The Greatest Are Misthought Bronze Nisuanekhdjieth
Nisu.png

Mercilessly dark, almost completely devoid of all color, this bronze is a beast of prey personified. A tone so dank that it barely classifies as sepia reaches down from skeletal 'ridges, sliding along wiry muscle and sinew like wraithly fingers until, finally, he is uncompromisingly black at the talons. Dusky bronze specters wisp across his hide, fading in and out across his thin neck and pinched chest before twining in a wild, almost macabre brocade beneath his battens and on towards his tail. Wings appear enormous compared to his whipflick of a body, dark brass staining them with nebulous tendrils of smoke and cloudmatter. This same hazy ochre whorls across a face full of cunning chicanery, flecks of copper and gold shattering the bridge of his nose and the hollow beneath his eyes, hopefully drawing gazes away from a maw full of sharp, overlong teeth.


Egg Name and Description

Stele Translations Egg
This egg is the hollow black of a starless night, dark as the depths of an ancient mausoleum. It is eerie to behold, the ovoid's surface polished to a glassy, lustrous shine… and then smashed to shambles. Rough patches on the egg are so abrupt, even physically indented, that it implies that there was once more to the egg before some unknown brutality was visited upon it. Scratches and blemishes attempt to overpower texts carved in three different hands, though none of them make any sense. Towards the top, images try to dominate, grey glyphs etched deep into the egg's ebon shell. Next are symbols that appear more akin to a child's inane scribbles, curling and striking in equal measure. Last, but not least, comparatively neat letters chiseled by cramped hand offer their translation, three very different generations represented on just one egg.


Hatching Message

The Stele Translations Egg is finally done biding its time. Both halves of its ragged stoney shell slough off to either side of a creature that, to be quite frank, is no lighter than the egg it came from. It is no grand entrance, with no commanding bugle, but this dragon… he has a /presence/ just the same, and it isn't exactly pure. Guard your children. Hide your wives. He of the Golden Tongue has arrived.


Impression Message

« Don't just stand there. » Long before you see him coming, he is there in your mind, a dark presence that plasters itself to your person with a crackle of static. Black silk clings to everything, blanketing you entirely, blocking out friends, family, the sands, sight, sound… everything but him, and you. « What else do you need?, » a rich purr of a voice asks, as though expecting his mere presence to be enough. A touch is pressed to your mind with the white-hot strength of a desert sun, baring all. « Perhaps some more intelligence… and perseverance… and drive. » This is said in sarcastic sotto voce, realizing too-little too-late that perhaps he had made a grave error in selecting this human. Their souls, perhaps, were destined for one another, but their minds… maybe not so much. « Well, we will just have to work on that. Come, Qe’pol. It is time for your Nisuanekhdjieth to help you start anew. » Because you have no choice in the matter. Wasn’t this just the start of a beautiful relationship?


Personality

“The ambitious will always be first in the crowd; he presseth forward, he looketh not behind him. More anguish is it to his mind to see one before him, than joy to leave thousands at a distance.” — Akhenaton, King of Egypt

Ambition: it rules Nisuanekhdjieth with an iron fist. He is a dragon with goals, an epic drive to succeed, and the inner fortitude and intelligence to persevere through most anything. Unfortunately, this blind ambition comes with a certain lack of morals, as he seems to care very little for those whom he steps upon along his way to the top. Every person he meets is a stepping stone, their purpose to be the shoulder of giants that he will climb on, all the better to reach the sun.

While debase acts such as murder are too far below his status for him to attempt, it is safe to say that there is little else he won’t do, no one he won’t screw over, to get where he needs to be. Always, he will be scheming, concocting any number of plots and twisted plans to achieve his ultimate goal: Total Pern Domination. He will pursue this from the day he is born until the day he dies with a ruthlessness that borders on obsession.

