Post by liahl on Jun 29, 2016 3:13:49 GMT 1
EDIT 7/26
I removed the mentions of Titan-Class dragons. I didn't realize they were not allowed on the site! I apologize, I must re-read the rules again very thoroughly. I was VERY excited when I first found the site and submitted my app, I am finding out now there have been a few important things I simply just missed ^^; I'm so sorry for any inconveniences.
/edit
Please note I did read the rules, but initially missed the part about the time period. I rewrote the parts I could find in here that clash with that after someone suggested I give the rules a read over again, so if you see anything out of place for the current time period, please disregard it! Thank you!
NAME: Liahl Ironstead (this is also my username in-game, though no spaces obvs ^^) - preferably Liahl.
AGE: Estimated to be early twenties. Liahl's age is part of her backstory.
ORIGIN: Liahl washed ashore alone in a viking boat that had been badly damaged. The sails of her boat were gone and the boat was too damaged to tell which Viking nation she was originally from, and she didn't speak for a year until after living on Berk, and by then her accent meshed well enough with local Berkians that her original one is almost completely gone. As her boat washed ashore on the southeastern shore of Berk, she's guessed to originate possibly from Red Rock or a smaller island near to it.
OCCUPATION:
Liahl was taken in at an awkward stage of development, one where most viking children already know what they're raised to do on Berk - that being, train dragons - and, presumably, since she was unable to offer anything about her homeland in her year of silence, she would have entered or been about to enter an apprenticeship back home. However, a place was found for her soon enough.
Liahl was shy of dragons at first, but was clearly drawn to slower-moving ones that were less alarming, and also brightly coloured ones, for some reason. After some discussion about what to do with her, some village elders assigned her to work down at the docks, where her eye for shining things made her a good hand at spotting and catching fish. She also was a dab hand at sorting good fish from those that could be bad, recognizing unhealthy fish from how their scales weren't as shiney and bright as healthier ones. When nets were drawn in, she was quick to sort out eels as well.
Having entered her late teens, Liahl has recently been deemed ready to train her own dragon and her master, a kindly expert fisherman, has recommended she is likely best suited to a dragon relative to the task, either an even-tempered tidal class or perhaps a Terror, whose bright colours draw her fondness and the small size of which she finds less threatening. Now that she's speaking more and more often, Liahl doesn't have much to offer as to what type of dragon she'd prefer, and gives the impression that she herself has utterly no idea, although she is clearly drawn to them, what kind of dragon she belongs with.
GENDER & SEXUALITY:
Liahl often disregards her gender and her appearance reflects this. She shrugs at being called male or female and prefers more masculine clothing overall, as well as armor, now she's old enough to wear it. She's developed well-toned arms and an upper body from her work fishing with her master, and the muscle has broadened her shoulders that she's often mistaken for a slender male. Sexual wise, Liahl has no preference, as she's never considered attraction before and it still seems a foreign concept to her. If people flirt with her, she takes it as being polite or being friendly, and may accidentally return the gesture by trying to not offend.
LIKES:
Colourful, shining things (glittery, like scales),
the open sea and sky,
steady, smooth, repetitive tasks that calm her,
quiet retreats where she can gather her thoughts.
Liahl does enjoy the company of others and dragons, and can be encouraged to talk at length - usually about fish, the many different kinds of fish, the best places to fish, how to catch them with your bare hands, how to make fishing tools from scratch, and also leather.
Liahl loves the smell of leather, loves polishing it, refining it, and even working it. If she'd been able to be more open when she first washed ashore, her quick hands and enjoyment for leather craft likely would have apprenticed her to a leather worker, but as it is, she keeps it as a hobby, and likes to braid leather pieces and occasionally even works small leather pendants for those she cares deeply about.
DISLIKES:
Loud noises,
sudden movements,
and the one shiney things she finds traitorous - blades. Liahl has a deep mistrust of weapons, though she'll wear spikes on her armour as it seems to become non-threatening when incorporated into a defense.
Her two other major dislikes are distressed dragon squeals - it triggers an intense distress in her, and if she hears a dragon scream in pain, she's likely to drop what she's doing and run to find it, even if she may stop short several yards away, which leads to her next dislike.
Big dragons, rowdy dragons, feisty dragons - Liahl doesn't dislike them, per say, but she is afraid of them, and they can pick up on it of course. She avoids them as much as possible, as much for theirs and their rider's benefit as much as her own. She seems not to realize she stands much larger than when she first came to the island of Berk and still shrinks in on herself as if she were a small child whenever she hears a Boulder Class or a Monstrous Nightmare roar nearby.
STRENGTHS:
Liahl is very good at fishing, from rocks, from boats, from standing off-shore, from rivers, from pretty much anywhere. She has recently visited Ice Storm Island with her master to learn of the fishing methods there and is eager to return to master the Cave Fish and the Northern Wolf Fish, as they still challenge her fishing skills.
Although still fishing related, Liahl has a sharp eye
and also a keenly developed sense of smell
- for fish as well as outside of them. She's so used to the overpowering smell of sea and fish that when removed from the environment, other smells are much more noticeable to her, and she's developed a very refined nose as well as eye for picking out fish that while still alive and thrashing, may be sick with something unseen and thus would not be good for dragons to eat. She was also the only one of her master's boat to halt the dumping of a load of fish into a delivery trough because she thought she saw an eel wriggling in it - it turned out to be a viper fish, near death, having drifted close enough to the surface that it had been snagged in their nets with the normal fish. While the long, slender body was not that of an eel's, the viper fish was dying, and was safely discarded into the compost heap after being humanely struck dead so it did not suffer.
Aside from that, Liahl is good at working leather. She's not much for metal or engineering in that regard, but she's good at getting leather to stretch, remain pliable, sewing it, kneading it, cutting it, weaving it, all the very basics of leather working. She can't do anything advanced like actually craft garments, but when she's stressed she'll treat and work the leather of her armour, shoes, bracers, whatever's at hand. She can sometimes wear her things out too fast by taking "too much care" of them - she has made leather belts of hers too soft and had them snap on her before. However, if anyone needs a quick stitch or advice on keeping up their leather, she's a good one to ask for a hand.
WEAKNESSES: Liahl's weaknesses can incorporate with her dislikes.
