Alviarin Freidhen

Lyssandra Darai

General

Alviarin is a slim, cool faced, swan necked Aes Sedai. (TSR, Ch. 1; ACOS, Prologue) When she first appeared, she was cool, accepting and willing to help others learn. (TGH, Ch. 12) She was always cool and calm, as was the stereotype for any sister of the White ajah (TSR, Ch. 1); in fact, she was often more so. It was said the woman had ice for blood. (FOH, Prologue, ACOS, Prologue) When Elaida moved to depose Siuan, Alviarin backed her despite the White's traditional alliance with the Blues. (TSR, Ch. 1) Alviarin's position as Keeper of the Chronicles was the price for her bringing the White Ajah with her. (FOH, Prologue)

Past

We know very little about Alviarin's past. She is never commented on as being young, so it can be assumed that she has had the Shawl for at least 50 years, and likely close to 100. But we do not know. Nor is anything known about where she is from.

She has served several different Forsaken - first Ishamael, who made her Head of the Black Ajah. (CoS, Prologue) She has also seen Be'lal in her dreams, and Lanfear and Graendal within the Tower. (CoS, Prologue) Now she serves Mesaana, reporting everything that Elaida does and carrying out her orders and errands.

Relationships with other characters

Alviarin has never shown any friendship with anyone. She is very much a loner. Basically, her only interaction with other characters are when she has to. And she prefers to act from a position of strength and power. She is also very cruel, and enjoys hurting others. She is quite skilled at it. (LoC, ch.12)

Changes

At the start, Alviarin was simply a Sister of the White Ajah. She had no official rank, but that doesn't mean she was powerless. She clearly carried considerable weight within her Ajah. When Elaida overthrew Siuan, Alviarin brought the White Ajah around to support her, becoming the Keeper of the Chronicles. (FoH, Prologue) Normally, that would mean she was second in power in the White Tower. But in this case, that isn't true: "Do you think I would not be first if I had wished it? Second suits me. Let Elaida claim credit for what she calls successes, and sweat for her failures, too. I know where the power lies."(FoH, ch.19)

All her relationships with other characters are based on that power. After the disastrous attempt to capture Rand, Alviarin exerted more control over the Tower. She threatened to expose that attempt to the others, which would have resulted in Elaida's stilling. In return for staying on the Amyrlin Seat, Elaida was forced to do only as Alviarin told her. (CoS, ch.32)

Which in turn meant that the Black Ajah had hold over the Tower, as Alviarin is head of the Black. And, as she is working directly for Mesaana, it means that Mesaana has control in the Tower. (CoS, ch.32) She finds this a very useful place to be, and Alviarin to be a very useful tool. She teaches Alviarin some new weaves, like Travelling, and has her running around and doing errands. (CoT, ch.21)

Unfortunately for Alviarin, she loses her position when she leaves the Tower for a month on business for Mesaana. When she returned, she found that Elaida had managed to pin the blame of her two failures on the people leading them, and had accused Alviarin of treason for having been gone so long. Alviarin was ousted from her position of Keeper, and was desperate to find some way to deflect the charges. (CoT, ch.21)

After this, she ran down to her quarters and summoned Mesaana, who refused to help. During this interview, Shadar Haran showed up and marked Alviarin for the Dark One. (CoT, ch.21)