Approved by Tawny
Name: Liana (commonly goes by "Lia" now)
Age: 24
Gender: female
Sexual Orientation: heterosexual
Former/secondary Craft: Bakercraft Apprentice
Rank: Wingrider/Wherholder
History: Liana was born to a family of farmers who have a small cothold beholden to Aquor Hold. Their holding was slightly isolated, about two hour’s walk to a slightly larger hold where they usually went for supplies, news and Harper lessons for the children. The family grew grain, kept a small herd of caprines and had a couple runners for draft work. Her father also had a green flit, whose egg he bartered for in order to be able to send messages in case of emergencies. Liana is the middle child of the family’s three children. The oldest is her brother, a dutiful worker who’s good with the animals and crops, and likely to take over the cothold when their parents got too old. The youngest of the family is her little sister, the pet of the family. She’s the kind of sweet little girl who always does what she’s told, is polite, kind and charms all the adults while infuriating her older siblings. Or at least Liana, since her brother doesn’t seem to mind his youngest sister so much.
Liana’s parents were practical folk who didn’t see much use to anything they didn’t immediately need. They saw no point in art or fancy learning, and while singing was all well and good for the Teaching Ballads and passing the time on stormy nights, they didn’t pursue it just for entertainment’s sake. She always got told “Why can’t you be more like your brother/sister?” and therefore asked to work harder, or be more polite, or otherwise be happy with what she’s had. Her parents frequently insisted that they had a good holding, a sturdy house, flourishing crops, were healthy and well fed, and that she should be grateful. She was never satisfied with this, and often retorted that there’s more than life to boring security, at which point she was told to stop being fanciful and set to some sort of chore.
She was never any good with the animals, since the caprines always seem to like biting her and the large, thickly built runners intimidated her. She was also poor at field work; after many months of increasingly impatient instruction she was still slow at tending the plants and never seemed to get the knack of things like weeding and pruning. So since she was unsuited for farm work, she was set to housework instead, learning domestic chores like cleaning, mending and cooking.
Instead of joining Beastcraft like the rest of her family, Liana took up Bakercraft, mainly for something to do. Her parents agreed to this because it was a good, practical skill, and because it was a craft she could be taught without having to go anywhere. There was a Bakercraft Journeyman living in the nearby hold who she entered into a somewhat loose apprenticeship under, and once in a while Liana checked in with the woman to get new recipes, or to spend an afternoon baking together and learning new tricks of the trade. For something interesting to do, she spent as much time and supplies as she was allowed trying out new recipes or baking techniques, though her parents always insisted that necessary foods be cooked first. As she grew older she began to ply her craft at the small, local Gathers her family attended, selling bubbly pies, sweet rolls and other treats, which earned her a (very few) marks. She hoarded them carefully, hoping to earn enough to buy herself passage to a larger hold someday, maybe hitch a ride with some Traders or something. She was often tempted to spend her marks on a new book, but made do without. She reasoned that a book would interest her for a time, but a change of scenery could be her one chance to improve her life for good.
News came rather infrequently to their middle-of-nowhere holding, so she knew little about the atypicals. There were small bits of news, occasional Trader or Harper tales about dragons in colors other than the original ones, but that was about all she knew of them. She would try to press the tale-tellers for any more news of the strange dragons, but mostly all they knew was the story they shared already, which generally gave only a vague description of the dragons. They mostly sounded like any other dragon, not that she got much news of them, either. But they stories made them sound unusual in some way, so her curiosity drove her to keep trying to find out what made them different, to no avail.She had lots of time to think during chores, so constantly mulled over plans for how she could get away. Could she find a way to join the Traders? Or maybe join a craft that requires teaching farther off? She was good with knitting and mending clothing, maybe Weavercraft. Or even join the Harpers, though her voice wasn’t any more than fair. But her parents would never let her join any craft that they didn’t immediately need at their little cothold, and certainly not let her leave when she was needed to tend the hold. A favorite daydream of hers was that a rider could come by on Search, pick her out and whisk her away to the Weyr to impress a dragon. Harper stories are full of that happening, and surely she could weedle her parents into obeying a rider. Couldn't she? Even though the life of a rider is often dangerous, or even if she never Impressed, at least she’d be away and doing something. But no riders ever came to their tiny little cothold, not once since she was born, so she didn't have a chance to even try.