Those that fit with her dislikes being:
loud sudden noises and movements
brash, large, loud dragons
Thunderstorms especially can render Liahl useless - the thunder awakens a deep traumatic-based fear within her, and nothing sends her sailing for shore faster than the whisper of a storm in the air. She'll even refuse to go out fishing in a perfectly quiet rain - including on land.
Very large dragons (such as the Typhoomerang and similar)
Swarms of dragons
Sharp, dangerous items - specifically weapons with edges. She can cut her own bread and meat just fine, but if anyone grabbed that same knife and turned it towards her in a threat, her fight-or-flight response is unpredictable. Half the time she'd back away and resort to panic, but there have been times she's launched headlong into a fight in her younger days, unarmed, to take a knife away from another Viking child when roughhousing turned to something nastier.
Failing at tasks she's accustomed to being good at. If Liahl is having a bad day fishing, she becomes very easily frustrated and may take it out on those nearby. Though she's integrated into Berk life really quite well, despite still not remembering much about her past, Liahl seems to judge herself harshly by the tasks other Berkians regularly perform, and if she fails at something she's not even usually good at, it frustrates her quickly and seems to strike her on a personal, emotional level. When it comes to fishing or simple leatherwork, if she's having a bad day, Liahl is liable to lash out in anger and storm off to cool off, something her master instilled in her when she gave him the wrong end of her attitude once.
FEARS:
Liahl's fears coincide with a few of her weaknesses:
Thunderstorms
Sharp weapons
Losing control of her temper - Liahl has never lashed out physical at anyone, but when she loses her temper in privacy she has thrown and broken personal items. She is often afraid of what her anger makes her capable of, and will be quick to separate herself from people and dragons when losing her temper.
Dragon Island
Something about the place awakens a deep, unabiding terror in her. She glimpsed it once in the distance passed Helheim's gate on her visit out to IceStorm Island with her master. She recognized the shape of it and knew she had seen it before, but unlike other times when Liahl has been close to remembering her past before she washed ashore Berk, she quashed the memory rather than encourage it. Liahl is terrified of Dragon Island for some reason, and sometimes when the dragon hatchery and stables haven't been cleaned recently, the smell of it brings the image of it on the horizon to her mind, and she can't stand to be near even Berk's home dragon nesting places.
Failure
Liahl finds failure in certain tasks unacceptable, most of all leatherworking and dragon training. As she will soon be ready for a dragon, she is very worried her occasional fear of dragons will affect her ability to train one properly. But failure at a leatherworking task is something she can't stand, as it is something normally soothes her, and something she turns to in private when she's afraid or trying to calm her temper. As she encounters greater challenges in life, Liahl will have to learn to face the possibility of failure as a consequence, and learn to deal with it better than simply losing her temper and storming off.
AMBITIONS:
Liahl is at a pivotal point, on the cusp of adulthood, but still wary of what it entails - training an actual dragon, which, while she greatly enjoys their company and presence, she is wary of being around one alone, even a baby. She also worries about raising one wrong on account of her fear. She has yet to discern for herself a personal ambition, but stepping back and speaking as a writer, I'd say her ambition is to someday sail back to the south of Berk, perhaps all the way to Red Rock to see if she can find something of her past there and understand what it was that brought her to Berk in the first place. Liahl also considers herself something of a coward, as she's spent most of the life she can remember around things she's afraid of, and she's determined to succeed at training her dragon, conquering her temper, and to ascend her cowardice.
Possibly voyaging to Red Rock would be a much more long-term goal that hasn't even really consciously occurred to her yet.
SECRETS:
Liahl has nightmares of Dragon Island, though nothing of its real presence - just the island in the distance, earth-shattering roars, and a gradually overwhelming terror.
While Liahl is an excellent fisherwoman, she can't swim. This is a source of eternal embarrassment for her.
OVERALL PERSONALITY:
I think I've included a lot of her personality up to this point in good detail, so I'll instead summarize what I've written thus far and get more detailed about what I haven't.
Liahl is a cautious, steady, reliable character, though she can have quite a temper when it comes to personal failures. She can judge herself harshly based on certain tasks, and is hesitant to explain herself when she may lose her temper based on these harsh judgments if she deems she's screwed up, as she herself is not quite introspective enough to understand why her temper can get out of hand so easily on certain things. She's often clumsy with words when it comes to explaining things she doesn't understand or something she has to convey in a hurry, like emergencies or important news. She often sees herself as a coward, being afraid of large, temperamental, or loud dragons, as well as thunderstorms and weapons. But while Liahl may few of words at time, she still can get to talking with a little encouragement. Especially when it comes to fishing.
Aside from that, Liahl puts a great amount in someone's given word. When she says she will do something, she will follow through, even if at the time she knows it means coming up against her greatest fears. That doesn't mean she won't fail, though...
Liahl is also a peaceful sort of neutral person. She doesn't like fighting, and dislikes conflict, though she doesn't avoid it. Liahl just prefers to end conflict, as neutrally as possible, when it arises, or make sure it's resolved peaceably. If one or more characters have a habit of getting into fights over anything she doesn't consider a serious subject worth fighting over, she may make it a habit to avoid them, as she finds disruption like that annoying. If she can't avoid them, she'll give them the silent treatment, or a piece of her mind, whatever comes first.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Liahl has skin that's always been a few shades darker, and long hours fishing have darkened her skin more. Her hair is mouse-brown and kept hacked short by her own clumsy hand, though at least she's learned to stop nicking her ears. Her eyes are a pale brown hazel-grey, though the grey is only seen depending on what colours are behind her head (like, you know...grey). Other characters wouldn't notice her eye colour unless she was in the described situation that brought it out in her eyes.
Liahl is tall and broad-shouldered for a girl, and often mistaken for a boy. Her jawline is strong and her chin pointed, her eyes have thick dark lashes and are large and round, her lips a natural darker pink, but a prominent nose and a square jawline with prominent cheekbones even out her overall face structure and traits to give her a very asexual appearance. Most people can't tell what gender she is until she speaks, and even then with her quiet, low tone, it can still be difficult.
She has hands made broad and strong by her work at fishing, and light scarring on her hands and upper arms, nicks and cuts from sharp fish fins, hooks, fish teeth, and other things.
Overall she's a long-limbed lanky build aside from her broad shoulders and tan lines up to her shoulders and thighs, and down to the brim of her shirt collar.
