from A Biography of Aes Sedai, by Leraine Sedai of the Brown Ajah
Personal background: Iliana Sh'mur Aes Sedai was born to a minor Ebou Dari House and trained with House Damodred in Cairhien before she became a Sister. She was raised to the Ring on the seventeenth day of the month of Rilmeron, in the year 4378 by Maigewin's Calendar, and raised to the Shawl on 21 Kumiron 4379. She is formally a member of the Yellow Ajah, but she also takes part in activities of the Violet Ajah.
Talents: Having trained in both the Ebou Dari and Cairhienin traditions, Iliana is one of the Tower’s best agents in underground political relations, a fact unbeknownst to most Sisters; she has been sent by the Amyrlin on several delicate assignments, most recently an investigative study on the classified strategies of Pedron Niall, Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light. She is foremost a Healer, however, and works only in the most sensitive of political and underground situations; these assignments she accepts with great reluctance. Her passion lies in Healing; she has spent several months in the past year in Fal Dara, employing her Talents in the war effort against the Blight.
Although the exact measure of her strength is unrecorded, it is well known that Iliana Sh’mur is able to weave all of the newly-rediscovered Talents, including Traveling, Skimming, Illusion, Compulsion, and the most specialized forms of Healing. Like most Aes Sedai, her predominant strengths are in Air and Water; she does, however, possess some unusual proficiency at weaving Fire. As a Healer, Iliana easily picks up the most intricate of weaves, while her ability wanes when it comes to pure weaves of Air, Water, Spirit, Fire, or Earth. Thus, although the topic is widely avoided among Aes Sedai and not discussed in the Tower, Iliana is rumored to have not a small capacity to weave Compulsion, although no Aes Sedai has ever reported witnessing it. Her public stance on the issue of Compulsion is that discretion should be used, and that Compulsion should be used only as far as to suggest, if it must be used at all, but she does not believe the Oath Rod should be employed to restrict its use.
Lifestyle: Except for the occasional rare assignment (these are Sealed to the Flame), Iliana spends most of her time traveling, either by road or by gateway, among remote villages to offer her Talents in Healing. She is known to carry a red leatherbound book and writing case, a poniard with an amethyst on the hilt that bears her Ebou Dari House symbols, two daggers and several well-crafted knives, and a finely wrought jade bracelet shaped like a snake, with diamond-beaded eyes, that appears to be coiled around and climbing up her wrist. Only a select few sisters, mostly of the Violet Ajah, know that this bracelet doubles as a minor sa’angreal, and to the majority of them Iliana has not revealed her uses for it. (Since the beginning of the Violet Ajah and the crafting of new ter’angreal, angreal, and sa’angreal, the old laws that required a sister to turn in objects of the Power immediately upon discovery have become antiquated. New regulations have not been made, and objects of the Power have become much more common possessions among Aes Sedai.)
Although the Greens know Iliana keeps a speculative eye out for possible Warders, she travels without company and maintains that she has no absolute need for one. The Greens also know that Iliana is extremely untraditional for an Aes Sedai in that she believes marriage is more important than bonding; to the shock of many Aes Sedai, she also questions the ethics of bonding itself, maintaining that the bond between Warder and Aes Sedai is for the benefit of the Aes Sedai at the expense of the Warder.
Physically, Iliana Sh’mur is diminutive of height for an Ebou Dari and naturally slender. She is also noticeably less fiery than the archetypical Ebou Dari woman, tending instead to have a cool and calm exterior composure, more akin to Cairhienin than to Ebou Dari. (She has never revealed the exact nature of her relationship with House Damodred, and no evidence has gone to support any of the speculation among her fellow sisters.) Her hair and eyes are dark. In the Tower, she is often seen wearing a tailored Ebou Dari dress of pale silk, soft leather boots, and a dark blue cloak she rarely removes for the brevity of her stays.
Current status: In light of the recent stirrings concerning political relations in the time of the Dragon’s Rebirth, the Amyrlin Seat sent Iliana into the heart of Amador, the Fortress of the Children of the Light, under disguise and with her ability to channel hidden. The Amyrlin was informed by Iliana herself to expect her return in three months. Upon the unexpected demise of Lord Captain Commander Niall, however, Iliana decided to remain in the Fortress watching and offering her expertise to Lord Captain Commander Valda. Unfortunately, it has been several weeks since Iliana’s last communication to the Amyrlin arrived by pigeon; all communication with Amadicia has been cut off, and the silence has been making sisters in the Tower uneasy. The wildest speculation, offered by a young Violet, is that the Seanchan have returned from over the Aryth. If this is so (and the Light send it not be so), logic leads to the inevitable conclusion that Iliana Sh’mur has been taken and made damane. Those sisters who are closest to her in the Tower, however, do not believe that terrible fate has befallen Iliana, who is (or was), after all, one of the Tower’s best, with her ability to channel hidden and also secretly armed with a sa’angreal, her use of which no one seems to know.
The Amyrlin, however, appears to believe that Iliana is still alive, and has been reported to declare that once Iliana returns to the Tower, she will be sent on another mission to the Court of the Nine Moons in Seanchan. Since the Amyrlin’s sense of humor is oftentimes ambiguous, the sisters do not know what to make of her comment. Indeed, few sisters believe Iliana is truly alive to return to the Tower; if she returns, the Hall will be very interested to hear of her findings, and the maneuverings of the Children of the Light will be the least of their concerns.
She has recently bonded Jeren.
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