Wingrider Z'ash of Bronze Manticath

Player Name: Vivid
Character Number: 3




Character Name and Pronunciation: Z'ash (Z-Ash)
Gender: Male
Character Rank: Wingrider
Character Age/Date of birth: 19/ Month-5 and Day-18
Current location: White Lightning Weyr

Physical description:  Z'ash stands at 6'1, tall and lithely muscular. All whipcore and sinew, his large hand are long in the palm and finger. His dark brown hair has been trimmed back but has still retained it's Klah-like color. His chest and stomach have hardened and grown dark hair. Z'ash is clean shaven, giving him quite the youthful look. Five Turns of fighting Thread have certainly left their mark; the bronzerider has a scar running shoulder to hip across his back. He still sports the broad nose of his mother, Weyrling Master Ashrah but otherwise he is entirely his father's son. For all his dark coloring, Z'ash only moderately tans in the Summer. His fingers and palms are ridged with callouses, the evidence of both much writing and much dragon riding besides.

Z'ash has a fine appreciation for good quality leather, wool and other fabrics. His every day dragon riding trousers and tunic are in various shades of warm browns and true black. His knots are always smartly pinned to his shoulder, bright bronze against the dark leather of his tunic. Wool knit socks keep his feet warmly dry and his black belt has dragons stamped into the leather.

When it comes to jewelry and accessories, Z'ash has a standard belt knife on his hip and a silver ring on his right hand. A carnelian cabochon sits in the center of the band.

Play By: Isaac Hempstead Wright

Personality: Z'ash is an affable and young man, clever and very knowledgeable. He has a great love of literature, mathematics and books in general. He is engaging on an intellectual level and socially, Z'ash has blossomed. Five Turns of independence and responsibility has seen him grown from a sweet boy to a confident, charming young man of personal courage and determination. What strife Z'ash may have felt living under Ashrah's watchful eye has vanished with the presence of distance between them. He is no longer intimidated by her presence; he has his own strongly held opinions and no longer feels unworthy to express them. Z'ash biggest flaw is that he is very prideful, even more so upon his return.  Not only is he smart but with Teagan, he very much helped to saved all of dragon kind. This mix of worthy pride and plain, old arrogance may run him ragged the other, older dragonriders, a fact he will deal with as it comes.

Once shy and unwilling to interact much with the opposite sex, Z'ash has formed a deep and abiding love for Teagan, Rider of Shadow Eniseth. She was and is his first love and his first sexual experience. She is his weyrmate and he her own; it will be hard for any other male rider to come between Z'ash and the young woman he is known to refer to as 'the Light of Pern.'

Theme song: "Princes of the Universe" by Queen




History:

Zashfellen was the sole child of Wingriders Z'fel and Ashrah of Eastern Weyr. Ash's parents were Weyrmated during their teenager years, his father Z'fel having recently graduated Weyrling training when he asked Ashrah to be his wife. Zashfellen was raised by his mother for the first eight turns of his life but was fostered to a woman in the lower caverns when Z'fel died. Jahala became a shelter and a guardian when Ashrah was lost in her grief. Ash felt lost during that time, regardless of how good Jahala was to him. His father was gone, his mother fractured from losing the love of her life. He turned to his studies for comfort, burying himself in every tome and book he could get his hands on. When his mother did, finally, break herself free of her grief, she came to see him more often. In an attempt to bridge the gap between them, Ashrah began bringing Zashfellen with her to Hatchings. Neither son nor mother could have expected Ashrah to Impress from the Stands at such an age but the when the scarlet dragon Hesriath claimed her, no one raised a voice to argue. His mother went into Weyrling Training and Zashfellen return to his lessons and histories.

As the turns spent themselves, Zashfellen became quite the young scholar. He read and wrote, theorized and solved. Knowledge became a tool of great prestige and power to him; he had never been a big boy and wasn't expected to be an athletic individual. He was slight like his mother but Z'fel had been a tall man. Zash always held out hope for another grow spurt, unwilling to accept his fate of being 'short'. With both his parents being dragonriders, Zash was filled with a sense of moral obligation to Stand. When the time came, there seemed to be more boy more excited than he. Z'fel riding a brown made other Weyrfolk think his son was likely to do the same. Zashfellen was certainly a dependable sort, solid like a brown dragon. Yet, there were other whispers that were not so favorable. Ashrah had Impressed a Scarlet, a red dragon that seemed to be a female offshoot of a blue or brown dragon. Weyrfolk mumbled various speculations about him and all the candidates who gathered to stand for what would become to be known as Titanium Parazath's last clutch. The morning of the Hatching, there was talk all around. The cobalt dragon Maraxith had sired this clutch; he had caught Parazath the previous time she had flown and there was a clear favor between the two dragons and their riders. Maraxith had shown he was capable of siring Traditional males; bronze, brown and blue. He seemed even more capable of siring cobalts. Regardless of the misgivings of the many elders of the Weyr, Zashfellen stood for that Hatching. He didn't concern himself over the color of a his dragon's hide. If he didn't Impress in his first few turns of Standing, he had decided he would apply to be transferred to Harper Halll for training.  

