Raqual Vasudevna, Aes Sedai of the White Ajah

Kandor

Raqual Vasudevna was born to a noble house in Kandor. Though her House held little influence outside its borders, young Lady Raqual was raised with all the expectations of her rank. She was disciplined, proud, and reserved in manner and speech. She was also peculiar: unusually quiet in company, unflinchingly observant, and prone to sudden moods of fury or stillness that no one could explain. She claimed to “feel too much from others,” though no one understood what she meant.

Among her kin, it became quietly accepted that something was strange about her. Servants grew uneasy in her presence. Her cousins whispered that she could tell when someone lied; not always, but often enough to make them wary. Her mother forbade her from meeting with the Aes Sedai who visited court, fearful that Raqual’s condition, as she called it, would attract dangerous attention.

At the age of sixteen, Raqual stole away to speak with a Green Sister who had come to parley with her House over Borderland troop levies. The Sister, to her credit, listened, tested her, and told her plainly: Raqual could not only learn to channel, but possessed a Talent unheard of by the Green. She should be taken to the White Tower at once; not merely as an initiate, but as a subject of study.

That study would never come.

The White Tower

Raqual arrived in Tar Valon in the winter of 691 NE, and signed as a novice soon after. She was known for her bearing: too proud, too quiet, and too stubborn to surrender her noble manner. She held herself apart from the other girls, and spent most of her spare time (such that it was) in the library or gardens, where she could better shield herself from the emotions of others. It became quickly known that she was quick to anger, though rarely outwardly. Her temper was a cold and buried thing, manifesting only in quiet defiance or piercing words.

Several Aes Sedai remarked that she possessed a strange sensitivity. One Brown Sister once commented that Raqual flinched before an argument began, as if she felt it brewing inside another. Most assumed it was a sharp intuition or simply nerves. Among her teachers, only a few truly suspected the truth: that she possessed a rare Empathic Talent, one which allowed her to sense the emotional currents of others as if they were her own, but for which there was no name in this Age.

Among those, none spoke of it openly. The White Tower did not encourage such questions. She was advised by the senior Brown, Genevieve Argantlowen to keep such sensitivities “to herself, and not confuse Feeling with the Flame.”

She never forgot that.

Aes Sedai of the White Ajah

Raqual was raised to the shawl in 711 NE, and chose the White Ajah: a decision which surprised none and comforted few. She did not form close friendships, save for Zenitha Sedai of the White, whose good cheer and generous heart gave Raqual brief peace. “She feels only thoughtfulness and joy,” Raqual once remarked, “and that is the only thing that never presses upon me.”

Though channeling came easily to her, she rarely used the Power unless required. Instead, she poured herself into the philosophical treatises and internal doctrines of the White Ajah, isolating herself further in pursuit of calm. Her struggle was not in the Power, but in learning how to master the endless flood of others’ emotions that clouded her judgment and disturbed her reason.

The first century was difficult. It was said that she would walk alone in the Tower for hours at night but never into the city. Some believed her to be ill. Others believed her simply cold. But over time, Raqual grew still within herself, as a stone placed in water long enough to settle the ripples.

When she finally began to interact with other Aes Sedai again, it was always formally and short, but many found her to be cutting in logic, unnervingly precise in speech, and difficult to lie to. Some said she had the gift of judging motive more keenly than even many Grays. But unlike a Gray, she offered no compromise: only the weight of reason, stripped of comfort.

Sitter

Raqual was appointed Sitter for the White Ajah sometime around 830 NE, likely as a result of both her seniority and her unshakable detachment in Hall matters. It was said by one Sister that “Raqual speaks with all the warmth of winter steel, and yet you find yourself agreeing before you realize you’ve bent.”

She never rose higher, and likely never wanted to. She left no circulated writings, though she contributed to certain philosophical texts preserved in the White Ajah libraries focusing primarily on matters of meditation, self-control, and emotional regulation.

Her Sentient abilities were never publicly acknowledged or recorded, and became part of a forgotten Tower rumor. A few Sisters in the Brown and White Ajahs studied her quietly, but her name was never linked to any formal Talent.