HISTORY:
Liahl washed ashore in a damaged boat on Berk's southeast shore when she was around ten years old, estimating. She doesn't have any clear memory of how she got there or what happened to her family, or if they were even with her - she has no idea who else was in the ship with her, despite the presence of supplies for a long journey, there were no personal belongings to help in identifying her or where she could have come from. The ship's sail and masthead were gone, leaving it markless for where it could have come from, and the wood it was built of is a common tree found on islands all over the sea from Ice Storm Island all the way down to Red Rock. Her darker skin and the fact her ship washed ashore on the southeast shore implies she may be from Red Rock or a smaller island near to it.
Liahl didn't speak for a whole year after she came ashore, just looked shellshocked, and took some time to even respond when spoken to. Being near the seashore, despite the fact that it must've been an accident on sea that brought her there, seemed to give her peace. She was spotted once on a small peninsula of sand branching out from the shore, catching fish with her bare hands, and after that the elders assigned her an apprenticeship to a master fisherman who was kindly and patient. He taught her the fishing trade mostly in silence himself that first year, and gradually, Liahl came out of her shell. She began to laugh at jokes the fishhaulers made when she understood them, to answer yes or no instead of nodding or shaking her head, and finally told her master her name - Liahl. After that, he gave her his last name of Ironstead.
Her first time up to the stables two years after coming to Berk, Liahl was terrified by all the loud noises of hungry dragons, playing dragons, baby dragons, and otherwise dragons going about their everyday lives. So her master took her away and brought her back at night when it was much quieter. He avoided the larger dragon barracks when he saw her shy away from a Rumblehorn as its rider was leading it to its bed, and on a hunch, took her into the Tidal Class stables.
Liahl instantly felt at home here, with the rushing seawater and the smells of the open ocean. Her master kept her clear of the much larger Scauldrons and Razorwhips and brought her near to the smaller tidal class dragons, the Raincutters, and, most importantly, the Sand Wraith.
Thinking she might not be interested as the Sand Wraiths aren't quite known for their bright colours, Ironstead was hesitant, but Liahl was fascinated by one of the Sand Wraith's traits - their bright, vivid wing spots, which this one had. She watched it sleeping curled up on its slab of rock, piled high with sand that it was nesting in, and eventually sat down in front of it just to watch it breathe in and out.
Parts of the sleeping Sand Wraith's nest had turned to glass as in its sleep it had gusted breath hot enough to melt the sand into small, natural spires. After taking Liahl home, the next day, Ironstead found the Wraith's rider and made a special request. When Liahl came home from the fishing boats, she found a present for her on her bed.
She has worn the smooth, small glass crystal on a leather thong beneath her shirt ever since, and nervously awaits the day she can choose her dragon. She knows the elders may push her towards a more common dragon that is well-studied and they may deem more suited to her temperament, as Sand Wraiths are fast-paced, quick dragons, and she has only ever managed to stay calm around more sluggish, slower-moving dragons. But still...she hopes.
FAMILY: Liahl's only family is her mentor, a master fisherman with the last name of Ironstead, who has essentially adopted her like a daughter. Nothing is known of her blood relations, thought perhaps someday she will sail - or fly - the great sea expanse from Berk to Red Rock to try and find where she came from.
WEAPON OF CHOICE: Liahl only ever uses a simple wooden shield with a large round stud in the center and a metal edge. She refuses any other weaponry, especially sharp weaponry, though later on I may add a type of lasso to her expertise - like certain weapons that consist of chains with blades on the end, swung round and swung out at a target, but more peaceful to suit Liahl's nature, like a simple length of rope with a weight at the end she could use to subdue an opponent, or dragon, without fighting.
FIGHTING STYLE:
Liahl prefers to immediately incapacitate an enemy to avoid fighting. Her only offense is defense until she can escape or render the opponent inept. The most violent she will get in combat is to charge shield first, bashing to render someone into submission and ideally strike the weapon from their hand.
DRAGON (optional):
I understand these are rare-type dragons, so I would like to start out with her without a dragon until we qualify for the 100-post minimum!
NAME: Switchback
GENDER:
Female
TYPE:
Species: Sand Wraith, Tidal Class,
speed efficient, high shot count
but blasts come at a lower impact as a cost.
Stamina is reasonable when adrenaline-charged, such as for danger or a challenging race.
APPEARANCE:
Baby: a dull brown colour with black legs, pale blue-green eyes, dark brown crest nubs insead of full horns, and her wings a paler brown than the rest of her with pale yellow spots that glimmer when the light catches. Her entire face is so dark brown it looks black, and her horns are just little nubs.
Adolescent: Still brown, but her scales are beginning to take on a bronze edge, and her spots have gotten larger on her wings, which have darkened at the edges to the same brown she was as a baby. She's starting to grow the spikes on her wings, though they're little nubs for now, but her head crest spikes have become sharp little black pyramids. There are two bright yellow spots above each eyebrow on her face now, which has lightened to brown and left a black mask around her eyes and mouth. Her eyes are solid green, a bright rich colour, and her claws are a sharp clear white. Her tail is longer, and has started to grow its fans at the end.
Adult: A rich bronze that darkens to black on the lower legs and a raccoon-mask around her eyes and snout. On her back it lightens to a more orange-bronze, and on her face it's brightest of all. Vivid incandescent yellow-green spotting on her wings and body and face, black horns with gold-yellow tips. Her wings have gone from pale brown to vivid bronze-orange, and their edges and spikes, fully grown in, are such a dark brown they're almost black. Her head spikes have grown in in full, the black pyramid crest spikes bearing two sharp yellow pinstripes down their center, while the ridge of spikes up her brow are dull yellow-gold.
PERSONALITY: Switchback is born with a feisty temperament, incubated and hatched in the Berkian hatchery. She senses Liahl's hesitation immediately, but Liahl works hard to overcome her fears of the quick-moving dragon, and the fact that baby Sand Wraiths lack teeth is a big help. Having the little feisty one follow her every move and even sleep in bed with her gradually begins to put Liahl at east - almost as if the dragon is the one who needs to earn her trust.
Their time at sea is where their bond truly flourishes. Liahl first brings her Tidal-Class baby dragon to the sea shore and finds herself relaxing with happiness at the sight of the Sand Wraith joyfully diving head-first into the sand to burrow in and relax in the warm sand.