They didn't come to her cothold, but they did sometimes visit larger holds. When she was about 19 Turns she was with her father at her biggest Gather yet (though still rather small by the standards of the major Holds), selling baked treats when she saw her first rider. She didn't know it was a rider at first, since the man was in good Gather clothing instead of riding leathers, but she noticed some people talking to each other as he passed. Straining her ears, she managed to catch a few words here and there, how he'd flow in on a blue dragon, just himself and nobody else on the beast, so he must be a rider. She also caught sight of a few people, mainly children, who slipped off toward a field off to one side of the hold once they heard of the dragon.
As soon as she could claim an errand of nature and slip away for a moment, she made for the field that the others had headed towards. There was no mistaking the dragon as soon as she squeezed past the outermost row of stalls. He was big, far bigger than she'd thought a creature could be. But then again he was a blue, the second-smallest color, so there must be dragons far larger. She found the idea hard to comprehend, so she just stood by the stalls and gaped at him, much like many other children were doing. The dragon seemed not to mind the attention, maybe even amused by it. He lay there with his head on his front paws, glancing slowly over the children from time to time. She thought he might have looked a bit longer at her than the others, but it was hard to be sure when he had no pupils to accurately judge the direction of his gaze. After a while she remembered she had a stall to get back to and returned to selling her pies and pastries.
Still, she thought of the rider all day. If only she could speak to him, convince her to take her off to the Weyr. She felt she would do anything once there, even menial kitchen work, as long as it got her away from home. If she didn’t like it there, she wouldn’t have to stay forever. But she feared she wouldn’t get a chance to speak to the man, and even if she did, what would her father say?
Fortunately, she never had to find out the latter. That afternoon, her father got a message that one of his best brood caprines had fallen into a ditch and maybe broken a leg, so he had to leave for home right away ot tend to her. He almost took Liana with him, but she still had plenty of stock to sell and it would do little good to bring it all home, even if the baked good survived the trip. And so, after getting her assurance that she was old enough to take care of herself, he left instructions for Liana to get a ride home with a neighbor, took his cart and headed for home at top speed.
This might be her chance. She sold her remaining food quickly, offering them for increasingly discounted rates in her haste to have them gone. She feared that she wouldn’t sell them all in time, but it had been drilled in her not to waste food so she couldn’t just abandon the stall, and the money could be useful. Finally her last sweetroll sold. She quickly grabbed her pack and went to find the dragon again.
Once there, she hesitated at the edge of the stalls. How to bring up the subject? You couldn’t just
ask to be Searched, she was fairly certain. And it would be odd to ask the rider to help her basically run away, no matter how she could word it. She was still pondering when she noticed the dragon was looking at her, and a moment later the rider slipped between a couple stalls and came up to her.
Fearing she might get in trouble or be considered rude for staring at the dragon or something, she tried to apologize and say she was only looking, she’d never seen a dragon before. But he cut her off with a laugh, telling her she had nothing to worry about, he wanted to talk to her about something else. As it turned out, the dragon was good at Searching potential Candidates, and thought she might be able to Impress. The rider had come over to ask if she’d like to be a Candidate.
This was
exactly the chance she’d been hoping for, and she said yes immediately. But the rider wanted to talk to her parents and make sure they consented, which made her hopes fall. She tried not to let it show, doing her best to project nonchalance as she informed him that she was 19, and old enough to make her own decisions about her life. Her father had left her alone at the Gather, after all. It took a bit of convincing (and perhaps a bit of stretching the truth regarding how long she’d been allowed to attend Gathers alone), but eventually the rider agreed that she did not have to be treated like a child. He did warn her that being 19 meant she had a very few years in which she was eligible to Impress, but she assured him she didn’t mind. As long as there was a chance, she told him, she was happy. She had all the marks she’d earned that day, and a pack with a change of clothes (since the Gather was far enough from home that her father had expected to stay there for the night before returning home), so she was ready to board the dragon right then and there and head to whatever Weyr he came from.
As it turned out, he hailed from Trine Weyr, the closest one to her hold. There had been a clutch laid not long before she’d arrived, giving her time to join in Candidate lessons. Then a few weeks later she Stood for her first Hatching. Although she was hopeful and eager, dragon after dragon hatched and passed her by. Her hope was starting to diminish as the last hatchlings made their way off the sands, and eventually there were only two tiny eggs left.
When they Candidates were instructed to gather in a close ring around them, she dimly knew what was going on. She had been instructed about atypicals and their hatching, of course, though they were still rather strange to her. But it was one thing to hear about them and quite another to see the weyrwoman smack the egg with a shovel and watch a tiny black slide out of the shell. Another thing that had to be seen to be believed was how weak and limp he was. He could barely raise his head! And he was expected to Impress, and survive long enough to grow up? But Impress he did, to one of the other Candidates. Privately relieved that he hadn’t chosen her, she watched the last egg be cracked open. She rather hoped this one would pass her by, too. She didn’t want to pressure of raising such a fragile-looking thing, and why would this dragon do as all the others had not?
