Post by taylor on Mar 26, 2013 23:30:16 GMT -5
Kariss
Name: Kariss
Pronunciation: Care - iss
Age: 21
Season Born In: Spring
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Very lady-oriented bisexual
Appearance:
Kariss' hair was platinum blonde when she was young, but it has darkened considerably. It is now in that grey area between blonde and brown, leaning more to one side or the other depending on how much time she's spent outside lately. Kariss has large grey-green eyes and a wide, slightly uneven grin which tends to flash into existence for a brief moment only to disappear as quickly as it arrived. She has the occasional freckle, but nothing too significant. Kariss is five foot eight, with a build which speaks to her very physical lifestyle. A scar on her left forearm shows where a dragon's claws found her during the first hatching she stood at. Her stomach and breasts have lots of stretchmarks from her pregnancy, though they have faded nearly to the color of her skin in the turns since her daughter's birth.
Personality:
Kariss can come across as uncaring to some people. She isn't, really, though. It's just that she cares about things, sometimes, on a larger scale than you might be used to. Yes, she objectively acknowledges your distress, but no she doesn't think it's particularly noteworthy or compelling; just look at the big picture, man! Kariss is more likely to be moved by news of erosion in someone's herdbeast pasture than by news that you broke your arm. It's not that she doesn't think that's unfortunate for you. It's just that you're only one person, and that erosion is going to have long-lasting, widespread impact if not dealt with. Sorry. There is one exception, here. Rineska. If her little girl comes crying to her with a scraped knee, Kariss will care. She will care a lot. She might ask her daughter to put it on hold if she's legitimately busy, but she considers Rineska's problems important and worth fixing, no matter how small. If she came to love someone else close to how much she loves her daughter, that consideration might extend to them.
Kariss is fascinated by Thread. Obsessed with it, even. In fact, some might say she's a bit creepy with how interested in it she is. See, she doesn't just want to learn how to kill it to protect Pern. No no. She wants to learn about how it lives and breeds and what it eats and how fast, and if different nutrition has a different impact on it. She wants to learn what effect it has on Pern's ecology, and how that changes during Intervals. She wants to try to capture some so she can take it back to her room and feed things to it and take notes. Kariss has a perfectly normal reaction to pain and fear in all instances except when it comes to Thread. There, everything's different. She's thought about purposefully going out into a Threadfall so she can experience an injury herself to take notes on it. And yes, she knows that it would hurt. A lot. She'd probably scream and cry, but inside she'd be delighted because science.
Kariss doesn't see any reason to lie to people or "shield them from the truth". Rineska knows all about where children come from, what animals look like as they're getting killed, where all her food comes from, and why some dragonriders don't come back from Fall. Kariss is comfortable with her daughter knowing the facts of life, so she's certainly not going to sugarcoat the truth or outright lie if someone else asks a question with a harsh answer.
While Kariss is open to the romantic and sexual pursuit of anyone, she only ever feels a real drive to be with women. As evidenced by Rineska, she's been with men before and she very much enjoys it; it just isn't something she seeks out.
Family: Karel - mother - midwife
Lister - father - beastcrafter
Terrel - brother - 2 turns older - journeyman healer
Liarel - sister - 6 turns younger - apprentice midwife
Rineska - daughter - 5 turns old
Location: Trelis
Rank: Dragon or wher
History:
Kariss was born on a small farm outside of Southern Hold. Her father raised animals, her mother helped deliver the children of those around them, and things were generally peaceful. Kariss grew up safe, loved...and a bit bored. She listened to the harper tales and heard about Thread and the brave riders who fought it, and she wanted to see the excitement for herself. Imagine her (rather puzzling to those around her) distress when she learned that the Red Star was gone and the menace would never return.
Kariss followed her father's footsteps, though she fine-tuned her learning. Rather than simply raising beasts, she learned to heal them. Her fascination with Thread never left, however.
