Name: Medura
Age: 18
Gender: female
Sexual Orientation: straight
Craft/Rank: senior apprentice Smith/Starcraft
History: Medura was born the second child of Sea Captain Mordurn and Cotholder Demura. Medura's mother Demura was originally born a weyrbrat of Benden and spent much of her life on the sands until the day she aged out. Working as part of the kitchen staff one gather day she happened to meet a young seacrafter by the name of Mordurn who at that time was still a firstmate of a separate vessel. Mordurn and his captain had come into port hoping to negotiate trade of Benden wine and had stopped by for the gather day. Demura was a pretty young thing with long light blond hair and bright green eyes and Mordurn was quite taken with her the two keeping in contact long after the gather ended via firelizards. Every time Mordurn came into port he made it a point to make the short trip to visit his young Benden lass eventually wooing and marrying Demura and selling his old cothold in Bitra to move the family closer to the port not far from Benden. Demura was pregnant with their first child when Mordurn was chosen for Captain of a new trading vessel he named the Bitran Bet and took command with pride coming home from his first maiden voyage to find Demura waiting for him with a little bouncing baby boy they named Moran. Moran like Demura was born with bright green eyes and golden blond hair and was simply the apple of his mother's eye always tripping over her skirts and begging for stories about 'draggins' and was none too pleased to find a few years later that his mother was expecting another child and that he was to get a sibling.
This time Mordurn was in port for the birth of his second child, his daughter Medura. Unlike Moran who was bright and bubbly Medura took after her father in looks with a dark Bitran countenance, slate gray eyes and dark blond hair though she had her mother pretty boning. She was a quieter child more prone to sitting on her daddy's knees and wanting to hear stories of far away places then playing dragons and riders with her brother. While there was no question which child Demura adored and while Mordurn loved his son it was clear that Medura was her daddy's little girl and Moran hated it. The young boy constantly fought with his sister disliking having the attention taken away from him though his hate for her eased somewhat as they grew older. Still the resentment of not being the only child never fully faded in that bratty way it tends to do with brothers and sisters and the boy constantly sought to get his sister in trouble. Moran was always coaxing Medura into trouble whether it was climbing trees, getting into the fields or runnerbeast flocks or being angry when Demura made him take her along when he went to play with his friends. This constant tendency towards danger came to a head one cold winters night when Medura was seven and Moran ten turns old.
Waking up in the room Moran shared with Medura the young boy crawled out of bed padding into the kitchen to get a glass of water when his eyes fell on the still smoldering remains of the kitchen fire. The one thing his mother time and time again constantly forbid the two siblings from going near or playing with. Glancing around and seeing no one watching the grinning young lad set down his glass and went to prodding the still smouldering fire with the poker. Growing in confidence he continued to play until a stray log rolled from the fire catching his mothers apron aflame and beginning the fire. Woken from her sleep by the panicked cries of her ten turn old Demura rushed down stairs finding the kitchen aflame as she grabbed her son dragging the boy outside. Caught in the act when asked by his mother what had happened Moran lied saying he'd seen Medura crawl out of bed and had followed her to the kitchen where he'd found the fire, the young girl running outside and away.
All the while Demura was unaware the Medura was still fast asleep in the room she shared with her bother the smell of smoke and eventual licking of flames at the door waking the frightened young girl. Medura managed to escape her room walking right into the middle of a burning inferno that had become the kitchen. Desperate to escape the girl tried to flee for the door, but found it blocked by a fallen burning beam. The slight groan and crackle of burning wood was the only warning she got as while she was trying to make for the kitchen window part of the ceiling collapsed half way pinning the young girl beneath it as she screamed and struggled against the flames. Eventually she managed to claw herself free and in a panic scaled and struggled through the kitchen window falling to the crackling grass outside and trying to pull herself away from the burning building. Horror stricken her mother stared at the burned sobbing mass that was her daughter too shocked to even move as Moran huddled behind her realizing the implications of his panicked lie. Eventually some of the holders who had come to try and stop the flames took pity on her and scooped up the young girl up rushing her to the Hold for treatment. The early days of her recovery were filled with feverish dreams and nightmares of burning alive as the Hold physician tended to the young girl. The rest of the family took of residence in the Hold until their cothold could be rebuilt though in the end the task was abandoned in favor of living in the hold. Demura though guilt ridden and horrified by her daughters ruined appearance never once came to visit. Moran however began to have a change of heart about his sibling and would often visit the sullen scarred girl as she recovered, but was no longer met by the warm openness and sisterly trust he'd once been so willingly given. She no longer trusted anything he said and never would. Though over time though the two did develop a grudging acceptance of one another. However whether it was her mother's cowardice, her bother's lies, or the cruel whispers of the other girls Medura learned to distrust beauty and that most times it truly was skin deep.
