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| ~Bio: Gwen Laurel; Heir-Presumptive to the High Kingdom | |
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| Topic Started: Feb 1 2009, 04:26 PM (95 Views) | |
| Gwen Laurel | Feb 1 2009, 04:26 PM Post #1 |
Heir-Presumptive to the High Kingdom
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Name: Gwen Laurel (short for Gwenhwyvar) Age: 24 Nationality: Andoran Height: 5'11" Weight: 165 lbs Hair color/length: platinum waist-length Eye color: blue Personality: Full of life, likes to have fun, but can be serious when she needs to be. She knew she had a famous father, and had heard lots of stories about him and his deeds, but she still wasn’t really ready for just how famous and influential he is. She had hoped to be just another officer in the Garrison, rising on her own merits, but instead she finds herself in close proximity to power. She serves as her father’s aide and finds herself daily speaking to the Amyrlin Seat and her aunt is acting military governor of Tar Valon. It’s taken quite a bit of adjustment, but she has landed on her feet with her usual cat-like grace. Gwen has a faint scar on her left cheek, the result of a too-close encounter with a trolloc up on the Malkier border. Favorite weapons: longsword, mace, mounted lance Gwen Laurel is the illegitimate daughter of Robert Laurel, the former Haran al’Tari of the White Tower, now the High King. He never knew of her existence until she revealed herself to him just a few short months ago. She was the product of a brief affair Robert had had with Arwenna Tylo when he was first starting out on his career as a mercenary. Arwenna’s family were rich townsmen; her grandfather was a master architect and her grandmother was a master accountant. Arwenna married one of her father’s proteges, Ross Murdock, several months before Gwen’s birth. Arwenna came with a large dowry, and even though Ross was about ten years older, didn’t at all mind that she came with a child. While it wasn’t a love match, they were friends, and comfortable with each other, and over the years Gwen came to have a few half-siblings. Even when she was a little girl, Gwen gravitated towards weapons and soldiering rather than the usual playthings. Her parents looked at her, looked at each other, and just sighed. Apparently some things were just meant to be. She got the very best education that her family could afford with private tutors. At the age of ten she started taking lessons in swordplay from two retired gaidin. That was also when her mother told her who her real father was. Gwen had been in turn surprised, hurt, angered, and then curious. She wanted to know more about this stranger who had sired her. Arwenna had followed Robert’s career. She had been curious, and she also wanted to be able to tell her daughter about him. Robert had started to get a reputation by then, and his name appeared in the local newssheets. He and his company did quite a bit of work for Morgause, Queen of Andor, and so were frequently in the news. Gwen realized that she had actually seen him once; he and his company had passed through Caemlyn on their way south to Murandy, and she had seen a tall, bearded man at the head of a company, almost a small army, really, riding through the city. There had been a beautiful woman with long black hair riding at his side. Gwen grew up, and her lessons and her weapons training continued. She had been riding since she had been very small, but now that she was big enough, she learned how to fight from horseback. She started to reach her full growth, and she was tall. Tall and muscular and quite intimidating to any would-be suitors. Not that she really minded. She enjoyed dancing and flirting and the whispering and giggling over boys with her girlfriends, but she had no real interest in marriage and family. She found the dance lessons to be useful in swordplay, where she had a range of motion that those not trained in the skill didn’t have. She finally ventured out to take up her new profession when she turned seventeen. Her parents (she thought of Ross as her father, as he had been the one who raised her) wept, but they knew that there was no holding her back. They had a nice family supper for her the night before, and she left loaded down with gifts (both practical and otherwise) and advice, some of which she might actually heed. Gwen was headed up toward Tarwin’s Gap and Malkier. That kingdom had been reestablished after the War of the Dragon, and was a frequent target for raids coming out of the Blight. It was also a place where young would-be fighters went to prove themselves. Gwen was equipped like any other young nobleman or noblewoman going to be a soldier. The heavy armor for both horse and rider were loaded on a one pack horse, and another carried all the other things that she would need. She had gotten a lot of advice on what to take, and since it came from people who had actually been there she had followed it. She didn’t take any servants with her. Once she got to Malkier and