Biography of Ian Leci

Well, this is something new. A new character! His name is Ian Leci and his color will be gold. Sort of gold at least. Well, here we go, enjoy!

Ian Leci

My father always said it was my fate to bring ill-luck to all those I encountered. If one were to listen solely to him, I, Ian Leci, have been a curse upon my family since I first came into this world as a squalling babe. I was a mistake, never supposed to be born. After all, what under the Blessed Light does a noble family need a third son for? A third son had no strategic importance in Cairhien's Great Game of Houses; he cannot be married off and stands in line for little to no power in a minor House such as Leci. A first born son, such as my brother Cairn, stands to inherit the High Seat; even in a minor House it is a position of power. A second son, my brother Cecil in House Leci, could be relied upon as a military leader; yet a House only needed one of these. A third son, well a third son in this day and age had better be able to channel or he was useless in all ways. I was useless.

I had only one option left to me as a youngest, useless, and unwanted son: to be the best player of the Great Game anyone had ever seen. To rise, I would have to outplay everyone who got in my way. I watched, I listened, I practiced, and I learned. By the time my tenth nameday came around I had learned enough to run circles around Cairn and Cecil in our child's version of Daes Dae'mar. My elder sister, Eliani, was still better than I though, and my younger sister, Loria, was uninterested. Niether of these situations lasted too long. Eliani was of marriageable age and was soon out of my everyday life as my father married her into a minor branch of the Damodred House. Loria I took under my wing and taught everything I had learned. She was the sibling I was closest to because she was like me; an outcast, an unwanted child. Was it our fault our mother was too absentminded to remember to drink her heartleaf tea? No, but it was laid at our feet regardless and provided a common bond, a reason we would rise together to make names for ourselves and grasp power. We were young, our minds were full of dreams, but could you really blame us?

When I was fifteen, my destiny to bring ill-luck struck again. A sister of the White Ajah of the White Tower in Tar Valon, Telrina Sedai, visited Cairhien on some sort of official business or other. I still do not know what brought her to the humble House Leci, but at my home Telrina Sedai found more than she could have possibly bargained for. Loria, my dear, sweet, younger sister Loria, had been gifted and cursed with what I had not; Loria could learn to channel saidar. Yet, she and I our plans already set and she didn't have any desire to go train at the White Tower. It was no longer her decision though; my parents insisted she go, the Aes Sedai insisted she go, and most importantly I insisted she go. After all, think how much more power we would have if she was an Aes Sedai and not just the lowly youngest daughter of a minor Cairhienin House. Telrina Sedai took her away to Tar Valon two days later.

One might question how this was my fate as bearer of bad luck striking again. After all, we had both agreed that it would be beneficial to us in the end, hadn't we? She would be an Aes Sedai, a manipulator of world politics; we would be able to do anything we wanted. No one would question an Aes Sedai. Rising out of the chaos created by the Dragon Reborn we could rule Cairhien if we played our hand right. So what bad luck was there in this near perfect situation? At first there wasn't any, but soon months passed, then years. By the time I was nineteen four years later there still had not been any word from Loria. I didn't know what to do. She had promised to write, but I hadn't seen a letter. The last I knew of her was watching her ride off with Telrina Sedai with a decidedly sulky look on her face. Then, it happened. The letter arrived, sealed with green wax and a flame of Tar Valon and addressed to Eli, High Seat of House Leci. It read simply, according to my father, and expressed the Tower's condolences to our family over the loss of Novice Loria Leci during training. My tragic curse had struck again; it had been at my urging that she went to the White Tower. She had only just seen the pass of her eighteenth nameday two days before her death according to the date on the letter. I was devastated. It was entirely my fault.

I wept, wore white in mourning, for weeks. Not a day went by that I didn't curse the Aes Sedai, and curse myself, for my sweet sister's death. She shouldn't have died, but look what the Aes Sedai had done to my family. I might have convinced her to go, but the Tar Valon witches killed Loria Leci. Could I possibly achieve our goals on my own, become High Seat through my own subtle manipulations? No, I couldn't. I knew the Game, and I knew that such an undertaking as undermining a succession took more than the maneuverings of a single, unimportant son. Aside from that, my mind was full of revenge. Or rather, it was full of a thirst for justice that the Light would deliver me against the Aes Sedai. I knew what I had to do, and it began with abandoning the idea that I could ever be the High Seat of House Leci.

A month after the news of Loria reached us; I put off my mourning whites and packed my bags to gain a different set of whites. A white cloak. My mind had been made up and I was gone before anyone could stop me. I rode for Amador and the Fortress of the Light. I would join the Children of the Light and make a name for myself there. More importantly, I would have my justice. I would prove my father wrong. I would defy my destiny.