"lyrics or quotes here"
BASICS
RETIRE INFO: Retire; re-use character tie
NAME: I'an
GENDER: Male
PRONOUNS: He/Him/His
ORIENTATION: Bisexual
BIRTHDATE: Late Spring 2761
AGE: 17 as of Early Fall 2768
LOCATION: High Reaches Weyr
OCCUPATION: Weyrling, Apprentice Glasscrafter
WING: N/A
APPEARANCE
EYES: Dark brown
HAIR: Dark brown
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'9", average-husky
PLAY-BY: Jordan Connor
FULL APPEARANCE:
Ielan is a young man somewhat on the short side, with a build just on the husky side of average. He has muscle, but it doesn't show especially well, and he doesn't have the impressively broad shoulders that are the common hallmark of a Smith. He has a rather broad face, with a short forehead and a surprisingly narrow nose. His lips are wide and dark, probably the envy of at least a few girls. His eyes are dark brown, with short lashes, not deep-set, below straight, somewhat narrow eyebrows. His hair is thick and straight, kept cut short and out of his way, and of a brown so dark as to be nearly black.
He doesn't exactly dress sloppily, but he isn't particularly fastidious either. His clothes are clean, but often slightly wrinkled. He prefers earthy tones and muted colors.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Ielan is very, very done living for anyone's sake but his own. He's sick of the expectations that have been heaped on him, of being told what he's supposed to do with his life. He's living for him now, and that means doing what he wants: to follow in his sister's rebellious footsteps. He lacks the self-awareness to realize that this is still just fulfilling the expectations that his parents have now that he's left home, and probably doesn't care. He's bitter, fed up, and not especially patient. In short: he's kind of your typical teenager going through a rebellious phase.
Despite that, he generally enjoys having company around. He mostly likes people, and is willing to talk to just about anyone, even if his upbringing means he doesn't know how to talk about much besides his Craft. He's not exactly upbeat, but he's still an often-smiling friendly face. He hates it when other people come into conflict. In fact, he tends to all but shut down in an argument. The very thought of violence sickens and angers him, and he refuses to so much as touch weapons. He doesn't even like table knives, but acknowledges their usefulness.
Where he once thrived, Ielan now reacts poorly to pressure. Being told that he should be able to do something that he's attempting and failing gets twisted in his mind to criticism, and instead of trying harder he'll instead withdraw. He's dedicated, and persistent, but only when he's doing something for himself.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Talana, Mother, Smith Master
Lienar, Father, Smith Master
Talien of Charoite Arellath, Older Sister
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: N/A
BIRTHPLACE: Smithcraft Hall
HISTORY:
The younger child of two Smith Masters, Ielan's life was set in stone even before he was born: he would, of course, become a Smith as well, and an exceptional one at that. He was destined for greatness in his craft; why, with the upbringing he'd have, he might even become the Mastersmith someday! At least that was his parents' hope: that at least one of their two children would ascend to that honor.
It was clear even while Ielan was still young that the one to do that would not be Talien. She was capricious, wanting to run off to be with the Harpers, and eventually she did exactly that, though with permission. And so the heavy mantle of duty and expectations fell on Ielan: he would become a Smith, and he would succeed.
He tried. Nothing he did was ever enough for his parents, but he tried. A child of the Hall, his parentage was hardly unusual, but sometimes he doubted other parents pushed their children half so hard. Still he worked, often analyzing his own mistakes long after the forges had been turned off. As a child he was only allowed to sweep and make the simplest of small things, which was fine with him. He'd already decided he never wanted to make weapons. When he was older, and bigger, and had the lung capacity for it, he was going to become a Glasscrafter. Those were still Smiths; those could still become Mastersmith, just as his parents wanted. They just wouldn't be making things that made him half sick to even touch.
When, at fifteen, he was finally deemed big enough to try glassblowing, he took to it quickly. No longer motivated solely by his parents' wishes, he found that when he did something he wanted, things came much more easily. His parents were disappointed in his choices though. It was hardly the traditional path toward becoming the Mastersmith, though it wasn't a complete barrier. Simply not the expected way to go about things.
The pressure mounted. He couldn't just be an adequate Glasscrafter, no, he had to be the absolute best to attract the notice of the core group of Crafters. His parents provided him with a never-ending stack of records on glassblowing techniques, on ratios of silica to other materials in glass, on ideal temperatures and everything else that was to be found, and he was expected to read them all. Memorize them. He hardly found time to sleep between the endless quizzing and studying and his actual work.
Ielan... broke under the pressure.
His parents found him in the hallway one morning, panicking, sobbing, barely able to breathe. They told him to stop being such a baby, to hurry up and get to the Journeyman he was studying under before he was seen as a laggard who couldn't even make it to lessons on time. He didn't. Despite their protestations that he was going to be seen as weak, he simply couldn't bring himself to move.
When it passed, he found he had no desire to fulfill their dreams. He was Ielan, and he was his own person, not a piece of glass to be blown into whatever form his parents wanted him to be. He was done trying to meet anyone's expectations, because how was he ever supposed to be perfect? And that was what people wanted of him: perfection.
So he simply left without word, joining a Weyr-bound caravan to "deliver some glassware to the Weyr". His plan had been to follow his sister to Telgar, but when he arrived he found that she'd already left for High Reaches. Luckily, it wasn't difficult to find a rider willing to take him there, though the rider's green did express disappointment that a potential Candidate was going somewhere else.