got accepted by a unit they would assign her one. It was in Tar Valon that she heard the news. She was staying at the Mercenaries Guild hostel in the City. She had joined in Caemlyn, and in return for her monthly dues she would always have a warm place to stay and food to eat if she was ever down on her luck. Plus it was a place to hear what was happening. She was in the bar when she heard two men talking as they came in. “Did you hear about Robert Laurel? His company got wiped out in Arad Doman.” Heads all over the bar came up at that. “Light! What happened?” “Treachery is what I heard. He was in the middle of a parley when his employers turned on him.” “Light! That will bring the Guild down on them for sure. Did he get away?” “I heard he did, but a lot of his company didn’t. They murdered his wife too, and she was expecting. Some other company saw what was going on and managed to stop it. I heard they found him wounded and unconscious. He’s dropped out of sight now.” The bar immediately started buzzing with conversation over that news. Gwen finished her drink, slapped down a coin in payment, and went to her room. No wonder some people looked so grim when I came in. She had seen several senior Guild members deep in conversation at a corner table when she entered the bar, and had wondered what it had been all about. Well now she knew. She carried in her saddlebags a letter from the Queen of Andor to the King of Malkier, introducing her and telling who she was. No one else was to know. She arrived in Malkier, and got an audience with the king. He smiled wryly when he had read her letter. “You look a lot like him, you know,” he told her. “The hair color is different, but definitely in the face and the build. You’re going to have to be careful about that. There are a number of people here who served under him. Use your stepfather’s name of Murdock for now.” The king continued. “I’m going to post you to Gordon Ashe’s troop. He needs another junior officer.” And he’s also good at breaking in squeaky new lieutenants, was the unspoken thought that lingered in the air. “He’ll have to know, and your regimental commander will have to know, but no others for now.” Gwen got settled in and acclimated. She learned all the fine points of command and of running her forty-person platoon, both from her troop commander and her senior NCOs. Her regimental commander, Anson Kelgarries, believed in educating his junior officers. Every week when possible he would assemble them all for dinner and then lectures on various military topics. Then they would discuss what they had heard. It opened Gwen’s eyes to many aspects of the military art that she had not thought of before. After three months had passed they heard the news from Tar Valon: Robert Laurel had sworn allegiance to the White Tower and become the second-in-command of the Tower Guard. This surprised a few, who thought that Robert had lost his reputation and would never again hold a major command. But others sagely nodded their heads and spoke of the wisdom of the White Tower in getting such an excellent and experienced commander and of Robert’s wisdom for getting the backing of the world’s most powerful ruler. Gwen saw her share of combat. Trollocs and darkfriends made their share of raids on Malkier. She had been there for three years when she was in the engagement that almost cost her her life. She had risen to executive officer of her heavy cavalry troop. One night a large ground of trollocs had surprised her regiment, and Gwen had helped lead a counterattack to drive them off. During the confused melee, she had fought hand-to-hand with a ram-headed beastman, just barely parrying a thrust meant for her eyes, instead taking a cut on her left cheek. She heard news about her father over the years. She learned about the reforms he had made to the Tower Guard. He had taken the Seanchan system and adapted it to the Westlands, turning the Tower Guard into a much more efficient fighting machine. She also heard about Robert’s emphasis on universal literacy and health care, and how he arranged for the building of new schools and the hiring of teachers all throughout Tar Valon’s territory, and of the provision of clean, pure water for the inhabitants, and providing adequate health care for the citizens with the use of healers in every village and hamlet and of aes sedai of the Yellow riding circuit in order to take care of anything that the healers couldn't. She then learned about Robert’s sponsorship of the Dragon Academy in Tar Valon, and obtained and read the books he wrote on history and on strategy and tactics. Gwen also listened to stories that were told about her father. She learned that they called him the Fox, because of the cunning stratagems that he was prone to come up, and how in all his years of soldiering he had never reneged on a contract and never supported an unworthy cause. It wasn’t all war and study. The court of Malkier had a lively social calendar, and she partook of it to the full. She had a couple of minor affairs, but found no one who