Islands of Pern

Watchrider U'perd

Name: U'perd (Uraperdin)
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Rank/Craft: Blue Rider, Watchrider / Journeyman Healer
Residence: Founders' Tip Hold

Description: U'perd stands at 5'11'' tall, when not leaning on a crutch. His left leg has been amputated at the knee, due to gangrene setting in after a bad Threadscore. He has very weathered, almost leathery, light-brown skin, high cheek bones, deep-set dark eyes, thin lips and lanky but strong body.

Personality: U'perd is very quiet in nature, and very rarely does or says anything that isn't something useful, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't have a sense of humor; he's just not as open with his amusement as most people. The bluerider has a warm but almost formal relationship with his mother, but is more of an alien to the rest of his family.

Background: U'perd was born as Uraperdin to the matriarch of a clan of Desert Wanderers on the Great Igen Desert. They get their livelyhood from the herds of animals they manage to grow on the foothills of the mountains. Water is very scarce at the edges of the Great Desert, and is more valuable than anything, even salt. Water rights are hereditary and water contracts between families and clans are used as dowries and a form of payment.

Uraperdin was sent to the Healer Hall at Fort to follow his calling of helping others. He was to return home as Journeyman Healer and be married off to another clan for a very large dowry of water contracts and pasture lands. These plans went awry, however, when he not only found his sexual preferences leaning towards other men but also was Searched to Igen Weyr, where he Impressed the baby blue dragon, Dirleth.

U'perd had mixed feelings about Impressing, because he felt he had failed to fulfill his duty to his family, and while becoming a proficient Threadfighter, he kept on searching for something or someone that would give his life a new meaning, in addition to his dragon. It appears he found this meaning in the form of greenrider K'ryla, who had been horribly Scored along with his dragon, Penmath about a Turn earlier, when U'perd and Dirleth moved from Igen to Ithaca.

Dirleth and U'perd were both Scored in a Fall not long after their transfer, and due to secondary infection, U'perd ended up losing his left leg from the knee down. He and K'ryla have formed an odd bond through mutual suffering, friendship and dependance on one another, but quite recently the feelings of love and desire have sprung from their strange union. So, when U'perd heard of the Watchrider's post becoming available at Founders' Tip Hold, he deviced a way that would allow Penmath, who can't fly due to the extensive damage on her left wing, to be transported to the new location.

Just like K'ryla, who has Threadscars on the left side of his scalp and neck, as well as a forked lightning-shaped Score on his back, the left side of Penmath's head has been ravaged by Thread; her mouth is perpetually open a little, due to part of her lower left lip being missing. She has also lost her left eye, but the empty socket has recovered well and there is no threat of a new infection there. Similarly where K'ryla only has the thumb, forefinger and half of the middle finger left in his left hand, Penmath's left wing is in tatters, nearly half the finger bones missing and less than that of the sails still intact. Her left wingshoulder has been greatly weakened by the extensive scarring, and she's unable to lift what's left of her wing - when she's very tired, the wing droops nearly to the ground.

K'ryla can be moody and touchy, and U'perd often speaks his mind frankly, instead of using the little white lies, so there won't be any lack of sparks flying between the two of them, but both men are determined to stay together, much to the delight of their dragons, who grew to love one another much before their riders did.

Dragon's Name: Dirleth
Color: Blue
Age: 3
Age of Rider at Impression: 20

Description: Being a young, strong blue, Dirleth has been somewhat disappointed at not being able to fight Thread anymore because of his rider's injury, but as he can spend the times of Fall in the company of his beloved green Penmath, he no longer raises much of a fuss.

The Threadscoring that led to U'perd losing half of his leg also left Dirleth with some scars on his left shoulder, but this is nothing when compared to the Scores Penmath received once upon a time.

Personality: Dirleth is somewhat simple-minded and naive even for a dragon, especially when compared to his mate and the blue tends to have a rather coarse sense of humour, often not shared by the green or the two dragonmen. At the same time, however, Dirleth has a big heart and while U'perd will always be the number one in his life, Penmath and K'ryla come in close seconds.

Since his mate cannot fly, Dirleth has grown good at thinking up ways to play on the ground or in the sea with her, these activities quite often ending with the dragons being in need of a bath. He is absolutely besotted by Penmath, and will become angry at anyone even hinting her to being less than beautiful due to her scars.

Reserved Characters:
K'ryla; JM Woodcrafter and rider of green Penmath, lover and weyrmate, Founders' Tip Hold
Uramiel; mother, Igen Desert Wanderer, family matriarch
Raiperd; father, Igen Desert Wanderer, herder

Last Updated: 7/25/2005