The Dragonriders of PernŽ is a trademark, Registered U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, of Anne McCaffrey.

New, December 23rd, 2003: TP page updated for the current TP at HRW.  And while most of the site still remains out of date by two years, I've actually gone and updated Py's history.  I really need to learn some proper html (I know using MS frontpage is a terrible sin) and update the site to have things like frames and such.

Slight and spindly, her frame is nevertheless held as stubbornly tall as possible, falling only just shy of average height. Curves have in part softened the sharp angles of old, leading sharp and scrawny towards thin and trim, while breast and hip bear slim testament to her motherhood. Still, there's nothing neat about the shrewish set of her limbs, or about the skimpy plait that struggles to keep her hair under control. Lank dark brown tendrils escape it to plague her point-nosed, thin-lipped face, only serving to emphasise the peakiness of her complexion. Yet if there were any doubts about her vitality, the grey eyes that snap out from beneath dark brows eliminate them as effectively as twin thunderstorms.

The talented Reiko drew the above image of Pyrene for me.  I later realised there's an error in it, in that Pyrene can't actually raise one eyebrow independently of the other, but it's otherwise very accurate. The full-figure picture was drawn for me by the wonderful Ndi! Pyrene's probably a shade fatter than this (she's a mother after all) but it does capture that ugly thin-ness of her. And the rest was perfect enough that it actually inspired me to tweak her description to match.

    Pyrene was my first character so she's fairly standard, a character that I could easily identify with and get right into playing. I started her in July, 1998 at age twelve (which, amazingly enough, just happened to be the lower age limit to apply for Search, not that I really had the time back then) and unconsciously modeled her on myself at that age, bar a couple of largely superficial differences. She's worked out beautifully, getting me through the newbie stage and six months of painfully restricted net access, plus she's been the character on which I've learned just about all I know of MOOing, on both the IC and OOC sides. In return, I love her to death, but she tends to suffer at my hands since I enjoy exercising my sadistic side with her, though usually not with angst, I much prefer humiliation. Along the way, she's picked up all sorts of quirks, most of which I had no intention of giving her when I started, but they're there now, and that's what makes her Pyrene.

   So now that I've got her pretty much worked out, who is Pyrene? Well, to put it bluntly, she's a stubborn, self-centred woman who doesn't look further than her own opinion all too often, but she means well. Really. She can be nice to people and sometimes it's not even for selfish reasons. After all, she does have friends, not to mention some loyal ex-brats left over from her nannying days and she's also been known to be viewed in a romantic (or at least sensual) light. Her dragon, Cadgwith, shows off her affectionate side: she's terribly defensive of her 'unconventionally beautiful' queen and about people's attitudes towards her (Cadgwith is more philosophical about her reputation). Her daughter Sephne however was swiftly fostered out of sight and mind, although Pyrene did pay closer attention to her son Pidgery for the first four turns of his life.

    She's in her mid-thirties now and Sr Weyrwoman, and I'll continue to develop her as she gets older, trade old faults for new, but she'll never be perfect. She gets bored too easily, you see, and a bored Pyrene is a dangerous Pyrene. She's a troublemaker and gossip at heart as certain Weyr residents know all too well, although fortunately she tends to restrict this to dear friends and longstanding enemies and occasionally she's even shown signs of knowing where to draw the line.  Becoming Sr has added a certain element of stress to her life, but she's happiest when she's in charge, having always had great faith in her own common sense.

    All the details are in her history, but since I've been asked this question several times, I lay the blame for the whole Blue-Dragons-are-the-Enemy Thing squarely at Ethree and Wiranth's feet, bless their cotton socks (and S'phen and Trebinth get the credit for the lesser-known Browns-are-Perfect Thing). To be fair to Eth though, Annalee and Erranth, Thesy and Sardrinth, D'renn and... well, just about all of the Reaches blues haven't exactly helped matters, and there's background history between her grandmother and a bluerider that didn't incline her towards blues anyway. Besides, Pyrene holds grudges, this one's lasted for nine turns and is still going strong. At least, she grew out of being afraid of blues, she sees them more as naughty children, albeit dangerously big, naughty children. This colour bias was not something I intended for Pyrene to have, but it's a lot more fun having dragons tormenting her than just whuffling her occasionally. And, let's face it, she enjoys provoking the riders with it.

   So that's Pyrene at the present date. If that spiel wasn't enough for you, you can read the full details of her history, IC and OOC. And of course, look at the gallery for visuals. The fair of fire lizards that she's gradually acquired have their own page too although admittedly it looks more like a tour of Cornwall (and in fact, it contains an illustrated one!), that's only been added to by Cadgwith's arrival. The brats also get a severely out of date page, for no reason whatsoever other than that I used to maintain it in my nannying days. Finally, of course, I have logs of her in action (go here for a near exhaustive list) and (probably broken) links to the webpages of my friends. For non-Pyrene characters and links and for my guestbook, visit my main page. I, the player, can be contacted via email. If you want to know anything else, you're scaring me.

The character of Pyrene and her history are copyright her player, 1998-2003. The quotes are all taken out of context from Pyrene-logs and I cannot be held responsible for the sanity of the original typists.

Last updated December 23rd, 2003