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This is going to he a HUGE Post. As a lot of people Ive talked to dont KNOW the Universe of Pern. I will begin this request by posting the Plot I wish to play, and then the Universe breakdown. Beneath.
Basic Plot
(Female seeking Male partner)
Wild girl, is living in the Wilds of the Southern Continent, its a veritable Jungle paradise lined with crystal blue beaches. Always warm. Never cold. The young woman is the sole survivor of a shipwreck some 12 years prior. Initially her father survived as well, she was barely 7 turns years old when they washed up on Shore, But Her father died in the weeks following, of a severe fever, much like scarlet fever. The young woman survived, impressing a small flight of Firelizards, she turned completely feral, forgetting language and all that she had known as a child. Living 12 years alone on the island.
She is a rare young woman in that she has the ability known as HAD, or Hear All Dragons. Most young girls with this ability are taken to the Weyr and almost always impress Queens. She is at present undiscovered, because she is in an undiscovered part of the Southern Continent.
The Premise is that she would be discovered by either a Search Dragon, because in a fly over he or she, Search Dragons can be Browns (male) or Greens (Female) heard her. OR She can be discovered by a young Bronze rider taking a sabbatical in a pristine cove he discovered.
Once Tamed, the Wild one would be taken to the Rider's Weyr for training to stand on the sands for the Next Golden Egg lain.
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The World of Pern
Life on Pern as presented in the novels resembles a pre-industrial society with lords, holds, harpers (musicians, entertainers, and teachers), and dragons.
Pernese people are described as belonging to four basic groups: Weyrfolk (including Dragonriders) who live in the Weyrs, Giant Craters, with great halls and suites for the riders. These Craters are dead Volcanos, the Center of the Weyr, the crater, or the WeyrBowl as they call it is where the Queen lays her eggs on the volcanic sands. The Holders who live in the Holds (cities, towns and farms), the crafters who live in Crafthalls (or are assigned to work their crafts in certain Holds), and the Holdless who have no permanent home (including traders, displaced Holders, and brigands).
One of the main threats to Pernese civilization in the series is Thread, which is described as a mycorrhizoid spore that periodically rains down on the planet due to the orbit of the Red Star. The Red Star is set out to be a rogue planet in the Rukbat system. The Red Star, characterized as a "Sedna-class inner Oort cloud object", has a 250 Turn (or Pernese year) elliptic orbit around its sun. Thread can reach the planet Pern for about 50 Turns while the Red Star is at perihelion. Thread is described in this series as an agent that consumes organic material at a voracious rate, including crops, animals, and any humans in its path.
The Pernese use intelligent firebreathing dragons and their riders to fight Thread. The riders have a telepathic bond with their dragons, formed by Impression at the dragon's hatching.
There is a Northern Continent and Southern Continent. The North is where most of the population lives. The south had been deemed 'uninhabitable' by legend over the centuries. However exploration deemed that not true and a Weyr and a Hold have been Established in the Southern Continent.
Weyrs are usually established in craters of extinct volcanoes. They are the living places of dragons, dragonriders and all the support staff needed to get a dragon and rider in the air. Weyr complexes are a collection of smaller weyrs, or caves, for habitation and everyday activities.
There are 6 Weyrs. 5 in the North Continent. 1 In the Southern.
High Reaches Weyr
Ista Weyr
Igen Weyr
Telgar Weyr
Benden Weyr
Southern Weyr
Structure of the Weyr
Leadership
The plural Weyrleaders typically refers to the Weyrwoman as well as the Weyrleader, though in some contexts it may refer to a council of Weyrleaders, a conference among the military leaders of the Weyrs. Until the 9th Pass the Weyrwomen were usually not invited or welcome at such meetings or conferences.
Domestic Management
The domestic head of the Weyr is the Weyrwoman, the rider of the ranking gold ("queen") in the Weyr. If the Weyrwoman dies, or if her dragon ceases to mate due to old age or serious injury, the rider of the next gold to rise to mate will take the position. Though she and her gold are called "senior pair" they are senior in rank, not necessarily in age or in experience.
