Profile
Name:Bali
Age: 18
Gender: female
Sexuality: straight
Rank: Apprentice wherhandler
Appearance: Bali is almost the exact spitting image of her mother except for her eyes which are a rich turquoise like her fathers and just as sharp and calculating. Coming in at 5'1 Bali will win no contests when it comes to height however her curves are rich and fit her petite form and she's none to lacking in the chest. Her skin is pale like her mothers and tends to burn rather then tan leaving the girl often wearing long sleeves and veils during the hot desert days. Her hair much to her fathers pride is a long rich red Igen red to match the Hold colors she so often wears.
How many Turns old were they when they Impressed? 18
Personality: "Why break down the Hold's front door when the back lays unlocked and unguarded." This was a saying taught to Bali by her mother and a saying she has lived her life by. While she's always been an ambitious girl Bali has played the part of the dutiful obedient daughter well biding her time and carefully working towards her own ends. Patience has served this young woman well. Since if trade and working with her father has taught her anything it's that only a fool rushes in. Bali has take her time to learn the nuances of ally and enemy alike carefully scoping out her Hold and the Weyr it's beholden to learning the ups and downs of the political playground that was every Lord Holders child's life. Each step of her plan is carefully charted and thought out with contingencies in place in case something might go wrong. Since most plans rarely survive first contact. Life is chaos and one must learn to live with it. Her willingness to listen, learn and steadily ingrain herself with those around her as she builds up her power base makes her a dangerous young woman with more then a few powerful friends. All the better for her to prove to her father that she's far more fit then her brothers to take over the Hold.
Ambition is not the main reason for Bali's pursuit of being Lady Holder of Igen and her willingness to match wits with Igen Weyr's Senior Queen. Bali is ill content with her lot and greedy for a better place in life. She lusts after power and waits patiently plotting for the time she can seize what she's wanted all along. There's a fairly good chance that if Bali just waits she'll be married off to young aspiring Lord Holder's son and possibly become Lady Holder of some other Hold minor or major. But Bali doesn't want some other Hold. No she wants Igen. She wants her home. Her life. Her
Birthright. No matter how much power Bali gains she will always find herself greedy for more. While she will take great pains to be loved by her people she wants to have enough power to make her enemies think twice about targetting her. More then that she wants her enemies to fear her. To tremble at her name. Greed knows neither kindness nor restraint and to those who cross her and her Hold Bali will show neither.
What Bali lacks in years she makes up for in cleverness. Gifted with the mind of a mathematician she has no problem calculating formulas, tithes amounts, and more importantly the percentage of risk versus profit. Each decision is carefully worked over, broken down, and emotionless picked apart. However her mind is not only fit for numbers, but lends itself to a clever tongue allowing her to steer through the choppy waters of politics with smooth words and calculated gestures. After all it's hard for one's opponent to get the drop on you if you're always one step ahead of them. Bali however makes it a point to stay around five steps ahead. If she's not far enough away to safely put an arrow through their eye socket then she hasn't planned far enough.
At her heart though the reason Bali is always out to prove herself is she's insecure. She feels that because she is a woman and the youngest that she has to fight her way to the top and force the world to see that she IS really the best. She hate's being dismissed or overlooked because of her gender and often curses that she was no born a boy instead of a girl. Bali cannot stand to feel insignificant or invisible and while she's patient with her plans she'll do everything within her power to prove that she's someone to be noticed. She refuses to remain as just some 'girl.'
History: Bali was born the third child and only daughter of the Lord Holder of Igen with two older brothers. The Eldest having been sent to Telgar Hold as a fosterling to strengthen bonds there and to study minecraft and the second eldest having chosen to pursue beastcraft at Keroon's Beastcrafthall. Bali being the youngest and only daughter stayed at Igen Hold learning from her mother and private tutors. She was taught from an early age how to act like a proper Lady and carry herself as thus between learning how to care for and manage a Hold from her mother and father since if a proper marriage could be arranged she would be doing just that. To the Lord Holder's delight he found Bali possessed quite the knack for numbers, calculations and trade and the two would often sit up late together going over tithes and accounts. It wasn't uncommon to see the Lord Holder's youngest daughter following at his heels through the markets where he would sometime take the girl out for a bubbly pie or two and let her watch deals struck first hand.
