Candidate W'gar
Lady T hrn212@nyu.edu

 

Common Knowledge: Most people just know Wilgar as the shy Candidate who’s getting a bit old for his rank as a Candidate. His close friends try to explain that Wilgar is really a kind and sensitive young man, but most people only see the shy side of him. A few people who get to know him only in passing end up seeing the knowledgeable Herder side of him. But it is only his very close friends that really see his
loyal and sensitive side. It isn’t that he purposefully hides himself, but he’s just learned to do it.

Character Name: Wilgar

Birthdate (age): 05.01.3300 (20)

Gender: Male

Birthplace: Small hold outside of Pioneer Hold
Current Location: Last Hope Weyr

Family: Mother – Domna, Holder’s Wife, Small hold outside of LHH, 46
Father – Willinham, Holder and Master Herder, Small hold outside of LHH, 53
Sister – Amdara, Holder’s Wife, Small hold outside of LHH, 18
Sister – Megney, Senior Apprentice Herder, Small hold outside of LHH, 15


Physical Description: Wilgar stands 6’4” and weighs just a little over 190 lbs. He isn’t fat but he isn’t made of pure muscle either. Instead he has a lean build with a bit of a belly. Wilgar has light skin that burns a little too easily for someone from the Southern Continent. He has green eyes, and dirty blonde hair he keeps long and wispy looking. His face is a little flat looking, with a small chin. Wilgar’s body proportions are rather normal for a tall, lean young man.

Wilgar tends to wear the plainest and most practical short pants he can find as well as plain and practical boots. Wilgar will only put on long pants when it’s required, either because of weather or custom. He usually wears rather plain shirts as well, but every once in awhile throws on something with a bit of style. He prefers short sleeved shirts but will wear long sleeved shirts when it is cold, and it has to be really cold for him to wear long sleeves.


Personality: Wilgar is extremely shy when you first meet him. He will not approach you, and probably won’t say much even if you approach him. He is especially shy around young women, if only because he has the sneaking suspicion none of them will like him the way he wants them to like him. Wilgar is quite distinctly attracted to the opposite sex, and really not to other men. He isn’t against it, and understands that if he Impresses chances are he’d end up sleeping with a few, but he wouldn’t have a relationship with a man.

Once someone gets to know Wilgar, he becomes quite a different person than the shy, insecure young man. He is quite knowledgeable about Herding, and really knows more than his rank would suggest. He grew up with Herding, so even though he never made it past Junior Journeyman, he knows just about everything one could about woolbearers. And he’ll tell you everything he knows too, at least if you bring up the subject. He shares his knowledge freely, holding nothing back.

In that line, he sometimes offers his opinion on things even without it being asked. He doesn’t offer it in a command, but as an offhand remark. For example, one might say, “Wonder where Leina is,” and he would respond with something to the effect of, “She should have gone through the Weyrhall.” He isn’t trying to put Leina down; he’s just offering his view of how things are. He doesn’t do it often enough to really bother anyone, but on occasion it does happen.

One thing he doesn’t talk much about is his family or emotions. It isn’t that he is ashamed or embarrassed by his family. Instead, Wilgar was raised that a real man doesn’t discuss such things as emotion or relationships. He just feels uncomfortable talking about the relationships he has with family or other people. Even his closest friends have a hard time getting him to say much more than, “My dad’s been sick lately,” or something to that effect. And with his emotions the most anyone will likely get from him is, “Yeah, today’s been a bad day,” and if you really know him maybe even a, “I’m feeling really lonely.” Otherwise he keeps those things to himself.

When around people he’s comfortable with, Wilgar can be quite the lewd joker. He is witty, yes, but he generally gears that wit toward dirty jokes. You give him any situation, or any phrase and he can make it into a sexual metaphor, sometimes leaving out the metaphor. He likes telling these sorts of jokes better when he’s around other people who will respond in kind. He can spend an hour or more just going back and forth with dirty jokes and having himself a good laugh.

He also likes to purposefully bother people. He isn’t malicious about it, and only does it with people he knows well. He finds out just what bothers people and will repeatedly do it, and pretend innocence. Of course he always ends up saying something like, “I’m just doing it to bother you,” especially if that person seems to be getting very upset. And whatever it is, he won’t hurt someone, at least not on purpose.

Wilgar is also a very sweet loyal friend. He will listen to you
complain about anything and everything, offering a sympathetic, “That’s horrible,” and “Great Faranth,” when needed. He will open his door to anyone at any time of day or night if they ask. When people come to him with their own complaints and troubles, Wilgar has learned not to give his opinion unless it’s asked for. Not only is this the area in which he’s least knowledgeable, he’s learned that most people don’t want advice when they cry on a friend’s shoulder, they just want sympathy and maybe a bit of empathy too. Generally he tries to get whoever is crying on his shoulder to laugh again, though only after they’ve cried and complained their hearts out.


History: Wilgar was born in the middle of nowhere, well pretty
sharding close to it. He was born in a nameless hold just beyond the shelter of Pioneer Hold. His mother was the daughter of some herder, and his father was another herder. His life was basically set from the moment he was born. Wilgar was to be a herder, marry some girl who came from a herder’s family, and then give his parents soon-to-be- herder grandchildren. Wilgar was content, not exactly excited, but
content with his life. Afterall, there wasn’t much in the way of
choice. Plus, Wilgar was still a child, and at such a young age with such a loving family, silly things like what he’ll do when he grows up didn’t really enter Wilgar’s mind.