After hours of fishing pass until sunset, during which Switchback has learned to bound easily out into the word to snatch the fish off Liahl's hook, despite being well fed, and instead bring them back to her - as if to say, silly human, this is how it's done - their first moment of true bonding occurs when Switchback snatches a hooked herring, which is too small for her to bite without hooking her own mouth on the fishhook.
In a panic, the small dragon ends up thrashing in the shallows, tangling herself in the line. Despite not being able to swim and Switchback being further out than wading distance, Liahl manages to force herself out far enough that an incoming tide washes the dragon baby into her arms. Cutting her Sand Wraith free from the line, Liahl trudges for shore, stumbling a number of times as the incoming tide grows stronger and begins to knock her over and over into the surf, all the time with a thrashing, screaming baby Sand Wraith in her arms, the small sharp claws tearing through her jerking and ripping open her skin beneath, until they both make it to shore, a bloody mess.
Despite her wounds and Switchback's fading wails of distress, Liahl charges headlong up the boardwalks to the nearest dragon healer where she collapsed to her knees, sobbing, with her crying Sand Wraith in her arms.
The fishhook soon extracted and a numbing mash applied made from plants, Switchback soon quieted and, despite being heavily drugged, began to stumble about and now distress over Liahl's wounds - inflicted by Switchback. The dragon attempted to lick to soothe them, but with her mouth numb, only managed to flop her tongue every which way, until Liahl laughed, and cried with relief.
They slept together that night, both heavily stitched up, with Switchback curled up in Liahl's arms, despite their soreness from the wounds.
STRENGTHS:
Switchback obviously is an agile flier, being a species built similar to Night Furies, but because of her trainer's own slow going with their training, she has developed some unique physical and tactical strengths. As Liahl takes a long time before she's ready to actually fly with Switchback, who in the meantime learns to fly in play with other Wraith dragons she spends time with in the hatchery, when with Liahl Switchback has learned a certain patience with ground-based agility.
As Liahl is determined to be the best dragon trainer she can be for Switchback's sake, she does eventually learn to fly on Switchback's back, but in baby steps. Instead of mounting up and taking off, the two of them learn to move together first in the Wilderness around Berk, and later as Switchback swims out to sea with Liahl on one of their private fishing trips.
Because of her bizarre approach to getting over her fear of flying, Liahl has ended up with a Sand Wraith with an unusual amount of ground-based agility and stamina. First beginning their flight training in the wilderness by small leaps and bounds, and then with Switchback climbing trees with Liahl on her back and gliding downwards while an adolescent Short-Wing, Switchback has developed powerful leg muscles and core strength. During these training sessions Switchback also discovered she quite enjoyed basking in trees on warm days, and later of her own initiative learned to hunt small prey animals among the tree tops themselves. Switchback can travel from one end of the forest to the other without flying or touching the ground, and gets stealthier at it every day.
When it comes to her natural habitat, Switchback's enhanced leg strength makes her a powerful sand burrower, churning up holes in minutes to bury herself in that would usually take an average Sand Wraith an hour. However, digging sucks up far more strength than simple runs through the woods or stalking through treetops, so while Switchback can bury herself rapidly in an emergency, it is quite exhausting and will leave her too drained to defend herself otherwise.
Switchback's time with Liahl has also given her a much steadier temperament than usual fast-paced dragons. As Liahl and Switchback are constantly together, Switchback has learned of Liahl's earthly fears, like thunderstorms, and often will nudge or headbutt if necessary to get her inside before they hit. She is also much calmer during storms as Liahl's fear seems to activate some mothering instinct in the dragon, who will curl around her and cover her with hrer wings until the storm is passed.
Liahl has never forgotten the small glass pendant she got when her master had first shown her a sand wraith in the Tidal Stables, and she is struggling to teach Switchback to reproduce the same sort of items out of fascination and curiosity for leather working - she has also since discovered how light fractals through it into a myriad of colourd at a certain angle.
WEAKNESSES:
Switchback is a Tidal Class dragon, and while being a fire-breathing dragon (yes, I know they combine sand with their shots, but they are heated internally), she has a low tolerance for hot weather or environments. She wont' just become sluggish, but sick, and being a clever dragon, Switchback will often point-blank refuse to go near places she knows are heated - like the incubation center, or certain areas of Berk or other islands of hot rock or sand where she can''t cool off easily. At the same time, while Sand Wraiths' natural environments are of course beach shores near the sea, and being in the north those beaches are of course cold, Switchback also has great dislike for temperatures that are too cool. Because of this, she's a very picky dragon about her basking places and temperatures, and Liahl has to work very hard to convince her to fly in colder temperatures. However, the young viking is determinedly rousing her grumpy Sand Wraith during winter months for brisk noon flights while the sun is at its peak and it's warmest out, hoping that the cold flight training will prepare Switchback for a trip to Ice Storm Island one day.
Despite having a high shot count, Switchback's blasts are not particularly powerful. They can damage most dragons, but not severely.
Growing up with her unique flight training as a short-winged dragon in the wilderness with Liahl as the wiking struggles to conquer her fears of heights, Switchback develops an amoutn of muscle to make up for her weaker blasts that give her an edge with other dragons in direct claw-to-claw combat. Her slender Wraith build often leaves her underestimated in regards to her muscular strength.
However, she is still a smaller dragon and simply does not have the prowess to dogfight either in the air against dragons with powerful shots that can keep her from getting close enough, even with her agility and speed, to land a physical hit, or on land against heavier build dragons that have the natural advantage on the ground.
That doesn't mean she won't still try though, which can get her into a decent amount of trouble. Though she's mellowed as an adult, as a hatchling, she upset a baby Nightmare in the hatchery and got herself bit clean through her right nostril by one of its needle-like teeth. The hole healed cleanly, and after some thought Liahl put a decorative nose ring through it as Switchback has always shared her rider's fondness for shiney things, and the dragon strutted about for a full month after it was put in. She feels it makes her look very fierce.
While even-tempered and calmer than most dragons of her breed, Switchback is fiercely defensive and protecive, and will still be impulsive at time. If a rider does not have adequate control over their dragon and any shots are fired near Liahl, whether intentionally or not, Switchback can easily be triggered into aggressive behaviour if Liahl does not act quickly to calm her.
In this way, the two of them share a weakness though triggered by different things - a temper to be reckoned with.
