"Every decision is made in darkness. Only by making a choice can we learn whether it was right or not."
-- The Prisoner
BASICS
NAME: Welleue
GENDER: Nonbinary
PRONOUNS: They/Them/Theirs
ORIENTATION: Demiromantic asexual
BIRTHDATE: Fall 2748
AGE: 28 as of Fall 2776
LOCATION: Fort Weyr
OCCUPATION: Candidate, Apprentice Harper
WING: N/A
APPEARANCE
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Hickory
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 7'6" and extremely wiry
PLAY-BY: N/A
EXPY SOURCE: The Prisoner (Outer Wilds)
FULL APPEARANCE: Tall. Obscenely tall. They tower over others with ease, and so remains hunched over in an effort to remain at their eye level in an effort to show respect on mutual ground. This unending slouched is going to be the end of their good posture one day. Sun-kissed skin of auburn encompasses the entirety of their being - from brow to toe and back again, bleeding into their irises. A brighter tone in the form of chestnut possesses their tousled, wiry hair - unkempt and wild. Their nose is so pointed and downward-curving that one might find similarity to a bird's beak. Welleue appears to have no substance to their mass, made of mere tendon and sinew. They lack muscular definition and yet are solid and lithe, shaped and eroded by the river they grew alongside. They have a preference for loose fitting clothing, opting for robes and baggy tunics over fine linens. Slung around their neck is a simple silver string, to which is tethered a riverstone carved by their mother.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY: Welleue is a solemn creature. Well-spoken and well-mannered, they give the air of being raised in a sophisticated Hold despite entertaining their life in a bayou. Their perception on life is not so different from how they would describe it - romantic, flowery, beautiful and serene yet wildly mysterious. There is much to learn that was obfuscated by his kin, thus Welleue encounters the growing world of Pern with the wonder-filled eyes of a newborn babe. To them, knowledge is power. They will ask an innumerable amount of questions and never seems sated by that which is given them - but is smart enough to back off when told so and shows equal eagerness to observe quietly. Residual lessons instilled into them from the teaching of their Ripa family have imbued Welleue with a lingering distrust of dragonriders and wherhandlers alike. Although they are aware of the falsehoods spread by their community, Welleue acts based on this wariness in a way that is second nature without realizing it. They are rather insular in nature and are suspicious of anybody not within their realm of trust, believing anybody is and will be capable of causing harm.
Welleue is a being who grieves the loss of their home and is driven by an intense desire not to see others befall the same fate caused by ignorance. They happily teach others what they have learned and openly admits that they know not enough. They take the failings of others as their own personal responsibility, and succumb to sometimes overwhelming sensations of worthlessness due to this: "this wouldn't have happened if I ... " "if only I could have stepped in, then ... " Welleue is filled with a nagging self-doubt.
They are by no means shy. Welleue desperately seeks deep, platonic connections with other individuals of different backgrounds. The strong emotions and convictions of others may sway them to stand alongside those strangers, and in times they may not realize the err of their ways until it is too late.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Mother - alive
Father - alive
Brothers - 3 of varying ages
Sisters - 2 of varying ages
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: None
BIRTHPLACE: Ripa, a tiny cothold northwest of Big Bay Hold and southwest of Southern Telgar
HISTORY: Welleue's family is an example of what happens when extreme fear grips an entire community, forcing them to take great measures to ensure their own safety. Their ancestors, terrified that the Interval War between Weyrs would extend into the Holds and mutate into a form of non-dragonrider genocide, sought refuge into the less hospitable terrain Pern had to offer. Planting their roots along the swampy mangrove swamps along a river's delts, Ripa began to flourish. It started with just one family, and then more as others faced the same dread and became nomadic. Eventually what had once been a few shabby tents became a congregation of cabins dangling on the precipice of a water body's tendrils.
Eventually, history became lore. Threadfall was propoganda to support those bloodthirsty reptiles that breathed flame. Whers were mutilated versions of those monsters, devouring wayfarers unaware of their surroundings. So great was Ripa's fear of dragonmen that even fire-lizards were considered forbidden.
It wasn't that they were hidden away from view, but their isolationist policies kept them at several arms' lengths away from other more refined settlements. The folks of Ripa effectively cut themselves off from outsiders, turning away those who sought to reconnect with them. Eventually this also included runners and crafter journeymen who might bring news of current events. Thus, they remained in the dark. Even when the war ended. Even when Thread returned.
Welleue was but a young child, growing up with loving parents and a thicker-than-blood community, when the first tendrils of Thread drifted from above. The first sighting came with a swarm of fire-breathing dragons searing the thing from the sky. In one fell swoop, their whole way of living became challenged. Though the dragons above destroyed what they could, several clumps broke through the wetland canopy and burrowed into the soil. A ground crew was sent to scour the dens, causing the citizens of Ripa to scatter in fear. The whers had come! And dragonmen! They would be taken - enslaved, tortured, murdered!
Of course, this didn't happen. What did occur was the accumulated freakout that led Ripa's residents to take up shelter somewhere else, convinced that the Weyrs would seize their old home and that they could no longer return there. Their new 'territory' was uncharted and new to them and thus, they were unaware of the potential dangers. So when the heavy rains came, floodwaters consumed their refuge. At least the denizens had common sense enough to evacuate and avoided being swept away.
Welleue, among the rest of his community, took refuge in the nearby Telgar Hold. He spent the remainder of his youth alongside his family and extended neighbors re-learning Pern and all its fortunes and ailments. Realizing Ripa's greatest fall was due to their own negligence on what was true and real and unavoidable, Welleue sought to become a beacon of truth that would lead their relatives into a so-called 'age of enlightenment' amongst his people. They took up teachings under the Harpers, becoming well-versed in historical events and utilizing an instrument from Ripa - a singing saw - to relay the tales and ballads they learned.
As they became more acclimated to the appearance of dragons and those descended from them, Welleue found a certain fondness for Telgar's own whers. Despite their rather ungainly and beastly exterior, the bonds they formed with humans was bold and sincere. There was love in their broken sentences; Companionship. Perhaps lacking in the aerial feats their cousins could perform, whers were strong and keen of smell and sound - and vision, at night. Darkness Welleue was comfortable and familiar with, due to the dim light in Ripa's environment courtesy of heavy foliage.
Driven by their own desire to learn and expand his growing his wealth of knowledge, Welleue partook in a pilgrimage with several journeyman Harpers to Fort Hold. From there Welleue requested entry to Fort Weyr on their own volition in 2774. They opted to become a candidate, adding to their life wishes the task of searing Thread and ensuring the safety of Pern's inhabitants. Ripa was their home, lost to the tides of neglect and obliviousness. They would not allow others to suffer the same.
UPDATES
- EARLY FALL 2776: A candidate camping trip runs afoul when a pack of wild whers descends upon them. Welleue, in an effort to save a cornered candidate, leaps upon the back of a green wher who ultimately rolls over onto them, tearing a ligament in their right knee. It will heal, but they will be limping for quite some time.