It was during this dark time of recovery that Mordurn and his daughter truly grew close. The sea captain was horrified to return to port to find his home burned to the ground, but relieved to hear all his family had made it out. The toll the fire took he found much to his own sorrow was paid in part with his daughters own skin. The flames not only instilled a deep fear of fire in the girl, but robbed her of her meager budding looks and worse her smile. Worried for his daughter's future and hoping to ease her pain the sea captain spent many a day sitting by his daughter's side reading to her when she was sick and when he was out at sea leaving her heaps of books and ballads to bide her time. Gradually the burns faded to scars, but Medura still did not vouch to venture forth from her solitude instead taking to devouring every scrap of knowledge she could get her hands on or roaming about the Hold at night when things were quiet. The physician had assured her she'd make a full recovery and she did, but would bear her scars for the rest of her life much to her mother's displeasure. Demura could not bear to even meet her daughters eyes, the scars a constant reminder of her failure as a parent and while Mordurn pushed Medura to socialize, to get outdoors and to expand her mind Demura encouraged the girl to hide, to hide the scars and to stay away so the world wouldn't have to see the woman's shame. While Mordurn truly loved his wife the sea captain heartily disagreed upon Demura's handling of Medura's injuries, but knew it would do him no good to argue with the woman herself. He realized that his daughter needed to break free of her own volition. So one night just before he was to leave for port he sat down with Medura who lay curled in her chair at her desk reading over the ship's star charts once again out of countless times. She'd begun working on making her own copies to look over when her father was out to sea. Rough copies, lacking the straighter lines of a skilled starcrafter, but not without skill themselves. Flipping through his daughters drawing he paused looking up to find Medura staring at him. "You'd make quite the good charter one day if you were to apprentice, but I doubt your mother would allow it." The older man lamented with a sigh and a shake of his head leaving his daughter to ponder his words as in the morning he left for the open sea. However when he left he'd planted a small seed and as Medura thought and seethed and argued with her mother that seed grew. That seed was named Defiance.
Medura grew more and more discontent with her lot, with being cloistered in, cornered by her mother and her looks and her own fear and she was sick of it. For three days Demura and Medura fought on and off mother and daughter screaming at each other over the idea of Medura trying to apprentice and as a smith of all things even if it was to be a starsmith! Demura tried to dsiuade and scare her daughter away from such ideas, had she forgotten the fire and the forges! Medura of course had not and was all too bitterly aware of her shortcoming, but with her dreams so very tangibly close she didn't care. Determined to be controlled no more one night Medura collect her things and meager marks and stole out the window stealing towards the local smithhall to greet the dawn with the hope of convincing one of their starcrafters to mentor her.
Roaming the halls Medura eyed the groups of apprentices that passed her by as she stopped outside one of the starcrafter's offices. Feeling sick to her stomach with nerves she backed away fleeing to the bathroom taking a few moments to stare down at her reflection in the shallow washing basin in disgust. Her hair hung long, hiding most of the scars on her face from sight giving her a rather small meek mouse like appearance where she stood stooped. Running gentle fingers over the scarred side of her face an idea struck her. True. . .she wouldn't stand out for her beauty, but she wasn't here to look pretty. She was here to become an apprentice. Straightening up she began to pull her hair back braiding it away from her face to show her scars clearly for the first time and returned to the door back straight and head held high trying not to let her nervousness show as she knocked and waited for and answer. The door was opened by a older man who blinked down in surprise at the girl before him as she requested to be taken on as an apprentice with as much courage as she could muster. Smiling warmly he invited her inside and began to pose questions to her. Each question she answered accurately her mind working in overtime as she pulled on her readings and memorization and as soon as it had begun the test was over. She had passed and smiled for the first time in a long time as she was taken in as an apprentice.