KEYWORD HIDDEN IN RULES:
*checked by Crystal*
CBOX NAME: Liahl
I removed the mentions of Titan-Class dragons. I didn't realize they were not allowed on the site! I apologize, I must re-read the rules again very thoroughly. I was VERY excited when I first found the site and submitted my app, I am finding out now there have been a few important things I simply just missed ^^; I'm so sorry for any inconveniences.
/edit
Please note I did read the rules, but initially missed the part about the time period. I rewrote the parts I could find in here that clash with that after someone suggested I give the rules a read over again, so if you see anything out of place for the current time period, please disregard it! Thank you!
NAME: Liahl Ironstead (this is also my username in-game, though no spaces obvs ^^) - preferably Liahl.
AGE: Estimated to be early twenties. Liahl's age is part of her backstory.
ORIGIN: Liahl washed ashore alone in a viking boat that had been badly damaged. The sails of her boat were gone and the boat was too damaged to tell which Viking nation she was originally from, and she didn't speak for a year until after living on Berk, and by then her accent meshed well enough with local Berkians that her original one is almost completely gone. As her boat washed ashore on the southeastern shore of Berk, she's guessed to originate possibly from Red Rock or a smaller island near to it.
OCCUPATION:
Liahl was taken in at an awkward stage of development, one where most viking children already know what they're raised to do on Berk - that being, train dragons - and, presumably, since she was unable to offer anything about her homeland in her year of silence, she would have entered or been about to enter an apprenticeship back home. However, a place was found for her soon enough.
Liahl was shy of dragons at first, but was clearly drawn to slower-moving ones that were less alarming, and also brightly coloured ones, for some reason. After some discussion about what to do with her, some village elders assigned her to work down at the docks, where her eye for shining things made her a good hand at spotting and catching fish. She also was a dab hand at sorting good fish from those that could be bad, recognizing unhealthy fish from how their scales weren't as shiney and bright as healthier ones. When nets were drawn in, she was quick to sort out eels as well.
Having entered her late teens, Liahl has recently been deemed ready to train her own dragon and her master, a kindly expert fisherman, has recommended she is likely best suited to a dragon relative to the task, either an even-tempered tidal class or perhaps a Terror, whose bright colours draw her fondness and the small size of which she finds less threatening. Now that she's speaking more and more often, Liahl doesn't have much to offer as to what type of dragon she'd prefer, and gives the impression that she herself has utterly no idea, although she is clearly drawn to them, what kind of dragon she belongs with.
GENDER & SEXUALITY:
Liahl often disregards her gender and her appearance reflects this. She shrugs at being called male or female and prefers more masculine clothing overall, as well as armor, now she's old enough to wear it. She's developed well-toned arms and an upper body from her work fishing with her master, and the muscle has broadened her shoulders that she's often mistaken for a slender male. Sexual wise, Liahl has no preference, as she's never considered attraction before and it still seems a foreign concept to her. If people flirt with her, she takes it as being polite or being friendly, and may accidentally return the gesture by trying to not offend.
LIKES:
Colourful, shining things (glittery, like scales),
the open sea and sky,
steady, smooth, repetitive tasks that calm her,
quiet retreats where she can gather her thoughts.
Liahl does enjoy the company of others and dragons, and can be encouraged to talk at length - usually about fish, the many different kinds of fish, the best places to fish, how to catch them with your bare hands, how to make fishing tools from scratch, and also leather.
Liahl loves the smell of leather, loves polishing it, refining it, and even working it. If she'd been able to be more open when she first washed ashore, her quick hands and enjoyment for leather craft likely would have apprenticed her to a leather worker, but as it is, she keeps it as a hobby, and likes to braid leather pieces and occasionally even works small leather pendants for those she cares deeply about.
DISLIKES:
Loud noises,
sudden movements,
and the one shiney things she finds traitorous - blades. Liahl has a deep mistrust of weapons, though she'll wear spikes on her armour as it seems to become non-threatening when incorporated into a defense.
Her two other major dislikes are distressed dragon squeals - it triggers an intense distress in her, and if she hears a dragon scream in pain, she's likely to drop what she's doing and run to find it, even if she may stop short several yards away, which leads to her next dislike.
Big dragons, rowdy dragons, feisty dragons - Liahl doesn't dislike them, per say, but she is afraid of them, and they can pick up on it of course. She avoids them as much as possible, as much for theirs and their rider's benefit as much as her own. She seems not to realize she stands much larger than when she first came to the island of Berk and still shrinks in on herself as if she were a small child whenever she hears a Boulder Class or a Monstrous Nightmare roar nearby.
STRENGTHS:
Liahl is very good at fishing, from rocks, from boats, from standing off-shore, from rivers, from pretty much anywhere. She has recently visited Ice Storm Island with her master to learn of the fishing methods there and is eager to return to master the Cave Fish and the Northern Wolf Fish, as they still challenge her fishing skills.
Although still fishing related, Liahl has a sharp eye
and also a keenly developed sense of smell
- for fish as well as outside of them. She's so used to the overpowering smell of sea and fish that when removed from the environment, other smells are much more noticeable to her, and she's developed a very refined nose as well as eye for picking out fish that while still alive and thrashing, may be sick with something unseen and thus would not be good for dragons to eat. She was also the only one of her master's boat to halt the dumping of a load of fish into a delivery trough because she thought she saw an eel wriggling in it - it turned out to be a viper fish, near death, having drifted close enough to the surface that it had been snagged in their nets with the normal fish. While the long, slender body was not that of an eel's, the viper fish was dying, and was safely discarded into the compost heap after being humanely struck dead so it did not suffer.
Aside from that, Liahl is good at working leather. She's not much for metal or engineering in that regard, but she's good at getting leather to stretch, remain pliable, sewing it, kneading it, cutting it, weaving it, all the very basics of leather working. She can't do anything advanced like actually craft garments, but when she's stressed she'll treat and work the leather of her armour, shoes, bracers, whatever's at hand. She can sometimes wear her things out too fast by taking "too much care" of them - she has made leather belts of hers too soft and had them snap on her before. However, if anyone needs a quick stitch or advice on keeping up their leather, she's a good one to ask for a hand.
WEAKNESSES: Liahl's weaknesses can incorporate with her dislikes.
