"What do you mean you've never heard of the Sixth Pass Igen Whiskey Uprising?"
BASICS
NAME: I'lir, born Litri
GENDER: Male
PRONOUNS: He/him/his
ORIENTATION: Likes men and NB people somewhere on the masculine spectrum
BIRTHDATE: Early Winter 2754
AGE: 20 as of 2775
LOCATION: High Reaches Weyr
OCCUPATION: Dragonrider
WING: Stormlight
APPEARANCE
EYES: Hazel
HAIR: Dark brown, always kind of a mess
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'9, narrow build
PLAY-BY: Callum (Dragon Prince)
EXPY SOURCE: N/A
FULL APPEARANCE: I'lir is slender and delicate looking by the standards of dragonriders. He's built some muscle through turns of dragonriders, but he's still not much of an athlete. I'lir has pale skin, wide hazel eyes and dark brown hair that always seems to be kind of a mess, never staying in place despite his best efforts and growing faster than he can trim it. I'lir favors stuffy, formal clothing too mature to really suit him, complete with elaborate embroidery and sophisticated colors.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY: I'lir is smart. He is also very aware he's smart and more than a little smug about it. He's pretty sure he's smarter than just about much everyone he meets and and that makes his superior intellect makes him a superior human. His arrogance is not subtle. I'lir is polite and formal, but in a way that makes it clear it is more because he thinks he's better than you than out of genuine consideration. He is also a proud know-it-all, who delights in his vast memory of obscure facts and his sophisticated vocabulary. I'lir believes firmly in the importance of language and will monologue about length about why it is more important to choose precise words than comprehensible ones. He is highly intellectually curious and is always seeking to expand his repertoire of knowledge.
I'lir has a steadfast, rigid belief that there is a right and a wrong way to do things and he will do things the right way. He's not fond of shortcuts or improvising and is going to do everything by the book, as the book was written. He's not the bravest of riders and threadfall and other risks to his physical safety make him nervous, which makes him cling harder to the routines he thinks minimizes the risks of his inherently dangerous profession.
I'lir is a chronic overthinker, who considers all the possibilities and possible outcomes, ruminating himself into an anxious over distant improbabilities. He knows a great deal about political history but has few concrete opinions on contemporary politics, having generally explored the merits and weaknesses of both positions until he ends up even less decided than he was before.
While I'lir never advanced beyond apprenticeship in his weaving, he is deeply passionated about his craft. He is very well-informed about the topic, including both traditional weaving and contemporary weaving, the historical progress and the current luminaries of the art. He continues to create tapestries in his spare time, rich with opaque, esoteric references that few understand. I'lir seems to take the incomprehensibility of his tapestries as a point of perverse pride. Weaving is art
form intended only for those sophisticated enough to appreciate it.
I'lir isn't actually a bad person, beneath his big mouth and bigger ego. He tries to be helpful where he can, although he is often too blunt and accidentally gives insult thinking he's just being honest. Often, he doesn't realize someone else has stated the obvious out of kindness or courtesy, assuming no one else was clever enough to see the truth. I'lir has a surprisingly strong romantic streak and will nurture long-held, sincere crushes, expressed through grand, poorly thought out and not at all explained romantic gestures. Strangely, he rarely falls for other intellectuals, preferring people he seems to have little in common with.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Mother: Naralie, Weyrfolk, Fort Weyr
Father: Kitrian, Journeyman Weaver, Eastern Weyr
Na'lir, Wingrider (+11)
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Only in his dreams (Crushing hard on Sparrow. Sparrow has no idea.)
BIRTHPLACE: Igen Weyr
HISTORY: I'lir was born the second child of Naralie and Kitrian, who had met when Kitrian was stationed at Igen Weyr. The two became weyrmates and Naralie filled their home with many foster children, as she had always wanted. The pair's first son of their own, Naralir, grew tall and strong like his father, but lacked Kitrian's affinity for weaving and wanted to be a dragonrider, not a crafter, anyway. When Naralir turned ten, and Kitrian accepted he wasn't going to grow into the son he'd always wanted, Kitrian decided he wanted another child. Naralie was content with Kitrian and her foster children, but supposed they had room for one more. The pair named their second son Litri. Where Naralir had been tall and strong like his father, Litri resembled his mother, small and slender and dark-haired.
As Litri grew up, he lived a fairly standard life for a weyrbrat. He excelled in his harper classes, although the harpers rebuffed his many unsubtle attempts to find out exactly how he stacked up against his peers. Kitrian, relieved his second son was more erudite than his first, encouraged Litri to believe his intellect made him better than everyone else. Kitrian taught Litri that his mind and future craft were all that mattered and he shouldn't distract himself with other things like chores or dragonriding. Litri, proud of his skills and never much good at the usual weyrkid games, proved a willing student for Kitrian's lessons and soon came to see the world much as father did.