When she was searched as a teen, she grabbed the chance to seek a dragon. Sure, she wouldn't be fighting Thread, but she'd get at least half of the adventure. Whisked away to Southern, she eagerly awaited the hatching. It came and went with no dragon for young Kariss, however. Though her family expected her to return to the farm right away, the girl decided to stay in the weyr for a while. This was a much more interesting atmosphere, and there would be other clutches.
When the younger gold flew several months later, a brownrider named J'degar happened to cross Kariss' path as he left the junior weyrwoman's room in defeat. Flightlust led to...well, the thing it usually leads to, and Kariss found herself pregnant. After a lot of heavy thought, she decided to keep the baby. She would rather put her dragon search (which let's face it, wasn't exactly going well) on hold for a few years than kill a baby.
She returned to the farm, where she gave birth to Rineska. Devoting herself to her craft as well as she could while raising an infant, Kariss worked hard to master reading. While the majority of her studies were of course devoted to learning about animal illnesses and treatments, some of her reading returned to the subject of Thread. It began to fascinate her as more than a source of drama and adventure in harper tales. Now, she began to regard it somewhat more scientifically. What was it? How did it live? How did it die? Did Pern change when it was gone?
She figured she would never get the chance to answer these questions. When Thread returned, she was shocked and delighted. Her desire for a dragon, long since forgotten, came back. With a dragon - or a wher - she could study Thread up close exactly as she wanted to. And fight it, of course. Of course she wanted to fight it. Naturally.
When she was searched for a clutch at Trelis, she packed up her child and Rineska's firelizard, explained why they were moving, and relocated to Trelis. While helping put out a fire during her candidacy, Kariss was struck by a falling beam; the head injury resulted in seizures which periodically plague her.
On the Sands, she found herself bonded to a garnet. The first female garnet, in fact: Nalsulath.
Nalsulath
Name: Nalsulath
Pronunciation: Nall - sue - lath
Age: Hatchling
Rank: Garnet
Size: 34 feet
Color Codes: 921d06, e9331a, bd1818, e83834, 852015, db0a0a
Appearance:
Nalsulath is gorgeous. Red with touches of orange, she looks like a glowing ember. Her wings have a mottled pattern like the skin of some kind of reptile, shades of red and orange varying across them. Her head and neck are hosts to darker curls of red. One comes from the corner of her eye and then swirls across her cheek. Her feet are darker, while her tail fades into a lighter color. On the smaller end of the garnet range, Nalsulath is significantly smaller than all other sub-queens. Not that this matters to her; she has a proud bearing which clearly speaks of her healthy self-esteem.
Personality:
Nalsulath is the first female garnet dragon - the first female garnet at all, she will tell you, though there have actually been a few rare firelizards. She knows she is significant and views it as her job to lead the garnets - and the other new colors - to greatness. She will insist that neither she nor other garnets are blood-thirty monsters. Her fellows simply lacked her balancing influence; she can command them where a gold could not. The monsters are out among you, lurking in the shadows, and most people are simply too blind and foolish to recognize them. Thus, it is her job to bring justice and balance to the world.
Don't misunderstand her, though. She doesn't abhor violence. Oh no, Nalsulath enjoys tearing into her enemies just as much as the next person. She simply waits for a reason before she strikes, rather than giving into bloodlust for the sake of violence itself. She knows when there are limits and will respect them; Hers has made it exceedingly clear that she is not to harm her daughter, Rineska, and Nalsulath respects that. Anyone else, however - including Kariss herself - is fair game, and the garnet will not hesitate to cause pain and damage to those around her if she feels the urge.
Nalsulath sees her garnet "knights" as superior to others. She quite enjoys pointing out the flaws of the other colors, colors which have been seen as better than the "brutish" garnets in the past. Others may gain her favor as well, but they don't start with the boost to esteem that garnets do. Nalsulath is vain and commanding, adoring the attention she gets as the first female garnet. She is special for more than just her color, however; she was meant to lead Pern forward to a new era of greatness, and if you don't believe her, she'll be all too happy to convince you.
