Basic Information
Age:17Nation of origin:Amadicia
Hair:dark brown and curly to her shoulders
Eyes:dark brown, wide set with short lashes and arching brows
Skin:medium toned
Height:5'10
Description:slim, wide nose, full pouty lips
Voice:low and mellow, soft-spoken
Personality:Yovela is caring and kind. She likes to do things to help other people. She trusts easily and can be manipulated. Once she decides on something, she will stick to it stubbornly. She likes to feel useful and has no patience for laziness.
Special Skills:paints, cooks
Weaknesses:can't ride a horse; inclined to believe what she is told by others if it makes sense to her.
One Power Breakdown
| Air | Earth | Fire | Spirit | Water | >Strenth | SkillPotency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (30) | 33 | 33 |
History
Economics are a powerful force and so it was that coin was the force that molded Yovela’s life. She was but three when her father, Efram, made the decision to start trying to sell his hardwood furniture further away from home. He loaded up the wagons and set off for wherever he thought he could make the most profit, dragging his family right along with him until he had sold all he had and could return home to make more. It was on one of his return trips that they were attacked by bandits, who expressed their ire at finding empty wagons by abducting Yovela’s mother, Harra. Efram searched for his wife, but finally admitted he had failed to find her and brought his daughter back home.
Her mother’s sister lived with her family in the same town and Yovela found herself spending more time in their household while her father worked on filling the wagons with furniture again. Once the wagon was full, Efram was faced with the question of what to do about his daughter. He didn’t want to be responsible for taking care of her on the road, so he left her in the care of his sister-in-law, a situation Yovela’s uncle quickly grew to resent when the coin he was given to care for Yovela came no where near what it cost to feed and clothe her.
Yovela knew only that she missed her father and that her uncle was often short with her, but she was a young child able to dismiss such concerns in favor of wild play with her cousin, Uli. Despite her losses she had a happy childhood with Uli for a surrogate sister and her aunt as a surrogate mother. Her aunt knew just how to temper the energy of youthfulness with a smidge of responsibility, so Yovela did the little things she could to assist in her aunt’s household. By the time she was ten, her aunt had taught her how to prepare the paints her father used on his furniture. Two years later the skill was rendered useless. Her father’s merchant train was attacked by bandits and he did not survive. She became a full member of her aunt’s household, much to the frustration of her uncle.
When Yovela was fourteen, her uncle’s tavern began to lose business. One of his competitors had whispered that an Aes Sedai had visited there under the guise of a noblewoman. The regular customers who knew the truth stayed loyal, but there were fewer and fewer people who walked in off the street for a drink after work. He set Yovela and Uli to work in the kitchens since he could employ them for free and began his plots to make a good connection for his daughter to bring some respectability back to his family name.
It was shortly after Uli’s sixteenth birthday that Yovela’s uncle found just the right candidate to wed her. Habrim was a young man from a wealthy family of minor nobility. The boy had aspirations for a future of comfort, but more importantly to Yovela’s uncle, he had solid friendships with a few of the Children of the Light. The only problem was he seemed to be more interested in Yovela than in Uli.
Yovela’s uncle did his best to keep Habrim and Yovela apart. When Habrim came into the tavern, Uli was sent to wait on him and Yovela was given some task that would keep her in the kitchens or send her outside of the building for long periods of time. Yovela was ordered to stay home from any social event Habrim may attend, while every free copper was spent on presenting Uli at her finest. When all his efforts failed and a sparkle still lit Habrim’s eyes any time he was able to catch a glimpse of Yovela, her uncle knew he must find a more drastic way to separate the two.
He found a man he trusted to be quiet and gathered what coin he had to pay the man, thus sealing his lips as tightly as he could. Then he told the man of a time and place where Yovela would be alone and unsuspecting. He packed a suitcase of Uli’s castoff garments, things that would also fit Yovela, and gave it to the man with his thanks.
So it was that Yovela was pulled off the streets and into a cart, a blindfold across her eyes so that she never saw her kidnapper. She was guarded with her eyes covered for the entire long journey in the uncomfortably bumpy wagon. Covered with bruises, she was finally handed out of the cart and into the keeping of a local innkeeper, who had his own bag of coin and instructions. She was put up in a windowless room for the night, the blindfold finally removed, but it wasn’t until morning that she realized where she was.
The innkeeper pushed her out the door, the two men he used as his bouncers standing prepared to either side of him, and Yovela saw for the first time the monolith that was the White Tower. A cry of shock escaped her lips and she turned to dash back into the inn, but the men were ready for her and one grabbed each of her arms. They pulled her towards the Tower, keeping her from fleeing or stumbling with a rough hand on each of her arms, until they arrived at the gate and the innkeeper made his announcement.
“This girl was brought to us by a traveling merchant. He says she can channel and must be tested.”
Yovela’s eyes widened and her mouth went dry, but somehow she still found the words to protest. “This is untrue! I was taken against my will by these men and others and never once have I channeled or even considered channeling. Please, you must help me return home. My family needs me.”
The girl in the dress banded by seven colors looked Yolanda over with a steady eye. “If your story is true and you cannot channel, then there is no harm in being tested. Come girl, it is simply a formality that will take only minutes. Those who do not test true are sent home if that is what they wish.”
Yovela heard only that they would help her return home. Never considering the fact that she could test true, she followed the girl in white blindly. She was already trying to come up with a story to explain where she had been taken and how she had returned. She couldn’t risk tainting her family with the truth.
Behind her the innkeeper and his employees congratulated themselves on a job well done and headed back to the inn to tell the kidnapper of their success. The girl’s uncle would be pleased to know she was out of his way.