Name: Aishe
Age: 35
Sex: Female
Sexual Orientation: Does it matter?
Weyr: No Weyr
Rider Rank: Queenrider, Master Trader, Trade Prince, Caravan Leader, That Irritating Wench
Previous Rank/Craft: Forget previous ranks, Aishe is still a trader to the hilt.
Physical Description: With dark olive skin, grey eyes, and a pile of glossy dark red hair, Aishe is a striking woman. Her eyebrows are naturally black, which tends to make her expressions quite dramatic, an effect that she enhances by raising an eyebrow in mockery from time to time. At 5'7", she's not towering for a Pernese woman, but certainly is not small by any means. She dresses to look the part, always advertising her wares personally.
Personality: Ambitious. Protective. Intuitive. Fearless. Dogged. Bossy. Contrary. Cutthroat.
There is no place that Aishe would not journey to in order to find that thing which will turn the tide in her favor. There is almost no length that she would not go to in order to secure her people's fortunes. She is fiercely independent, hard to pin down, and impossible to ever really catch. Those she works with she does so freely, letting them follow her or not to their heart's content. Her family is paramount to her, and she guards them well, seeing to their best interests. Perhaps against their own wishes, from time to time.
Don't expect to be coddled by her, as that's not in her nature. Do, however, expect to get the best of the best, the kind of training that any man or woman can use to shape his or her own future. As Aishe was given a trial by fire to mold her into the tradeswoman that she is now, so she tends to do to her own, setting them free to fly or to fall on their own merit. She has great respect for people who seek their own paths, and little respect for traditional authority. When it suits her, she'll play their games, but she finds the rules to be malleable.
History: Following in the tradition of Lilcamp traders, Aishe has been on the move since the day she was born. On that august day 35 Turns ago, she came into the world with a vengeance and a lusty cry. This would prove to be too much for her mother, who chose to stop their family at one child, an unusual number in a trading caravan. Certainly, Aishe has almost innumerable cousins, many of whom have kept up the family business, taking their wares across the whole of Pern.
She was precocious from a young age, and unafraid to speak to anyone who crossed her path. In spite of her status as an only child, she was never raised alone, which gave her many opportunities to practice the art of haggling. It also tended to result in whatever unfortunate child who crossed her path getting swept into her schemes and misadventures. They say that the best way to learn is to do, and Aishe took that as writ.
By the time that she came of age, it was clear that she had a knack for the business, and also clear that she was trouble. Her parents decided that the best way to handle her trouble was to put her to work, and so, at the age of 16, she was shipped off to deal with Lord Gansley of Nabol. When she returned covered in riches and with a renewed fervor for trading (along with a very dubious trading partner,) they decided that she was ready to take over leading the caravan, and she's been at it ever since.
Around that same time, she met a very young man named Cirian whose Holder father specialized in furs and racing runners. While Aishe dickered away with his father, haggling the man down to the last quarter marker, Cirian did his charming best to convince the trader that her time was better spent on him. He was little more than a child-- actually, he really was a child-- and she made it plain that she had far better things to be doing than to indulge a boyish crush. This did not stop him in his pursuit, and he kept up his efforts for Turns. For a time, Aishe left that Hold alone in order to avoid his unwanted attentions.
During that time period, she Impressed to Gold Rhianth while on a trading venture in High Reaches. This was well before Thread fell, and when her darling Rhianth grew to her full adulthood the trader was allowed to leave the Weyr. If somewhat grudgingly, as even before Thread fell, High Reaches tended to have a poor view of leaving behind one's duties as a rider. However, with the hierarchy already well within place in the Weyr, Aishe found it to be a waste of her valuable time, and promised the Weyr a cut of what she made. They found this to be an offer that they could not refuse, and she was set free with their blessing.
Regarding that young lad from her youth, the joke was on her when some Turns later she met a rather grown up C'rian, a Brownrider whose suave advances she could not resist. Her Gold was no help in that quest, as Rhianth and Kronoseth quickly bonded, refusing to be parted by the trader's contrary stubbornness. The two married and are expecting, at long last, a child.
Since Thread's return, Aishe has grown to be concerned for her people's safety, and is considering weathering it out in High Reaches. However, doing so would mean giving up their freedom, and that is not yet a bargain that she is willing to make. Any of her caravan with dragons of their own who have sought to return to their Weyrs have been encouraged to do so, as their dragons have a powerful instinct to battle their ancient enemy. Also, there's a question of duty, not that the woman herself is terribly dutiful in that particular manner.
Other: Rhianth is basically Aishe's wagon -- she keeps most of her goods at close hand, and that means somewhere in the riding packs for the most part.
DRAGON
Name: Rhianth
Age: 10
Color: Gold
Size: 51'
Physical Description: An immensely large Gold, Rhianth measures out at 51' from nose to tail tips. Her wingspan is impressively broad, a fact that she takes no little pride in. She is of a rose gold hue, with a dusting of star-like spots along her shoulders, neck, and down the line of her spine. Her underbelly is paler gold, still with a faintly coppery sheen. She is often festooned with jewelry, and wears her rider's special harness with pride. Someone once fashioned a sort of tent-like apparatus to go above her saddle, and she has seen to it that it is also well decorated when in use.
Personality: Feisty. Free-spirited. Noble. Disobedient. Stubborn.
Unlike the Weyr from which she stemmed Rhianth is decidedly against the concept of metallic superiority. She finds the "natural" hierarchy of dragons to be quite unnatural, and will not hear of her chromatic siblings being spoken of poorly. Although she considers herself to be a worthy dragon, it is not because of her color, but rather because of the hard work that she undertakes in helping to keep the caravan afloat. Her mate is a Brown dragon, and she refuses to believe that he would be any more fit if he were a Bronze. It is simply against her nature to believe that a person's worth can be found in anything but what they make of themselves. One should be judged by one's actions, and not by a superficial standard that has nothing at all to do with one's innate value. She does not like to be bossed around by other Golds, and has had somewhat rocky relationships with a few in the past.