The Weyrwoman is in charge of all matters that pertain to housing, food, the raising of children living in the Weyr, training, organization and discipline of the support staff of the Weyr, as well as the day-to-day living requirements of the dragons and their riders. The Weyrwoman is also a diplomatic ambassador, responsible for relations to other Weyrs, Holds and the Crafthalls. Most of her duties are administrative, delegating responsibilities to her Headwoman or junior goldriders.
The Headwoman is the Weyrwoman's primary assistant. The Headwoman is responsible for implementing the Weyrwoman's orders regarding management of the Lower Caverns, where the bulk of the support staff live and work. She is in charge of the cook staff, the cleaning staff, maintenance staff and the Fostering staff. She wields a great deal of power inside of the Weyr.
Retired goldriders often remain in the Weyr as an assistant or advisor to the Weyrwoman. They are sometimes designated to represent the Weyrwoman in the Weyrwoman's absence.
Junior goldriders are also assistants to the Weyrwoman. All dragons will obey the orders of a queen, unless they contradict the orders of the senior gold. Because of this, all goldriders must act as leaders. The junior goldriders are typically assigned to record keeping, lower level diplomatic duties, training gold weyrling pairs and fostering teenage girls who are likely to rise to a leadership position within the Weyr. This provides them with important experience for future leadership positions, as each junior pair has the chance to become Weyrwoman on very short notice.
Military
The military side of the Weyr is headed by the Weyrleader. Weyrleadership is determined by the mating flights of the senior queen. The rider of whichever bronze catches (mates with) her becomes the Weyrleader. The Weyrleader is in charge of making sure that the fighting wings are up to strength, and well trained, he also determines the strategy for threadfighting. The turnover of Weyrleadership varies greatly.
Wingleaders each lead a wing of 12-33 dragons. Each Wingleader has two Wingseconds who may be brownriders or young bronzeriders in training to be a Wingleader. The Wingleaders are technically equal in rank, but as seen in Dragonflight some Wingleaders have more power within a Weyr than others, based on their relationship with the Weyrleader.
One of the most important ranks in the Weyr, below the Weyrleaders and Wingleaders, is that of the Weyrlingmaster. He is in charge of the training and discipline of the young dragonpairs known as weyrlings. While under his care, weyrlings learn everything from basic dragon husbandry to advanced threadfighting techniques. The Weyrlingmaster must be appointed by the Weyrleaders. The Weyrlingmaster must have a good deal of experience, and thick skin, because as many as 25% of all Weyrlings can die before the end of their training. Weyrlingmasters are usually bronzeriders, though highly respected and very senior brown or blueriders are sometimes assigned to the position.
Determination of leadership
Leadership is determined through chance. The first gold dragon to rise to mate after the previous Weyrwoman's gold dragon has died or ceased to mate becomes Weyrwoman; the rider of the bronze dragon that catches that dragon becomes Weyrleader. This system was established by the first Weyrleader, Sean Connell, in the short story The Second Weyr. This system can (and in the books has) produce inept or otherwise unsatisfactory leadership. There is no way to remove a bad Weyrwoman and the only way to replace a Weyrleader is for a different bronze to fly the Weyrwoman's gold dragon. During an Interval, it may be as long as a decade between mating flights.
When a new Weyr is opened the first among the newly assigned gold dragons to rise to mate becomes the first Senior gold at that Weyr and the rider of the bronze that catches her is the new Weyrleader. Often when the golds are assigned to the Weyr they assign only a single gold at first, to insure the chosen leadership, or they wait until the chosen goldrider's dragon is about to rise to mate to assign golds to the new Weyr.
A retiring Weyrwoman may choose her successor by timing her retirement to occur just before her chosen successor's dragon is about to rise to mate. However, this may not be possible if her choice of successor is not going to rise to mate in a reasonable amount of time. A Weyrwoman who fails to retire in a reasonable amount of time after her gold has failed to rise to mate may be forced to step down by force of the junior goldriders, the bronzeriders and/or the weyrfolk. This method of choosing a successor is also no guarantee of a quality replacement, as the Weyrwoman herself may choose her successor based on cronyism, personal bias against an otherwise capable goldrider or on poorly thought-out criteria.