Those that fit with her dislikes being:
loud sudden noises and movements
brash, large, loud dragons
Thunderstorms especially can render Liahl useless - the thunder awakens a deep traumatic-based fear within her, and nothing sends her sailing for shore faster than the whisper of a storm in the air. She'll even refuse to go out fishing in a perfectly quiet rain - including on land.
Very large dragons (such as the Typhoomerang and similar)
Swarms of dragons
Sharp, dangerous items - specifically weapons with edges. She can cut her own bread and meat just fine, but if anyone grabbed that same knife and turned it towards her in a threat, her fight-or-flight response is unpredictable. Half the time she'd back away and resort to panic, but there have been times she's launched headlong into a fight in her younger days, unarmed, to take a knife away from another Viking child when roughhousing turned to something nastier.
Failing at tasks she's accustomed to being good at. If Liahl is having a bad day fishing, she becomes very easily frustrated and may take it out on those nearby. Though she's integrated into Berk life really quite well, despite still not remembering much about her past, Liahl seems to judge herself harshly by the tasks other Berkians regularly perform, and if she fails at something she's not even usually good at, it frustrates her quickly and seems to strike her on a personal, emotional level. When it comes to fishing or simple leatherwork, if she's having a bad day, Liahl is liable to lash out in anger and storm off to cool off, something her master instilled in her when she gave him the wrong end of her attitude once.
FEARS:
Liahl's fears coincide with a few of her weaknesses:
Thunderstorms
Sharp weapons
Losing control of her temper - Liahl has never lashed out physical at anyone, but when she loses her temper in privacy she has thrown and broken personal items. She is often afraid of what her anger makes her capable of, and will be quick to separate herself from people and dragons when losing her temper.
Dragon Island
Something about the place awakens a deep, unabiding terror in her. She glimpsed it once in the distance passed Helheim's gate on her visit out to IceStorm Island with her master. She recognized the shape of it and knew she had seen it before, but unlike other times when Liahl has been close to remembering her past before she washed ashore Berk, she quashed the memory rather than encourage it. Liahl is terrified of Dragon Island for some reason, and sometimes when the dragon hatchery and stables haven't been cleaned recently, the smell of it brings the image of it on the horizon to her mind, and she can't stand to be near even Berk's home dragon nesting places.
Failure
Liahl finds failure in certain tasks unacceptable, most of all leatherworking and dragon training. As she will soon be ready for a dragon, she is very worried her occasional fear of dragons will affect her ability to train one properly. But failure at a leatherworking task is something she can't stand, as it is something normally soothes her, and something she turns to in private when she's afraid or trying to calm her temper. As she encounters greater challenges in life, Liahl will have to learn to face the possibility of failure as a consequence, and learn to deal with it better than simply losing her temper and storming off.
AMBITIONS:
Liahl is at a pivotal point, on the cusp of adulthood, but still wary of what it entails - training an actual dragon, which, while she greatly enjoys their company and presence, she is wary of being around one alone, even a baby. She also worries about raising one wrong on account of her fear. She has yet to discern for herself a personal ambition, but stepping back and speaking as a writer, I'd say her ambition is to someday sail back to the south of Berk, perhaps all the way to Red Rock to see if she can find something of her past there and understand what it was that brought her to Berk in the first place. Liahl also considers herself something of a coward, as she's spent most of the life she can remember around things she's afraid of, and she's determined to succeed at training her dragon, conquering her temper, and to ascend her cowardice.
Possibly voyaging to Red Rock would be a much more long-term goal that hasn't even really consciously occurred to her yet.
SECRETS:
Liahl has nightmares of Dragon Island, though nothing of its real presence - just the island in the distance, earth-shattering roars, and a gradually overwhelming terror.
While Liahl is an excellent fisherwoman, she can't swim. This is a source of eternal embarrassment for her.
OVERALL PERSONALITY:
I think I've included a lot of her personality up to this point in good detail, so I'll instead summarize what I've written thus far and get more detailed about what I haven't.
Liahl is a cautious, steady, reliable character, though she can have quite a temper when it comes to personal failures. She can judge herself harshly based on certain tasks, and is hesitant to explain herself when she may lose her temper based on these harsh judgments if she deems she's screwed up, as she herself is not quite introspective enough to understand why her temper can get out of hand so easily on certain things. She's often clumsy with words when it comes to explaining things she doesn't understand or something she has to convey in a hurry, like emergencies or important news. She often sees herself as a coward, being afraid of large, temperamental, or loud dragons, as well as thunderstorms and weapons. But while Liahl may few of words at time, she still can get to talking with a little encouragement. Especially when it comes to fishing.
Aside from that, Liahl puts a great amount in someone's given word. When she says she will do something, she will follow through, even if at the time she knows it means coming up against her greatest fears. That doesn't mean she won't fail, though...
Liahl is also a peaceful sort of neutral person. She doesn't like fighting, and dislikes conflict, though she doesn't avoid it. Liahl just prefers to end conflict, as neutrally as possible, when it arises, or make sure it's resolved peaceably. If one or more characters have a habit of getting into fights over anything she doesn't consider a serious subject worth fighting over, she may make it a habit to avoid them, as she finds disruption like that annoying. If she can't avoid them, she'll give them the silent treatment, or a piece of her mind, whatever comes first.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Liahl has skin that's always been a few shades darker, and long hours fishing have darkened her skin more. Her hair is mouse-brown and kept hacked short by her own clumsy hand, though at least she's learned to stop nicking her ears. Her eyes are a pale brown hazel-grey, though the grey is only seen depending on what colours are behind her head (like, you know...grey). Other characters wouldn't notice her eye colour unless she was in the described situation that brought it out in her eyes.
Liahl is tall and broad-shouldered for a girl, and often mistaken for a boy. Her jawline is strong and her chin pointed, her eyes have thick dark lashes and are large and round, her lips a natural darker pink, but a prominent nose and a square jawline with prominent cheekbones even out her overall face structure and traits to give her a very asexual appearance. Most people can't tell what gender she is until she speaks, and even then with her quiet, low tone, it can still be difficult.
She has hands made broad and strong by her work at fishing, and light scarring on her hands and upper arms, nicks and cuts from sharp fish fins, hooks, fish teeth, and other things.
Overall she's a long-limbed lanky build aside from her broad shoulders and tan lines up to her shoulders and thighs, and down to the brim of her shirt collar.
