Harper Rylan

Name: Rylan
Race: Human
Sex: Male
Age: 30
Profession: Journeyman Harper


Harper Rylan is a moderately tall young man of five feet and ten inches in height, with the muddy skin tone that comes from generations of inter-ethnic breeding. He has dark brown hair, often pulled back into a ponytail, sometimes decorated with a braid or two. His eyes are green, but not so much a stunning green as a murky shade that doesn't stand out. All told, Rylan is the picture of ordinary. Just barely on the handsome side of plain, Harper Rylan is not the kind of man one remembers seeing.


Rylan is a quiet man when he's left to his own devices, but that just means he's thinking about something. Like any Harper, he's well-versed in the lore of the land, the old teaching ballads of Pern, and a whole lot in between, and he's more than happy to share that information if he's asked. He's easy to talk to, Rylan, but also prone to observing people and their behavior from the edges of gatherings as if he hopes to learn more about how people interact by watching than by doing. Just as often, Rylan can be seen taking notes. He studies. The truth is that aside from being a Harper, he's also a novelist, and he wants as much information about people as he can get to inspire his characters...not that his novels sell well, no matter what genre he tries to write in this time. He aspires to be Weyrharper, because he's damn tired of living in his older brother's shadow. It would be one thing if his brother was amazing and it was that kind of shadow, but Tomlin is known world-wide for his blundering incompetence. It's a lot harder to get out from underneath that.


Rylan was born on Teragaia to a very simple family in the middling reaches of territories beholden to Haven Weyr for protection. He and his elder brother both went to Harper Hall when they respectively turned twelve to begin training. Given Tomlin is six years Rylan's senior, Harper Hall had had six years of expectations built up before they met Rylan. Expectations of stupidity, incompetence, ineptitude. They expected more of the same from Rylan, and it was extremely difficult for Rylan to prove himself and his worth even when he did his exercises correctly. Even when he pushed himself so far above and beyond what was being asked of him that he almost exhausted himself to injury, all anyone could see was "that Tomlin's brother".

So often, it's still like that.

He took to writing novels on the side first to put his feelings to words, and then to construct worlds where this kind of inequality didn't exist. Then it was about honing his craft as a Harper. Eventually it morphed into Rylan wanting to be some kind of author on the side, and he is indeed published, though he can't really call himself an accomplished novelist. His fans number in the single digits. Still, writing keeps his craft sharp, and it keeps his mind occupied.

Rylan was eighteen before he got to walk the tables and become a Journeyman Harper. He knows the teaching ballads inside and out, he knows his craft, but he doubts he'll get any further unless he Impresses a dragon and becomes a Weyrharper.

Some shadows are just too hard to get out from under.



Hey, I know that! -- Harper Rylan is a Journeyman Harper who has been extensively trained in the knowledge of a lot of things. Dragonlore, Pern lore, plant lore, history, name a category and he's got some knowledge on the topic squirreled away somewhere.

Sound the Drums -- As a Harper, Rylan is fluent in drum cadences that even standard Teragaians haven't been trained to interpret, and can also roll out messages himself...on days he can take the drumsticks away from his idiot brother...