Ish'mael of Bronze Siddharth

Playername:  DA
Playeremail: bedlamandmayhem@gmail.com
PlayerIMs: zhKyrl

Charname: Ish'mael
Age: 25 (3.04.2399)
Rank: Bronze Rider

Description: The first impression of this man is that of sheer mass. He towers easily too tall for many a doorframe and too broad as well for narrow passages (7'8"). Soft velvet brown eyes, the color of dark chocolate are set just a little to widely for even his broad face, they are the only pleasant feature about his face. Naturally bronze complexion is deepened, as if by sun or great heat, as if he'd been tossed in an oven and baked. His face is seamed and scarred at irregular intervals. Part of his nose is missing as if sliced off by a sword. One thick scar bisects his right eye, though the eye itself seems untouched the brand, for so the wound seems, stretches all the way down that cheek to his jawline.  His bald head offers no concealment for any of the scars. His shoulders slope slightly under their own weight, though seem no wise burdened or stooped. His barrel chest, once more bearish in its girth tapers to a narrower waist, there is relatively little flab about his frame, powerful legs support his massive frame almost negligently. Only his hands contrast the sheer weight of his frame. The broad palms spread to he expected girth, then to startlingly long, comparatively slender fingers, calloused and rough as the rest of him.

Personality: Ish'mael is not an easy man to deal with. He has a temper, which, backed with his over 400 pounds of solid muscle, is something of a frightening thing. He keeps a reign on it, but sometimes that reign holds only by the thinnest of margins. He has the potential to be utterly and completely ruthless, and is frequently very aggressive. He is not a /nice/ man by any stretch of the imagination. He does have a code of ethics but it is entirely his own and doesn't always mesh with that of the world around him. He does have his soft points and weak spots but they are not things he advertises. He cannot stand weakness in anyone, and this includes himself.

Gender/Sexual Preference: Male, Heterosexual
Dragon Sensitivity:  3 - Almost Dragon Deaf

History: Born the youngest of two boys to Ishtara and Lamasael at Fresh Water bay Hold. Ish'mael was always huge. By twelve he was standing eye to eye with his father who was /not/ a small man. He had a rough temperament as a child, and had a tendency to be known as something of a bully. He didn't see it that way. In his own mind he was doing the right thing, and there usually was benefit involved (sometimes serious) when he stepped in. He usually simply used his size and rather unpleasant appearance to scare other children away from what he thought they shouldn't be doing.

It was almost a relief when his size and growing strength got him into the guard at the age of 10. This helped ease some of the tensions between the parents in the area, and gave him something that occupied most of his time. His mother and father both had seen to it he and his brother, who was a big man but no where near Ish'mael's monstrous size, were fit and had the basic instruction in both of their crafts. Lamastar had gone strait to seacraft though he only formally started at the same time Ish'mael did.

Ish'mael's first few years in the guards were rocky. It took a great deal of time for him to bend to the structured authority of the Guards. Especially when he felt the people above him were acting wrongly in a given situation. Most of his punishment details came about from telling his superiors, quite honestly, that he thought they were morons and exactly why. He was right more often than not, but that didn't help matters as it wasn't often enough to vindicate the /level/ of insubordination. Tensions were growing when a harper came to train with them to learn sword work and how to pass as something /other/ than a
harper.

The Captain saw an opportunity and as soon as the details were worked out Ish'mael was sent to Harper Hall for training in undercover work. There were enough bandits in southern Continent to justify it, and there were enough Guards in the Harper Hall area to keep him in fighting trim. He returned to them a turn later, now 17. They immediately set him out to infiltrate a group of bandits that had been growing increasingly bold over the past 6 months.

The infiltration went seamlessly. According to many it went a little /too/ seamlessly, for there were several skirmishes in which Ish'mael was involved, and he was plying his full abilities against his once comrades. The more worldly wise of the guards asked the doubters what they expected, if he pulled his punches he'd be suspect. It took two years for them to garner enough information to actually break /most/ of the Bandit group. They had been canny and not taken new recruits to the leader's group until they were well tested and proven.

The ones that didn't get away (and very few escaped though one or two did.), were primarily dead. Some whispers started that perhaps it was a little /too/ convenient that all the leaders wound up dead so they could say if this was the /only/ group. Ish'mael seemed unperturbed by the whisperings, and went back to his duties as a guard, only to get pulled from them by a lieutenant who was pushing for an investigation, maintaining that Ish'mael did more to /help/ the bandits than he did to bring them down. Before things came to a head or got out of hand, a messenger rider came to Fresh Water Bay. The blue, left to his own devices while his rider took care of their duties, spent the entire time watching the sparring practices of the guards... specifically Ish'mael. When the rider heard of the troubles, he suggested Ish'mael come back with them to Monaco, they had a clutch on the sands and if he wasn't interested in standing he could at least teach the candidates self defense. It would give both sides time to sort things out.  Secretly the rider was hoping to get a few more good connections with some of the bandits for regular smuggling runs.

Ish'mael almost refused. He liked being a guard, but the choice was clear, go, stand (by his captain's order), and come back if he didn't impress with no censure or further investigation, or spend the next turn sitting on his rump doing nothing while he was investigated. The implication being he would be found guilty whether he was, or not. He went with the rider.

