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Name: Siazmos (Siaz to friends)
Age: 31 Turns (be to 32 later)
Gender: Male
Rank: Wher handler
Appearance: Deep hazel eyes show an easy-going nature shadowed by large bushy, and very red, eyebrows. His hair is the same red, and kept curly and short. Siazmos has an overly healthy smattering of freckles across his face, concentrated across his cheeks and nose. Should he spend much time out during the day he does sunburn fairly easily.

With his wher, this pair makes a tall duo. Siazmos stands easily 5’10” though he doesn’t usually throw his weight around. His right forearm is deeply scarred, from an accident during candidacy, but he still uses it well after months of rehabilitation. There’s also a few lighter scars by his left temple where Siazmosk got him when the wher was a still a baby. His grin is lopsided, but he smiles often enough that you get use to it. His favorite clothes are a brown shirt and pants with a bronze vest dyed as close as the tanners could get to match his wher’s hide, stripes and all. With it he wears sturdy leather knee high boots.

Personality:
Siazmos is a genial fellow, and easy to like. He gets along well with most everyone and those that like him. If you have a problem with him, he simply lets it roll off his shoulders. No reason for him to get riled up about it too. He likes to be fair and not overcharge for services; believing equal service makes happy customers which brings return business. It is known that he will also accept other methods than marks as payments. A dozen chicken eggs for a short run to deliver a message? Sure no problem.

As a child, he was very much jealous, though he’d say it was envy, of his twin brother’s close bond. He couldn’t help but want something like that when they flaunted it at him. It made him search out friends to form a bond of friendship; none were ever as close as his siblings claimed theirs was. He avoided his twin brothers whenever he could. When his oldest brother went to Weyr, he again felt jealous. Though that feeling has faded over time, and he worries about his brother never coming back. Now that he has his wher and the bond that comes with him that jealousy has faded. Siazmos does enjoy gambling. Thankfully it’s mostly on wher races than dice or horses. He doesn’t often make large bets and learned his lesson early on after moving to High Reaches nearly cost him his job. The winnings, when he does get them, are being saved toward something.

With becoming a handler, he was trained how to fight. While he knows how to use a knife or sword, he isn’t the best at it. Siazmos doesn’t approve of the great wars the lords have. Nor does he like using whers in war. He believes it may have an adverse effect on a wher that has killed humans too often. Guarding and war are completely different and not to be confused. What gets his blood boiling is cruelty to whers. He will instantly try to bring any activity to a stop that causes physical harm. It matters not to him who ordered the activity.

He respects his hunt leader. Most of the time, he will do his orders without complaint. That isn’t doesn’t mean he doesn’t have ideas of his own. In fact there are a number of things he wants to do. Most notable is his desire to form a wher courier service using the larger whers from the racing stock. His best example is Siazmosk. He was so bummed out to learn that the larger whers, though bred from racers hardly won races with blues and greens. Siazmos then became determined to find a non-violent job for these larger whers. One thing he loves is the need for speed. Riding his wher on long runs is a favorite past time for the pair. Siazmos says runners are too skittish for him. While he loves to travel he absolutely detests flying.

Siazmos would rather not be a leader though he has his own ideas. In particular he isn’t fond of telling others what to do, unless it’s something to do with whers. He is dedicated to his work and the welfare of whers. Any whers, be they racers, breeders, or guards, though his primary focus is racers. His wher and his work are really one and the same. If asked, he is straight. He admits he’s had a few one-time flings, but none that have resulted in a child. That he knows of.


History:
171- Born, fourth son
173- Younger sister born
179- Oldest brother Searched
187- Sent to Hillfort Hold to begin candidacy
189- Arm injured in wher accident during squire-ship
191- Receives egg, Impresses Bronze Siazmosk
193- Dragonplague, Siazmosk falls ill but recovers
193-6- Civil war
196- gets hired by merchant and moves to HRH
Pass 1- Due to a large bet, he wins a flit egg that hatches a bronze


He was the fourth born son to a pair of well off, mid-sized Holders in 171. Siazmos’ parents specialized in herding goats and llamas for wool and meat as their subsistence. In some of the lower fields, after they left the herds fertilize them, they grow grains which are used mostly for ale- making to sell. It helps the family have a little extra food on the table. He was 2 turns old in 173 when his only and youngest sister was born.