If a Weyrleader dies "in office" the Wingleaders rule by committee until the Weyrwoman's gold rises to mate. However, in the book Dragonquest when a Weyrleader is incapacitated the Weyrwoman Mardra takes his place in the Wings, an action met with shock and outrage by other Weyrs.
Wingleaders and Wingseconds are chosen though merit, though in canon stories only bronzeriders are considered for Wingleader and only bronze and brownriders for Wingsecond.
New Wingleaders are selected by The Weyrleader, advised by existing Wingleaders.
Wingseconds are chosen by the Wingleader from among his wingriders, though with permission he might be able to recruit a promising rider from another Wing.
Wing Structure
A Wing is led by a Wingleader, who is always a bronzerider. The Wingleader is responsible for ensuring that his Wing is capable of safely fighting thread. He also appoints Wingseconds and recruits newly graduated weyrlings. Ideally a Wing has two Wingseconds, which are also typically bronze or brown dragons. They fill the Wingleader's position in the case of an emergency, and help to convey the Wingleader's orders to the rest of the Wingriders. A healthy Wing contains thirty Wingriders and their dragons, of which more than 3/4 are blue or green. The smaller blue and green dragons do not have the stamina to safely fly an entire threadfall and must be rotated out in two or three shifts. If a Wing falls to fewer than 12 healthy dragon/rider pairs, the Wing is disbanded and absorbed by other Wings.
Thread Fighting Tactics
The standard formation used in thread fighting is a V-formation of dragons, called a wing. There are 33 dragons to a wing - 1 wingleader, two wingseconds and 15 wingriders on either side. A group of 3 wings is called a flight. A Weyr will usually have at least 3 flights, but can successfully fight thread with 1 flight, although this is the bare minimum and considered highly dangerous.
The capacity of a Weyr varies from 300-600 dragons. However, during a Pass the dragonriders' duties leave little time for any other activity, so each Weyr has a large support staff that can number into the thousands. The residents of weyrs are known as weyrfolk.
Residents of a Weyr include:
Dragonriders - living in weyrs (lower case w, or the individual cavern where a single dragon and his/her rider lives), usually in the cliff faces in Northern Weyrs.
Weyrlings - young, immature dragons and their riders. Young dragons generally fly for the first time at about one Turn (year) and train with the Weyrling Wing until mature enough to join a Fighting Wing, usually between 1 1/2 to 2 Turns. Weyrling dragonriders may not join a Wing until age 16, no matter how mature their dragon. Weyrling riders who have completed training but are not yet Turned 16 are often assigned messenger or sentry duties until they come of age. They do not have adult level rank/status until they have been accepted into a Fighting Wing.
Lower Caverns staff - Often, but not always, the Candidates who failed to Impress a dragon, or those who have run away from home to live in the more liberal, accepting atmosphere of the Weyr. Lower Cavern staff are often the grown children of dragonriders. This includes cooks, servers, cleaning staff for common areas, those who care for the beasts that will feed the dragons, and many others. Lower Caverns workers often satisfy the sexual needs of riders who have lost a mating flight. They are lead and organized by a headwoman, who is usually ranked just under the weyrleaders in authority.
Weyrbrats - The children who are born in the Weyr are called (affectionately) Weyrbrats. Weyrbrats may be the children of Dragonriders, Lower Cavern staff or Crafters. It is the tradition in the Weyr that children are not raised by their natural parents, as dragonrider parents do not have time to raise a child while caring for a dragon. This community model also serves to reduce parental favoritism. Children are Fostered as soon as they are weaned from their mother's milk, and initially sent to the Weyr's creche. Once the child has grown to show distinct personality and talents, they are matched with a Fosterer (foster parent) who suits the child's temperament. Every male Weyrbrat has the right to become a Candidate and stand for Impression at age 12. Female Weyrbrats may become Candidates if there is a gold egg in the Hatching Grounds. By the end of the Ninth Pass, female Greenriders have become more common, so female Weyrbrats may be allowed to join the ranks of Candidates even if there is no gold egg in more progressive Weyrs.
