Younger sister of Mabyllin a'Lyriane Jacena, Mistress of Novices and Aes Sedai of the Gray Ajah, Maeriwyn was raised traveling from village to village with her mother, Lyriane a'Wynora Jacena, Aes Sedai of the Green Ajah. Maeriwyn and her sister were both independent and strong-willed, a trait dominant in their family since the days of Mabriam en Shareed, first Queen of Aramelle and Maeriwyn's descendant.
Maeriwyn tended to take after her mother, who was considered rather scandalous for an Aes Sedai, keeping several warder-husbands and traveling so much. When she was ten years old, her sister Mabyllin was bundled off to the Tower for training, and Maeriwyn, as always, attempted to follow her. When Lyriane Sedai's warders finally managed to track her down just outside Tar Valon, she was returned to her mother and kept under close watch for the next seven years.
Eventually, Maeriwyn began to show signs of her true potential in the One Power, and was sent to the White Tower, arriving on her eighteenth nameday. Mabyllin was still a novice at that time, though she had been temporarily sent away from the Tower as penance for her many transgressions. By the time Mabyllin returned, Maeriwyn was firmly ensconced in her novice training, and was moving along quite nicely, having discovered her special talents for Illusion and her strong abilities in Earth and Fire, which were unusual for a woman, and much proclaimed-over by her Aes Sedai instructors.
While she was no less a disciplinary problem than her mother or sister had been, Maeriwyn somehow escaped the punishments and penances visited upon so many other novices. She was clever and somewhat devious, and though many Aes Sedai were fairly certain who had played certain sophisticated pranks, there would never be any direct evidence pointing to the girl, and so Maeriwyn regularly escaped the balme all knew to be hers.
Maeriwyn became Accepted three years later, and spent two years studying before she was raised to the shawl. She chose Green Ajah, like her mother, and immediately went off to continue her mother's work, traveling from town to village to city as she had as a child. Save her sister Mabyllin, not many in the Tower know much about her other than her physical appearance. Despite her short stature, she is often mistaken for Aiel, with her red hair and light green eyes. While she is considered by other Sisters to be nearly as scandalous, flirtatious and improper as her mother, Maeriwyn has never bonded a Warder. She travels alone, and hardly ever has cause to defend herself.