The somewhat shaggy mop of this woman's chestnut hair is nonetheless a redeeming quality in comparison to her bulbous nose and otherwise plain face, freckles, as well as the pock-like scars left over from adolescence, ensuring her sallow complexion retains no real beauty. When she smiles, her wide, overdrawn mouth broadens to reveal teeth that range between being stained, crooked, and missing altogether, and, like her unremarkably blue eyes, add nothing to her appearence. Her leggy build makes her appear taller than she is; in truth, she's no taller than average for a full-grown woman - she would be within in her early twenties, at a guess - her build sturdy.

Her clothing seems to have been picked for nothing other than serviceability - breeches are a dusty brown colour, loose fitting and too long in the hem, so that they trail upon the ground beneath her unpolished brown ankle boots. Over this, she wears an oversized shirt of an undyed, oatmeal-like colour, the sleeves rolled up several times to sit at her wrists, the hem falling towards her thighs. Pinned to her shoulder is the knot of a wingrider, made up of cords of brown and black, and then another strand of brown.

Ilesyn was born somewhere on the road between Fort Hold and Southern Boll, the youngest child of the middle-aged Family Head of the Terilin Traders, who had traveled about the Fort area for generations. Being the youngest by nearly twenty turns, the arrival of this fourth daughter, and sixth child, was somewhat of a surprise, and, since she was so much younger than her siblings, Ilesyn thus ended up being raised as one of the grandchildren, her nieces and nephews as her siblings. She was a precocious child, however, and disliked being left out of more serious family dealings when all her siblings were included, and thus, by the time she was ten, she had confidently pushed herself back at her mother, Sayari, who found herself obliged to look after her daughter for herself.

This was not as easy a task as Sayari might have hoped, for Ilesyn had somehow managed to grow up blunt, tactless, and insatiably curious about people, despite the best efforts of her eldest sister, Niria. Attempting to curb Ilesyn's tongue, she busied the girl with learning herbs and remedies, since Sayari was the unofficial, untrained healer for the family, but Ilesyn was quickly bored, and turned back to her usual practices of bothering her elder siblings with unwanted advice, as well as lording over her nieces and nephews. The older members of the family became more and more discouraged, and the younger members alienated her more and more, having had enough of her attitude, to the point where no one quite knew what was going to become of Sayari's youngest daughter.

They came upon Fort Hold again, however, when Ilesyn was fourteen, and leaving behind her chores as she often did when they arrived someplace new, she wandered off and found herself in the Healer Hall. No matter that she had insisted to her mother that herbs, and healing, were downright boring, she was instantly determined to become a Healer. She announced this decision that evening, and by the following afternoon she had been safely installed in the apprentice dorms, refusing to come back to the camp even to say goodbye.

If Sayari had hoped that this might cure her daughter of her aimlessness and lack of motivation, she was somewhat wrong; within a period of a few months, Ilesyn had decided that healing wasn't for her after all, and had made her decision to wait it out until the family returned, and then leave with them. This would not be for some time, of course, and so she made trouble - as if hoping she would be kicked out, and thus forcibly sent home. This backfired, thank goodness, and Ilesyn found herself suddenly inspired by something new-- a chance encounter with a Mindhealer had her heart set on following that path for herself, and within no more than four months, she had progressed far enough to be allowed to join in on Mindhealing classes.

At nineteen, Ilesyn was promoted to the rank of Senior Apprentice, specialising entirely in Mindhealing since she declared herself bored silly with bodies, and was posted to Fort Weyr - the perfect place to observe the peculiarities of the human psyche, in her opinion. As blunt and tactless as ever, it did not take long for Ilesyn to make herself a few 'enemies', although she also managed to explore the concept of sexual favours - ugly though she was, she became quickly known for frequen one-night stands. A little more than a turn after she was posted, she was searched for a clutch on Monaco's stands, and somehow found herself agreeing, spending the time doing deep and meaningful research on the candidate mind, a project that she began to write properly after returning to Fort Weyr, having, thankfully, not Impressed.

A few months before her twenty-second turnday, Ilesyn was promoted to Journeyman, her project having earned herself enough accolades that it was no hard decision to bestow upon her that rank. She's become more and more difficult in her opinions, declaring an abhorance of firelizards, an inability to understand why anyone would want to be a dragonrider, and a downright disgust at holdbred sexual inhibitions, she herself having none whatsoever. More recently, She was convinced to stand again, on the basis that if she stood but does not Impress, she would prove (if only to herself; no one else really seems to care) that she was not insane. Unfortunately, the plan backfired - and brown Nallath found her on the Fort sands.

Ilesyn is opinionated, set in her ways, selfish, and forever focused upon her own self preservation. Her above-average intelligence has been sharpened since her advent in the Healer Craft; her upbringing, as a trader-child, traversing the paths of the Fort Area, was in many ways stiffling to this, and encouraged her independent streak. She thinks deeply, but her comprehension is limited by her own biases, and her tactless streak is more than enough to secure her reputation as being difficult, to the point where some find it hard to like her. She's too direct in manner and speech, and finds it difficult to think as if from the perspective of another; she's tightly wound within her own personality, upbringing and development, and can't understand where others are coming from.

Her strongly held opinions range from her utter dislike of firelizards, to her honest inability to understand why anyone could /want/ to be a dragonrider; in this, she cites the fact that dragonriders risk their lives for others, a concept she does not understand - she's too self posessed, too selfish. That is not to say, of course, that she does not value the contribution dragonriders make to society; instead, she does not understand their desire to make said contribution. She feels in no way beholden to dragonriders, although this is an opinion she strives to keep to herself, after some disasterous consequences, believing that she does her work, and they can do theirs, and if they die in the course of theirs, well, it was a stupid choice of occupation, wasn't it? In short, she believes that every occupation is just as important as the next - they just have a different, necessary place within society.

Her flaws may be all too apparent, but Ilesyn does have her share of gifts and talents. Stormy in nature, perhaps, but an honestly deep thinker, Ilesyn is a true scholar of human perception - and if she misses the mark all too often, it only encourages her to delve deeper. Once having embarked upon a project, she will point blank refuse to back down from it, totally immersing herself into the task at hand. If that means eating foods she dislikes (although, to be fair, she's not really in to food, and will eat almost anything without complaint), in order to gain insight in to a particular patient, so be it. If it means, as it did, once, continuing with a candidacy she despised, in order to finish the research for her Journeyman-project, again, that's what she did, bearing it against her better judgement.

Ilesyn finds it genuinely difficult to separate work from play - and thus, while she genuinely enjoys the company of many, throughout the Weyr, she's a difficult friend to have, analysing everything and anything that is said, regardless of the situation. Some of the unfortunates who have ended up in her bed (mostly due to the fact that it was dark, and they never looked at her face; she's not pretty, Ilesyn) will even swear that she analyses pillow-talk, before she gets kicked out rather rapidly in the morning. It's probably quite true to say that, as far as 'good' friends go, Ilesyn has none: she intimidates, she infuriates, or she just plain irritates.

She's also lazy, and generally not particularly healthy-- often, she's been known to forget to eat, being far too wrapped up in whatever it is that she is working on at a particular moment. Exercise may be important, but Ilesyn does not care for it, and will far prefer to stay safely indoors, away from the sun and the rain, and work. She is, without question, a workaholic.