Member Spotlight - Yenie Antagar

Author: Yenie Antagar
Published: November 28, 2021

Brace yourself because this will become a Nobel Prize winning piece of art. – Yenie Antagar, HoA of the Red Ajah

So, imagine this fantastic view of an exclusive paradise island surrounded by a turquoise ocean with a fancy mansion on the beach and a luxury yacht with amazing internet in it…. That’s totally not where I live, but I wanted to give the impression that I do. So let me just put on my sunglasses and we can lie down in the shade with nice drinks with cute little umbrellas and gossip about the most important person in my life— me!

I mean, there is soooo much. The fortune I purchased this imaginary paradise island was made by simply existing in a flat in the UK, with my boyfriend of like seven years or something and by never posting any pictures of my cute cats on Instagram.

It is amazing I made enough money to even buy an imaginary island from the sounds of it, to be honest.

Wait, these white chocolate and raspberry cookies here, my faves by the way — hint hint hint for anyone that is attempting to bribe me — they are nearly melting so lets eat a bunch before they do! Good, right? Melts right off your tongue too, I love when they are gooey in the middle!

Where was I? Yes, oh right, my life. Well. I am originally from Sweden, I totally failed the whole blonde and blue eyed bit, I suppose I never got the memo so I ended up green eyed and brunette, but you know, it works. I have hair on top of my head and eyes to see it in the mirror. The hair had a bit of a rebellious streak in it though and I am currently a blue head. Is that a thing? Bluette instead of brunette? I tend to claim it is my natural hair colour when I can get away with it. Makes people look at me funny.

As a person with ADHD I have always been intensely dedicated for life to a numerous amount of things, for at least two weeks at a time. I collect hobbies the way some people collect items of an actual hobby. Some I have proof of all over the house though; for example my intense on and off again interest in houseplants. When it is on, I buy plants and when it is off, I try to take care of them as much as possible so I don’t feel I have too much free space to fill up with new plants when it turns on again. This has been going on since I was around 12 and had around 70 plants in my tiny room. Now I have about the same number, but they are at least spread out in multiple rooms. With my 52 bedrooms in this imaginary mansion, it even looks sparse…

One hobby that has always stayed with me through the years no matter what, is my reading. I tend to average around 150 books per year, some years more and some years less. In 2019, I read nearly 200 books, that was a good year. So, in some peoples’ eyes that would probably tag me as Brown. But I have called myself Red Ajah since 1999, it has always been special to me. It was completely random how I first ended up Red, through a Swedish Wheel of Time RPG but once I got into it and saw it for what it could be, I embraced it and never really looked back. This is the place where I got to know Tallan, Mejjad and many more of the Swedish members through the years.

I joined TarValon.net because I wanted a bigger site than the Swedish one and one in English. As much as we always discourage everyone from having their eyes set on a group as they join, I was dead set on Red from day one. This was back in 2002 so things were a little different, including the Red Ajah. As of this December, I have been Red Ajah for 19 years; which to me sounds absolutely crazy as I am mentally 12½ and physically like 25 and the math here just doesn’t add up!

It never stopped feeling like home even through struggles and changes over the years. We used to be a females only group with no Warders around, and now we have lovely Brothers as well as Sisters and we can even bond if we put in the work for it. While it was a lot of change for some and they chose to leave due to it, the people we gained are just as amazing. And the feeling of our little group hasn’t changed one bit. It is the same attitude and genuine care for each other, still the odd kind of fascination with pretending to be violent when we really are not; the great feeling of having them at my back and ready to jump in and wreak havoc but staying back and letting me do my thing as long as I am happy doing it; and how we all collectively became obsessed with peaches pretty much at the same time.

Tar Valon has always been a bit of a mix between crazy, serious and amazing. There are ups and downs but it has had such a major impact on my life, even during years when I was not active it still had a huge effect on my life. It is what made me love this place and it is what brought me back when I strayed away.

Some parts of the site, like the jobs I have done in the past – this is my second time as Head of Ajah and I used to be in charge of the old IRC chat rooms back in the day as well – they tend to see my serious side. I try to make sure everyone feels seen and heard and comfortable. I try to include everyone and I try to be fair. One of the things that made me apply as Head of Ajah again was also the fact that with the TV show, we will most likely become the “hated” Ajah again, and I have been through this already but there are a bunch of people on the site, including Reds, that haven’t. It takes a certain kind of mindset to deal with sometimes, and I hope that my experience of having done it before will rub off. So, let’s have a sip of this tasty peach drink in hope of that. Don’t poke your eye on the cute umbrella though!

The silly side of me tends to explode with ideas and I have to write them down and pace them out to not overwhelm both myself and everyone else around me. Things like Risor’e’Dor where the Red Ajah declared ourselves a Gaidin Company in case you missed that, it was my original idea that set it all off but I was not alone in preparing for it and executing it, these things tend to just happen randomly.

Other things like me randomly trying to win the spamathon last time we had one, or the project I currently have going within the Red Ajah and with our guests… I tend to sprout so many more stupid ideas and it can be genuinely exhausting to have my brain sometimes. I have plans spanning into the spring next year already and the list keeps on growing. Nothing will probably come to the level of when the entire Red Ajah got married to each other back in the days, but at this rate I am going to have to have my imaginary staff mop me up from the puddle on the floor I am becoming here in my mansion!

Let me know if you want to come visit me on my imaginary island or yacht, there’s plenty of space. I will fly out a make-believe private jet just to get you!