Candidates - Young people who are given the opportunity to become a dragonrider. They are chosen through Search, where a sensitive dragon, usually a blue or green, seeks mentally sensitive boys and girls who are of the correct temperament to match minds with a dragon hatchling. Usually those searched are young males, aged 12 – 18, although older girls (aged 16–22) are sometimes searched if there is a gold egg available. With the addition of any Weyrbrat aged 12–18, the Searched are familiarized with the eggs and are present when the eggs hatch. The Hatchlings choose, or Impress a Candidate who suits his or her temperamental and/or other (still unknown) needs. The minimum age of the Candidates is decided by the Weyrleaders and may be changed according to the Weyr's needs. If there is a greater need for older more responsible riders, the age may be pushed back, if there is a lack of Candidates, the age may be lowered. The minimum age may also be changed depending on whether Pern is experiencing Fall or Pass. The youngest anyone has Impressed a dragon is aged 10 (F'nor), the oldest seems to be in their early twenties. There have been periods of time in Pern's history where females have been able to Impress and ride Green dragons. Whether or not female Candidates are allowed on the Hatching Grounds if there is no gold egg is unknown, but it can be speculated this may be allowed in more progressive, or liberal, Weyrs.
Craftsmen - assigned to the Weyr by their Craft, Craftsmen serve the dragonriders and support staff as they would serve any Hold. The position is usually a high prestige assignment, and they are autonomous from Weyr structure. However some craftmen gain their position at a Weyr by being Searched and proficient in their craft discipline, at which point they are appointed by their Mastercrafter as the official representative.
Social Mores
Marriage
There is no marriage in the Weyr, as dragonriders are so involved in their dragons' needs that it would be unfair to a romantic partner to commit to a permanent relationship. Instead, Weyrs have "weyrmates." In rare cases, weyrmating is as deep and permanent as a marriage. However, a weyrmate would usually be the equivalent to a long-term "boyfriend" or "girlfriend": a form of serial monogamy. A weyrmate might be another rider, a crafter or a lower caverns worker. The term indicates that the pair usually share living quarters, for the time being. Such relationships can be severed at any time by either partner for any reason.
Parenting
Parental ties are loose, and children are considered to be the property of the Weyr, not of the parent. Usually a child knows who his or her parents are, but many have no more contact with them than any other Weyr resident. There is often some fondness between parent and child; a parent might give a "birthing day" or "Turn's End" gift to their child and keep tabs on the child's development. Other parents completely ignore their child's existence. Severing a child's emotional ties with their natural parents is also considered to be a balancing factor, as expectations for Weyrbrats are not tied to the rank or qualities of their parents. Children are seen as individuals who must succeed or fail on their own, not on parental merit. During a Pass, when a dragonrider parent risks life and limb fighting Thread, this also limits the child's trauma should a parent die.
Sex
Sexual relations in a Weyr are typically very liberal. Sex is a form of tension release, and can be triggered through telepathic cues that are produced by the dragons in mating flights. A goldrider can be expected to be open to sexual relations with multiple males (especially bronzeriders) and greenriders are expected to not mind having many sexual partners as well. Sexual contact during mating flights is not considered to be any indication of a dragonrider's preference in either individual or gender preference. In addition, sex with a person other than a weyrmate during a mating flight is not considered to be "cheating." This behavior is considered anathema to the Holders (who are very conservative in their morals) and, to a lesser degree, the Crafters.
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is accepted in the Weyr as a necessity for the dragons' well-being. Green dragons prefer to impress a female or gay male rider while blue and some brown dragons may choose gay or bisexual male riders. However, homosexuality is not well accepted outside of the Weyr, so the Weyr often becomes a sanctuary for homosexual men and women.
Suicide
Suicide is considered to be a "normal" response to the loss of a dragon. A dragonrider whose dragon has died is usually given the option of accompanying another pair Between and releasing from the pair before emerging, effectively killing him or herself. Few riders would ever deny a dragonless rider due to the strength of the bond between dragon and rider, losing one's dragon almost always results in insanity in all but the strongest of character such as Lytol, though these people remain emotional vulnerable to any mention of Dragons.