she really wanted to get involved with. After seven years in all had passed, she was called in by Kelgarries, who was still her regimental commander. She was now a captain and a troop commander; Gordon Ashe had been promoted two years before. She had spent a lot of that time talking with officers from the brigade that the Guard kept in Malkier; they used it to give officers and men valuable combat experience. “Gwen, I think you’ve learned all you can here, and it’s time for you to head to Tar Valon and try your luck there. I’ll give you a letter of introduction that will get you in the front door, and you’ll have to take care of it from there.” Gwen nodded. In her luggage she had a letter from her mother to her father, informing him of his daughter’s existence. “With the war talk in the south, the Guard’s expanding, so there will be plenty of officer's slots available.” He rose and leaned over his desk to clasp her hand. “Good luck to you. Give my best to your father. The king has despatches for Tar Valon, so you can ride with the escort.” Gwen went back to her quarters, had a raucous party at the officer’s club where she said her farewells, and set off in the morning loaded down with quite a hangover. She reached Tar Valon uneventfully and bespoke a room for herself at a reputable inn. Then she went and introduced herself to her aunt. By the time that night was over, Gwen was in a state of shock. She had met her aunt and her father, her paternity had been proven by an aes sedai, and she had been legitimized in the eyes of the law, thus making her Robert’s legal heir. After that, she found herself having dinner with her new family and the Amyrlin Seat herself, of all people. And to top it all off, after the dinner they received word that the southern nations had broken off diplomatic relations and that they were on the verge of the war that everyone anticipated and feared. Gwen quickly adjusted to life in the Towers. The Guard had a program to bring experienced officers up to the level expected for the Guard, and she passed those classes easily. She proved her expertise on the Practice Field, but the few times she sparred with her father he won easily. “Old age and treachery will win out every time,” he would tell her, and then show her the move he had used on her so she wouldn’t fall for it twice. After she had qualified, she got a captain’s rank and Robert made his aide-de-camp, privy to his most private councils. Gwen also, to her great disgust, found herself a celebrity. Her story couldn’t be kept secret, in fact, it had to be made public, so that there would be no doubt that she was eligible to inherit. And as her aunt pointed out, Gwen was now, with the exception of the Amyrlin herself and Erin Laurel, the most eligible woman in Tar Valon. Gwen gritted her teeth and endured, but takes satisfaction in the fact that most would-be suitors are intimidated by her height and muscular build. Gwen became the friend and mentor of the Daughter-Heir of Andor, Nathalie Trakand, when she came north to continue her education in the City. She accompanied her father south to the war, serving as his aide, and was there when he was wounded, went with hm back to Tar Valon. She was a maid of honor at Sapphira's wedding to Robert, and is quite amused to have the Amyrlin Seat as her stepmother. Robert appointed Gwen to be head of Sapphira's personal guard, and she was there when Sapphira killed the Forsaken Dazar Ayende. She is quite unhappy with being the Heir, and waits anxiously for the day when Robert and Sapphira have a child of their own so she no longer has that hanging over her head. Her ambition is to succeed Sorcha na Reille as Lady Marshal and Minister of War of the High Kingdom. ((OOC: Gwenhywvar is Celtic in origin. Romanized, it’s Guinevere. The French form is Eleanor.)) Edited by Gwen Laurel, Oct 3 2009, 11:53 PM.
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Gwen Laurel Heir-Presumptive to the High Kingdom Gwen's biography | |
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| Sapphira Calren | Feb 1 2009, 06:42 PM Post #2 |
High Queen & Chancellor
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Lovely, thanks. Approved. 
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 Unweaving, Healing, Warding | |
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| Reor Rahidram | Feb 2 2009, 06:14 AM Post #3 |
M'hael
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Approved. 
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 Talents: Travelling, Spinning Earthfire, Inverting Weaves Artwork by M.Luisa Giliberti. | |
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| Gwen Laurel | Oct 3 2009, 11:54 PM Post #4 |
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Heir-Presumptive to the High Kingdom
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Edited for the war. |
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Gwen Laurel Heir-Presumptive to the High Kingdom Gwen's biography | |
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11:23 PM Nov 25