Of course the crimson that pushed her way out of the egg had other ideas. She also had little enough strength, but she tried her best to visit everyone anyway. She took a few steps one way, the better to turn her wobbly head and look at everyone on that side, then toddled a few steps the opposite way so she could turn her attention on the other Candidates. She would have clearly loved to keep going, but her back legs trembled so much that she had to sit down hard. She looked once more at everyone before turning her eyes on Liana.
Oh Lianamine, I wish I could meet them all! I bet they have so much to talk about! But that will have to wait for later, I’m afraid I don’t have the energy right now. You will introduce them to your Mirath later, won’t you?Liana was stunned. Why had this tiny, wobbly dragon chosen her? But even though she hadn’t wanted an atypical, she couldn’t be upset with Mirath. And after all, she might be a weak little undersized hatchling, but at least she looked stronger than that black. She could stand and walk on her own already, the other hadn’t managed that. Surely her Mirath would have a better chance of survival. At which point, Mirath reminded her that she needed to be fed if she was expected to survive at all, and so Liana carried her off to the feeding tables.
Still, whatever color she was bonded to, she had her own dragon. She was sure much more activity and excitement were in her future, and she couldn’t wait to get started learning to fight Thread. Except… it seemed crimsons had a unique choice to make: forgo chewing firestone forever in exchange for the chance to clutch, or chew it like every dragon besides queens and become sterile in exchange for joining a fighting wing? Being bonded to a breeder sounded too much like being told to stay home and watch the children, and immediately reminded her of her parents’ expectations that she be a good housewife someday. It was not her favorite option, and she almost insisted that Mirath be a fighter. But the crimson was still tiny and weak yet, and she didn’t want to pressure the young and still vulnerable dragon. Besides, she figured Mirath’s energetic nature would make her gravitate towards being a fighter, too.
Some months later they still hadn’t made a formal decision, although Liana was starting to discuss the subject with Mirath. Another clutch was hatched at the weyr, and the instant Mirath saw dragons younger than her she was smitten with them. A series of very difficult discussion between Lia and Mirath followed, over whether she would become a fighter or a breeder. Lia most certainly wanted the action of being a fighter and did not want to be stuck in the weyr. Mirath pointed out that there were many active roles all dragons could take, even if they did not fight. And it wasn’t as if they had to learn to manage the weyr, like a gold and rider did, she knew her rider would not like that. And the little ones were so precious, how could Lia not want some? She liked watching children too, right?
Eventually it was Mirath’s simple refusal to chew firestone that won out. She made a point of remembering that doing so would make her sterile, even when Lia tried very hard not to think about it in order to make her dragon forget. (Which, whether she knew it or not, backfired, since Mirath could feel her pointedly shoving aside thoughts of something, which only made her keep looking for what Lia was trying to avoid.) The dragon still wanted to see and do many things, but one of those things was clutching.
With training for Threadfighting out of the question, Lia found other jobs to do. She decided that being a Courier would suit both Mirath’s social nature and both of their desires to see different places, so she made it her goal to work towards that position. In the mean time, there were plenty of jobs around the weyr. She joined in the kitchens often, since she was a Bakercrafter, and learned as many other jobs as she could so that she could help wherever needed. Learning many different tasks, not all of them resembling housework, did make her feel better. One way or another she was learning new things, and it kept her from endlessly doing the same kind of chores.
When Mirath grew old enough, she began rising for Flights. Although she continued to do so regularly, she never successfully clutched. Lia originally locked herself in her room for the Flights, since being a very traditionally raised holdbred girl gave her a bit of a distate for them and their effects on riders. But resisting her dragon’s influence during Flights was very trying, and made her start to seriously dislike the whole thing. But since it couldn’t be avoided, she finally took someone’s advise on how to make it easier. She started letting in one carefully selected stand-in for each Flight, someone she felt would treat her well, though who it was changed from Flight to Flight.
After years with no clutch, Lia became aware that people were talking about her dragon behind her back. At best they were saying what a shame it was that Mirath hadn’t clutched after trying for so long, and at worst calling her dragon a waste of space for not clutching or fighting. This rankled on her. They were doing as much as they could, and hardly sitting idle. What did it matter if her dragon failed to produce eggs as long as she was being useful?