Abortion
Abortion is also accepted in the Weyr, while Holders and Crafters believe abortion to be "evil." Going into the absolute cold of Between during the first trimester of pregnancy usually causes a miscarriage; therefore any female dragonrider risks aborting before she even knows she is with child. As such, there can be no stigma against abortion within a Weyr. Any woman in the Weyr who finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy has the option of asking assistance from a dragonrider. "A short ride Between" is a common euphemism for ending an unwanted pregnancy.
Status
For dragonriders, social and Wing status are completely dependent on the colour of their dragon. This is due to the natural/instinctual social structure of the dragons themselves, a legacy of their firelizard ancestors. Gold and bronze dragons and their riders are at the top of the social/military structure. Brown dragons and their riders have the most flexibility and can achieve rank nearly equal to bronze dragons or fall to lower ranks, according to ability and personal preferences of the Riders. Blue and green dragons and their riders are at the bottom of the social and military hierarchy, the dragons because they will obey gold and bronze (and sometimes brown) dragons generally without question, their riders tend to have matching "follower" personalities and are usually content to do so.
While the Weyrwoman and the Weyrleader hold the same rank as a Lord or Lady Holder or Mastercraftsmen, even the lowest ranked adult dragonrider is equivalent to a senior journeyman in a craft, and are given the respect due any dragonrider as the protectors of Pern.
DRAGONS
Pernese dragons are similar to traditional Western dragons in the fact that they can breathe fire and resemble great lizards or dinosaurs with wings, but the resemblance ends there. Unlike most dragons in previous Western literature, Pernese dragons are entirely friendly to humanity. Furthermore, they are not magical at all. Instead, they are a heavily genetically modified species based on one of Pern's native life-forms, the fire lizard.
In Dragonsdawn, the race was intentionally engineered to fight Thread after it first caught the human colonists on Pern unawares, with devastating results. Geneticist Kitti Ping Yung designed the dragons by manipulating the genetic code of the indigenous fire lizards that had been acquired as pets by the colonists. The dragons were named after their resemblance to Western dragons from the legends of old Earth.
Dragons are described as carnivorous, oviparous, warm-blooded creatures. Like all of Pern's native large fauna, they have six limbs - four feet and two wings. Their blood, referred to as ichor, is copper-based and green in color, they have multifaceted eyes that change color depending on the dragon's mood. Their head and general body type is described by McCaffrey as being similar in shape to those of horses. On their heads they have small headknobs, similar to those of giraffes, and no visible ears. Unlike the dragons of Terran legend, they have a smooth hide rather than scales; the texture of their skin is described as being reminiscent of suede with a spicy, sweet scent when clean. They are described as having forked tail ends with a defecation opening between the forks; however, most artistic renderings depict their tails as having spade-shaped tips. The dragons usually get from one place to another by going through a teleportation process known as 'going between'.
Kitti Ping designed the dragons to gradually increase in size with each generation until they reached pre-programmed final dimensions. The dragons of the first Hatchings were not much bigger than horses. By the Sixth Pass (1500 years later) they had reached their programmed size and remained at that size until a single isolated dragon population suffered severe inbreeding, resulting in much larger beasts. In the 9th Pass, when the most of the novels have so far been set, the largest Pernese dragon on record, Ramoth, hatched. According to the novel All the Weyrs of Pern these dragons were roughly three times the size of the largest first-generation dragons. Ramoth's great size is often attributed to mutation and the genetic isolation of Benden Weyr for over 400 years (or Turns). Ramoth, at full length, was forty-five feet (Although the Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, written by Jody Lynn Nye with input from Anne McCaffrey listed it incorrectly as forty-five metres). In All the Weyrs of Pern, AIVAS, an artificial intelligence still in operation after all this time, notes that all of the primary Benden dragons, Ramoth, Mnementh and Canth, are notably larger than Kitti Ping's specified end-size of the dragon species. Newly hatched dragons are the size of very large dogs or small ponies, and reach their full size after eighteen months. Because young dragons grow so fast, their riders must regularly apply oil to their hides to prevent the skin from cracking or drying out, daily bathing in cold water can effect the fingers of the riders chill bane.
