Name: Venin
Age: 24
Sex: Female
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Weyr: High Reaches Weyr
Rider Rank: Wingrider
Previous Rank/Craft: Journeyman Healer – Herbalist
Physical Description: Oval-shaped face, dark skin. Very pale blue hair, blue eyes and eye shadow. 4’9, all curves, and dresses to maximize them. She has often been mistaken for a child due to her height, which is one of her reasons for dying her hair an unusual color and dressing the way she does. She has extensive burn scarring down the left side of her neck, shoulder and arm, and most of the surface of both hands.
Personality: Venin desires complete independence. She doesn’t like anyone forcing their will upon her, be it an order from authority or coercion from other sources. Anything that takes away her self-sovereignty is an enemy. The only exception to this aversion are the orders of her Wingleader, particularly in drills or a fall. Thread took everything away from her, as far as she is concerned, and she hates it with a deep passion.
She also hates thinking ahead, largely because every time she does, she pictures failure. She’d rather do things by the seat of her pants, and not consider the consequences. That said, she does have and makes use of common sense, so she doesn’t often get into actual trouble. She just regrets certain choices—particularly those having to do with her relationships. She wants security, to be loved and adored, and it leaves her prone to indulging the wrong impulses with the wrong sorts of men. She’ll never show her discouragement if her chosen partner walks away (and they often do), but it leaves her smoldering and humiliated inside for a long time.
Conversely, she doesn’t have a problem at all with walking away from men she’s targeted for the purposes of obtaining something material (either gifted or stolen) or gathering information, and doesn’t seem to be aware of this habit’s hypocritical nature. At any rate, her pragmatism has served her well, both in the past and in the present.
Venin’s saving grace is likely her loyalty. Growing up, she cared about no one but herself, until a certain tragedy forced her to realize that she needed other people in her life. Those who share pain with her, or have otherwise earned her trust and friendship, will have her love and loyalty for life—unless they betray her.
Woe be unto those who break faith with the woman whose very name is poison.
Positive Trait List Spontaneous, self-motivated, pragmatic, loyal
Negative Trait List Overindulgent, hates structure, doesn’t think ahead, anxious, tends toward selfishness and self-preservation
Mother: Missing (Possibly murdered)
Father: Missing (She believes he is alive and possibly the murderer)
Son, Valeran: Missing (Possibly dead, would be 5-6 turns old if living)
History:
The child Verinina was born at Telgar Hold, her mother a native jeweler and her father a laborer from Bitra. She lived a happy life with her parents.
...Until age six, when her mother turned up missing. Her father vanished not long after. Most suspected that the father had fled because he’d done something awful, and Verinina spent the next few months awash in the gossip. By the time she was deemed an orphan and landed in the hold’s creche, she hated it all – the gossip, the creche, her father. She didn’t care to make nice with the other kids, or to help take care of the youngest of the lot when the old Auntie in charge was slacking off, she mostly cared about taking care of herself.
At fourteen, she was preparing to run away like so many before her had done. Before she could follow through with her plan, a fire burned down the creche. Verinina was caught in the flames and suffered terrible burns over her left arm and side, and both of her hands. It was Sahindel who rescued her and brought her to a healer. She made it through all right, except for the ugly scars that covered half of her body.
From there, the surviving orphans were homeless and scrabbling to subsist, and Sahindel stepped up to lead them. He had always been a sweet fellow, but his drive to help everyone survive and make a new life together inspired hope in everyone. Verinina finally felt bound to the group after this shared tragedy, and began to open up to the other kids, accepting them as her new family.
Those who were able to find employment or other means of income shared with the rest of the gang, making sure that everyone was cared for, though pickings were often slim. Verinina herself managed to land a job working for an apothecary named Naromme. She was mainly there to tidy up and occasionally make deliveries for a pittance, but when she began to show an interest in Naromme’s work with herbal remedies, the older woman saw some potential and invited her to apprentice. The education Verinina received was far more valuable than the meager coinage that Naromme could afford to pay.
Before long, Verinina was able to use her knowledge to make some marks for the group by peddling medicinal teas on the street. Occasionally, an offer of money prompted her to learn recipes for and make teas with less honorable uses. These transactions often required her to steal the more difficult to obtain ingredients for these teas, sometimes even from Naromme. She did so with only slight hesitation, determining that such thefts were justified, as she was providing for those less fortunate than her. However, she never dealt in any illegal substances. She’d witnessed the results of powerful addiction many times – including one fatal incident within their own little family – and wanted no part in it.
As she grew into her new street persona and business, she chose herself a new name – Venin, reminiscent of her old name, certain aspects of her craft, and the venom her young heart had been poisoned with.
Being one of the older orphans, Venin was among the first of the girls to reach womanhood. For a short time she entertained something a bit more than friendship with Sahindel, whose pure-heartedness she greatly admired but failed to emulate, and later with a few other fellows she knew well enough. One of her ventures resulted in a son of her own to care for, whom she named Valeran. That marked the end of her attempts at romance, for with the arrival of Valeran and as more and more lost children joined up with their group, she found she had neither the time nor the energy to cultivate such fanciful relationships.
She was twenty-one when Sahindel was Searched and went off to High Reaches Weyr to get himself a dragon, promising to come back and use the beast to earn enough marks for everyone to live comfortably off of. In his absence, being older than Sahindel and likely the oldest of the lot, Venin suddenly felt profoundly responsible for all of the others, and vowed to take care of them until he returned with his prize. She worked very hard to support her son and the rest of her family, even to the point of earning her Journeyman’s knot in herbalism so that she could demand higher prices for her wares.
