Islands of Pern

Journeyman Harper Shanikiln

Name: Shaniklin NPC/Free
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Rank/Craft: Journeyman Harper, General Children's Teacher
Residence: Ithaca Hold

Description: Shanikiln is a middle-aged, plump man with a kind and fatherly countenance. He stands at about 5'7'' and has lengthy, dark brown hair that he keeps tied back with a string. His eyes are soft brown and his skin is the light northen type: pale during the winter and tan during the summer.

Personality: Patient is the best word to describe Shanikiln, for he will never lose his temper with any of his young students, no matter how bumbling their attempts are; as long as they are trying their best he is content. While he is gentle-natured, Shanikiln does not suffer troublemakers in his class and punishes them appropriately, although he is kind and wise enough to take into account the trickster's age and the degree of trouble they have gotten themselves and others into before meting out too severe a punishment.

In his private life, Shanikiln is a quiet and well-mannered man, who doesn't actively seek out relationships with the unmarried women of the Hold, although he isn't averse to their advances either. As suits a journeyman harper accustomed to route-riding, he won't let any of his "acquaintances" become too attached. After all, he goes where the Harper Hall decrees, and it wouldn't do to leave someone heartbroken just because he needed to move on again. Shanikiln doesn't have any children, that he knows of anyway, but he usually developes almost fatherly attachments to all the children he teaches. This might in fact be the reason for his patience with their failings; on some level they take the place of biological offspring in his heart.

Background: Originally Shanikiln entered the Fort Harper Hall as a paying student,sent there by his father, a minor holder, to learn more of the ways of the craft than could be learned from their own, resident journeyman harper. At the Hall, however, Shanikiln's natural skill at helping students younger and more inept than himself was noticed, and once he showed himself proficient in the basic harper instruments as well as music, he was accepted as a full apprentice.

From the beginning it was clear that Shanikiln would not specialize in any specialized training, but would instead become an instructor for children. Ever since achieving his journeyman's knots at the age of twenty, Shanikiln has gone where he has been sent, teaching younglings and entertaining holders. Throughout the Turns he has ridden routes as diverse as the miningholds in the Northern Barrier Range, the small holds on the plains of Telgar that specialize in raising huge herds of herdbeasts, and the coastal fishercots of the Southern Continent. He even briefly taught the holdless children in the Igen Caverns.

Since Shanikiln is familiar with so many of the dialects and local customs of Pern, being assigned to a more permanent post at Ithaca Hold as the general teacher for Ithaca Hold's children and youngsters didn't come as much of a surprise. After all, the new Major Hold is drawing people from all over, and having a patient, steady and experienced teacher there can't mean anything but good for the Hold.

Pet Name: Trilly
Pet Species: Bird
Pet Color: Bright Red

Pet Description: Trilly is a caged birdn that Shanikiln managed to bring with him from the tropical south where he was on route before being sent to Ithaca. Being a male of its species, Trilly sings very beautifully, being especially inventive with his "lyrics" if there is a tuft of anything red nearby. Shanikiln keeps the bird in its cage except for once a day when he lets Trilly out to exercise his wings. The harper makes sure that all the windows and doors are tightly shut when he does so, because the small bird would surely die in the cold northern clime.

Last Updated: 7/25/2005