"I would have done whatever it took. Only justice can bring peace."
BASICS
NAME: Kyoshi
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: She/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Bisexual
BIRTHDATE: Early spring 2746
AGE: 28 as of 2774
LOCATION: Fort Weyr
OCCUPATION: Bluerider
WING: Aurora Wing
APPEARANCE
EYES: A muted green
HAIR: Dark brown, very thick, worn long
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 7'0, muscular and broad
PLAY-BY: Kyoshi (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
FULL APPEARANCE: Kyoshi is an extremely tall woman who effortlessly towers over most people, with the broad build to match. She looks and is extremely strong. She has tan skin with a scattering of freckles, that lends her a slightly more youthful air. Her eyes are a muted grey-green and she wears her dark, thick hair long. Her expression is generally fairly serious. On a day to day basis, Kyoshi favors riding leathers and practical clothes, although she will wear more elaborate garb for special occasions like feasts and gathers, paired with dramatic makeup that she feels gives her confidence.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY: Kyoshi is a woman who on first impression can seem rather passive. She is fairly stoic, keeping control over her temper and willing to wait patiently for the right time to act. Kyoshi doesn't engage in conflict unless she has to, not because she is a pacifist but because most responses she can think of would usually be disproportionate. When she does act, she does so intensely and forcefully, not afraid to use a punch or use her dragon or her size as a threat. She is not skilled at deescalating situations and often sees the only options as ignoring the situation or fighting back with all her might- even if that is an overreaction.
Kyoshi has a strong, somewhere severe, set of moral principles. She believes only justice can bring peace. While she wants to help people, she thinks the best way to do so is for bad actors to suffer the consequences of their actions. Mercy can occasionally be appropriate, in the case of the young or the foolish who may still respond to a warning, but some people need to be taken down and kept away from power for good. Kyoshi is ashamed of her own holdless roots and has a strong dislike for holdless people, especially bandits, and does not bother to be kind when she encounters them.
Kyoshi is a very neat person, who doesn't like clutter and will clean up other people's messes from time to time. Even after all these turns as a dragonrider, she is still a bit insecure about her role and sometimes doubts whether she is a very good one. She hides her insecurity behind a veil of moral certainty, rarely showing vulnerability to anyone besides her dragon and closest friends.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Long estranged parents Jesa and Hark. Kyoshi neither knows nor cares for their ultimate fate.
Foster father: Steward Kelsang of Yokoya Hold, a minor hold near Southern Bowl
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Rangi, weyrmate
BIRTHPLACE: The roads outside Fort
HISTORY: Kyoshi was born to a pair of holdless bandits, the leaders of their troop. Her parents cared for her when until she was seven turns old, then abandoned her a day's walk away from a small seaside hold called Yokoya, for reasons they never bothered to explain and that Kyoshi never fully understood. When Kyoshi eventually accepted they weren't coming back, she tried to appeal to the nearby hold for help. The holders were skeptical at first of Kyoshi, a stranger who seemed far too tall to be a child of only seven turns, but Kelsang, the Lord Holder's steward offered to take responsibility for her.
Lord Jianzhu had a son, Yun, who was about Kyoshi's age. Lord Jianzhu agreed to accept her into his house, in exchange for her serving as Yun's servant and companion. Yun and Rangi, the daughter of the captain of the hold's guards, soon became Kyoshi's closest friends. Kyoshi resented her parents for leaving her to an unknown fate, but was grateful for her newfound friends and family.
When Kyoshi was 16, searchriders came to Yokoya Hold, a rare spectacle that was greeted with much celebration. To Kyoshi's surprise, she was singled out as a potential candidate. Suddenly, everything changed. Kyoshi, who hadn't yet decided whether or not she wanted to accept, was suddenly the focus of Lord Jianzhu's attention. He plied her with feasts befitting a dragonrider and lectures trying to persuade her of the rightness of his views of the world and politics.
The dynamics of her little trio of friends shifted overnight. Yun, who as the Lord Holder's heir had always been by default the most important of their group, claimed to be happy for Kyoshi, but there was a new tension to their interactions and Kyoshi came to suspect he was jealous of her. Even Rangi treated her with a new respect and deference, as if she had already Impressed.
Eventually, after some convincing from Rangi and Kelsang, Kyoshi reported to Fort Weyr as a candidate. Her first clutch was an unusually large one, laid not long after she arrived- Gold Keahith's maiden clutch, with a full 21 eggs, all of which hatched healthy. The second to last egg hatched a blue- Rugrunth- barreled into Kyoshi and declared her his. She let herself fall into the sands rather than risk hurting the young blue.
Kyoshi, who hadn't been a candidate for very long and whose prior education had been limited, initially struggled with the demands of weyrlinghood. Her reading and writing abilities were rudimentary at best and she knew even less than most holdfolk of weyrs and dragons, having missed the childhood harper lessons where she would have learned the teaching songs. While she was larger and stronger than most, she didn't know how to translate her advantages into the desired results. She often felt unworthy and uncertain of her place as a dragonrider and it took time for her to feel she belonged among their ranks. Rugrunth had a gift for cheering her up, however, and not letting her take herself too seriously. He never seemed disappointed in her, even when Kyoshi feared she fell short. The blue struggled with his own insecurities and neither of the pair was quite sure where they fit- so they resolved to figure it out together. They graduated on time, neither the best nor the worst pair in their class.
Kyoshi used her newly developed writing skills to stay in touch with her friends from home. She found herself drifting ever closer to Rangi and ever further from Yun, whose every letter seemed addressed to the person she'd used to be, rather than the one she was becoming. Kyoshi started to develop a bit of a crush on Rangi, but never mentioned it. They lived so far apart and both had their own lives now, that might not ever meet again.
In the early turns, Kyoshi tried to keep her head down and to stay out of trouble. She knew nothing of politics and was only a bluerider. Her job was a simple one and she preferred it that way- she had thread to fight and the weyr's leaders could worry over its future. Tuckal and Serapheth were in charge now? Didn't make a difference to her, so long as they could do the job. Vaugnairth was banished? Seemed fair enough, when he had attacked a fellow dragon and brought harm to an egg. Actions had consequences. There were times she would have done more if she could- like when the Trailblazers were poisoned or when first Pia than Tuckal were kidnapped or when Benden bronzeriders aimed to use Nornth to gain leverage over their weyr- but Kyoshi didn't even know how she'd begin helping, so she focused on what she could do and could do well- fight thread, protect Pern, stay ready to fight when called upon.
A few turns after Kyoshi Impressed, Rangi unexpectedly arrived at Fort Weyr. Jianzhu had stepped down as Lord, allowing Yun to assume command over the hold. Rangi, realizing her heart was at Fort Weyr, declined the chance to become head of his new guard and arranged a transfer to the weyr. The two young women were happily reunited and soon realized their romantic feelings were mutual. The pair became weyrmates not long after.
When Z'osh took control of the weyr, Kyoshi strongly objected to his so-called "reforms." She herself was a proper rider in his eyes, but this was not justice. With Rangi's encouragement, this time, Kyoshi decided to fight back, participating in the rebel wing and fighting besides the progressives against Z'osh' traditionalists. Kyoshi was glad to see the bronzerider exiled and the weyr return to peace.
In 2770, Rangi bought Kyoshi a flit egg as a present, which hatched a white Kyoshi named Shadow.
For the past few turns, Kyoshi has been enjoying Fort Weyr's recent peace and stability. A rider's life will never be a safe or an easy one, but so long as she has Rugrunth and Rangi, Kyoshi has all she needs.