The day he came of apprenticing age, Litri apprenticed as a weaver, just as his father had always wanted. He proved a quick study at the art and quickly developed a personal style heavier on "meaning" than aesthetics, his tapestries dense with complicated motifs and obscure historical references.
Litri was closer to his father than anyone else in the weyr, but he also loved his mother and his foster siblings. He believed he was the best of his foster siblings, because he was the smartest, and that meant it was his job to take care of them. Litri fancied himself the responsible one, the older brother and babysitter, even though some of his foster siblings were several turns older than him. Litri was never close with his brother, who was over a decade older than him and had lived in the candidate barracks since Litri was four. When Naralir eventually Impressed, it didn't have much impact on Litri.
Litri's closest childhood friend was named Merkan, one turn older than him. Merkan wasn't nearly as smart as Litri and was never the most responsible of children, but he could climb every tree in the weyr and he had a smile that made Litri's heart race. Litri secretly nurtured a crush on him, as soon as he was old enough to understand what love was. Soon after Merkan turned 15, Merkan decided to become a candidate. Litri thought Merkan should wait a few turns. And told him so. After all, Merkan still forgot his homework in the baths and sometimes walked around for sevendays with holes in his boots because he couldn't be bothered to get a new pair. Dragonriding was a big responsibility and threadfall was dangerous, even when you did everything right. Litri was terrified Merkan would die. Litri was sure Merkan would be a good rider someday- Merkan could do anything- but why did it have to be right now?
The two fought, the fight quickly turning ugly. Merkan signed up for candidacy the next day. Litri tried to reach out and apologize (even though he was still pretty sure he was right) because he missed his friend. Merkan ignored Litri for months, no matter what he did or said. Merkan was still ignoring Litri when he Impressed a blue and then was too busy with his dragon and weyrlinghood to even really remember or care that he had never made up with Litri.
While M'kan wasn't thinking much about Litri, Litri couldn't stop thinking about him. He had never particularly wanted to be a candidate, but if he Impressed and became M'kan's wingmate, that would mean M'kan would have to talk to him again, right? When he turned 15, he signed up to be a candidate, much to his father's extreme disappointment. Kitrian urged him repeatedly to change his mind and not waste his potential.
Litri, committed to the path now that he was on it, began dreaming of his new future. He excelled in his weyrling lessons, even as he struggled to keep in their mandatory exercises. Litri drafted a list of potential honorifics for his not-very-long name, somehow managing to come up with 15 different permutations, even though he wasn't entirely sure he liked any of them or if he really wanted an honorific at all. He thought maybe he'd like to ride a garnet or white or a unique mutation, because riding a newer color would make him a part of the history he so loved, or maybe a blue, so him and M'kan could bond over their shared position as blueriders, or maybe a green, so M'kan's dragon could win all his mating flights...Or perhaps even a queen, because it would be fascinating to be the first male goldrider and M'kan would have to like Litri if Litri's dragon made him weyrleader, right?
Litri Impressed his first clutch, to a large brown named Belliorath, who thought his muscles were the most important thing in the world and that thinking ahead was overrated. The two clashed heavily at first and Belliorath wasn't the sort of dragon I'lir would have chosen for himself, but Belliorath was I'lir's now and I'lir was going to be a good rider for him. I'lir became a bit obsessive about Belliorath's care, which Belliorath tolerated only in short bursts until he got bored with sitting still while I'lir fussed.
I'lir and Belliorath had a successful weyrlinghood, I'lir excelling in the classroom and Belliorath athletic enough for both of them in physical drills. M'kan did start talking to I'lir again, having already mostly forgotten about their spat, but he spent most of his time with new friends he had made during candidacy and weyrlinghood, who he more in common with. Recognizing his feelings were unreciprocated (and that he was a weyrling anyway who was not allowed to date), I'lir did not confess his affections and instead wove as many angsty tapestries as he could fit between his weyrling lessons. A few sevendays before he graduated, he realized that his classmate, Sparrow, was pretty cute and nice and confident and how had his feelings for M'kan blinded him to their many charms? I'lir did not ever tell Sparrow he liked them, except through hidden references in his latest tapestries to his new love.
The pair graduated without issue (although Belliorath was unfortunately too big for them to join Sparrow's wing). In their new wing, the pair ruffled their share of feathers. I'lir was the sort of rider who ended every drill with a request for homework or extra practices and made his share of ill-advised, snide comments he thought were helpful. And Belliorath had never been one to let an opportunity to show off his practical prowess pass him by. A much older rider started a rivalry with I'lir, claiming he was "protecting" the wing from I'lir and Belliorath, which I'lir found uncomfortable and confusing, until his wingleader put a stop to it and made the older pair switch wings.
A few turns later, I'lir learned that Sparrow had decided to move to High Reaches. I'lir decided to follow them. Perhaps if he follow Sparrow across Pern, they would at last recognize and reciprocate his devotion. Because that was definitely how love worked, right?
