I finally decided that I understood Bran and Lila well enough to write up their family background. Only Bran and Lila are PCs. The rest of them are NPCs, for now.
Background: Reyer Family
(Note: this background assumes that the year is 998 NE [when the first books take place].) Once, the Reyers were an honored noble family. They were ennobled in the nation of Caembarin, following the destruction of Coremanda in the Trolloc Wars. Brannock Reyer’s martial and strategic skill won him command of a small army of human survivors, and his family was raised to nobility in the new nation that formed after Coremanda’s end. The Reyer family’s interests were primarily related to Caembarin’s military, although some of the family’s daughters were sent to the White Tower for training (and several raised to the shawl as well). The family purchased a small manor in the country, out in the Braem Wood. In their lands they harvested timber and grew grapes and grain for making wine and beer. The family survived Artur Hawkwing’s conquest of Caembarin, even though several members of the family had served in the army that attempted to destroy him. Some even found places with Hawkwing’s military, although their postings often took them far from home, dispersing them throughout Hawkwing’s empire. (Due to this, the name “Reyer” can pop up in unusual places.) After Hawkwing’s death, the family found little favor with the new nation of Andor. The Reyers were too old-fashioned and too out-of-touch for the politics of a new nation. They increasingly kept to their estate in the woods, selling the timber and alcohol that their lands produced. Rather than serving in Andor’s armies, several of the children became mercenaries, while fewer and fewer went to the Tower, and very few became Aes Sedai. Among Andor’s nobles, the Reyers were increasingly forgotten. Over the centuries, the family declined. Poor weather and poor decisions gradually forced the family to sell off many of its lands, until finally only the property around their estate itself remained in the family’s hands. Today, the Reyer family is noble only in the most technical sense, in that the family was raised to the nobility over a thousand years earlier. The family still sells timber and still produces strong drink, but their economic activities are greatly diminished, much like the family itself. They have retained their ancient estate, but finding the money to keep it up is an ever-present problem. Their servants are few in number and the family members perform much of the work themselves.
Lady Clera Reyer (born 942 NE, age 56) serves as the family matriarch. A widow, she has run the family’s affairs since her husband, Lord Nar Reyer, died toward the end of the Aiel War, twenty years ago, and she has shown no interest in remarrying. She has four children: William, Nera, Bran, and Lila. She has devoted her time and effort to keeping what little property the family still has and trying to ensure that her children are raised properly: polite and mindful, and ready to carry on the family’s legacy.
William Reyer (born 968 NE, age 30) is the eldest son and designated heir to the title of Lord Reyer. He broke with family tradition by serving in Andor’s army, although he has since left to return to the family estate and take a hand in its operation. Despite her disapproval of his service to the Queen, Lady Clera is pleased by his return, and hopes he and his wife will produce a grandchild soon.
Nera Reyer (born 970 NE, age 28) is the second-eldest child. She learned the art of commerce selling the family’s goods and excelled at it. But she found the Reyer family’s modest business to be stifling, and set out on her own, determined to make her own way in the world. She has become a successful merchant in her own right, but rarely even writes to her family, let alone visits, as such contact usually results in her begrudgingly loaning her mother money.
Bran Reyer (born 975 NE, age 23) is third-born. Named in honor of the family’s founder, he has pursued the life of a mercenary, like many of his recent kinsmen. He has only vague memories of his father from when he was very young. He left home in his teens, earning coin with his swordarm. Despite keeping rough company, he retains the polite manners his mother instilled in him, even if he privately finds some of her ideas to be outdated to the point of impracticality. A dutiful son, he sends coin home when he can, although he has not visited the estate in some time.
Lila Reyer (born 978 NE, age 20) is the youngest daughter. She never met her father; he died in the Aiel War shortly before she was born. Shy and introverted, but quite intelligent and curious, she was resigned to the fact that her life would be spent on the family estate, working to keep it running. However, at age 17 she became terribly ill, barely surviving her sickness. Soon thereafter it was concluded that she was a “wilder” who could channel. After much debate and argument within the family, it was determined that the safest course would be for her to go to Tar Valon to learn to control her power, as prior channelers in the family had. Since leaving home, she has begun to emerge from her shell, even if she occasionally retreats to it.