Persona Profile: Kachine

Writer: Shame

Name: Kachine
Age: 27
Birthday: m10 d28
Rank: Junior Apprentice Healer
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Craft: Healer
Craft Rank: Junior Apprentice

Physical Description of Persona:
Kachine is beautiful, although she does not realize it. Her beauty is of a fragile sort, like the first spring flowers that will be killed by frost. Tawny hair that falls down to her waist, bound in a single braid that follows her spine and ends at her hips, a plait of living gold. Delicately arched eyebrows crown large eyes, emerald optics that always hold an edge of wonder, no matter how hard she tries to remove it. Her nose is straight with a slight curve to the tip, placed above coral lips. Her skin is a smooth ivory, seeming untouched from blemish or sun, a result of a mother who insisted that proper young ladies stayed within the Hold and did not run about in a reckless fashion. On those few ocassions where Kachine does venture outside for a long period of time, her pale skin burns too easily and a splattering of cinammon-colored spots appear, freckles sprinkling across the bridge of her nose and splaying across her cheeks.

Kachine has a decently curvaceous form, but few realize this fact as she keeps herself cloaked in modest skirts and blouses, ever the proper Hold girl in appearances. She stands at barely five feet tall, small boned and lean.

Emotional Description of Persona:
Kachine was raised as a proper holder lass, taught to be hardworking, gentle, and modest at all costs. She has a tendency of feeling her emotions too intensely. When she is happy, she is glowing and when she is sad, she cannot hold back the tears. As such, the intensity of her emotions gives her a childlike quality, and living in the sheltered life of the Hold has only increased this innocence. When it comes to males, she has not the slightest idea of how to proceed, completely at odds with the idea of flirtations. She is trying to adapt to life at the Weyr, but often finds herself feeling overwhelmed and out of place. During these times, the girl withdraws into herself, watching the world go by without her. So she loses herself in her healing lessons, trying to start where she left off. Kachine feels that should she become a true healer, a Journeyman, her life would be something she could be proud of. It would have meaning.

History of Persona:
Kachine was raised in the restricting confines of Emerald Falls Hold, born to a cotholder named Khalin and his wife Triacet. Four elder brothers had proceeded her in birth, and as the only daughter and the youngest as that, Kachine was the family's pet. Her father adored her and her brothers looked after her, but her mother made sure that the girl was raised as a proper holder lass, aware of her position in life.

The girl was biddable enough, a sweet little thing who never failed to charm the hearts of those around her. She did her chores as she was told, trailed along behind her older brothers, and was content with her life. When she was eleven turns old, however, a newcomer arrived in their midst. A disheveled and grizzly looking man came to their cothold, the brother of her mother, the uncle she had never met. He was a Journeyman Healer named Rahiyan, but he had decided against advancing in his craft. Instead, he turned his attention towards family ties and arrived to help at the small cothold that relied on herding for their means of survival.

When her eldest brother broke his arm from a nasty kick of a herdbeast, Kachine saw Rahiyan as a healer in action for the first time, and fell in love with the craft. In an area where female crafters were prohibited, the girl's interest was not taken very well. When she begged to receive private training from her uncle, her mother was the one who refused. Her daughter was not going to grow up with ideas in her head, ideas that would make her rise about her station. But Kachine's father could never deny his youngest daughter anything. After many arguments, her mother was finally talked into the idea with the reminder that women who knew basic healing skills would be more appreciated as a wife. Working with herds could be dangerous work, and professional healers could not always reach the wounded in their cotholds in time.

The turns passed, and Kachine soaked up all of the knowledge that Rahiyan could teach her. The girl was discovered to have a clear aptitude for the craft, and had she been born a male, there would be no doubt that she would have been sent to the Healer Hall. As a female, however, she was meant to stay at the cothold and start a family of her own. But the more she learned, the more she grew aware that she wanted nothing more in life than to train in her craft.

The girl managed to avoid proposals of marriage longer than most of her childhood companions, all of whom had been wed at the age of fifteen and sixteen. But Kachine's father did not press his precious daughter to bond herself to a holder lad, not until she was eighteen turns. By that time, her mother was alarmed with the possibility that her daughter would not be married, and took matters into her own hands. She knew of a young man who lived merely a few hours walk away, unmarried and living alone. He would need a wife to help him create a niche in the world, and Kachine was horrified to find out that her mother had arranged their betrothal. But knowing that as a female, she could not aim for more in life, the aspiring healer gave up to the idea of marriage. It was meant to be her burden in life...

But as the wedding day grew closer, Kachine grew more and more frightened of her future. Although her betrothed was a nice enough young man, she did not want to spend her life bound to a cothold with babes clutching her skirts. It was her beloved uncle Rahiyan who whispered the idea into her ears, the insane plot to run away to the Weyr. Women could train in crafts there, and no one seeking a home was turned away. Rahiyan assured her that he knew a dragonrider who owed him a favor or two, a friend who would take her to Dolphin Cove. In the middle of the night, two days before her wedding day, Kachine stole away from the cothold with the help of her uncle's dragonrider friend. The normally timid girl had found a core of bravery that she hadn't known existed, and she now she is struggling to adjust to the strange world that is weyrlife.

Family and Friends
Rahiyan, 54, Journeyman Healer (Uncle)
Triacet, 51, Cotholder's wife (Mother)
Khalin, 62, Cotholder/Herder (Father)

Approved: April 11th 2006
Last updated: April 11th 2006

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Persona Profile: Kachine