Caramak, Istan Weyrharper

Caramak was born, fourth of six children, to a small cotholder from just outside Ruatha's proper Hold. He grew quickly, which made other children assume he was older than he was, and forced him to interact on with older, more experienced children, which in turn, created the intellectual challenge of keeping up. This necessary competetive edge served him well, through the first years of his Apprenticeship, but gradually disapated as he slowly realized he no longer had to work every moment just to keep up with his peers.

As a young child, he was impressed by strength, as many youngsters are, and would tag around the Journeyman Smith who would come by at regular intervals, wanting to grow up to be just like him. Youthful tastes change, however, and he began to see more of a kindred spirit in the route-riding Harper, who had to do just as much quick thinking as Caramak did. He tagged along, and talked to the Harper after classes, and the Harper in question was glad to talk to such an eager young student. Caramak memorized music and lyrics quickly, and was especially good at learning new instruments. The Harper took a discarded Apprentice gitar for Caramak to play with, and on this Caramak learned his scales and chords at an early age. He was especially lucky, in that his vocation was also his hobby and pass time.

At ten turns, by which time he could play simple tunes decently well on his gitar, he made a discovery in his home. It seemed that Caramak's late grandfather had been a harper, and had taken up the unusual instrument of trumpet. Since his death, this trumpet had remained almost unplayed; Caramak's father could play a few notes, but had not the time, talent, or inclination to learn to play it well. Caramak stumbled across this, and his father demonstrated what he knew of it, which was enough for Caramak to start on. Soon the Harper came by, and was shocked to see the child with such an instrument. Caramak knew more about the instrument than his teacher, which forced the teacher to go searching frantically through old Records to find out just how one of those things really worked.

Caramak continued to try to drive his teacher to distraction, but eventually, at the ripe old age of 16 and a half, went to the main Harper Hall at Fort, and apprenticed there. He was always working as an Apprentice, trying, as he saw it, to keep up, when in reality he was easily advanced with the others his age. Quite near his 19th Turnday, he made J-man, and was posted, by Parker, to South Boll. With him went Carik, who for some reason was always confused with Caramak. Parker later said that the reason he posted them both to the same place was so that he wouldn't have to remember which was posted where. That post lasted a few years, until Caramak was withdrawn back to the main Hall, where he taught lessons at all hours for a long time. Gradually, however, he had been relaxing. Ever since he arrived at South Boll, he'd been coming to realize that he really didn't have to work every single moment of every single day, and that in fact, doing so took him away from the human contact that is such an important part of a harper's role. Still, his relaxation did not greatly diminish the amount of work he did. He is genuinely interested in every aspect of being a harper, and so spends much of his spare time pursuing his hobby: being a harper.

When the hurricane struck Ista, Caramak was one of the first harpers to go down, trying to assess the damage and make a report. He quickly realized that he wanted to go to back, to help as he could, and became a permenant post. Since then, he's led a simple life, teaching, reading, playing, composing and eating, all in large quantities. Recently, he was posted to the Weyr, but he still spends a fair amount of time at the Hold, teaching poor, masochistic apprentices.

[ Ruatha ] -- [ Fort ] -- [ Southern Boll ]