MASTER HARPER LAZARIA

Persona : Lazaria
Writing Status : NPC/Free
Age : 40
Gender : Female
Rank : Master Harper (Voice)
Residence : Sonnette's Dawn Hold
Birthplace : Igen Hold
Father's Name : Yaren
Father's Rank : Journeyman Farmer
Mother's Name : Shannagh
Mother's Rank : Journeywoman Farmer

Physical Description : Appearance-wise, Lazaria has little to recommend her. Very few people would describe her as attractive. Her hair is ash-brown and falls in soft, feathery curls to the small of her back. It has no shine or lustre to it at all. She has a chronic problem with split ends. Usually, she wears her hair up in a bun, but on special occasions she'll let it hang loose. When she does this, it frames her face and actually looks quite nice. Her eyes are her best feature; they're dark brown and expressive, with long, luxurious lashes, but are rather too large for her thin face. Her complexion, under the tan that her time in the South has gotten her, is peaches-and-cream, very pale. She's about 5'4" tall but her narrow build makes her look taller. Her face is thin and square, the bones sculpted and prominent. Her lips are fairly full, but not excessively so, and her nose a little too long and perfectly straight.

Laugh-lines surround her eyes but she is capable of looking deadly serious at a moment's notice. Her smile is small but warm. Her limbs are longish, giving her a gangly appearance, and her neck long and graceful. There is a small wart on her right elbow. Laz usually dresses in practical clothing, shirt, tunic, and trousers in reserved colours. However, she loves to dress up and gathers or parties will usually find her wearing a long flowing gown, often in purple, which is her favourite colour. She has a gorgeous voice, the kind that makes people want to listen to it whether she's singing or scolding, and her singing range is about three octaves.

Personality : Lazaria's mother and father were not exactly model parents, and she lives with some painful memories of childhood abuse. It seemed as if every time she opened her mouth someone told her that children should be seen and not heard, thus she still talks little but when she does her melodious voice with its soft Igen accent is very evident even when speaking in a normal tone. She has few close friends but gives freely of herself to anybody she does consider a friend and cares the world what they think and feel. With strangers she is quiet and speaks only when spoken to, trying to gauge the situation. She has no actual enemies, but can turn a very cold shoulder to anybody she doesn't like. Feelings of rejection were common when she was little and even now a rejection or slight makes her feel small and vulnerable again. Her anger is rare but searing.

Her talents in the harpercraft include gitar and flute, and she can do a little embroidery. She's interested in history and in family trees, perhaps because she remembers so little of her own family. However, the one thing she really loves about her job is singing: when she's singing she feels as if she's flying and can forget everything except the notes and the joy of the moment. She writes her own music infrequently but when she does it's almost always a cappella for one voice. She instinctively knows her own range and can sing her own songs perfectly every time. Music reading is as natural to her as breathing. She is earnest and responsible where her craft is concerned, especially teaching. She would rather teach her students to love music than to make it, as the latter usually follows the former, and how to think as opposed to what to think.

Lazaria respects dragons but is also rather afraid of them, having heard stories about the uglier parts of hatchings and watched dragons feeding. She is extremely polite to dragonriders. The bigger the dragon, the more formal Laz is likely to be. To ride a dragon was never an ambition for her; all she ever wanted to be since being presented with the opportunity is a Harper. Laza is usually gentle when dealing with most people, not liking to intimidate anybody.

Romantic relationships are not a big part of Laza's life. She's too afraid that any relationship will end up like her own dimly-remembered parents; always fighting and then taking out their anger on the children. She has vowed that no child of hers will have to live like that.

Life Story : Yarragh was the only child of two Igen Hold farmers. She was an odd-looking child, with a thin, bony face and over-large eyes and people tended to look at her strangely. She never had many friends. Until she was eight Turns old, she heard people speak of Weyrs and dragons and Holds far away, but these things were mere abstractions and Yarragh, small, fey-looking, and unimportant except as a target for her parents' anger, never realised there was more to the world than Igen Hold and the desert around it.

In the sixth Turn of the Pass, shortly after Yarragh's eighth birthingday, a monster sandstorm blew in from the desert and Yaren and Shannagh enlisted their daughter's help to bring as many of the herdbeasts inside as they could. The sandstorm was upon them sooner than they expected, so thick that one could barely see one's hand in front of one's face. It was not until everybody had hurried back inside and was busy shaking sand out of their clothing that anybody noticed that Yarragh had vanished. As soon as the sandstorm was over, people went out to search for the girl, but found no sign of her. They decided that the sand must have buried her and one morbid soul speculated that they'd find her skeleton in the sand, Turns from now.

Two sevendays after her initial disappearance, the Hold performed a funeral service for Yarragh at just about the same time as a blue dragon and rider on sweep found an unconscious, badly sunburned girl half-buried in a sand dune. The rider took her back to Igen Weyr with him. A healer pronounced the girl severely dehydrated and unlikely to live. Contrary to everybody's expectations, she recovered, but refused to answer questions about her past. She was afraid that if she told anybody her name, they'd send for her parents.

The girl's refusal to tell her name infuriated the Igen headwoman, who complained "well, I can't just call you 'hey, you,' now can I, girl?" Still the eight-Turn old said nothing. "Well," snapped the headwoman, "if you don't have a name, perhaps I'll just have to give you one." Since she got no reply, the headwoman assumed that this was all right with her charge, and named the girl Lazaria. By the time she was nine, Laz realised that the weyrfolk wouldn't send her home if she didn't want to go, but she thought 'Lazaria' a prettier name than 'Yarragh' and kept it.

Laz attended Harper classes with the rest of the weyrchildren and the weyrsinger noticed her talent for singing. He offered her an apprenticeship. Fourteen-Turn old Lazaria had never thought about being a Harper, but when the Journeyman suggested it she knew immediately that harpering was the one thing in the world she wanted to do. At age 16, she went to the Harper Hall. Master Harper Alemery, who tested her, told the Masterharper: "Well, she certainly isn't much to look at, but shards, man, the girl can sing!" Laza has become well-known for her voice, which Alemery, always full of praise, says must be one of the most beautiful on Pern.

During her Turns as Journeywoman, Lazaria travelled all over the Northern continent but never saw much of the South. Thus when word came late in PP 34 that Sonnette's Dawn Hold needed a Master Harper, Laz (who had just earned her mastery) took the offer.

Last updated 09-Apr-03.