Moriana, commonly called Moria, was born and raised at Black Rock Hold. She is the third of Trishana and Mondreg's four children. Her parents met when Trishana, a journeywoman WoodCrafter who specialized in furniture, moved to Black Rock Hold from Rubicon River Hold to take advantage of readily available skybroom wood for her work. Mondreg, a SeaCrafter and a good seven Turns older than Trishana, was charmed by the woman's energy and determination, and they wed a mere Turn after meeting.
Moriana's older brother and sister, Torged and Shandre, were born seventeen months apart and formed a close bond. With a full three Turns passing before Moria was born, the two were nearly inseparable, and did not take well to the birth of another child. Moria was excluded from their bond, though she was certainly not neglected by her parents. Moriana sulked when she first came to understand this exclusion, but quickly became more interested in the other hold children and made friends with ease. Moriana welcomed the birth of her younger brother, Rished, when she was five. She was also envious, however, as Torged and Shandre had outgrown their selfishness and were quite willing to help with the baby and play with him. This jealousy faded over time, but still has some effect on her view of her youngest brother.
Moriana had a fairly normal childhood. She showed a passion for learning early on and spent some of her free time listening to stories about the past and pestering various crafters to explain what they were doing. This penchant for exploration is what led her to choose to apprentice to the GlassCraft instead of following in her parents' footsteps. Fascinated by the many uses glass could be put to, she spent more time watching the glass blowers and shapers than any other craft. While this interest surprised her parents, they were completely willing to help her find a sponsor at the Crafthall attached to Landing University.
Moriana became an apprentice GlassCrafter when she was twelve, and she has had her share of successes and failures. When she was fourteen, an accident at the Crafthall upset her learning for a few months. A kiln explosion caused many injuries to the crafters working in the hall, Moria among them. She received many mild to moderate burns on her arms and chest, though she was lucky enough to have her face spared. No structural damage was done, but she will forever bear several reddened scars from hot glass and brick fragments that seared her skin. Sadly, a fellow apprentice died in the accident, and it took several months for Moria to come to terms with that loss.
After nearly three Turns in the GlassCraft, Moriana finally settled into her specialty of choice: glass blowing. She was mentored by Bandrin, a master glassblower at Landing, who worked diligently with Moria to develop the set of skills required to blow glass. While by no means the best apprentice to take up a blower's rod, Moria's attention to detail and her willingness to learn aided her progress and earned her the rank of senior apprentice when she was seventeen. At the age of twenty, she was offered an opportunity to study different glassblowing styles under the crafters at Xanadu Weyr, and eagerly accepted. With the blessings of Bandrin and encouragement of her family, Moriana moved to Xanadu Weyr to continue her training under the tutelage of master Erdwin.
Moriana settled into Xanadu Weyr fairly smoothly, and quickly entered a regular routine at the craft complex there. She was gifted a firelizard egg by her parents, which hatched out bronze Mulgrave, the first firelizard she ever owned, and a few months after arrival at Xanadu she Impressed a green, Trina, at Xanadu's Founder's Day celebration. Moria's outgoing nature quickly lead her to friendship with another of the GlassCraft apprentices at Xanadu, a girl a few turns her junior named Tresha. Tresha was very tolerant of Trina's quirks and didn't allow the green firelizard to drive her away. The two GlassCrafters took to regularly assisting each other, and even worked on their journeymen project together. Erdwin sent a recommendation that Moria be promoted when she was twenty-one, and after two months of pensive waiting finally received a response in the form of a journeymans knot for Moria. She continued her training under Erdwin, but also began teaching apprentices and any Weyrfolk interested in learning about glass.
During the drought in turn 2682, Moria visited Fort Weyr for the first time in her life, to watch the Winter Games between Fort and Ista. While there, she stumbled into a firelizard hatching and, purely by accident, gained blue Blackbeard. Both of her other firelizards took this in stride, and Moria resolved to stay far, far away from any hatchings in the future, is she could. Later that turn, after the fire and flooding, Moria received a somewhat surprising note from her parents - her younger brother Rished, who had just received his senior apprentice knot in the WoodCraft that Turn at the age of 16, was being posted to Xanadu Weyr to help with repairs and replacement of materials lost during the Turn. Her parents were sending him a firelizard egg, just as they had for her when she was first posted to the Weyr, and asked her to help him train the hatchling and become accustomed to the Weyr. Unfortunately for both of the siblings, the egg hatched when Rished was in class, and Moria ended up Impressing the brown, whom she named Carbon. She agreed to give Rished an egg from Trina's first clutch whenever the green finally rose.
About a Turn after Rished's arrival at the Weyr, Trina finally rose and was caught by Moria's own bronze, Mulgrave. Trina hid her eggs in a wild gold's clutch, and Mulgrave led Moria to them, resulting in the crafter tending a clutch of fifteen eggs. Her situation was further complicated when Lord Gaerwyn of Rubicon River Hold gifted Tresha and Moria each a firelizard egg in thanks for their efforts on the wedding gift Niva commissioned for him and Ryeira. Around the same time, Thea's gold, Seryth, rose, and Moria was caught by surprise and flight lust, and ended up in bed with a bronze rider, B'dal. While the night was unexpected, Moria put it out of her mind, and focused on her work. She juggled firelizard eggs for several sevenday before finally half of the clutch (obviously those laid by the gold) cracked shell in the hot springs, of all places. The remaining eggs, Trina's, appeared to have been laid a sevenday after the gold's, and so Moria spent the next couple of days giving them away until all she had left was the gift from the Rubicon lord. Much to Moria's surprise, she found herself custodian of a summer-sun gold firelizard, who she promptly named Nova.
A few weeks after the firelizard clutch hatched, Seryth laid a clutch of her own, twelve ovoids left on the sands of the hatching grounds. Moria paid the clutch no mind until her brother, Rished, was Searched, shortly followly by her friend Phylicia also being Searched. With so many familiar faces on the sands, including a couple of passing acquaintances, she was actually interested in the outcome of the hatching, and placed a few discreet bets. In the time leading up to the hatching, however, she received notice that she would soon be transferred from Xanadu Weyr, either to the crafthall at Fort or back to Landing, for further training, probably a few days after the hatching. When the eggs finally cracked shell and Rished Impressed to blue Lonarith, becoming R'shed, Moria joined her parents in congratulating him. A few days later a blue dragon picked her up at Xanadu and took her to Landing, where she began teaching classes as she continued her training.
During the months that Moria was at Landing, she was often visited by K'ael, Wingleader of the Galaxy Wing at Xanadu Weyr and rider to bronze Azaeth. The bronzerider quickly became a common site at the university, showing up whenever he had time to burn. The pair were often seen picnicing around the Hold or traking trips elsewhere on Azaeth, the bronze patiently ferrying them across Pern. So it was no surprise when, some eight or nine months after arriving at Landing, Moria was able to manage a transfer back to Xanadu Weyr to be nearer to the rider. Welcomed back warmly by friends and collegues, the journeywoman settled back into the routine of the Weyr rapidly.