Dragons, like their fire lizard ancestors, can breathe fire by chewing a phosphine-bearing rock, called "firestone" in the novels, which reacts with an acid in a special "second stomach" organ. This forms a volatile gas that can be exhaled at will and ignites upon contact with air. The flame is used to burn Thread from the sky before it reaches the ground. However, the chewed firestone must be expelled from the body after it is used up, for the dragons cannot digest it. This is done by regurgitation. If a dragon does not do so (usually because of inexperience), the need becomes so great that they will expel it involuntarily.
A favorite activity of dragons is sunning themselves. They will find a high place to perch that is exposed to sunlight and often spread their wings to catch as much sunlight as possible. A favorite place is even better if a vertical surface is nearby to reflect more light and solar heat. They appear to do this especially after going between. Or snow like in Red Star Rising
Psychic abilities
Despite their relatively low intelligence, fire-lizards communicate through a form of weak telepathy. They also imprint on the first individual who feeds them after they hatch, creating a telepathic bond with them; the Pernese call this phenomenon "Impression". In creating dragons, Kitti Ping intensified the creatures' telepathy, greatly increased their intelligence, and gave them a strong instinctive drive to Impress to a human. Upon hatching, each dragonet chooses one of the humans present (usually) and Impresses to that person; from that moment on, the pair are in a constant state of telepathic contact for as long as they both live. Dragons also use telepathy to communicate with each other and with fire lizards. They are capable of speaking telepathically to humans besides their own riders, but not all of them will do so except under unusual circumstances. Being spoken to by a dragon when one is not a rider nor a close acquaintance is considered a great honor.
Dragons and fire-lizards can also teleport. They do this by briefly entering a hyperspace dimension known as between. Both humans and dragons experience between as an extremely cold, sensory-deprived, black void. After spending no more than eight seconds in between, the dragon or fire lizard can re-emerge anywhere on Pern, along with any passengers or cargo they carried. This ability is explained as having evolved in fire lizards as a defense against Thread; not only does it allow them to quickly escape from Threadfall, but the intense cold of between kills any Thread that has already burrowed into them. If a dragon attempts to teleport without a clear mental image of the place where they intend to reappear, they may simply fail to emerge from between and thus, be gone forever.
Going between allows dragons to travel through time as well as space, as long as they have a clear picture of what a particular place looked like (or will look like) at the desired time. However, the practice is highly dangerous to both dragon and rider and is severely restricted. Existing in two places at once for extended periods of time, or in close proximity, causes severe weakness and psychological disturbance for humans but not for dragons, the effects of which are discussed in several novels. In addition, while teleporting through space always takes the same amount of time, when a dragon travels through time, the amount of time they spend in between increases depending on how long ago or how far in time the destination is. Thus, traveling to remote times poses severe dangers from hypothermia and oxygen deprivation. In the first Pern novel Dragonflight, Lessa passes out after having travelled back over 400 turns.
Riders are trained to give the dragon the image of their destination, but it is known that there are some that get lazy and let the dragon do the work instead. This is said to sometimes be the cause of accidental time travel.
The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern states that dragons defecate while between. This idea originated with a statement by Anne McCaffrey herself, in answer to a fan's question about the subject at a con. However, McCaffrey may have been joking when she first said this. As the idea has never been referenced in any of the Pern novels, (in fact, defecation was probably only mentioned a scant few times in all of the books ever written in the Pern series.) it cannot be considered definitively canonical. If true, it would eventually cause serious ecological problems for the planet, as large amounts of Pern's organic matter would be regularly disappearing into an alternate dimension, although when dragons and riders die, they go between, and organic matter is also lost. It should be noted that The Skies of Pern references the use of dragon dung as a repellent against the large felines inhabiting the southern continent. Given the energy needed to take something between, It could be that anything taken between will eventually find its way back into normal space, though not necessarily back to Pern.
Dragons are also capable of telekenesis, though this ability is unknown and used in an unconscious manner (to augment flight) until it is discovered as a conscious ability by the green dragon Zaranth and her rider Tai in the 31st turn of the Ninth Pass. It is speculated that the undersized wings were intentionally created in the dragons by Kitti Ping to reduce the surface area of a dragon that is exposed to possible Thread injury, and that the telekenisis was intended to make up for the loss of wingsail. It is said in many books that a dragon is able to carry whatever it thinks it can carry. This is likely an extension of the telekenesis, mentally "lifting" the extra load. This is the most likely explanation as to the great loads that dragons sometimes carry during emergencies.