Medura's mother was none too pleased to hear about her apprenticeship, but she was beyond her mother's reach now as she threw herself into her studies. Her father occasionally stopping in to visit or sending a mark here or there and a new book for his little girl to enjoy and have some extra pocket money come gather time. Apprenticeship was far from easy for Medura. Her fear of fire was a constant thorn in her side around the forges, but the more she worked around them passing them as she went about her duties and was exposed to it the more she began to become desensitized to it.
That's not to say the Senior Apprentice closing in on Journeyman starcrafter's fear of fire and need for control and organization was not a subject of some humor amid the hall. These flaws in themselves made the scarred woman seem almost more human towards her fellow apprentices. However it was a subject of even greater humor when a Benden dragon on search landed at the hall and she was among the selected searched. Medura as a dragonrider? The very idea sent a number of the younger apprentices snikkering and the young woman's cheeks heating in embarrassment. Did they think her weak because of her fear? She'd been facing it well enough at the hall, but dragonflame? Was that something she could really handle? Angry and determined to prove her peers wrong Medura left a dragonback seeing no harm in trying to stand for a clutch or two. If nothing else she would at least prove her point that she was stronger then this fear and her scars.
However like other Benden candidates Medura has found herself suddenly and irrevocably thrust into a much larger world then just that revolving around candidate chores and waiting for eggs to be laid on the sand. Stranded at Trine with the others Medura is seeing for the first time constellations she's only read about and the places she's only visited through books and maps. While she's far from happy to be ripped so far away from her home she's certainly not turning her nose up at a scholastic opportunity dropped right in her lap. For now until she can scout out another mentor she's continued her studies on her own borrowing what equipment she can from other starcrafters and working into the night between chores, rebuilding, and other matters.
Description: Medura stands about 5'8 with a whipish build and pale lightly tanned skin from spending most of her active hours during the night. From her rightside of her forehead to her waist covered in burn scars were she was caught by falling flaming rubble during a fire and was subject to severe first degree burns or second degree burns with a few more stray first degree ones here or there on her left side where bits of burning debree caught her skin while she was digging herself out. Her hair is a dark blond and despite it being long she always wears it pulled back from her face uncaring about her burn scars and to keep it out of her snapping slate gray eyes. She has a rather delicate aristocratic nose and fine high cheek bones and were it not for the scars might have turned out quite pretty. She prefers to wear the white and red of a starcrafter along with gloves to protect her hands and sleeves if only to minimize gawking so she can go about her work uninterrupted. Medura rarely smiles though not on purpose and in general is a rather optimistic person in her own grim way. The slight scowl and look of concentration she usually wears on her face when working however usually gives people the wrong idea. Medura prefers practical clothes with lots of pockets and often has a scroll tube filled with old hides or drawing implements for sketching maps or charting out constellations she sees.
Personality:
Perhaps the saying "Don't judge a ballad by it's title" best serves this young starsmith. Medura however rather delights in being judged and pushing the boundaries of people's beliefs. . .well toying with them would be a more accurate description. The truth is an ugly revolting, but necessary part of life that needs to be seen and in her eyes she's just the sarcastic blunt sharp tongue person to drag people kicking and screaming with her words into the light. Medura is not pretty, she knows she's not pretty, but it'll be a warm day between before she acts meek and ashamed for her aesthetic failure to please your mental preconceived sense of beauty. That look in her eyes? It's not anger. It's defiance, defiance of the notion that her worth is only skin deep. And perhaps just a hint of bitterness might be mixed in there as well. After all she has a bit of a habit of remembering those who wronged her long past when they have forgotten her and is quite vindictive in seeing they get what's coming to them. Despite twelve years having past since the accident she still hasn't fully forgiven her mother for saving her brother, but failing to save her. Worse she's never forgiven her beautiful mother for taking one look at her burned and writhing daughter and running away leaving the young girl in the care of the Hold healers until she was well. It was then Medura learned beauty was only skin deep and she's been nursing a grudge and instinctual distrust of all things beautiful ever since.