Although he’d grown up knowing all about herding woolbearers since he was knee high to one, he was only apprenticed at the age of 12. His parents wanted to make sure he had a good childhood, one without too much stress. There would be enough of that, they both knew, when he was older. So when he turned 12, he apprenticed under his father. It was just like when he was a child, except that now he was really
supposed to learn things. He couldn’t just run off or go play when things became boring. Even so, Wilgar really did enjoy working with woolbearers.

Even so, as time went on, Wilgar became discontent with his family’s way of life. He didn’t think himself above them, just different from them. His father, Willinham, was someone who didn’t believe that a man should show emotions or worry out such silly things as relationships. So the sensitive Wilgar ended up pretending to be one of the boys, someone his father could be proud of. Wilgar pretened he wasn’t a loyal friend who cared about feelings. Instead he was just a guy, someone who only spoke about surface issues such as how the weather is doing, the loss of a herd lately, when will the feed for the
woolbearers come in, etc. He could still fall into that roll without hesitation, able to laugh and talk with other herder men with ease.

Behind his parent’s back, though not maliciously, Wilgar started to befriend a few, a very few, of the young women at the hold. Of course he had other guy friends, again a very few of them, with whom he played pranks with and caused mischief. But it was with his girl friends that he could be the shoulder to cry on, and where he could be sensitive and not be ashamed of it. Of course his parents knew that he
had befriended a few women, but assumed as most parents such as they do, that Wilgar was just working his way through relationships with women until he could finally get married. But they were wrong, Wilgar didn’t want to marry any of the young women he spoke with; he was too good of friends for that. The idea of sleeping with most of these young women was just too strange to really think about. Besides, Wilgar wasn’t exactly secure enough to even flirt with a girl, not
really.

For awhile such things were enough, and Wilgar was happy. He wished he had the guts to actually talk to a girl he found attractive, but decided that would just have to wait. He could work his way up to that, and at least now he had friends. So Wilgar was content to live his life at the small hold, though he did always wish for a bit more. If he could only ride a dragon, or be found out by some Herder from
Pioneer Hold and brought there. He wanted to experience more than the small hold could provide for him.

As luck would have it, Wilgar would be Searched just after he turned 18. After a discussion with his parents about how he was supposed to become a herder, Wilgar was given permission to go to the Weyr. He even got to take their family canine, Blackears, with him. Everyone was quite excited, though his youngest sister would miss him. Wilgar promised to visit as often as he could after he Impressed, and then he was off. He was at first quite mystified by the Weyr, with so many people and so many dragons. It took him a good while to get used to it. But eventually he did, and now two turns later he hasn’t given up hope. Even if he doesn’t Impress, he might be able to stay. And if he does Impress, he’ll finally have found that something different to make his life complete.

On the day of the hatching, Wilgar was the first to Impress. He was suprised, sure, but mostly just excited.  A brown dragon with more shades of brown on him than Wilgar knew existed, came up to him and told him his name. The little optimistic brown said, ((Look at how many people are here to see you and your Ottimismoth!)) Ottimismoth thought that the whole crowd of the  hatching was there to see just W'gar and Ottimismoth. Obviously this brown was not only unique in color, but unique in personality as well. With one of the biggest expressions of emotion Wilgar, now W'gar, had ever shown, he led Ottimismoth to the feeding bins, forever changed.

Dragonrider Information
Dragonrider Rank: Weyrling

Honorific: W'gar

Dragon Name: Ottimismoth

Hatch Location: Last Hope Weyr

Age: Hatchling

Color: Brown

Physical Description: His hide looks like a patchwork quilt. It's made of patches of various brown: dark, sandy, reddish, woody, any shade imaginable. He is not a very large boy, but particularly small either, falling actually on the smaller side of 'average' just now.

Personality: Ottimismoth is, in a word, optimistic. The weyr could be falling down around him and the only thing he was see was that he was alive. He looks for the good in everything and everyone and if he can't find it he makes something up. There always has to be a bright side, the rain would usually bring someone down, but all he sees is that it means more grass which means more food which means he isn't
hungry.

He trusts that W'gar will get him out of any trouble he can possibly get into. Ottimismoth doesn't get into trouble on purpose, but sometimes he just doesn't recognize the downside of doing something.  For example, he might try to fly a bit too early than he should because all he can see is how fun it looks. He doesn't consider the downside because it isn't in his nature, and plus his W'gar can fix any downside that there might be. While Ottimismoth is a Weyrling, W'gar will have to constantly remind him that bad things can happen.



CRAFTER INFORMATION
Crafter Rank: Junior Journeyman
Craft: Herder
Specialty: Herding Woolbearers
Turns in Craft: 6 – officially, really doing it his whole life


PET INFORMATION
Pet Name: Blackears
Age: 7
Pet type: Canine
Physical Description: Blackears looks quite a lot like a Terran border collie. He has long black fur covering most of his body, and white fur on the bottom 2/3 of his legs, on his chest and a white stripe down his muzzle. The fur around his face is quite a bit shorter than everywhere else. His eyes are dark brown. Blackears weighs 40 lbs and stands at 20 inches.

Personality: Blackears has a great amount of energy, and yet is extremely well trained. At a single word from Wilgar, Blackears will obey. Blackears was bred and trained to herd woolbearers and is excellent at it. Even so Blackears does take a lot of attention, a lot of constant attention. He doesn’t like being left alone for too long, though he can handle it. When he was a pup he would sometimes terrorize the hold if he was left alone for any extended amount of time. He has sense grown out of it, but will sometimes cause a bit of
a mess if he is feeling particularly lonely.

How did your character acquire this pet: Blackears was the family canine, which they acquired by a Beastcrafter that specialized in breeding. Even so it was always Wilgar’s favorite family canine. So when Wilgar was Searched, Wilgar took Blackears with him to the Weyr.