Saroiya Farseen is an Aes Sedai and a Sitter of the White Ajah.
Appearance
She is blocky. She looks slim compared to Aledrin Malenry, especially in her vertical-white-striped skirt. [1]
Strength and Abilities
Being a Sitter in the Hall means that Saroya is also a high-ranking sister and a strong channeller by Aes Sedai standards. Thus she has the strength needed to use the travel weave.
This is not confirmed by "The Wheel of Time Companion" where her level of strength is described only as 24(12). But this is probably a mistake because eleven levels below the strongest Sitters would mean that Saroiya is a too weak Sitter compared to them.
However, her time spent in training, a total of twenty-four years, indicates that she is not that strong in the One Power.
History
Saroiya was born in the year 857 NE and went to the White Tower in 873 NE. After spending thirteen years as novice and eleven as Accepted she was raised to the shawl in the year 897 NE.
Saroiya was a very good, if strict, teacher. She also displayed very good organizational and managerial abilities, as well as being considered among the sharpest logicians of her Ajah. For these reasons she was elected Sitter recently in the year 987 NE, although she was quite younger than usual.
Activities
Her Ajah Head sent her to the rebels because she was not invited to the vote to depose Siuan Sanche and raise Elaida a'Roihan. This would help keep her safe, and allow the Ajahs to help defuse the rebellion. She has allied herself with the Salidar Aes Sedai and is a Sitter in the Salidar Hall. She supported Romanda Cassin because it would help stalemate Lelaine Akashi and make the rebellion easier to control.
She votes NO on the Rebel Aes Sedai declaring war on Elaida and is outvoted.
She is one of the Sitters that want to begin negotiations with Elaida's White Tower. She votes NO in the Rebel Hall of the Tower for an alliance with the Black Tower. She is part of the group that negotiates with the White Tower Aes Sedai in Darein.
When Lelaine calls an emergency meeting of the Hall due to the arrival of Jahar Narishma with the offer from the Dragon Reborn of bonding forty-seven Asha'man, Saroiya opposes this motion and refuses to stand with the greater consensus when the offer is accepted.
The White Tower re-united
Saroiya remains a Sitter when the Hall of the Tower is re-united after the White Tower Schism. The Sitters try to hold a secret meeting without Egwene al'Vere, discussing ways temper the Amyrlin's power when a declaration of war is called[2].
Egwene is warned about it and arrives immediately in the Hall to counteract the Sitter manoeuvring. She accepts to give the control of the army and prosecution of the war to the Sitters if she can maintain the diplomacy with the monarchies of the world. Saroiya is very sharp and realizes immediately that it would mean giving her negotiation with the Dragon Reborn, because Rand is also the King of Illian, but Saroiya has no time to advise the other Sitters about it, because the voting has started suddenly, so she votes against the proposal, but many of the other Sitters are not so smart as her and Egwene wins her goal[2].
In that same meeting of the Hall, Saroiya voted in favour of the new rules and procedures in the Hall as outlined by Egwene, which included temporarily replacing a Sitter when she is absent from the Hall and that no meeting of the Hall can commence without all Sitters and the Amyrlin Seat being present[2].
During the Last Battle Saroiya, Takima and Varilin were the three Sitters designated to manage the White Tower and Tar Valon in the absence of the Amyrlin, the Keeper and the other Sitters in the Hall.