HISTORY:
Liahl washed ashore in a damaged boat on Berk's southeast shore when she was around ten years old, estimating. She doesn't have any clear memory of how she got there or what happened to her family, or if they were even with her - she has no idea who else was in the ship with her, despite the presence of supplies for a long journey, there were no personal belongings to help in identifying her or where she could have come from. The ship's sail and masthead were gone, leaving it markless for where it could have come from, and the wood it was built of is a common tree found on islands all over the sea from Ice Storm Island all the way down to Red Rock. Her darker skin and the fact her ship washed ashore on the southeast shore implies she may be from Red Rock or a smaller island near to it.
Liahl didn't speak for a whole year after she came ashore, just looked shellshocked, and took some time to even respond when spoken to. Being near the seashore, despite the fact that it must've been an accident on sea that brought her there, seemed to give her peace. She was spotted once on a small peninsula of sand branching out from the shore, catching fish with her bare hands, and after that the elders assigned her an apprenticeship to a master fisherman who was kindly and patient. He taught her the fishing trade mostly in silence himself that first year, and gradually, Liahl came out of her shell. She began to laugh at jokes the fishhaulers made when she understood them, to answer yes or no instead of nodding or shaking her head, and finally told her master her name - Liahl. After that, he gave her his last name of Ironstead.
Her first time up to the stables two years after coming to Berk, Liahl was terrified by all the loud noises of hungry dragons, playing dragons, baby dragons, and otherwise dragons going about their everyday lives. So her master took her away and brought her back at night when it was much quieter. He avoided the larger dragon barracks when he saw her shy away from a Rumblehorn as its rider was leading it to its bed, and on a hunch, took her into the Tidal Class stables.
Liahl instantly felt at home here, with the rushing seawater and the smells of the open ocean. Her master kept her clear of the much larger Scauldrons and Razorwhips and brought her near to the smaller tidal class dragons, the Raincutters, and, most importantly, the Sand Wraith.
Thinking she might not be interested as the Sand Wraiths aren't quite known for their bright colours, Ironstead was hesitant, but Liahl was fascinated by one of the Sand Wraith's traits - their bright, vivid wing spots, which this one had. She watched it sleeping curled up on its slab of rock, piled high with sand that it was nesting in, and eventually sat down in front of it just to watch it breathe in and out.
Parts of the sleeping Sand Wraith's nest had turned to glass as in its sleep it had gusted breath hot enough to melt the sand into small, natural spires. After taking Liahl home, the next day, Ironstead found the Wraith's rider and made a special request. When Liahl came home from the fishing boats, she found a present for her on her bed.
She has worn the smooth, small glass crystal on a leather thong beneath her shirt ever since, and nervously awaits the day she can choose her dragon. She knows the elders may push her towards a more common dragon that is well-studied and they may deem more suited to her temperament, as Sand Wraiths are fast-paced, quick dragons, and she has only ever managed to stay calm around more sluggish, slower-moving dragons. But still...she hopes.
FAMILY: Liahl's only family is her mentor, a master fisherman with the last name of Ironstead, who has essentially adopted her like a daughter. Nothing is known of her blood relations, thought perhaps someday she will sail - or fly - the great sea expanse from Berk to Red Rock to try and find where she came from.
WEAPON OF CHOICE: Liahl only ever uses a simple wooden shield with a large round stud in the center and a metal edge. She refuses any other weaponry, especially sharp weaponry, though later on I may add a type of lasso to her expertise - like certain weapons that consist of chains with blades on the end, swung round and swung out at a target, but more peaceful to suit Liahl's nature, like a simple length of rope with a weight at the end she could use to subdue an opponent, or dragon, without fighting.
FIGHTING STYLE:
Liahl prefers to immediately incapacitate an enemy to avoid fighting. Her only offense is defense until she can escape or render the opponent inept. The most violent she will get in combat is to charge shield first, bashing to render someone into submission and ideally strike the weapon from their hand.
DRAGON (optional):
I understand these are rare-type dragons, so I would like to start out with her without a dragon until we qualify for the 100-post minimum!
NAME: Switchback
GENDER:
Female
TYPE:
Species: Sand Wraith, Tidal Class,
speed efficient, high shot count
but blasts come at a lower impact as a cost.
Stamina is reasonable when adrenaline-charged, such as for danger or a challenging race.
APPEARANCE:
Baby: a dull brown colour with black legs, pale blue-green eyes, dark brown crest nubs insead of full horns, and her wings a paler brown than the rest of her with pale yellow spots that glimmer when the light catches. Her entire face is so dark brown it looks black, and her horns are just little nubs.
Adolescent: Still brown, but her scales are beginning to take on a bronze edge, and her spots have gotten larger on her wings, which have darkened at the edges to the same brown she was as a baby. She's starting to grow the spikes on her wings, though they're little nubs for now, but her head crest spikes have become sharp little black pyramids. There are two bright yellow spots above each eyebrow on her face now, which has lightened to brown and left a black mask around her eyes and mouth. Her eyes are solid green, a bright rich colour, and her claws are a sharp clear white. Her tail is longer, and has started to grow its fans at the end.
Adult: A rich bronze that darkens to black on the lower legs and a raccoon-mask around her eyes and snout. On her back it lightens to a more orange-bronze, and on her face it's brightest of all. Vivid incandescent yellow-green spotting on her wings and body and face, black horns with gold-yellow tips. Her wings have gone from pale brown to vivid bronze-orange, and their edges and spikes, fully grown in, are such a dark brown they're almost black. Her head spikes have grown in in full, the black pyramid crest spikes bearing two sharp yellow pinstripes down their center, while the ridge of spikes up her brow are dull yellow-gold.
PERSONALITY: Switchback is born with a feisty temperament, incubated and hatched in the Berkian hatchery. She senses Liahl's hesitation immediately, but Liahl works hard to overcome her fears of the quick-moving dragon, and the fact that baby Sand Wraiths lack teeth is a big help. Having the little feisty one follow her every move and even sleep in bed with her gradually begins to put Liahl at east - almost as if the dragon is the one who needs to earn her trust.
Their time at sea is where their bond truly flourishes. Liahl first brings her Tidal-Class baby dragon to the sea shore and finds herself relaxing with happiness at the sight of the Sand Wraith joyfully diving head-first into the sand to burrow in and relax in the warm sand.
