Emily Roland

Character Profile

Name:	Emily Roland
Date of Birth:
Service:	Aerial Corps
Rank:	Runner
Nationality:	British
Billets:	Loch Laggan Covert, runner for Temeraire

Biography

Emily Roland is one of the few young girls being trained for Longwing service. She has not yet reached puberty when William Laurence first meets her, and he mistakes her for a boy. She has sandy blonde hair which she cuts in a bowl fashion like the boys and wears boy clothes. She tells him she has been in the corps for three years when she meets him. She is very eager and helpful, which makes him chose her as one of his runners.

Another thing Laurence doesn't know is that she is the daughter of an experienced captain, Jane Roland, who has flown with Excidium for years. Emily is to be Excidium's next captain when Jane dies. And though Jane loves Emily very much, she fears handing Excidium over based solely on inheritence and not merit (a veiled reference to Jeremy Rankin). Laurence assuages these fears and assures Jane that Emily is a very promising young girl.

The identity of Emily's father is unknown. Jane says that she has not seen him in "10 years" and has raised Emily without a male role-model (excepting Excidium). They were not married and she doubts he knows Emily's name.