Ever since that horrible day when she was left helpless to die Medura has had a deep seated fear of fire as well as a deeper seated need for control. She feels that if she can control the situation then she can shape it to her will and in doing so never be helpless again. However this often leaves her coming off rigid or too heavy handed. For her it's her way or the highway. Fire is her worst fear and her darkest secret as she views her phobia of flame as a personal weakness and a failure of her will to overcome it and is it determined to beat it out of herself at some point. She feels that everyone should work equally hard no matter who you are and is quick to step up and take charge to ensure the 'pretty people' aren't getting off easy while the rest of them work their hands to the bone. Though a touch overbearing as a group leader her minute attention to detail and distribution does see to a job done and done right. That and those who watch carefully find that as hard as Medura may be on them she's much much harder on herself. She feels that the success of a group hinges on a good leader and that if her group fails that it's because she failed to lead them to victory. Medura is a practical woman with a strong sense of duty as a starcrafter and a love for orderliness. However she rarely backs down from a challenge and whole she continues to try and study her lessons she's adopted the ideal that her duty is not just to her craft, but to Pern. If she impresses she'll keep the world as a whole safe. If she fails then she can still help warn it. In her opinion if you cant' deal with both the good and the bad of a duty then you don't deserve to have that duty. Which is another reason she pushes her own mind and will so far in working to overcome her own personal fears.
While her sarcastic biting wit and horrific scars might give Medura a less then refined appearance just beneath the surface hides an unusually rich and cultured mind and perhaps a gentler personality then first impressions might belay. Having a Captain of a trading vessel for a father afforded Medura the chance to read literature and examine maps and starcharts from many different regions Pern. So while the other girls her age around the Hold were batting their eyelashes at boys Medura was cultivating a deeper understanding of the world and it's workings outside the shallow existence of her own home and preparing for her apprenticeship as a starsmith. In her younger years Medura often preferred the company of books to people not liking how they stared at her scars or worse at how ashamed her mother seemed to be of them and of her because of them. Eventually she began using her sarcastic wit to force people away. If they couldn't take her scars and all then they didn't deserve her time. Beneath the sarcasm and gruffness though lies a rather kind heart. True Medura's words might hurt and sting with the truth most people don't want to hear, but if she cares about you she would never lie to you and would die for those under her protection. While not the gentlest person in the world Medura genuinely wants what's Perhaps this is a reflection of her own past and how she bitterly wishes her mother had not so blindly believed her brother and come to search for her, but she feels that while she may hate your guts that no ones deserves to be left behind. She believes in doing what's best for people and if making sure the people she cares about are healthy means making them angry at her for the things they need to hear then so be it.
In fact it's often this gruff, tough kindness that drives her to her greatest accomplishments lending an eye for detail and a thirsty imaginative mind to make great leaps in whatever project she has currently set before herself. Medura can spend weeks holed up working excessively and tends to be at her best when racing the clock. Her failures though are not tolerated well and with each lack of success she'll only push herself harder trying to force victory through sheer will. Still what Medura may lack in tact she makes up for with ingenuity and sheer force of personality. Think outside the box? Medura was never in the box to begin with. In fact those who can appreciate a quick wit and are less prone to being insulted might even find her sarcasm amusing if not a little harsh as the woman enjoys playing off the tropes of society something that were it not for her looks might have made her a decent harper in another life. She's sharp, witty, ingenious, vendictive, blunt, rigid, defiant, grudging, controlling, and completely unapologetic about who she is and what makes her work. Medura was born with her father's knack for words and conversations, but her isolation and less then appealing looks has left this talent raw at best and put to less then appropriate uses.
Other:Mild Arsonphobia, photographic memory, encyclopedic knowledge of navigational charts and star maps, tends to horde books and maps, hates disorganization.