In his eighth turn, his oldest brother was Searched. The family was very happy to send their oldest off to the dragonriders, and held a feast that night. With the oldest, and heir now gone, it fell to the twins as who was to become heir and who would go for mastery. In the end, the oldest twin was designated the heir. His older brother’s fates decided his parents were a bit more lenient with Siazmos. They allowed the boy a bit of a choice with his future. Did he want to try to become another rider candidate if he could get chosen? After many turns of thought, he chose wher handling.

The time when they expected to hear their oldest son had Impressed grew shorter and shorter. The whole family waited anxiously to hear what color he had Impressed. When Siazmos’ oldest brother’s 21st birthday came around and no word of Impression reached them, the family expected him to come back home. Never did they hear from him again. They think maybe he aged out and was too ashamed to tell them, nor did he want to return and steal the inheritance of his twin brothers. Siazmos isn’t sure how he feels about never hearing back from his eldest brother. It does bother him that they got no word he was staying at the weyr.

At 16 Turns, Siazmos was finally able to apply as a wherhandler candidate. As luck would have it, the family didn’t live more than several sevendays away from Hillfort Hold. Not particularly interested in fighting whers, it was logical for the family to send him there. His apprenticeship proceeded normally during the first couple of Turns. He was whipped into wher-ready shape and made some friends. The squiremaster he was assigned was a crusty old man with a known vicious blue. For the most part, the trio got along fairly well.

Into his second Turn of candidacy, there was an accident. Another wher was brought too close to the blue. Siazmos unfortunately was standing beside the blue when he snapped. The blue caught the boy’s arm severely lacerating it. It was several long months before it healed, with many more of physical therapy to ensure the use of his arm. His candidacy was put on hold for the duration. After healing, he returned to training more determined than ever to impress his wher. With his oldest brother’s failure to Impress or return home forefront in his mind Siazmos refused to become the second failure in the family.

It was an exciting day when the female of his hunt Ran. The candidates could hardly wait until the clutch was laid and they were able to ask the green for an egg. Siazmos waited his turn then entered. It was disappointing when the green turned him away. Life resumed, those who’d managed to get an egg, tending them and later Impressing the baby whers. He was jealous, but knew his time would come. The following Turn of 191 saw his second chance. A gold from another hunt had clutched, but the hunt didn’t have enough ready candidates. More was asked for, and several from Siazmos’ hunt including himself were went.

He stepped nervously into cave to greet the gold. When he exited it was with a largish, non-descript, lumpy egg in his arms. He had done it! Diligent and faithful, he tended that egg. When it hatched it revealed a bronze had hidden in it. Siazmos blooded the wher to him with his first meal. The pair bonded quickly in the following year.

During the dragonplague, the pair was tested. They did all they could to help until Siazmosk fell ill himself. He tended the wher during his sickness and was grateful the bronze pulled through. It was a long, slow recovery. Afterwards, they helped rebuild Hillfort Hold and defend it during the civil war.

With the hold booming again, Siazmos turned to finding solid work for himself and his wher. They had learned through much trial (and error) that a bronze doesn’t usually match up to the smaller greens and blues. Perhaps it was just their luck that a merchant came calling to the Hold. He was looking for a larger wher for guarding his deliveries and warehouses; along with perhaps providing a stud for his racing green wher. Siazmos accepted the position two days later after deliberations with the masters at the Hold. The fact that the larger whers were nearly no good for racing and thus not really encouraged was like a slap in the face. Siazmos likened it to throwing the bones from a roast bird away without using it to make stock, saying that you couldn’t eat it so it was no good. He is determined to find or create jobs for fleet of foot whers that don’t involve racing or killing.

They returned with the merchant to High Reaches Hold and have been working for him since. Over the Turns, Siazmos has hit upon the idea on delivering messages or items in his off time. He’s trying to drum up interest in a wher delivery service. Over the Turns interest has been slow, but he has persevered. His ongoing campaign has brought him to the attention of a number of people. One such encounter resulted in a large bet being placed on how fast Siazmos and his wher could deliver something and return. Though he had to use nearly all his savings, he took the bet. When he won the man presented him with a flit egg which hatched a handsome bronze firelizard.

Other: His brother never Impressed a dragon and when he aged out, remained at the Weyr in his shame. The family never knew this. His brother either became a drudge, or applied to become a handler. I have not really decided which, but leaning toward handler.

1. Racer

2. Locked