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Once the Aes Sedai named Nemene Damendar Boann, Semirhage was a famed Healer, renowned for her knowledge about the human body. She was whisked to every corner of the world for her ability to mend any injury. She was so skilled that she could bring someone back from the brink of death when everyone else said there was nothing more to be done. Her services were particularly asked for when it was of matters that involved the brain.
However, Semirhage had a dark little secret. She was a sadist, finding pleasure in giving others pain. She exacted a little more in the people that she Healed, making them suffer while mending them. She considered the little extra physical and mental pain their "dessert" - a small price to pay for her services, since most often, not getting her services meant death. Most of her patients were so grateful over being alive that they ignored the extra pain and suffering she exacted. But those she considered that society had no need for were not so lucky. If they survived the torture she gave them, she would kill them herself.
The Hall of the Servants discovered her secret sometime after the drilling of the Bore. However, it is noted that her actions predated the drilling of the Bore and the influence of the Dark One on the world with a fair margin, so it cannot be said that her perversion had anything to do with the Dark One (at that time). A delegation from the Hall of the Servants offered her two choices: binding- to be bound never to know her pleasures again- or to be severed from the One Power and be cast out as Aes Sedai in disgrace. Furious at what she perceived to be jealousy of her Talent, she chose neither and ran away instead. Semirhage was one of the first to go to Shayol Ghul and dedicate her soul to the Dark One.
Semirhage developed her skills and knowledge of the human body as an art of torture. She used not only the pain centers of the brain and body but the pleasure centers as well, using them to stimulate and break her victims. She was exacting her revenge every time she managed to turn another councillor of the Hall to the Shadow. All the important prisoners that the Dark One's forces captured were given to her to be turned to the Shadow. The few who managed to turn back into the Light, after long treatments in the hands of Restorers, feared falling into her hands again more than anything in the world. Her administration of conquered territories was marked with a level of violence and malice that stood out even among the Forsaken. She used her techniques on captured soldiers and civilians and sent them out on missions against their former friends and allies.
Semirhage hated any one who called themselves Aes Sedai with a passion. She found the greatest pleasure in personally breaking any Aes Sedai, and did it slowly, so her victim would know everything that was happening. Her reputation eventually became so great that the forces of the Shadow had to take special precautions with those they handed over to her (both those that served the Shadow and the Light) so that they wouldn't commit suicide upon learning they were to be given to her care.
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