“I will do this. Nothing in my life matters except this. No moment of my life exists except this moment. I am born in this moment, and if I fail, I will die in this moment.” – Raistlin Majere

This will make for… quite a lot of fun for Qe’pol, especially at the start. Weyrlinghood is /designed/ so that new dragonriding pairs can make small mistakes under the watchful eyes of experienced riders, and be able to learn from them rather than succumb to worse trials and tribulations later… but for Nisuanekhdjieth, any failure no matter how small will be absolutely unacceptable. Mistakes are for lesser beings than him! He has /studied/ how to take off! He knows every move his muscles should make! He /cannot/ fail. To fail would find him lacking, would undermine his intelligence, and we cannot have that.

“Dude. Nisu. It’s okay. We’re /allowed/ to have bad take-offs.”
« Nisuanekhdjieth. It is /Nisuanekhdjieth/. And no, /we/ are not. They, perhaps, but not we. Never we. »

Which means that on more than one occasion, Nisuanekhdjieth will become, well… melodramatic is a nice word. He will get so focused, so bent on the success of one mission that it will become something of a be-all, end-all. He /must/ triumph or it will be his ruination! He will succeed, or he will not! There is no try.

“The half-elf comes to me for advise, not because I can see the future. I can't. I am no seer. He comes because I am able to think, which is something most of these other fools seem incapable of doing.” – Raistlin Majere

Luckily for Nisuanekhdjieth, whatever he lacks in the physical department, he can more than make up for with his wit and intellect. This will… probably be the only thing that makes him bearable. Well, sort of. Okay, not really, for you see, that golden tongue and brilliant mind of his go both ways: not only can they charm and seduce, but they can also dish out backhanded comments with the best of them, leaving many to wonder if they’ve just been complimented or insulted. It’s honestly that hard to tell.

« You are wise, did you say, Zhaoth? … Indeed. Well, mark you this: there /is/ a difference between wisdom and intelligence, brother. A person may have one without the other. »

Most of the time, Nisuanekhdjieth is charismatic enough to pull it off, simpering and overadoring in turns, sheer and utter bravado enabling him to pull the scheme off. Other times… not so much.

“Yes I am smarter than you - all of you. And someday I will prove it! Someday you - with all your strength and charm and good looks - you - all of you, will call me master!” – Raistlin Majere

Eventually, that quick tongue of his will tie him in knots. Someone’s bound to catch on that he’s been secretly telling the senior goldrider that she’s fat, or that he’s managed to poison the minds of the next generation of weyrlings into believing that /he/ will be the next weyrleading bronze so they’d better start kissing up to him now, and then… then your Nisuanekhdjieth will explode with a fury. He /knows/ he’s a damn sight smarter than all of these dragons. He might not have a mind for names, but he has more than they every can hope for in terms of sheer intelligence, and screw them for not realizing it! Someday, when he rules Pern, he will remember them, and they will receive no mercy!

For days on end he will seethe and hiss like water tossed on hot sand, only ceasing when he realizes that his righteous anger will get him nowhere with his goals. Cue immediate one-eighty! Qe’pol will, of course, still be privy to his murderous thoughts, but to all public eyes, Nisuanekhdjieth will slink into the shadows he so resembles, biding his time until he can resume his status quo.

“If I am to be judged by those who come after me, let me be judged for the truth.” – Raistlin Majere

The only thing he /will not stand/ for, in the end, is being blamed for another’s faults. Nisuanekhdjieth knows he has issues, will begrudgingly accept punishment for the people he’s stepped on to further himself, or pay recompense somehow to those he’s insulted, but he will not take the fall when he does not deserve it. This doesn’t make him a saint in return by any means – in fact, he’d probably be happy to let some other dragon take the heat for some of the things he’s done – but Nisuanekhdjieth’s pride is a very strange thing.

