Name/Nicknames: Wilhelm “Wil” Kiersted
Gender: male
Rank/Position: sled pilot
Age: 20
Birthplace: Australia, Terra

Physical Description: Martial arts have made his body athletic, though not disgustingly muscular. He has big hazel eyes, usually dark from insomnia, and shaped in such a way that they hint off his Asian heritage. The rest of him shows the mostly Scandinavian, Western European, and possibly Mediterranean stock. His skin is tanned from the sun, as he spends a lot of time outside. His sister likes to make fun of his big mouth, which is ironic as he has a very quiet nature, but was blessed with what he feels is the biggest mouth on Pern. That’s an understatement of course, though a slight one. He always keeps his hair about ¼ of an inch long, though, if it were to grow out, it would be dirty blonde (anything longer than ¼ of inch, is too long and will interfere, or so Wilhelm says).

Personality: An extremely kind young man, Wil is quiet and introvert. He doesn’t talk much, but doesn’t mind joining a conversation either. In the past, he smiled a lot, loved being around his family, and trained so much that people would physically have to hold him down in order to have him eat dinner. Now, he smiles rarely, hates talking about his wife or widower-hood, and is even more obsessed with training that ever. When someone does catch him training, it takes a lot to snap him out of the trance and usually that makes him grumpy afterwards. When he is with his sister Zoë or his daughter Sandrine, he has a soft rare smile and speaks gently. Despite his history and sometimes his mood, he’s a nice guy to be around can be friendly, when in the mood.

Background: Before his wife and daughter, martial arts had been Wilhelm’s life. From a young age, he studied the arts with various “teachers” on all the military bases that his family stayed on (and those were a lot, as his mother was a doctor for the military). Quite frankly, he didn’t care where they stayed, as long as he had the ability to train. He attempted to teach his kid sister (more or less), but she preferred to make fun of his mad obsession and freakishly amazing ability at nearly every form he put his mind to. He never noticed moving around the planet and to various outer world bases so much, thanks to this obsession. That was probably why the transition to Pern was easy for him. Not so much for the youngest member of their family at the time, but easy for him.

Pern was pretty much what he expected, a whole planet of open places to spar or practice katas. He set to it almost immediately, starting with his study of capoeira, which was promptly dropped with a lack of time (i.e. courting) and forgotten, since he met the girl of his dreams, Mai-Ly Thi Nguyen. The Vietnamese girl captivated him from the moment they met (she was able to best him at nearly everything, sprain his arm twice, and actually bruised him more than once). Being young and male, he worked tirelessly to make her his own and eventually succeeded when the one time they shared a bed, she became pregnant. They married and their daughter was born soon after. Sure, they were young, but it love.

Life was good. Keyword being “was.” Thread, like for so many others, ruined his plans for the future. When it hit, Sandrine was asleep inside with Pernelle (Wil’s older sister) watching. Zoë was out on one of her treks (an excuse to not get sucked into a babysitter role). Wil was sparring with Mai-Ly outside. Then it hit. Wil escaped unscathed, but Mai-Ly caught it full on the back. She died soon after, making Wil a widower and Sandrine motherless. Something died in Wil that day and his normally cheery attitude left abruptly.

From then on, he took up sled piloting as soon as possible, vowing revenge on the menace that killed his wife. Unfortunately, the sleds weren’t what they used to be when they arrived. However, it was a start. He learned with surprising speed, fueled by quiet, venomous hate of Thread.

When he’s with her, he tries his best to be a good father to the little girl he helped bring into the world, but it’s difficult. Pernelle does most of the raising, while Wil either absorbs himself in training or absorbs himself in work.

He and his sister Zoë signed up for the candidate program and anxiously wait.

Family/Friends:
Daughter, Sandrine Kiersted/3/child/New Landing Hold
Wife, Mai-Ly Thi Kiersted/deceased (thread)/ New Landing Hold
Sister, Pernelle Kiersted/30/teacher/New Landing
Sister, Zoë Kiersted/19/apprentice herpetologist/New Landing Hold

Hobbies & Skills: Wilhelm is a “friggin prodigy freak” (as his sister so eloquently says) when it comes to martial arts. He claims to know many (then again, most guys do tend to make the claim they know everything about everything) but is really only proficient in three and a half (the “half” is incomplete, as his wife died before she finished teaching him). Two of them are black belts (Karate and Jungyae Moosul), one is brown (Aikido), and the other is unfinished, so it’s white belt (Judo).

Theme Song: Serenity by Godsmack

Pets: a brown fire lizard dubbed “Igboop” by Wil’s daughter. The brown tends to fly around like a kamikaze when Wilhelm trains, usually swooping in dangerously close to his various kicks and punches. Igboop’s coloring is like warm milk chocolate. He tends to pick on Zoë’s blue Chac and he loves to sleep next to Sandrine when she allows it. Wil found him the same time Zoë found hers and around the same area, so the siblings assume they are related.