Life for the Lord Holder and his family was a pleasant one and Bali grew up as a well mannered, smart, and obedient girl. One the Lord Holder was determined to have merry well. However things took a turn for the worse when Bali's mother Baria was killed. Bali was thirteen when her mother was involved in a runner accident on her way down to one of Igen's gathers. While nothing could be proved Baria was an unusually adept rider and beautiful woman and many suspected possible foul play. Bali in turn was kept a good deal closer to her Lord Holder father. Her similarity to her mother in appearance soothing the Lord Holder's heart. At fourteen Bali's still girlish appearance would shield her from the Senior Weyrwoman's glares when she would go to the Weyr with her father for business, but when Ailinsy of gold Serith was sent away it became clear that Ninuta would have no competition for her Weyrleader's attentions. Both of the Weyrleaders of Igen's constant behavior often left the Lord Holder gritting his teeth and pacing in anger. At least for the most part they kept their trysts to the Weyr and rarely brought the trouble to his own Hold. However it was well known that the Weyrleader was very fond of pretty women. With Bali fast approaching marrying age the Lord Holder was through with the whole lot and began to carefully plan to keep his only daughter out of any man's clutches bold enough to try and court her before she was to be married off.
Unbeknownst to her father Bali had no plans to simply be married off as a pawn. While she was hard set with the competition of two elder brothers she had every intention of becoming Lady Holder of Igen Hold in her father's stead instead of one of her brothers taking her place. A high, vaulty and rather difficult to pull off plan. However Bali has been nothing, but patient. From a young age she learned the ways of keeping a hold, the nuisances of politics and who the richest traders and most influential men and women were at Igen and beyond. As she grew into womanhood she played the quiet obedient daughter always there to pour her father a cup of klah and finish his tithing notes or attend meetings with traders in her fathers stead when he was too hard pressed with other matters. She's continued to lend a sympathetic and helpful ear ingraining herself with the populace of the Hold. Occasionally letting slip a harmless piece of gossip here or there about it's such a shame her second brother seems to care more for his craft then his Hold. Why else does he seldom visit? Why it's too bad her eldest brother hasn't bothered to come out and meet the good folk of his Hold personally while he was at the Hold on holiday, but then again he's got his eye on some lass and could seldom bother with such dull matters as trade. Little harmless bits of observations that are left to spread and allow the holders to draw their own conclusions about the Lord Holder's two sons.
At the age of sixteen Bali had blossomed into a beauty fit to match her mothers own and with the many stares she garnered from both holder and dragonrider pressure soon began to mount on the Lord Holder to have her married off. However if there was one thing Igen's Lord Holder hated it was being bossed around. In the two years that followed he delayed both because he enjoyed riling Ninuta with his daughters beauty every time they visited the Weyr and because he had yet as he claimed to find a suitable match. In fact the aging Holder's heart was a bit lagging and when put to the test he found himself disliking not having his eldest daughter around to fuss over him and tend to the Hold when he could not. She had filled the void her mother had left behind and lit up his life with her quiet reassuring smiles.
However her beauty was just as much a danger to herself as it was a tool to her father. Growing discontent with the constant pressure to have her marry and ill at ease with the many men who wished to dote on Bali the Lord Holder made a rather daring move. Contacting many of his trade associates the Lord Holder began to search. On Bali's eighteenth birthday she was presented a wher egg in secret, the largest her father could find. He silently hoped that the massive red and gold egg would produce a gold wher one that would act as not only protection for her and his investment in her, but as a political play of power. Perhaps the men of Igen did not respect Bali yet to keep their eyes to themselves, but they would respect brute force and if that was what was needed to keep his daughter alive and show he would not allow himself to be bullied or for her to be courted from under his nose then so be it. Within the next couple of days as she waited for her egg to hatch Bali began private lessons with the Hold's Watch Wher handlers in secret on how to deal with her new bonded when the wher hatched. When Bali's wher did finally crack shell what tumbled forth onto the floor in an explosion of shell pieces was not a gold, but possibly the largest baby bronze wher the Watch wher handler had ever seen hatched. Wasting no time though Bali blooded her companion and fed him from the bucket of blood and gruel. Shaking his head the Lord Holder sighed a smile on his lips all the same. Perhaps his daughter would not have a gold wher, but she would have the backing of a male nonetheless. Though one with a bronze hide and a very large one from the looks of it. Bali and Balisk continue to attend private lessons from the Hold's Watch Wher handler as the two grow as a pair as the young woman works towards her goal of taking her father's place.
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