"Don't worry. The spotties won't eat you. They probably aren't even real."
BASICS
NAME: Athan
GENDER: Male
PRONOUNS: He/him/his
ORIENTATION: Hasn't spent much time thinking about it, so not really sure yet.
BIRTHDATE: Late Spring, 2758
AGE: 16 as of 2774
LOCATION: Semaca Weyr
OCCUPATION: None, will be weyrfolk, eventually candidate
WING: N/A
APPEARANCE
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Brown, usually a bit too long and shaggy
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'4", lean (Final height: 5'7)
PLAY-BY: Cameron Chapman
EXPY SOURCE: N/A
FULL APPEARANCE: Despite his background, Athan usually keeps himself pretty clean, used to bathing in rivers, lake or the sea. He has dark brown hair, which grows quickly and always seems a bit too long and bushy regardless of how recently he's cut it. When he first gets to Semaca, he'll be clearly underweight and he'll stay lean even as he starts to fill back out. He looks young for his age and is still small for a boy of sixteen, but still has a few more inches left to grow and will eventually reach a still-short-but-respectable height of 5'7. Like his mother, he tans easily, especially in the Semacan sun.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Athan is a good kid, who tries his best not to cause trouble or to demand too many things. All he really wants is a safe place and enough food for him and Sannah. He's a bit suspicious of strange adults and does his best not to draw their attention or annoy them, but he tends to relax once he's seen enough to know they're probably okay.
Athan knows very, very little about mainstream Pernese society and much of what he does know is an amalgamation of what he learned from the then eight turn old Sannah and the details the two of them have added on since. Some of their conclusions seem outlandish to anyone who wasn't there when they "figured it out." Athan isn't unintelligent, but he can be pretty naive and will take time to unlearn his wrong ideas and figure out how things really work. He isn't great at reading strangers, having spent most of his life around only a few people. He is not really capable of maintaining a deception for long. Athan doesn't really see anything wrong with stealing essentials like food or medicine, if the alternative is that you or your loved ones suffer.
Athan is loyal to his little family. He still idolizes his now-deceased father's memory and refuses to admit he might have been fallible. He is protective of Sannah and wants her to be safe and happy. He doesn't remember his mother at all, knowing only that his father loved her and never wanted to talk about her.
Athan has mixed feelings about the weyr. He likes being fed and safe, but finds some of the rules confusing. He's also a bit wary of the wherhandlers stopping anyone from leaving. He isn't convinced spotties are real and thinks they might just be a scary story like the Bandersnatch, something parents make up to keep kids out of trouble. He's spent a lot of time outside, after all, and he's never seen a spotty. Maybe the spotted pelts are just painted herdbeast.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Father: Wantor, born 2736, died 2773, holdless
Mother: Athenry, born 2738, Semaca, weyrfolk
Adopted Sister: Sannah, born 2764
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: N/A
BIRTHPLACE: Farming cothold in High Reaches territory
HISTORY:
Athan was born to Athenry and Wantor in their fledgling cothold. Athan always adored Wantor, following him everywhere from the day he could walk. Their first harvests were modest, but for the first three turns of Athan's life, the young family was full of hope.
The fortunes turned for the worse when a blight hit their cothold and they had to burn their harvest to stop the spread. Their stores were meager and the situation looked bleak, even before first Athan, then Athenry took ill. Wantor turned to banditry to obtain medicine and food. On his third attempted theft, he was caught and branded holdless. At only three turns old, Athan didn't understand much and didn't know what the symbol on his Wantor's forehead meant, only that his dad left and came back with food and medicine, because he would always take care of him.
When Wantor was branded, he returned to say goodbye to Athenry and tell her his fate. That night, Wantor asked Athan if he wanted to come with him. Athan, without really understanding what he was agreeing to, said yes. Wantor warned Athan to be quiet and the pair snuck out while Athenry was still asleep.
Athan's memories of their life before soon faded. Wantor never liked to talk about the past or the outside world, so Athan learned not to ask. He had Wantor and Wantor had him and that was all they needed. Athan, who couldn't really remember anything else and rarely had other children around to talk to, accepted the way things were. He was a happy enough child, who continued to adore his strong, competent father.
It wasn't an easy life, but they survived, sometimes foraging on their own, sometimes joining briefly with other holdless groups, never staying with a band for long. Wantor warned Athan to keep his distance from other adults, who could be dangerous. Wantor continued engaging in banditry when their supplies ran low, telling Athan only that he'd done what he needed to do. Wantor loved Athan and cared for him, but wanting to shelter him from the realities of their life, neglected to teach him how to survive on his own.
In late spring, 2772, while in Igen for the winter, Wantor and Athan stumbled across an eight turn old holdless girl named Sannah wandering alone. As far as she knew, a fire had killed the rest of her group. Wantor, knowing how dangerous the wilds of Pern could be, took her in. All of a sudden, Athan had someone else to care about. He quickly bonded with Sannah, who'd had an older brother named Keitaro about Athan's age. While Sannah was much younger than he was, her parents had been less reluctant to talk about the outside world. Between Sannah's half-remembered stories and Athan's active imagination, the two together began piecing together a picture of the world beyond.
The three returned to the lowlands near High Reaches for the summer, as Wantor and Athan had always done before. But something was different. The plants were withering and dying. Every day, the game grew sparser and the little they could catch was more bone and gristle than meat. Sometimes, they came across whers or dragons, hunting in lands that had previously belonged to only the holdless. Even the tithe trains Wantor sometimes robbed cease to come. Wantor considered returning to Igen, but they didn't have the supplies for another trip across the mountains.
As winter came, starvation threatened and Wantor grew desperate. He turned to banditry with renewed fervor, attacking well-guarded caravans that would have posed too big a risk only a few months before. Eventually, his luck ran out. Athan and Sannah waited three days for him. When they realized Wantor wasn't coming back, and that they couldn't wait any longer, they went down to the sea. Both children could fish a little and seafood proved more plentiful than game. They barely survived the winter.
When spring came, things looked a little brighter. The plants were growing again and their rudimentary traps sometimes caught the occasional lapine or small wherry. When the first leaves began to change at the start of autumn, Athan knew he had to make a choice. They couldn't endure another winter like the last. Athan needed to take care of Sannah, like Wantor had always taken care of him. He considered banditry, but Sannah reminded him that if he died, she'd be left alone. They should try to find help. She noted that neither of them was branded and they were both children. They might be accepted by a trader caravan or a small hold, if they played their cards right.
Athan and Sannah stuck close to the sea, which had been their salvation the winter before, and searched for a hold or caravan to join. Neither was sure what they were looking for. But they knew they'd found it when they saw a group of people who did not seem to know each other waiting to board a ship to an unknown destination.
Athan's first impulse was to stow away in the cargo hold, but Sannah convinced him that blending in was better than hiding. They joined the crowd. When someone asked where their knots were, Athan unconvincingly claimed to have lost them. Sannah covered for him by insinuating she'd thrown them away as a prank.
On the ship, Athan learned that there had been a blight in High Reaches a turn ago. The other passengers assumed they came from a hold that had never recovered and their parents had sent them away for their own good in desperation. Sannah, better at deception than Athan, advised him not to argue. They learned the ship was carrying them somewhere called Semaca Weyr. Sannah had learned about weyrs from her brother. They were good places.