Venin had been close to most of the members of her orphan family for turns at this point, but she had became especially close to another of the older girls, Peresa, who had also taken on the mantle of responsibility. They spent their days working hard, taking cheer from Sahindel’s letters home. When the news came back that he’d Impressed, the family was overjoyed, expecting him to return soon. Only… he didn’t. And then his letters stopped coming. Clearly, he’d abandoned them for his new life of ease and plenty.
The ultimate irony came some months thereafter: A rogue queen dragon had laid her eggs right there at Telgar Weyr, where Candidates were in short supply. Venin and Peresa were among those young folks tapped to Stand. Venin, for her part, agreed to it out of pure spite. S’del the Great Dragonrider thought he was too good for them? Then she would take what he’d promised for herself.
When the Telgar hatchlings began to crack through their shells, her thoughts were full of greed and rage, and yet… a deep, wondrous hope. That future of comfort and security was again within their grasp! A few of the eggs had already hatched and their former inhabitants Impressed when a blue dragonet burst from his shell, eyes blazing red and thunderous roars erupting from his throat. GET OUT OF MY WAY! he screamed at those Candidates who were near. I WILL HAVE WHAT IS MINE! With that, the hatchling tore through anyone in his path as he searched for his partner. His fear and anger were palpable and felt horrid to the senses, but Venin knew she wanted this one. He spoke to her deepest hurts, his broadcasted feelings and physical violence mirroring the torment of her six turn old heart, still beating morosely within her chest.
Suddenly, the girl’s thoughts weren’t of vengeance and stacking marks, but of love and understanding. I know, she silently called. I know. I’m here, little one, if you’ll have me.
She felt the hatchling’s mind lock onto hers, a wordless cry of relief and a rush of powerful emotions pouring over her. Then he was coming, and Venin ran to meet him halfway. He was hers, the perfect little storm that was Raumoloth.
Later on, Venin found that Peresa had also Impressed. Peresa’s was a green called Shoggoth, who was even angrier than Raumoloth. But all that rage afforded them no help or protection when Thread fell upon Telgar a mere sevenday later, on Peresa’s eighteenth nameday. This horror that was Thread was something which many of the orphans had never even heard of. Animals, people and buildings consumed and burned to ash in minutes. The older riders hurried to evacuate the weyrlings, and the one who took Venin, Peresa, Raumoloth and Shoggoth brought them to a faroff, backwoods little cothold where he had once lived. He went back to Telgar for others… but never returned.
The two young women and their newborn dragons were left alone at this isolated hold, with no line of communication to the outside, and no one else but that rider, who was most likely dead now, knowing where they were. Venin was already in a panic for her little Valeran, and became hysterical when she realized there was no chance of getting to him, or even finding out his fate. Everything she’d worked for—everything she’d lived for—was most certainly gone, devoured by Thread. This absolute futility was like nothing she’d ever experienced before, and if she didn’t have Raumoloth to love and look after, she will freely admit that she would have given up.
They survived until the dragonets had grown enough to fly—and a harrowing but liberating experience it was to learn how! There was no one to teach them how to go between, however. So, when they felt ready, Venin and Peresa flew all the way back to Telgar. Finding nothing left of their family, their next stop was High Reaches Weyr, where many evacuees had been taken. Unfortunately, there were two problems with High Reaches:
Number one, Valeran was not among the refugees.
And number two, Sahindel.
Other: Currently in the employ of Lady Ink as her personal herbalist, with the condition that she can still peddle to other customers on the side… making sure to keep her eyes and ears open when she visits said other customers, which are often strategically chosen. She clings to her role with the spymaster as a source of self-power in a world that has spun out of her control, and it has done her much good.
DRAGON
Name: Raumoloth
Age: 1 turn (3572.04.13)
Color: Blue
Size: 25’
Physical Description: Not a massive blue by any stretch of the imagination, Raumoloth is a humble twenty-five feet long. He has a fair amount of muscle, but it’s lanky and wiry muscle. This dragon’s movements on land and in the air are based on balancing bursts of agility and conserving stamina. Along the dorsal areas his hide is covered with cloudy patches of grayish blue. He has streaks all over his body, including marks just below his eyes, that resemble bolts of lightning or rivulets of water.
Personality: It doesn’t take much wind to stir up a squall of thunderous rage in this dragon. He is easily offended and defaults to a “guilty before proven innocent” outlook. If he had his way, he would be the judge, jury and executioner. He will submit to no one except his rider or a golden queen… or else a clear display of superior power. Since returning to civilization, it has been a struggle for Raumoloth to keep his mouth and claws in check. Growing up with no other dragon but green Shoggoth, the two violent siblings often won or lost arguments based on who could thrash whom. Win or lose, both usually ended up bloody. These terms of engagement did not go over well when Raumoloth and Venin came to High Reaches, resulting in a need for a bit of social rehabilitation as part of their training.
At present, Raumoloth loves only one dragon—that being his sister Shoggoth. It isn’t a gentle sort of love, being something more like respect and appreciation for a comrade who has proven themselves in battle, mixed with a heavy heaping of passionate rivalry. It might seem sometimes that he hates her, and sometimes that they agree on everything, but one thing remains certain: If anyone should dare harm Shoggoth, they will instantly know Raumoloth’s wrath, and pay for their crime with their own ichor.
Positive Trait List: Protective, loyal, resolute
Negative Trait List: Jealous, stormy, defensive, savage
Dragon Art or Proof of Obtainment:
