BASICS
NAME: Ethulay
GENDER: Male
PRONOUNS: He/Him/His
ORIENTATION: Homosexual
BIRTHDATE: Late Winter 2754
AGE: 19 as of Early Fall 2774
LOCATION: Fort Weyr
OCCUPATION: Weyrling
WING: N/A
APPEARANCE
EYES: Green
HAIR: Blonde
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'9", slim
PLAY-BY: Silas (Fire Emblem)
FULL APPEARANCE:
A little on the short side and slender, Ethulay isn't really the type to stand out in a crowd. He has short, thick, murky blonde hair that he keeps pushed away from his eyes in whatever direction he needs to keep it out of his face. He has an oval-shaped face, and green eyes. His skin is on the fair side, but he does sometimes tan during the summers, after one or two sunburns. His torso seems a little long for his limbs, but he'll grow into it. He prefers simple, dark-colored clothing.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
To most people, Ethulay seems to be the sweet, shy, quiet sort. He doesn't always have much to say, especially when he's around people he doesn't know well, but when he does speak up he usually has nice things to say. He likes people, he can just be a bit nervous around them, at least the ones he isn't familiar with. Even around those he knows well, he prefers to let others take the lead in conversation.
However, Ethulay can also hold a grudge over what many people would probably consider to be nothing at all. He has a bit of a persecution complex, and tends to blow any slight against him way out of proportion. Any disagreement means a person clearly hates him and all he stands for; any actual insult means they must also be a terrible person after all. Since he hates conflict, these grudges rarely escalate into anything save for him completely ignoring the other party whenever he can get away with it. He's very much a fan of the silent treatment, and will rarely explain to a person what they did to wrong him. Forgiveness can take a very long time, if it ever comes at all. He tends to see the world in very black or white terms, and people are either on his side or against him, and there's no need to engage with people who are against him.
Ethulay believes strongly in the idea of a meritocracy: people should be judged solely on what they do and are capable of doing in the future, not the circumstances of their birth. However, he's also a little on the selfish side, believing that resources should belong to those who came first or put in the work, and that those in need of additional help later on should have to wait in line. Nobody is owed anything, either the wealthy and powerful or a Trader who's lost their entire livelihood to an accident. He wants to be able to help, and even would at the extent of his own well-being, but he wants it to be of his own will, not something that's simply expected of him.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Mother, Khilay
Father, Ethupayo
Younger sister, Khipa (2758)
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: None
BIRTHPLACE: Fort Hold
HISTORY:
Ethulay was born the son of a baker and a cook at Fort Hold. Even as a child he was quiet, and tended to just stay out of trouble. The Hold's politics may have been a mess, but he was young enough that most knowledge of it simply passed over his head at the time; leadership changed repeatedly, but none of it was of importance to him personally. All he really paid much attention to was himself and his friends, and later his younger sister. He doted on her, as he was certain a good older brother should.
He was old enough to start paying attention when people from outlying cotholds started flocking to Fort in the wake of the fires. He didn't particularly like sharing his space with so many. Things were just louder, and overcrowded, and there was never as much to eat as he wanted. He resented them, because in an indirect way they were taking from him. He felt for their plight, but why couldn't they have been sent elsewhere? They had to leave their homes anyway, surely Keroon could take some. But other than that, he was happy; he played with the friends he had when he wasn't busy with chores, he helped in the kitchens, and generally just had a good life.
And then rebellion came. That was when he really sat up and started to take notice of politics, and ideas like who should be a leader and who shouldn't. He was very, very certain that the old leadership was insufficient. After all: that was the leadership who had let in too many refugees. Clearly blood was a terrible way of determining anything. He wasn't a very good cook, even though his parents were. Why should leadership be any different?
His parents disagreed. His family didn't talk about politics much, but when it became clear that the new system was here to stay, it became an occasional dinnertime conversation. Eventually, he couldn't take what he saw as their bigotry any more; they argued. He refused to speak to them for weeks. He felt hurt and betrayed; how could they be so against the thought of someone like themselves being capable of leading?
And then the Searchdragon came, and wanted him to return to the Weyr as a Candidate. Weyrs, so far as he knew, weren't really much better: golds got to lead just because they were golds, but at least it would be an excuse to further avoid his parents. He accepted immediately, not even talking to his parents to let them know. He just left a note.
Candidacy was more difficult than he anticipated. The Weyr may not have been very far away in a geographical sense, but it was still very, very different from the Hold. Things got more different still when the Weyrleader decided to stage a coup. Ethulay was a bit conflicted on that, because while a goldrider who didn't seem to particularly deserve power was removed from a position she shouldn't have had in the first place, Z'osh also installed probably-undeserving bronzeriders into positions of power, and grounded garnets. But he too was eventually overthrown, and things returned to normal with minimal changes.
Ethulay wasn't sure exactly what he wanted out of either his own life or the Weyr's power structure. All he knew for certain was that he was only a Candidate. His opinion was unimportant.
