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Name Pronounced: Keer-lee-el
Character type: Guard
Rank: Weyrguard
Political Alignment: Traditional
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Sexual Preference: Bisexual
Appearance: Kirliel could have made a fairly dashing dragonrider; he has the heroic tall, well-built (if a touch too lean to be /quite/ right) figure, and pleasant enough looks. His skin has a warm, light brown tone. In pleasant contrast, his glossy hair is jet black, and falls straight and neat in a longer cut than riders would get away with, brushing his collar in the back, and framing his brow. Kirliel has equally dark eyes, so deep a brown that the irises are nearly indistinguishable from the pupils, and they are a nice almond shape, accentuated with long lashes. His mouth is full, but hardly feminine, and his nose has a classic, straight slope.
He dresses in the plainest of clothes, doing nothing whatsoever to put his nice build to work toward his advantage. His hair is often tousled, and he usually has the backed-to-the-wall edginess around his eyes, not to mention the shadows under them, suggesting that he rarely gets the sleep his body requires. He looks like nothing so much as a walking, talking fix-it project.
Personality: He's always been a bit of an oddball -- never so much that he's been ostracized or targeted, but just strange enough around the edges that he's never quite fit in.
He's unfazed by the night shifts he's required to work -- the boredom, the lonely stretches of time where Rowli is his only company, the weirder than normal types of things that tend to happen in the middle of the night as opposed to the day. He's perfectly happy in the little nocturnal life he's made for himself, and seems more uncomfortable being out and about during the normal daylight hours, when there's more of an expectation that he act like a normal person, with normal habits.
Where many of his guard counterparts greet incidents with irritation, stern demeanors, or the utmost seriousness, to Kirliel they're often comedies, and at the least, adventures. He laughs, has fun with his job, and often cracks jokes while on scene, usually inappropriately. He's very loose-limbed and relaxed as he carries on with his duties, and has been known to bend the rules and regulations to something that works better for him. Kirliel gets his job done, and he does it well, and so for the most part has been left alone.
He's lived his life on the fringes, and in that respect is found to be very relatable to others who themselves, for this reason or another, are 'out there.' He is a favorite among the greenriders and blueriders of Fort, and those riders who are unlucky enough to land frequent watchdragon duty.
Kirliel's cheerful unconcern and oddness divert attention from what is a rather sharp intellect. He's observant -- very little gets past him, and he forgets even less. His smarter colleagues have caught on that Kirliel is the man to go to when gossip flourishes and they want more intel. He excels at detective work, puzzling over and piecing together bits and bobs of evidence and things overheard. All of which has a way of being forgotten by others, or to go unnoticed.
Birth Place: Fort Hold
Parents: Guard Kirne; Laundress Jienna
History: Kirliel was the second son of three, and being the middle child meant that his parents' attention often focused anywhere but on him. He learned to keep himself entertained early on, and there would come a time when his father began to wish he'd left his second son unattended just a little less.
He knew fairly early on, as he hit puberty, that he had an interest in both genders. Some traditionally-minded men, in that situation, would try to deny that part of themselves, but Kirliel accepted it, and accepted that according to the traditions he'd been brought up to believe in, he was not normal, and belonged out on the fringes with the other freaks and socially unacceptables.
For the time that he was still under his father's care, Kirliel put in the effort of being a dutiful, obedient son, and even took to a sort of guard work once he was old enough, training in handling watchwhers. At twenty-one, he finally chose to be open about the less desirable parts of him, and was hardly surprised when he was 'encouraged' to ask for a transfer to the Weyr's guard post. The Hold wanted nothing to do with his sort, which Kirliel expected and could hardly fault them for. Probably the Weyr /was/ the better place for him, and he was accepted as an experiment in utilizing a partnered wherhandler as part of the guard force.
He Impressed his Rowli, and no sooner had their training together been signed off on then he was sent along up the road to the Weyr, where he and the blue have been a fixture of the night shift ever since.
Information about Kirliel's pets
Pet Name: Rowli
Pet Type: Blue Wher
Appearance: It's a terrible thing that whers are not appreciated for their looks the way dragons have always been. Rowli could put any Southern Callamere to shame with his conformity, and being of purebred wild bloodlines, his greater size only emphasizes how perfectly proportioned he is. His hide is a velvety midnight blue, very subtly shading lighter to dark navy lower on his body, with pin-prick marks of palest blue scattered across the top of him, like stars spangling the night sky. To Kirliel, Rowli's solemn, wrinkled face is inexpressably endearing, prompting the man to press affectionate kisses to the wher's brow, which the rest of the Weyr population generally consider evidence of the man's insanity.
Personality: The wild-bred whers of the North are nothing like their distant Callamere cousins, or even the wild Southern whers, many lines of which have at least some trace of those gentler Callamere genetics. People are right to be wary of them, but to Rowli, it's a never-ending joke. Like a canine at play, or a particularly mischievous child, Rowli exaggerates his fearsome appearance, holding himself in such a way that he appears larger, and glowering. He grumbles and snaps as people walk by, and at the same time is broadcasting intense amusement to Kirliel through their bond. Humans are /hilarious/.
Kirliel has worked hard to make Rowli understand that the other guards are part of their 'pack', and while this doesn't stop the wher from clowning on them occasionally, his teasing takes a different tone with them -- looming over them while they work on reports, or sitting on a hide they need and glowering when they move to retrieve it, or napping in the doorway when a particularly nervous new guard is inside, too uncertain to move him.
Rowli very rarely uses words with Kirliel; he's always been more comfortable with projecting images and feelings, and grows quickly frustrated and a touch cranky when forced to struggle through mental speech. On the other hand, he is intensely sensitive, responding readily to what he feels from Kirliel.
All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are copyright© Anne McCaffrey 1967,2005, all rights reserved, and used by permission of the author.
The Dragonriders of Pern® is registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, by Anne McCaffrey, used here with permission. Use or reproduction without a license is strictly prohibited.