Member Spotlight: Nyavene al'Meer
Author: Sailea Nerid, November 2015
On September 16, 2015 Nyavene al'Meer Sedai was announced as our newest Historian. We managed to find her and get this interview just in time before she buries herself in the dusty archives of TarValon.Net. With a dedication more typical for a Brown Aes Sedai than a Yellow one she answers our questions in great detail.
In the beginning of the interview we ask Nyavene Sedai to tell our readers a little about herself and the beautiful, yet not very well known country of South Africa. We are amazed to find out that for her 22 years Nyavene Sedai managed to become what she identifies as a professional student. ‘I started off with a Bachelor of Science in Zoology and Mathematics, then completed an Education Diploma this year, and will be doing an Accounting Conversion course next year.’ The superb work ethic that is a distinctive feature of our new Historian is probably a result of her childhood, spent on a Dairy Farm. Her interests vary and participating in discussions where she can learn something new is just one of them.
Nyavene Sedai does not go into any further details regarding her own persona, but she is quite enthusiastic about sharing with us the beauties of South Africa. She lets us know that in the very moment she is answering our questions, she is enjoying the view of ‘a sunny vista of cows on pastures and weaver birds nesting in the trees.’ Nyavene Sedai describes South Africa as ‘breathtaking and unbelievably diverse’, so visiting the country offers the unique opportunity to come across deserts, mountains, escarpments, plateaus, grasslands, bush, wetlands and subtropical forests. It’s not surprising, considering the country is home of the Cape Floral Kingdom - an endemic biodiversity hotspot. Our Historian informs us that in South Africa there is a UNESCO World heritage site for the oldest meteor scar and that the country can lay the claim to be called "Cradle of Humankind". If that is not enough to show the diversity of this land, imagine having three capitals (legislative, executive and judicial) and 11 official languages. We are dazzled to find out Nyavene Sedai speaks 3 of those languages! Among the many fascinating facts about the country are the first medical heart transplant performed by a local doctor and highest bungee jump. I don’t know about you, but I am ready to visit this sunny paradise inhabited by friendly people and offering so much diversity and culture (not to mention the high quality wines).
We move on asking Nyavene Sedai how she discovered the Wheel of Time series and TarValon.Net. She admits she read them because her older brother’s best friend from primary school recommended the series to her and she just couldn’t resist the temptation (not to mention she had a little crush on said boy). ‘You have to picture the scene though: 13 years old me buying 11 books all at once, I could not even see the cashier over the stack of books.’ Oh, we can picture it! As for finding TarValon.Net, Nyavene Sedai admits she was supposed to do an art project about Frida Kahlo but instead looked for the release date of the next book of the series, and you can imagine the rest of the story…
Nyavene Sedai sees TarValon.Net as part of her childhood, a refuge and a place she learnt to express her true self. Here our interviewee expresses the willingness to ‘send a definitive shout of to Celinda al'Velis Sedai and Elandria d'ma Mieresouvra Sedai’. I suppose they know what this is about. Our Community helped the painfully shy and insecure youngster to change her life and turn into the young woman she currently is. For those of you who are not aware, Nyavene Sedai has been very involved with TarValon.Net through the years and has occupied numerous positions in the past. We ask her about her favourite one. Not surprisingly she picks the position of a Historian, although she tells us she enjoyed being a moderator of the Library forums and serving the Yellow Ajah, which she considers as giving something back to her family. We are curious what she finds most challenging in being a Historian. ‘Digging up information that has been lost!’, she answers.
Since we mentioned the Yellow Ajah we can’t resist the temptation to ask why she chose it as her home. It turns out it was a hard decision and Nyavene Sedai spent quite a lot of time considering her options. Aspiring after a brief period of time, our Historian started to feel she might be missing something when the activity level of the Ajah dropped thus she decided to Unaspire and check if Yellow was truly her home. Nyavene Sedai does not hide her sympathies to the Gray Ajah but eventually she picked Yellow who apparently ‘are just the right amounts of cuddly, butt-kicking, motherly, sisterly, ferocious, and twisted.’ Nyavene Sedai likes to think about her choice in the lines of Harry Potter book series. ‘Harry had to choose between two as well (Gryffindor and Slytherin). He could have fit into both, but it was his own decision on where he wanted to be. Now I proudly say that Yellow is the Gryffindor to my Harry.’ Our Historian admits borrowing the comparison from Arie Sedai; it definitely sounds like her.
One of Nyavene Sedai’s favourite threads on the boards is The Random PM thread in the Frivolous Fun Forum. ‘It gives people an excuse to message someone they would ordinarily never necessarily have interacted with and it has been the beginning of many a friendship in my time on the boards.‘ Another one is the Fitness Humour and Motivation thread due to Karassa Sedai’s high spirit and motivation techniques.
Finally, we ask Nyavene Sedai to imagine she was the Creator and tell us what would she have changed in the Wheel of Time universe. Surprisingly she is not satisfied with Gawyn’s character development and would have used her divine powers to change that. Good luck with that!
We thank Nyavene Sedai for the time she spent answering our questions and wish her luck in her new position.
