Persona Profile: Gilbek

Name: Gilbek
Age: 35
Birthday: m12 d9
Rank: Weyr Resident
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr

Awards
Crayon Awards: Favorite Romantic Couple (March 2026)
Crayon Awards: Most Intriguing Male Persona (August 2024)

Physical Description of Persona:
As a young man, Gilbek's tall frame, dark brown eyes and ready smile drew attention, but his experiences since then have left a profound mark on him. A deep tan has faded, leaving shadows beneath his eyes and in the hollows of his cheeks, and though he has recovered some of his strength, he has never quite regained the strong build he once had. His hair has darkened from blond to a light golden-brown, and is long enough to reach past his jawline. As a guard he would usually tie it back for safety during drills and patrols, and now he does the same while working, leaving it loose at other times to partially hide a lean, angular face.

Turns of hard manual work have resulted in callused hands and faded scars on his upper arms, but his clothing hides the legacy of a more serious injury. Heavy, badly healed scarring on his shoulders and back have reduced the range of movement in his upper body and causes him pain when he raises his arms, though he does his best to hide the stiffness. Though he no longer carries any weapons, traces of his training as a guard can be detected in his austere and orderly manner, an observant, watchful air about him and a stillness in his bearing.

Emotional Description of Persona:
Gilbek has the deeply ingrained caution of someone who has lived for many Turns with ever-present danger, in an environment where there were few around him that he could trust, and has never quite been able to shake off that experience. He is rather quiet and reluctant to reveal much about his past, about which he feels a very deep sense of shame. Always a diligent worker, he now finds it difficult to relax or to know what to do with leisure time, feeling that he doesn't quite deserve it. He still has the habit of obedience and unquestioning respect for authority - or at least keeping his doubts to himself. This can be, and has been a vulnerability in someone with his skills, but he does have a stubborn moral core, and has learned from harsh experience where the line is that he will not cross.

On a surface level, Gilbek has always been able to fit in with the people around him, and comes across as easy-going and unthreatening. When his trust is earned, he can be steadfast, loyal and reliable, with a dry, understated sense of humour. Having only ever lived in very conservative holds and had one relationship from a young age, with his former wife, he doesn't quite know how to react to the more confident manner of the weyrfolk, usually falling back on baffled politeness.

History of Persona:
Gilbek was the son of a lumberman and his wife and grew up between various camps and cots near to Emerald Falls Hold. His father died in an accident when Gilbek was three Turns old. Left alone with a small boy, his mother asked a friend to find her a job as a cook and general worker at a large farmhold. The hold's headwoman had a daughter the same age who had been born blind, and Gilbek's mother offered to look after the little girl as well, so that the woman would have more time free for her duties. He and Calenta grew up very close, with Gilbek helping her where he could and teaching her the lessons that the adults at the hold often had little patience to help her with. When they had both reached their sixteenth birthdays, they were married.

Gilbek had thought that he would want nothing more from life - other than perhaps children - but he gradually became discontented at the Hold where he'd spent most of his life. The holders regarded him and his wife with pity, and the consensus was that he would never rise above being a labourer and she would never be fit for more than the simplest tasks. He and Calenta dreamed of getting some land and building their own cothold, but it seemed impossible - until Gilbek decided to travel to Emerald Falls Hold and apply to join the guards, hoping that on retirement he'd be able to request the land from the Lord Holder. He was accepted as a trainee, but it was six Turns before Calenta was able to join him, shortly after Lord Enrizial was confirmed in his rank. By this time, he'd built up a reputation as a reliable and useful guard.

When the Lord Holder's half-brother briefly took over the Hold, Gilbek stayed loyal to Enrizial and helped him to regain his position. As a reward, he was given the role of Enrizial's personal guard and became one of his trusted subordinates, with promotion a real prospect. Meanwhile, a Master Harper had discovered that Calenta had a talent for singing and began to train her in secret. When this came out, the Hallmaster decided to offer her a formal apprenticeship, lifting the ban on women in the craft. Gilbek was supportive, but the Lord Holder strongly disapproved of female crafters, which made his position a difficult one. At the same time, personal troubles were taking their toll on Enrizial, and Gilbek witnessed his behaviour becoming more and more erratic. Under great strain and fearing for his marriage, he quarrelled with his wife on a visit to the Harper Hall and stormed out.

Unfortunately for him, this happened on the same night that someone set fire to the Hall, burning it to the ground. Witnesses described seeing him and hearing the argument, and he was accused of having committed the arson. Enrizial was able to have the charges dropped, but was forced to dismiss him from the guards. By this time, the Harpers had moved to the Weyr, and Calenta had gone with them. Gilbek was left alone and on the brink of becoming holdless, when he was offered a job by Holder Obriel of White Hollow, a remote hold which made its living from quarrying stone. Obriel was taking advantage of the turmoil at Emerald Falls and the resulting lack of scrutiny of the minor holds, to turn his quarry over to prison labour and building up a large, private force of guards in service of his own ambitions. Gilbek felt uneasy about the offer, but working for Obriel was his only way to avoid becoming holdless, so he accepted.

Gilbek worked at White Hollow Hold for the next eight Turns, calling himself by a shortened version of his name, Gil in an effort to distance himself from his former life. Slowly, he became aware of the cruelty and greed of the Holder, but the lack of other prospects left him with little option other than to stay and do what little he could to protect the people there. With not much else to do at the remote hold, he spent most of his spare time practicing with weapons, and this along with his rigorous training from Emerald Falls meant that he was one of the most skilled fighters at the hold. Obriel noticed this and promoted Gilbek to guarding him and his family, rather than the prisoners in the quarry. This came as a relief, until he was asked to carry messages between Obriel and a network of discontented holders in the territory who were planning attacks on the new Lord Holder and the Weyr.

By this time Gil had almost ceased to care about what he was being asked to do, and tried not to think too hard about it, while Obriel was perceptive enough to keep him ignorant of the worst of it. After an attempt to poison newly hatched dragonets failed, the conspirators suspected they'd been betrayed, and blamed a cotholder woman, Alyena, for warning the Weyr. Obriel's brother-in-law, a fellow holder called Ingrizon, ordered Gil to burn down the woman's cothold with her inside. This shocked him out of his apathy, but rather than refuse openly, he managed to warn Alyena so that she could escape with her daughter. Ingrizon found out what he'd done and told Obriel to have him killed, but Obriel was not one to waste a good worker and instead, had him beaten and sentenced to work in the quarry with the other prisoners. He spent several months there until he was helped to escape by sympathetic holders. Now holdless and damaged physically and mentally, he fell ill with a fever and would have died if he'd not been taken in by an elderly couple. Once he'd recovered a little, he repaid their generosity by working at their small, isolated cothold, falling back on the simple skills he'd learned as a boy at the farmhold where he'd grown up.

This brief period of peace ended when he was recognized by a visitor as someone who was being sought by the dragonriders. Alyena, the woman he helped, had found sanctuary at the Weyr and told what she knew about the conspiracy, including his description. Once they knew where he was, they surrounded the cothold and Gil found himself taken into custody at Dolphin Cove, where he is now awaiting his fate.

At the Weyr, he learned that Calenta had stayed with the Harpers and been promoted to Journeywoman. Although she believes that he had nothing to do with the fire at the Hall and still has warm feelings towards him, she had formed a new relationship with another harper, and the two are now divorced.

Family and Friends
Gilani, 56, Minor hold resident (EFH) (Mother)
Calenta, 34, Journeywoman Harper (Ex-wife)

Approved: June 26th 2024
Last updated: June 20th 2024

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Persona Profile: Gilbek