Eastern Weyr, it seems, had a different plan.

While standing for his first Hatching, at fourteen turns old, Zashfellen could not take his eyes off of a large, onyx black egg near the middle of the sands. The egg toppled and bursting from the black shards was a powerfully built bronze dragonet, gleaming bright in the sunlight. The cheers went up from the watching crowd in a roar and the dragons hummed along the rim of the Hatching Grounds. A bronze was a very good sign and he looked splendid. The light gleamed down his clean lines as he fanned his wings, ripping shades of green kissed gold and brassy notes. With slow pleasure, the bronze dragonet mantled his magnificent wings about him like a cloak. He seemed to be very much aware all eyes were upon him, even though other eggs were hatching as he surveyed the grounds. The bronze raised his head regally, almost arrogantly, and his broadcast was as clear as morning bell.

You must come to me now! You are my rider, and therefore above the rest of these.  Look on us, mighty ones, and despair!

Zash blinked, surprised, at the sound of the powerful voice. HIs brown eyes grew wide as they settled on the bronze who stared squarely at him. The dragonet crossed the space between himself and his chosen one, reaching out to bump the young boy his muzzle.

I am Manticath. You will never be alone again, rider mine.

Ashrah couldn't have been happier for him and congratulated him heartily but the joy was bittersweet. Not long after Titanium queen Parazeth was lost between and the new colors exiled to another weyr to maintain the purity of the traditional bloodlines. As a new weyrling to a rare bronze dragon, Z'ash was forced to stay at Eastern Weyr while his mother had to leave. Before she did, however, Ashrah encouraged Z'ash to attend to his studies and give Manticath great care.

"One day you could be Weyrleader, Z'ash. Then you will have all the power you need to bring the Weyrs back together." Ashrah had said before hugging him and bidding him goodbye. Her words have never left Z'ash brain and as Manticath grows, he turned a mind toward what the future would hold.

The pair could never have expected what would happen.

Plague gripped the land, sweeping the whole of Pern and infecting all dragons. All dragons except those who has sprung from Olenath's bloodline. All across the planet, gold queen dragons were sickening and dying. Then the bronzes and slowly the rest of the Weyr lost all sparkle of life. When Eastern Weyr's queen Vioneth fell ill, all of the Eastern seemed paralyzed. All but Wingleader Jah'vi of bronze Nolinth, who led a small contingent of the Olenath bred dragons to White Lightning Weyr looking for answers and safe haven.

In an upside down world, bereft of queens and as one of the few bronze riders left, Z'ash and Manticath strain to get traction. Only time will tell if they can make headway.


Dragon Art credited by: Sevillalost
Name: Manticath
Color: Bronze
Speech Hex Code: Tarnished Metallic Bronze Fade
d2980d, aebd57, d2980d
Impression date:  P10.44.Turn's End
Wing: TBD
Physical description: Manticath broke free of the Onyx egg with ease because he is a muscular, well proportioned dragonet. Strong of limb and wing, Manticath is covered in a marriage of caramel, tarnished bronze, tan and deep moss green. His color goes more to the green-gold bronze down his thick, muscular tail. This bronze was built for power, a fact evident from hatching. There is no doubt that when Manticath is grown, he will be one of the largest male dragon in the entire Weyr. Well, at least until a larger bronze comes along. Manticath carries himself with pride and confidence, though man would call it arrogance. He knows he is the most rare of the Old Guard; a fact that he builds upon. He always has his head held high, a lord surveying what will one day be his territory. At this time, Manticath has no scars or markings.

Personality: From the moment of his hatching, Manticath knew exactly who and what he was: master of his domain, lord of all he surveyed. It was, perhaps, a bit of an annoying wrinkle that he had to be so irritatingly small when he hatched, but in the end, it worked out for the best. For it is during his hatchling and weyrling years that he will learn the sly subtleties that truly effect results. Any large fool can bully his way into something by sheer power. Only the most brilliant leaders can lead with subtlety. And Manticath, of course, can only be the most brilliant of leaders. Just ask him.

Manticath may be a pompous dragon but he is not cruel. He understand that with power comes responsibility to those under you. He wants with all his heart to be a great leader, not just respected but loved by his fellows for his strength and prowess. From the moment he bonded with Z'ash, he picked up on the boy's need for greatness and will capitalize on it in the Turns to come.