Ma'rrrl

Ma'rrrl (closest human equivalent in pronunciation is "Marril") is a half-breed. In his universe, dragons are a unisexed race, neither male nor female, but they still mate in pairs. They can breed with humans, because almost all dragons have the ability to use magic to shift their shape. And, because of intricacies with magic, dragons turn to males in human form (because the magic won't let them stay without sex), and are actually quite fertile with human women, though the process of giving birth to a half-breed child is almost always fatal to the human woman.

Ma'rrrl is the son of the leader of a particularly famous clan of dragons, called the Syrr (which means "midnight"). Clan Syrr is named for the line of dragons that leads it, also called Syrr because of their jet black scales (and hair in human form). The clan is well known for being one of the only clans to never produce any half-breeds, instead choosing to keep their blood pure. That said, how Ma'rrrl, a half-breed, came to be born from not only the Syrr clan, but the Syrr line as well, is a rather important matter.

The first thing to know is that there are Bound warriors in Ma'rrrl's universe. These are people, usually fighters, but not always, who are exceptionally talented, and are chosen to be hosts for spirits of equally talented dead people, usually former Bound warriors themselve, but not always. Bound warriors are found among all races, dragon, human, mixed blood dragons, and even the few races that are neither dragon nor human, though the dragon Bound warriors are few and far between, because the spirits available to dragons tend to be rather selective. Actually, there hasn't been a new full blooded dragon Bound warrior for at least three generations (dragon generations, which are about twice the length of human ones).

A Bound warrior is someone to be respected. They are the elite, and are seen as holy and/or sacred by many peoples. They are not perfect, but many people forget that. And, they are also a sort of badge of pride for whomever produced the warrior (family, community...clan in this case). Which is why Ma'rrrl is here. His oya (the draconic word for parent...it's a genderless term just like most draconic terms are) gambled on the fact that he could raise his young son to be a cool enough person to be Bound, and thus gain enough status for clan Syrr to elevate him to the position of Lyr-oya ("highest leader"...the dragons' equivalent of a king).

So yeah, Ma'rrrl is a Bound warrior. He's actually quite a renowned one, in fact, skilled at both swordsmanship and magic. His spirit is that of a dead Lyr-oya who happens to be a legend now, and not just because she is the only mixed blood ever to become Lyr-oya. She herself was a force to be reckoned with, and she is now Ma'rrrl's best friend. She is strong, confident, and experienced in ways that helped Ma'rrrl tremendously when he was first Bound at age sixteen, and now complements his own honed skills and talents.

Ma'rrrl is...still a bit of an enigma to me when it comes to his personality. He doesn't really let very many people know what he's really like, even those closest to him. I suspect that only Fa'lyr (his spirit) really knows what he's like when all of the pretenses are dropped, and she's not telling me either. What I do know is that Ma'rrrl is quite a bit more bothered by the ingrained hatreds of both the human and dragon races for their mixed bloods. He was treated half as an outsider and half as a valued asset as he was growing up, especially being in the middle of the Syrr clan that prides itself so much on staying pure for as long as they can remember. But at the same time, his oya was well aware that he was the ticket to gaining power, and that a sullen, ill-treated child would not grow into the potential Bound warrior that he needed of the boy.

At the same time, Ma'rrrl can be quite a bit lighter than his less than perfect childhood would indicate. Rather than brooding over the rather obvious disdain that his clan feels for him, he instead takes pride in what he is. He doesn't quite mock the stiffness and formality of the draconic half of his heritage, but he greets it with a cheerful face, and is more than willing to defy some parts of it, like the clan's insistence that he take dragon form when he comes into the clan lands. This part is probably from Fa'lyr's influence on him, as she is a very cheerful person, and quite willing to completely ignore social and racial boundaries for the sake of being happy.

And for now...that is Ma'rrrl.