Master Theobald was such an inept teacher, however, that Raistlin often felt as if he were lying in ambush, waiting to pounce upon the first bit of useful information that might accidentally wander in his direction. — Narrator

Included in its strangeness is his approach towards gaining knowledge. It’s safe to say that no one will ever good enough for him – not weyrlingmasters, not experts in a craft, nobody! … But he will still pester them for every fact and figure they possess with a zeal that borders on ridiculous.

“Nisu. Master Tibor has told you /everything he knows/ about the life cycle of a trundlebug… including its, ugh, mating habits. Can’t that be good enough?”
« /Nisuanekhdjieth/. And no, he was wrong. I have never known a trundlebug to hiss when attacked! This requires further research. »

Indeed, though he will suck up information like a dry sponge, the only knowledge he will ever deem complete and final is his own. This is bad news for Pol. Rather than ladies, he will often find himself chasing down and dragging home random scrolls and hides Nisuanekhdjieth has requested, staying up half the night reading boring facts and figures off to his dragon rather than bedding that pretty girl that’s only visiting from Igen for the next couple days. With Nisuanekhdjieth around, the life of a bronzerider is… not all it cracked up to be.

“Hope is the denial of reality. It is the carrot dangled before the draft horse to keep him plodding along in a vain attempt to reach it." – Raistlin Majere

Most /teacher harpers/ will not learn half the things Nisuanekhdjieth will, and while this is a distinct advantage for Qe’pol (he can spout off impressive things just by tapping into his dragon’s memory), it also comes with a very no-nonsense analytical mind. There is no room for hope here, no sparkling aspirations: there is his final goal, and the path he must take to get there. Reality checks will be frequent facets in Pol’s world now, which will likely lead to their fair share of fights.

Fellow weyrlings will learn early on to avoid Qe and Nisu both when they feel an epic row building, for until he learns to control the volume and breadth of his mental projections, Nisuanekhdjieth’s fierce opinions on Pol’s person will be as loud as they are scathing, leaving very little sacred. Let’s hope Qe’pol doesn’t have any skeletons in his closet, because he’ll already have to fight hand over hand just to keep his bronze from trying to change everything that makes him Pol. His cheerful attitude merely disguises his underlying laziness! He is empty-headed by choice, and should be /ashamed/. And his lack of ambition? Honestly, it disgusts Nisuanekhdjieth that Qe’pol has so little will to take on responsibilities.

“The things of darkness cannot harm you, not so long as I am here." – Raistlin Majere

So why put up with this? Why accept a dragon that treats him like crap, and throws a nigh-constant mental barrage of dissatisfactions through their mental link? Why allow a mind so bent and twisted to reside within his own? Wouldn’t it be better to be a dragonless man, rather than put up with such darkness, such chaos? Perhaps, if not for a few redeeming moments that somehow, bafflingly, paint him as what he is: ultimately mortal.

These moments are, of course, few and far between. Very rarely will Nisuanekhdjieth let himself descend from his powerhungry heights, but when he does… It’s in the little things, like using his long body as shelter for Qe’pol from a heavy spring rain, or a wing draped across the bronzerider when he’s caught in the middle of a bad dream. If confronted about it later, of course, he’ll only reply with a gruff, « I’d want someone to do it for me. »

“Be it known that we, the greatest, are misthought.” — Cleopatra

And perhaps in the end that’s all that matters. No matter how ruthless and sly, there will always be the knowledge that some very small part of Nisuanekhdjieth is worth the while. It’s just… buried way, way deep down inside.

So deep down, in fact, that it will take the results of flights to ever bring them to the same mindset. Greenflights will often be skirted, as honestly, what does he have to gain from those? Very few greens and greenriders ever seem to obtain positions of power, so whether you sleep with them or he does, it will scarcely be worth the effort of tiring out his frail form. But golds… ah, now those are a different story. With each one comes a sort of prowess, an elevation of position just by being able to claim to be a gold’s mate. He will fly every single one he is able, oftentimes whether Qe’pol is okay with it or not. That sexy one down in Ierne? His. That burly one over at Ista? Bring it on. He’ll even go as far as to fly the senior queen of another weyr if his rider /ever/ slips up, so it would behoove Pol to mark Nisuanekhdjieth’s flight behaviors, and mark them well before he finds himself weyrleader of some place he’s never even been!

