Elyron
"This would never had stood if Golre was still around!"
BASICS
RETIRE INFO: Adopt
NAME: Elyron
GENDER: Male
PRONOUNS: He/him/his
ORIENTATION: Pansexual, with a preference for men and non-binary individuals, prefers people who are attractive in flashy and unusual ways
BIRTHDATE: Spring 2729
AGE: 38 as of Fall 2767
LOCATION: Fort Weyr
OCCUPATION: Wherhandler, journeyman weaver
WING: Dusk Squad
APPEARANCE
EYES: Blue-grey
HAIR: Dark brown, stick straight and very shiny, worn halfway down his back. Starting to show a bit of grey.
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 6'2, limbs still very slender but starting to accumulate some fat around his midsection
PLAY-BY: Hugo Weaving
FULL APPEARANCE: Elyron cuts a fine figure on wherback. Slender and elegant, with regal features and long mahogany hair that gleams in the sunlight and smooth, alabaster skin, he looks like a figure out of an old Harper's ballad. When he dismounts, however, it is very clear he is just a man. His once flawless figure is now marred by a protruding belly, his glistening hair is turning silver at the roots and starting its retreat from his forehead, he walks with a pronounced limp and one of his legs is lumpy and misshapen in the way of a broken limb that never set quite right. His thin lips are frequently curled up in an unpleasant sneer and his eyes dart rapidly from side to side, as if he expects danger from every corner.
Elyron prefers fine clothes in rich fabrics and dark colors, elaborately embroidered with delicate patterns in gold and silver thread. Even his practical riding leathers are sumptuously decorated. He usually wears at least a bit of jewelry such as a silver chain or a gold pinky ring. It often seems the only thing ugly or simple he owns is his walking stick, a lumpy, knotted piece of wood he carries only when he believes himself in private. In front of others, he rides his wher as often as possible and walks stiffly when he has no choice but to dismount, trying to minimize his limp.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Bitter, proud, hedonistic and thoroughly self-absorbed, Elyron is a thoroughly broken man. He tries to fill the emptiness with the finest things marks buy. His clothes are still sumptuous and his food is still rich. He spends marks as soon as he makes them and rarely has more than a mark or two to his name. These days, however, most of those marks are spent on wine. Elyron has sunk deeper into his alcoholism over the turns and is sober only when Elyrosk insists.
Elyron is a traditionalist through and through. He believes deeply in the color hierarchy and resents the blues and greens that have the temerity to believe themselves in command. The new mutations disgust him, he considers female bronzeriders an abomination and he looks down on queens being chased by any color but bronze. He blames the new ways for everything that has gone wrong in his life and is openly hostile to anyone who defies his view of the world. Elyron still thinks of himself as a goldhandler, robbed of his rightful place by a world gone mad.
Elyron's feelings about his lost queen are complicated. She was the best thing about him and the only other being he ever truly loved and still, she left him. He hates her, he loves her, he resents her, he would do anything to have her back. Without her, he is broken in a way that can never be fixed. He still dreams of her most nights and wakes up grasping for her warmth, never to find it again. When he gets drunk enough, he can almost imagine she is there. Elyron doesn't have the same affection for Elyrosk he once had for Elysk, but is terrified to the point of paranoia that the green will leave him too and then he will truly be nothing, alone and worthless. Elyrosk is also the only thing keeping Elyron functioning as much as he does, even if Elyron will never admit it.
In a fall or fight, Elyron is brave bordering on suicidal. He is very much the hero in his own mind and is determined to find glory at any cost. And, quite frankly, he doesn't really care that much if he lives or dies. Somewhere deep down he'd never admit to, he knows his life is miserable and meaningless, that he's lost the only good thing he ever had. So he takes stupid risks, perfectly willing to go out in a blaze of glory if that's what fate wills.
Few would be surprised to learn that Elyron is a product of Golre and Vizeth's High Reaches. He believes deeply in the color hierarchy and resents the blues and greens that have the temerity to believe themselves in command. The new mutations command little respect from him and he looks down on the practice of browns and mutants chasing queens and siring clutches. He resents being under the leadership of a mere brownhandler and very much misses the way things were before. It has been suggested more than once that he may be happier at a different weyr, but Elyron's family has lived in High Reaches come Fall or Fire for generations. He will not be leaving.
Elyron is not the sort to willingly show weakness. He despises pity of any sort and hates the fact that his strength and vigor have been permanently compromised. His leg still pains him most days and as a result he's taken drinking. While he's not far gone enough to risk being intoxicated in Fall or practice, he's rarely found without a skin of wine close at hand. When other handlers ask if he's okay or try to help, they're met by an angry order to leave him alone and worry about their own lives.
In a fall or fight, Elyron is brave bordering on suicidal. He is very much the hero in his own mind and is determined to find glory at any cost. And, quite frankly, he doesn't really care that much if he lives or dies. Somewhere deep down he'd never admit to, he knows his life is miserable and meaningless, that the only good thing remaining about him is Elysk, who would be better off with someone who could better adapt to this new world. So he takes stupid risks, perfectly willing to go out in a blaze of glory if that's what fate wills.
