Siuan Sanche

Siuan Sanche came up from nothing and never pretended otherwise. A fisherman's daughter, poor-born and plainspoken, she wore the banded white dress of an Accepted in the White Tower at Tar Valon, a long way from the boats of her childhood. What she lacked in polish she made up for in mind, for her ability to learn was exceptional even among women training toward the shawl, and she had a keen instinct for puzzles, for seeing how pieces fit together and where a knot could be worked loose.

Her closest friend among the Accepted was Moiraine Damodred, and the two were seldom far apart, whether practicing weaves for the testing ahead or sharing tea heated with a small, practical touch of the One Power. Siuan was the sort to use what she had, and to press harder than caution advised. It fell to Moiraine, more than once, to hold her back from a shortcut, while Siuan tried to talk her way around an obstacle rather than wait for it to move.

For all her life within the Tower's walls, Siuan looked outward. She dreamed of traveling the world, of work that mattered beyond lectures and lessons. On horseback she was frankly poor, an awkwardness she carried with the same bluntness she brought to everything else. She said plainly what she wanted, and when she could not have it, she studied the problem until she found another way.