When the revolution came she initially held back, appalled at the fighting. But she promise that all dragons would be viewed as equal as long as they worked hard won her over. She convinced Mirath that the smaller, weaker whers and their humans needed her help, and they fought to win Trine for the Revolution, directing Mirath to fights where Resistance dragons were fighting against Revolution whers. When Revolution was driven out of Trine she went with them, migrating to Malvren without a backwards glance. She has been working hard to prove herself there ever since.
Now, more than ever, Lia hopes Mirath will clutch. Not because she’s being pressured to do so, but because she wants to give new life to the wherholds in the form of young dragons that won’t be raised to believe the same stereotypes and prejudices the rest of the world holds to.
Description: Liana is slim and a little short, about 5’4”. She has medium brown hair with a hint of curl to it, just enough to add a bit of texture, and usually wears it pulled back into a braid. Her skin has a naturally dusky shade to it, and darkens quickly when she spends time working or flying in the sun. She has a slightly round face with a somewhat blunt-looking nose and even features. When she’s stuck doing something she dislikes she looks sullen or grumpy, but when learning something new and interesting or doing something exciting, her brown eyes light up and she looks much more friendly.
Personality:As a child and teen, Liana was chronically bored with her life. She was frustrated at being stuck in a tiny cothold with no future, and wanted more than anything to go out and do anything else. However, she was realistic about this; while she often wished for something more interesting, even her dreams were within the realm of possibility. She never dreamt of being found to be the long-lost heir of a Lord Holder, or running off to join the Runners. Instead, she figured out what might be possible, tried to plan how she could make them happen, and prepared for the most likely course of action. She enjoyed the occasional possible dream that she can’t make happen, like hoping she might someday be Searched, but did not count on them.
Even after leaving the hold, she maintained that practicality. While having a dragon offered some more opportunities, it also offered new limits, not the least of which is she had to care for Mirath’s health and safety as well as her own. She’s a smart woman, quick to figure out puzzles and picks up new lessons rapidly. She chaffed at the very limited opportunity for education in her home and felt that she rarely got to learn anything new, but at the weyr she often seeks out new knowledge and tries many new things. She’s a good problem solver, handy at figuring out solutions to various tasks or difficulties. However, at the hold she didn’t get to do much of that beyond things like adapting a recipe to work around missing items, or figuring out how their supplies will feed the family for the winter. Her skill at these made her mom happily comment that she’ll make someone a good wife someday. She rather disliked that this implied even her mom thought of her only as a worker and someone’s potential wife.
She always wants to learn more, about anything. She’ll listen avidly to anyone talking about science, or geography, or history, or gossip…ok, so she wants to know about almost anything. Trivial talk like small-town gossip and local news bore her to tears, since it’s always the same stuff. Like, someone was seen with someone else, or that guy’s crops are doing poorly, or blah blah blah. How do people listen to that drivel? She’s enthusiastic about learning, but otherwise at the hold she tended to feel stifled, which tended to make her grumpy. As a child she ate up Harper stories and the few books she could get her hands on, even if they were mostly histories, Teaching Ballads or books about farming. She would collect books if she could, but they cost marks and she rarely had any to spend on herself. More books were available when she got to the weyr, and she sought out as many of them as she could.
Overall she’s obedient to those who outrank her and anyone she respects. She does her work when told, though tends to grumble and drag her feet a bit if it’s uninteresting to her and she’s feeling particularly cross. She also doesn’t volunteer for chores and tasks she finds uninteresting if she can help it; she’d rather go off find something else more interesting to do, and may volunteer for more interesting jobs before she can be assigned more disliked ones. She sometimes comes off as aloof or uncaring, since she never bothers to get to know people’s personal lives, just their work or what other knowledge they have. But as a child she was much nicer to Traders and traveling Harpers, who at least brought news of the wider world, and maybe a book if she was lucky. As a youngster she would sometimes abandon her work to greet an arriving Harper or Trader and eagerly ask for the newest news, though got back to her work if told (even if she complained the whole way). She sometimes ended up babysitting the neighbors’ small kids, which she didn’t mind too much. Kids at least have an imagination, and can come up with far more interesting stories than anything the adults usually tell. She’s fairly good at keeping up with their energy, but when she gets worn out she can usually settle them down by diverting them with a story, song or impromptu science lesson.