To those he considers equals and to inferiors who accept their place, Elyron can be polite, charming and magnanimous. He is happy to gossip or trade advice. Around those he considers "uppity", however, Elyron is distant and contemptuous, saying no more than he's required to. He is more than happy to put them in their place if he thinks he can get away with it, but unfortunately in this new High Reaches, reminding a greenhandler their place is wherever he says it is has consequences. And not every blue wherling with a bit of lip is worth being relegated to the back of the squad over.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Father: A'ron of Bronze Cyldrith, deceased
Mother: Elyra of Green Mecydoth, 64, High Reaches Weyr
Brother: A'ra of Bronze Teracynth, 30, High Reaches Weyr
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: N/A
BIRTHPLACE: High Reaches Weyr
HISTORY:
Elyron was born to a long line of High Reaches riders. His father was a rider (a bronzerider, at that) as was his mother (a greenrider, who knew her place). He spent his childhood in the Creche, as most weyrbrats do. Elyron was an undistinguished child, not particularly bright or athletic or charismatic, but he knew he was destined for great things. He was a bronzerider's oldest son, after all.
Elyron can't remember a time before the war started. He spent his childhood surrounded by tales of triumphant victories and ignominious defeats, never knowing if today would be the day Fort riders crossed the edge of the weyrbowl and killed them all in their beds. From the time he was old enough to know anything, he knew his father was a great and brave bronze rider, who fought the bad dragons to protect them and that someday, he'd Impress a dragon of his own and do the same.
When he was six, his parents had a second child, another boy named Alevra. The two of them were rivals from the start, but they loved each other. And when their father died in battle, the weyr assured them he'd died nobly, that he wouldn't be forgotten. It took for five years for Elyron to realize they'd lied. It didn't matter what his father had done. Life moved on, more battles were fought, people forgot. That was just the way the world worked.
At age fifteen, Elyron began standing, as his parents and grandparents had done before him. He expected to Impress quickly and well and to begin fighting for his weyr without delay. Instead he was left standing, time and time again, not even the smallest of greens willing to glance his way. He watched as his brother Impressed, to a splendid bronze, at that, his very first time standing. One by one, Elyron's former friends followed. Until he aged out.
Elyron was devastated. What meaning did his life have if he could not be a rider? Sure, he'd had training in Weavercraft, but he didn't want to spend the rest of his life making clothes for other, more important people. And then his mother made a suggestion. Why not try for a wher? Sure, it wouldn't be as good as riding a dragon, couldn't be as good as riding a dragon, but it would be better than being a crafter, right? So Elyron presented himself to the wher handlers, started his training and quickly found a gold wher willing to give him one of her eggs (bronze-sired, of course. Nothing less would do). And when it hatched into a little queen of his own? Well, it was nothing less than what Elyron deserved. Finally, his life was returning to some semblance the way it ought to be.
And then the war ended, mere sevendays after Elyron bonded. His brother was welcomed back as a war hero and Elyron was just another wherling, his best chance of glory already gone. All that awaited him was the endless grind of fighting thread. From the ground. On a wher. But at least it was a gold wher.
The Pass began and Elyron assumed his place in his squad. But the peace was not to last. When High Reaches declared war on Fort, Elyron was one of the first to sign up. Finally, it would be his chance to defend his way of life and to come home a hero.
He threw himself into training with vigor and when High Reaches mounted an attack on Fort Weyr, Elyron was there, fighting with the other ground troops from Elysk's back. He fought well and bravely, even rescuing a bronze rider who'd been knocked to the ground from a greenhandler of unusual ferocity. He killed people, whers, the odd fire lizard even, but it was all for the good. For protecting Pern from the heresy of Fort.
When the battle was almost done, Elysk engaged in fighting with another wher and was knocked over, her full weight crashing down on Elyron's right leg. His head slammed into the ground and everything went black. He woke up to find himself in the Infirmary, back at High Reaches. The Healers told him the young whitehandler he'd been fighting hadn't been able to kill him while he lay helpless and had put him back on Elysk's back and led them out of the fighting to safety. They also told him they had lost and that the weyr had surrendered. Elyron was ashamed.
It was a long, slow recovery and Elyron would never walk right again. But it would have been worth it, had he emerged to the sort of adulation his brother had received. Instead, by the time he was able to reengage with society, everything had changed. No celebration awaited him, just an overnight erosion of the prestige of all metallics and a weyr eager to make peace with their former enemies.
For the first time in his life, Elyron considered leaving his home. He could go to Benden or Igen, somewhere the old traditions still held sway. But he was Reaches bred to his bone. He stayed, hoping in time the weyr would return to what it had been.
And then a brown caught Elysk on one of her runs. Elyron was horrified. How could his wher choose such a lesser creature for a mate? They might have lost everything, but she was still a gold. He had never wished for a second wher before, because how could any be more perfect than Elysk, but for his gold's sake, he would do it. He would accept a bronze and ensure was never left to a lacking male again. She was all he had left. And for her, he would do anything.
UPDATES
- Early Autumn, 2765- Elyron, to his great regret, Impresses green Elyrosk.
- Winter, 2766- Elysk and Zereask care for two orphaned eggs, before laying a clutch of their own.
- Early Spring, 2766- Elyron is (somehow) elected Jr. Wherleader. Elysk lays a clutch of three eggs all of which successfully bond.
- Late Fall, 2768- Elysk, who helps her squadmates out of the burrow they got themselves into, is scored on her forelegs and snout (Major). Elyrosk tells her this is why she shouldn't help anyone but their family.
- Summer, 2769- Elysk is caught by a green and lays two eggs. Her and Elyron's relationship begins to fracture.
- Spring, 2770- Elyron decides to transfer to Fort. Elysk refuses to go with him and breaks their bond.
