These are my old characters from PernMUSH, from which I finally retired in the year 1998.
F’hlan (Fahlan)
I started playing F’hlan during a stint of downtime for Two Moons MUSH, way back in 1992; he was loosely based upon my old character Woodhawk from that game, and Woodhawk in turn was loosely based on the character Strongbow from the Elfquest series of comic books.
F’hlan, bronze Tzornth’s rider, had been a rider in a position of command for all of his adult life. Ever since his Weyrling days, up until old injuries forced him to turn the position over to P’tran, bronze Laerth’s rider, he was the Wingleader of Benden Weyr’s Thunderbolt Wing. He had also served as Weyrsecond and Wingsecond, and when I retired him he went off camera to take on his second stint as Benden’s Weyrleader, following the pair of crises that required the move of K’tyn and Jehrina, along with several wings’ worth
of Benden riders, to Telgar Weyr.
He gained renown for a shy demeanor unusual for a bronze rider, for his lean, soulful looks (though he always swore up and down that he was “NOT that sharding handsome”), and for his apparent uncanny ability to attract small, cute green fire lizards to Impress him — especially when his previously acquired greens were about to rise, which they gleefully did in sync for Turns. Much to his chagrin, his Wingmates often teased him for trying to build himself a second dragon from all of his green fire lizards.
After many Turns of riding, he became a solid and mature Weyrleader, content with his life, proud of his many children, and somehow managing to juggle being a Weyrleader with having a weyrmate who served active duty as a Master at the Harper Hall. Having a dragon made it fairly easy to traverse Pern to keep in touch with his widely scattered family, when his duties permited — and the large numbers of fire lizards which look to various members of the family assured that even when they couldn’t meet face to face, F’hlan, Melora, and F’hlan’s assorted offspring could keep in regular contact.
F’hlan was by habit a quiet-natured man, and was rarely seen in public, preferring to leave most social occasions up to younger riders. He would, however, readily bestir himself to attend important events involving his children and was proud of his son Fahloran’s Standing for a clutch at Igen Weyr. His bronze Tzornth, of far more voluble and prideful temperament, was a perfect foil for his rider, and delightedly enjoyed his regained status as the king bronze of Benden Weyr.
F’hlan and Mehlani Logs | F’hlan’s Family Tree
F’hloran (Fahloran)
The firstborn son of F’hlan and his weyrmate Melora, F’hloran was born at Benden Weyr and spent his earliest Turns there, though he also spent several Turns living with his family on the Southern Continent while F’hlan was forced to recuperate from injuries sustained in the course of Threadfighting. Upon his family’s return to Benden, the boy took on a bit of maturity acting as the caretaker of his father and their younger siblings whenever their mother Melora was on duty at the Harper Hall.
This experience stood him in good stead to be accepted into the Healercraft, and he spent a considerable amount of time studying there; however, much to his frustration he eventually took his studies in a new direction, learning dragonhealing at Igen Weyr during his sixteenth Turn. It was at Igen that he met his eventual weyrmate Siara — and at Igen where he sired his own first child, Sahra.
Eventually, however, the young man returned to Benden Weyr when his father became Weyrleader there a second time — and, much to his amazement, did what he’d never done at Igen. He Impressed his own dragon, and joined his sister Mehlani in carrying on the legacy of their dragonriding family in the Weyr of their birth.
F’hloran during his childhood and early adulthood days appears in several F’hlan and Mehlani Logs.
Mehlani
The second-born child of F’hlan and Melora, who took strongly after her serious, dutiful father, Mehlani became my primary character on PernMUSH when the players of Benden Weyr needed to move their on-camera roleplay to Telgar during Mehlani’s 14th Turn. Through most of the rest of her adolescence Mehlani lived at that Weyr, though she also spent a bit of time at the Harper Hall with her mother; she considered joining the Harpercraft as well, but never got around to committing to it despite more than one Harper being interested in her potential talent. The Herders were interested in Mehlani as well, due to her deep and abiding affection for runnerbeasts. Moreover, Mehlani frequently got interest of another kind entirely: that of the young men who often saw her at Telgar. The dragonriders K’star and E’rian, the Baker Jorenan, and the Miner Devlin all contended for her affections.
However, Mehlani wanted nothing more than to be a dragonrider like her father, and it caused her great consternation when she was Searched yet failed to Impress at Telgar Weyr. Only after she finally chose the brownrider K’star as the man she truly loved, and returned with him to Benden Weyr — my explanation for where she went when I retired her from active play — did she finally achieve that goal. Impressing green Marionth, she settled down to live out the rest of her days as a dragonrider, K’star’s weyrmate, and the mother of their son Jorestar, partly named for Jorenan who she loved almost as much as K’star.
F’hlan and Mehlani Logs
Rillawy
Rillawy was the foster sister of F’hlan, my primary character on PernMUSH; she was the child of Marrill and Janawy of Tillek Hold, and her family was kin to F’hlan’s dead mother. Rillawy’s family fostered F’hlan during his adolesence, and Rillawy, who was three years F’hlan’s junior, was the one out of her brothers and sisters who became closest to him.
During her own adolesence Rillawy acquired several fire lizards: green Twen, blues Fahr and Zash, and browns Ulm and Sur. As she shared F’hlan’s skill at music — from F’hlan she learned how to make flutes — she aspired to enter the Harper Hall, but was turned from that ambition by the death of her older brother Janmar, a Woodsmith. Rillawy adored her older brother, and felt compelled to follow him into the Woodsmith Craft, and for several Turns productively occupied herself until she made the rank of Journeyman.
Rillawy had a few love interests in her early adulthood, including a young brown rider named A’tris, and a Benden Weyr Steward named Lytal, incidentally a close friend of F’hlan’s. But, perhaps because of her discontent in her Craft — for Rillawy still, at least partially, regretted not entering the Harper Hall — or perhaps because of her eventual drifting away from these two young men, Rillawy eventually cut herself adrift. She resigned from the Woodsmith Craft, and set out to quietly wander Pern, occasionally checking in to visit her family, or F’hlan at Benden. But for the most part, she kept to herself.
Rillawy was my first female character on PernMUSH; I gave her up due to lack of time to play her properly. But I later resurrected her, at least partly, in an offline gaming campaign, as she still interested me as a character concept.
Anra
Anra was the third of the children born to F’hlan and Melora, and while Melora’s player and I emitted her initially, we tried to hand her off to new players fairly early on and she wound up going through a few players before she was finally retired.
During the first six months of her life she was cared for by Melora’s family, while Melora remained on extended assignment with the Harper Hall. After that, when F’hlan was briskly hauled back to active duty at Benden Weyr by Weyrwoman Jehrina, little Anra accompanied her parents back to that Weyr.
While Fahloran nominated himself his father’s helper and Mehlani was a quiet-natured echo of F’hlan, Anra quickly developed into the protypical Weyrbred tomboy… and quickly learned the fastest ways to get into mischief. Keeping up with her family tradition, Anra Impressed firelizards very early–in fact, her first green firelizard, Dirt, was Impressed at age two, and she picked up a second green, Cook, at age five!
Anra took quickly to the Weyr adults, but grew almost closer to them than she did her own mother. This prompted Melora to whisk her off to live with her at the Harper Hall, and which eventually led to her apprenticing with the Harpercraft. But when F’hlan regained the Weyrleadership of Benden (concurrent with the move of many Benden Weyr residents to Telgar), Anra eventually came back on a visit–and to her shock, Impressed a harper-blue hatchling named Tasketh, thereby joining her sister Mehlani on green Marionth as a Benden rider.
Anra in her earliest childhood days appears in several F’hlan and Mehlani Logs.