After hours of fishing pass until sunset, during which Switchback has learned to bound easily out into the word to snatch the fish off Liahl's hook, despite being well fed, and instead bring them back to her - as if to say, silly human, this is how it's done - their first moment of true bonding occurs when Switchback snatches a hooked herring, which is too small for her to bite without hooking her own mouth on the fishhook.
In a panic, the small dragon ends up thrashing in the shallows, tangling herself in the line. Despite not being able to swim and Switchback being further out than wading distance, Liahl manages to force herself out far enough that an incoming tide washes the dragon baby into her arms. Cutting her Sand Wraith free from the line, Liahl trudges for shore, stumbling a number of times as the incoming tide grows stronger and begins to knock her over and over into the surf, all the time with a thrashing, screaming baby Sand Wraith in her arms, the small sharp claws tearing through her jerking and ripping open her skin beneath, until they both make it to shore, a bloody mess.
Despite her wounds and Switchback's fading wails of distress, Liahl charges headlong up the boardwalks to the nearest dragon healer where she collapsed to her knees, sobbing, with her crying Sand Wraith in her arms.
The fishhook soon extracted and a numbing mash applied made from plants, Switchback soon quieted and, despite being heavily drugged, began to stumble about and now distress over Liahl's wounds - inflicted by Switchback. The dragon attempted to lick to soothe them, but with her mouth numb, only managed to flop her tongue every which way, until Liahl laughed, and cried with relief.
They slept together that night, both heavily stitched up, with Switchback curled up in Liahl's arms, despite their soreness from the wounds.
STRENGTHS:
Switchback obviously is an agile flier, being a species built similar to Night Furies, but because of her trainer's own slow going with their training, she has developed some unique physical and tactical strengths. As Liahl takes a long time before she's ready to actually fly with Switchback, who in the meantime learns to fly in play with other Wraith dragons she spends time with in the hatchery, when with Liahl Switchback has learned a certain patience with ground-based agility.
As Liahl is determined to be the best dragon trainer she can be for Switchback's sake, she does eventually learn to fly on Switchback's back, but in baby steps. Instead of mounting up and taking off, the two of them learn to move together first in the Wilderness around Berk, and later as Switchback swims out to sea with Liahl on one of their private fishing trips.
Because of her bizarre approach to getting over her fear of flying, Liahl has ended up with a Sand Wraith with an unusual amount of ground-based agility and stamina. First beginning their flight training in the wilderness by small leaps and bounds, and then with Switchback climbing trees with Liahl on her back and gliding downwards while an adolescent Short-Wing, Switchback has developed powerful leg muscles and core strength. During these training sessions Switchback also discovered she quite enjoyed basking in trees on warm days, and later of her own initiative learned to hunt small prey animals among the tree tops themselves. Switchback can travel from one end of the forest to the other without flying or touching the ground, and gets stealthier at it every day.
When it comes to her natural habitat, Switchback's enhanced leg strength makes her a powerful sand burrower, churning up holes in minutes to bury herself in that would usually take an average Sand Wraith an hour. However, digging sucks up far more strength than simple runs through the woods or stalking through treetops, so while Switchback can bury herself rapidly in an emergency, it is quite exhausting and will leave her too drained to defend herself otherwise.
Switchback's time with Liahl has also given her a much steadier temperament than usual fast-paced dragons. As Liahl and Switchback are constantly together, Switchback has learned of Liahl's earthly fears, like thunderstorms, and often will nudge or headbutt if necessary to get her inside before they hit. She is also much calmer during storms as Liahl's fear seems to activate some mothering instinct in the dragon, who will curl around her and cover her with hrer wings until the storm is passed.
Liahl has never forgotten the small glass pendant she got when her master had first shown her a sand wraith in the Tidal Stables, and she is struggling to teach Switchback to reproduce the same sort of items out of fascination and curiosity for leather working - she has also since discovered how light fractals through it into a myriad of colourd at a certain angle.
WEAKNESSES:
Switchback is a Tidal Class dragon, and while being a fire-breathing dragon (yes, I know they combine sand with their shots, but they are heated internally), she has a low tolerance for hot weather or environments. She wont' just become sluggish, but sick, and being a clever dragon, Switchback will often point-blank refuse to go near places she knows are heated - like the incubation center, or certain areas of Berk or other islands of hot rock or sand where she can''t cool off easily. At the same time, while Sand Wraiths' natural environments are of course beach shores near the sea, and being in the north those beaches are of course cold, Switchback also has great dislike for temperatures that are too cool. Because of this, she's a very picky dragon about her basking places and temperatures, and Liahl has to work very hard to convince her to fly in colder temperatures. However, the young viking is determinedly rousing her grumpy Sand Wraith during winter months for brisk noon flights while the sun is at its peak and it's warmest out, hoping that the cold flight training will prepare Switchback for a trip to Ice Storm Island one day.
Despite having a high shot count, Switchback's blasts are not particularly powerful. They can damage most dragons, but not severely.
Growing up with her unique flight training as a short-winged dragon in the wilderness with Liahl as the wiking struggles to conquer her fears of heights, Switchback develops an amoutn of muscle to make up for her weaker blasts that give her an edge with other dragons in direct claw-to-claw combat. Her slender Wraith build often leaves her underestimated in regards to her muscular strength.
However, she is still a smaller dragon and simply does not have the prowess to dogfight either in the air against dragons with powerful shots that can keep her from getting close enough, even with her agility and speed, to land a physical hit, or on land against heavier build dragons that have the natural advantage on the ground.
That doesn't mean she won't still try though, which can get her into a decent amount of trouble. Though she's mellowed as an adult, as a hatchling, she upset a baby Nightmare in the hatchery and got herself bit clean through her right nostril by one of its needle-like teeth. The hole healed cleanly, and after some thought Liahl put a decorative nose ring through it as Switchback has always shared her rider's fondness for shiney things, and the dragon strutted about for a full month after it was put in. She feels it makes her look very fierce.
While even-tempered and calmer than most dragons of her breed, Switchback is fiercely defensive and protecive, and will still be impulsive at time. If a rider does not have adequate control over their dragon and any shots are fired near Liahl, whether intentionally or not, Switchback can easily be triggered into aggressive behaviour if Liahl does not act quickly to calm her.
In this way, the two of them share a weakness though triggered by different things - a temper to be reckoned with.
KEYWORD HIDDEN IN RULES:
*checked by Crystal*
CBOX NAME: Liahl