He had little enough time to make any reputation at Monaco Weyrhold, for the hatching was barely two weeks after he was searched. The big man was shocked to see the smallest bronze in the clutch making strait for him. Siddharth didn't see what the problem was and Fresh Water Bay no longer had to worry about their troublesome guard.

They did not get through weyrlinghood without several rocky starts.  He struggled with the dragon-bond that so many people took so casually.  He actually had to work to talk coherently with his own dragon!  It was frustrating for him to find something that required this much work for so little reward.  Only Siddharth's patience and ability to speak very clearly with almost anyone helped them through it.  He had wanted Ish'mael.  No one else would suit, so he wasn't about to let His wollow in silence! 

Unfortunatly added to that: Ish'mael's personality hadn't changed, and once he /learned/ the rules he applied his own peculiar view of the world to them. He was never once, technically out of line, but his scared face, no wise improving his already less than pleasing looks, and size once more made him far more intimidating than most people were comfortable with, especially since he /used/ it whenever he felt the situation required it. His definition of 'neccissary' once more did not mesh with his superiors. He was assigned to a wing, and the wingleader was ordered to make him 'toe the line', which lead to more tensions in the ranks.

Ish'mael was grudgingly beginning to respect his Wingleader, and the wingleader was starting to reciprocate, when the bandits returned. Ish'mael had achieved a rank of wingsecond, but this wouldn't last. It was, however, an occasion of some celebration and his wingleader presented him with a firelizard egg, from his own gold's clutch (he'd been an apprentice breeder before deciding to stand.) The egg hatched out a delicate little green but neither man cared, the point had been made. Alas the respite did not last long.

As the rider with the most experience with bandits, Ish'mael was sent to locate as much information as he could. His methodical search and tendency to keep very secretive about his information would wind up backfiring. After several months of searching another young bronze rider found them first, after only two days. Accusations were leveled again, this time that Ish'mael was in active, willing collussion with the bandits. The exchange came to blows, which didn't help matters. That the other bronze rider was in the infirmary from the pounding he received at Ish'mael's hands didn't help is case either, except in his wingleader's eyes. His wingleader one, Z'en by name, pointed out that if Ish'mael had wished it, the boy would have been dead. The opinion was backed by Ish'mael's dragon who was far more reasonable than his rider.

The debate once more wrangled, and while Ish'mael was not pulled from duty he was stripped of his rank. Siddharth pointed out to the dragons that Ish'mael had pulled the final punch because he had /known/ it would kill the rider and didn't wish to. This information was disregarded. Afterall, it was only natural for the dragon to defend his rider. It is not certain where Delandri came into the equation, but somewhere it did. Ish'mael was once more offered the 'opportunity' to transfer. This time he took it whole heartedly, thoroughly disgusted by the entire affair. Z'en was the only one to actually see him go, and the only good bye he wanted to make.

Thus he arrived at Delandri, in a dubious state of grace or disgrace. He has cynically wondered how long before /this/ place attempts to rid themselves of him as well.

Pets
Type: Firelizard
Name: Lady
Color: green
Age: 2
Description:
A powder white green frosts over a warm, pale spring tone. She is small even for a green, delicately built, and woven from the purest, palest shades of all types of green. Her ridges are brushed with icy birch, and her slender wingsails are dusted over with hints of ruddy maple hues. Her slender body gives way to gentle curves around her haunches, and flows in to the whiplike
tail, all an even true-grass green.

Dragon
Name: Siddharth
Color: Bronze
Age: 5
Description: Siddharth is small for a bronze, but broad of shoulder and lean of muscle. His hide is oddly patterned, His left side is swirled with a pale shade of bronze, as if too much tin had been tossed into the mix starting at his shoulder and sweeping down over his side to a point just over his haunches. A darker shade, tarnished to an almost black starts at a point on his shoulder, almost pushed out of the way by the lighter hue, it sweeps over his right side to intrude on the paler shade by covering Siddharth's haunches in an oddly symmetrical pattern. The symetry wasn't even marred by two 'flaws' in this mottling, a nearly round spot of dark just below his shoulder blades, and a matching patch of light on the darkness of his haunches just along the spine. The rest of him is a median shade, smooth and even. His broad wings, almost too large for his frame, cover enough of the shading on his back to make it seem completely random... until he spreads them.
Personality: Siddharth is a very calm, philosophical dragon, a marked contrast to his rider's temper. He has a longer memory than most of his kind seem to, it is not something he broadcasts, but he frequently pulls together extrapolations and snippets of advice that he imparts to his rider, associations that seem random, but Ish can only attribute to a longer memory than most dragons have. He is very methodical, but it tends to be a simple method. Sometimes it makes him seem ponderous, for he prefers to think and consider before acting. When he /does/ spring into action it usually comes as a great surprise to everyone.  It came in quite handy when dealing with Ish'mael who struggled with the dragon bond, and had to learn how to communicate naturally with Siddharth, being next best thing to Dragon Deaf.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
While small for a bronze he is stocky, unfortunately this makes him very ungainly on land. In the air his large wings are at once a help and a hindrance. They are easy for him to misjudge, even with turns of practice, but they give him an endurance unmatched by most bronzes, even if he does have to be more careful about his intricate maneuvers.

Craft
Craft: Guard
Rank: Lieutenant
Specialties: Undercover Operations