Once she made her way to Trine Weyr and Impressed, she thought she’d have far more freedom. She did, to a point, but found herself bound by far more rules and expectations than she expected. Being a rider of a breeding crimson put her in an odd position, since she neither had to learn Weyr management like a queenrider, nor had to learn Flight drills like any other dragon. She struggled to find or make a place for herself and grew impulsive, jumping at every chance she could to do something interesting. Mirath sometimes had to remind her that such actions might have consequences, appeal to her realistic side to reconsider her actions. Sometimes it didn’t always work. Over time, she also found she did not like it when people insinuated Mirath was a waste of resources for not fighting and not clutching. She still did plenty of useful things, what had they to complain about? It was little wonder that she joined the Revolution, since they promised equal acceptance and opportunity no matter what way her crimson chose, as long as they could prove themselves through hard work.
Other:Dragon Name: Mirath
Age: 5
Colour: Crimson
Description: This is the general idea of what I’m looking for (the pressure sensitivity on my tablet pen wasn’t working and I got lazy). Lines are made my SilverDragalos on Deviantart and used with permission.
I’d like the walking lines (farthest right adult in this image:
http://www.dragonflight.gildedwings.net/LinesExampleShot2Group.jpg )
final image:
Mirathaverage size, muscular buildPersonality:Mirath also does not like the idea of sitting around or being confined at home. Even before she hatched, she wanted to get out and see lots of different things, to learn as much as she could. There was so much out there, and so much of it different from the weyr life she knows! Not that there wasn’t all sorts of interesting things to learn about in the weyr itself, particularly among its many different people. She enjoys hearing about how everyone in the weyr is doing and all their jobs and little adventures. At any opportunity she’s happy to talk to people about their lives: How’s your job going, how are your kids? Have they gotten into anything lately? She wants to hear it all! She enjoys stories as much as Lia, and when there’s no Harper around and nobody to talk about new things to, Lia may read to her aloud from whatever book she has handy.
She has a soft spot for young creatures, whether human, dragon, beast, wher, or otherwise. Such tiny, awkward little things bring out the maternal instincts in her, and the communal nature of childrearing in the Weyr particularly appeals to her social nature. If many humans can help raise all the children, why can’t a dragon help? Surely, being bigger, she could keep an eye on many more small things than a single human could. Oh, but she can’t fit in the rooms of the creche? Couldn’t they stay out where she could watch then? Well, then can she help watch young herdbeasts? Or whers? Or hatchlings? There must be something she can do to help those precious little things! She is always perfectly happy to let the weyrbrats climb all over her, even when they should be doing chores or other things.
Unlike Lia, she likes to stop and think an examine things instead of jumping right in. She acts as a cautionary influence to rider, wanting to investigate and consider before doing, while Lia sometimes prods her into action when she might rather overthink things. Lia’s impulsiveness may incline her to take more risks than might be wise, but Mirath’s influence helps keep them from unnecessary ones.
Mirath has plenty of energy, which is another reason she can’t sit in one place too long. Although she’s not bouncing all over the place with it, she has a deep well of energy that keeps her going for a long time. She doesn’t have to be moving all the time, but neither does she like keeping still for long. She is very sociable, always happy to meet people and talk with them, quick to make friends. After all, new people have new ideas, stories and things to learn! But as much as she likes hearing about people’s lives and trials, she wishes there was more she could do to help them. There are a great many jobs to do in a weyr, and there’s a limit what a dragon can help with, even if she really wants to.
In fact, she likes talking to people a bit too much. She likes to pry into their lives and find out every little detail, gather every bit of information on them she can, long beyond what is polite or necessary. There’s just so much to know about people, and she wants to know it all! Lia often has to rein her in when she sees people becoming uncomfortable with her attention. Mirath doesn’t mean to upset anyone, and if she realizes her prying makes them uncomfortable she’ll back off and be very apologetic.
She also likes to share what she knows, since surely everyone else would like to learn, too. The problem is that some things are not meant to be shared. Lia has to keep a very close ear on what the crimson is telling people, steer her away from things she should not be telling people and sometimes encourage her to forget things best not shared. Fortunately draconic memory helps this, since if Lia carefully refrains from mentioning (and if possible thinking about) something, her dragon will generally forget on her own in time.
Mirath has more of a sense of responsibility than Lia. She does not shirk duty just because it is unpleasant, and is determined to do what she must to protect those she cares for. When duty means she has to do something she dislikes, she doesn’t drag or feet or complain like Lia does. She may sigh or fidget, and maybe wine privately just a tiny bit to Lia, but that it all.
Mirath saw in Lia someone else with an eagerness to find out about new things and go new places, someone who could match her intelligence and love of learning, and who also was fond of youngsters. She also saw someone who needed her help in connecting with people, and in restraining her impulses.
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