a channeler; she guided Demetri into knowing that strategy was as effective as striking. Demetri left that meeting with Madeline with a course in mind once more.

During this time between her Novice years and as an Accepted, Demetri came to know an Brown Aes Sedai by the name of Laurian. Laurian was an unusual and reclusive Brown that studied nightmares as a Dreamwalker and judged the Dark One’s effect in relation to the rise in nightmares among men and women. A night on the Feast of Lights was shared between the two, both learning things about one another that neither spoke of to others and a deep respect was earned that night. Their paths diverged while Demetri continued her training after that night and came together again when a deliberately placed nightmare had appeared in the World of Dreams. She was once more thrown in with Laurian and another man by the name of Brant, an Asha’man of the Black Tower who was also a Dreamwalker. Demetri worked with the two men, despite her immediate dislike for the Asha’man and was convinced until he was murdered that Brant was the one maintaining the nightmare.

For another eight months, Demetri and Laurian worked closely together until the night that they decided to attack the nightmare and dissipate it in an effort to capture the Dreamwalker responsible. But their plan backfired; Demetri had recognized the face in the nightmare and her guard came down long enough to be drawn in inexorably. Laurian sought to save her and burst into her chambers as the nightmare ripped at her and he became framed for her assault even as she woke, triumphant in defeating the nightmare and Dreamwalker, but afraid for Laurian. She had seen the return of his dead twin brother and it had been Laurian the nightmare had meant to trap after all. Only Demetri’s determination and cleverness of the law saved Laurian from being gentled and kept in the Tower’s gaol for his deeds, but once more Laurian and Demetri parted ways until she was summoned for the final Testing for the Shawl.

The reader need not know of all that she saw in the Arch or of the struggle she endured to get past all her obstacles to channel the ninety-nine weaves that had been chosen for her. But she emerged with the final lesson learned: channeling would only get her so far, but it would be her wits, cunning and actions that determined if she got there. She also learned of the love she felt for Laurian, a feeling that she would learn later was reciprocated and would leave her no choice but to forsake.