But when it comes to clutches, well… that shirking of responsibility is something they can bond over. He’ll be there for the spectacles: to bury the eggs, and to preside over the hatching like some dark shadow ready to judge all these lowly heathens that think they are good enough for his children. But everything in between will be up to Pol to guide – if the bronzerider doesn’t show, there’s a very good chance that Nisuanekhdjieth will not either. The rest is, misogynistically, women’s work, and it’s far too lowly for him!


Mindvoice


Inspiration

HAHAHA. NOW YOU ARE STUCK WITH US, QE'POL! >8D Er… I mean… ahem… welcome to weyrlinghood? :D This is surely bound to be an adventure for you and your character both - I hope you can enjoy it!

Egg: Our egg theme this cycle was "Ancient Artifacts". Nisuanekhdjieth's egg (Stele Translations) was based off the Rosetta Stone. Because the Egyptian text was also translated into demotic and Greek, linguists were able to decipher many previously-unknown Ancient Egyptian Heiroglyphics. Language is powerful - something you, Nisu, and I all know - and it is that kind of power that Nisuanekhdjieth will pursue - the kind that is absolute and lasting. He just has a funny ol' way of going about it. ;)

Name: You have made me love long names, damn you! I can actually spell Nisuanekhdjieth without looking, and I only have to slow down a little bit now! *fistshake* However, as well as long, it is a name of meaning. "Nisu" is Ancient Egyptian for 'king', and "a'nekh djet" is a common phrase meaning 'live for ever'. Not only does it leave room for a few nicknames (though Nisu is the most obvious one that I used), but it also seems to deeply describe the dragon's personality. I've been pronouncing it NEE'soo-ah'neck-gee-eth, but in the end, that will be up to you!

Theme: Our dragon theme had to do with the culture from which our artifacts originated, which means that Nisuanekhdjieth has a few smatterings of Egypt found throughout him. The most obvious are in the quotes of his RPtips (from Ahkenaton and Cleopatra) and his name, but in the end, I think he's very much like the Egyptian people of old, as well. We all know that the Egyptians once ruled a vast empire, were incredibly ambitious, and even went so far as to enslave several lesser peoples, such as the Jewish. I, honestly, wouldn't put it beyong Nisu to bewitch some future weyrling into serving him while making him think he's getting the better deal, to be honest. ;)

Inspiration: Physically, Nisuanekhdjieth is based not only upon what you requested, but also my imaginations of an Egyptian tomb and its contents: he is dark, almost frighteningly so, and very frail, almost imitating a body withering away with time. Spirits haunt their way across his neck and chest, while peeks of gold and bronze appear here and there, rare but treasured. This doesn't wholly go against Raistlin's appearance, either - black robes and golden skin stretched over a weak, easily-worn-out body in fact seemed to fit quite well!

Mentally, however, he is entirely Raistlin, from the utter lack of regard for others to the intelligence that gives him that horrible holier-than-thou attitude. He is powerful, able to craft words like a wizard would his spells, and unfortunately for your character, this power only makes him hunger for more. Qe'pol will always be his Caramon, more well-liked and sought-after because of his happy attitude, and that will only make Nisuanekhdjieth more and more frustrated with him as time goes on. You are, of course, free to change anything you want as you will know Raistlin and come to know Nisu better than I ever will. However, I hope he has been captured well enough to suit your fancy, and wish you the best of luck and a good time to come!

<3 — O'rly


Credits

Name Nisuanekhdjieth
Dam Gold Seryth
Sire Bronze Inimeth
Created By O'rly
Impressee Qe'pol (Aqueepoli)
Hatched June 05, 2011
Xanadu Weyr
PernWorld MUSH

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