Psychology
Unlike their fire lizard ancestors, dragons are fully sapient. They communicate fluently in human language (although only telepathically), and have personalities and opinions distinct from those of their riders. However, their intelligence does seem to be somewhat lower than that of the average human. In particular, their long-term memory is severely limited.
Dragons' telepathic communication is usually limited to contact with their rider and with other dragons, however a dragon sometimes communicates well with a person with whom their rider has close emotional ties. They do understand spoken human language and occasionally reply telepathically to people whom they choose to speak.
As a safeguard against the possible damage that could be caused by such powerful creatures, Ping engineered dragons to be profoundly psychologically dependent on their riders. Any dragonet that fails to Impress to a human shortly after hatching will die. If a dragon's rider dies, the dragon immediately suicides by going between without a destination. The only exception is when the rider of a queen dragon dies while the queen is gravid; the dragon waits just long enough to lay her eggs and see them hatch before disappearing between. (Humans who lose their dragons typically commit suicide as well. However, some do survive, although the experience leaves profound psychological trauma.)
Ping also designed the dragons to be fairly calm in temperament. They never fight one another, unless two queens come into estrus at the same time. They are also not dangerous to humans except shortly after hatching, when it is common for confused and frightened dragonets to maul or even kill humans hoping to Impress.
When a dragon hatches, they announce their names to their new riders upon Impression. Pernese dragons' names always end in -th.
Colors
On canon Pern, barring occasional variations, female dragons and fire lizards are either green or gold in color, and males are blue, brown or bronze.
Gold dragons, also called queens, are the largest dragons (70-80 feet long, with Ramoth, the largest queen ever hatched, said to be as long from nose to tail as a jet plane according to The Dragonlovers Guide To Pern) (it is known that the previously mentioned text mistakenly used meters as opposed to feet, meaning Ramoth was 45-50 feet in length) and the only fertile females. Gold dragons are by far the rarest dragons on Pern, at just less than 1% of the population. They are dominant over all other colors; any non-gold dragon will invariably obey a queen's orders, even against the wishes of its own rider. Queens do not chew firestone and producing flame (see below); however, they do fight Thread - they fly in the lowest wing, with their riders armed with specially designed flamethrowers to flame any Thread missed by the above wings. An egg that is going to hatch a gold dragon is notable: It is gold-colored and larger than other eggs. A gold dragon will always Impress a heterosexual female and are believed by most Weyrfolk to prefer young women who were not raised in the Weyr.
Bronze dragons are the largest males (55-65 feet long), although they are significantly smaller than the queens. Bronzes only comprise of about 5% of all dragons. They are almost always the ones to mate with queens, as the smaller colors generally lack the stamina to chase and catch the gold dragons when they rise to mate. Due to the 5-1 bronze/gold ratio and the infrequency of gold mating flights, they often mate with greens (the losers of a gold flight almost always seek a green for their needs), but their size often puts them at a disadvantage in chasing the agile, smaller females. The senior bronze of a Weyr is determined through which bronze wins the mating flight of the senior gold. In canon Pern, the rider of a bronze dragon is always a heterosexual male.
Brown dragons are the next largest color (50-60 feet long). About 15% of all dragons are brown. They may occasionally mate with queens, although this is rare, and becomes even more rare as the dragons increase in size; by Ramoth's time in the Ninth Pass it is unheard-of. All brownriders in the Pern novels are men; most are heterosexual, but bisexual or "masculine" homosexual brownriders are not rare. Anne has also stated that masculine females also have the ability to impress to a Brown.
Blue dragons are the smallest males (35-45 feet long) and make up about a third (30%) of all dragons on Pern. They are nearly as agile as greens, but unlike the greens, they often have enough stamina to last for an entire Threadfall. They mate only with greens, as they are simply too small to keep up with a massive queen over a long mating flight. There are few prominent blue dragons or blueriders in the books. Some assume the position of teaching the new riders after their Impression. Canon blueriders are typically homosexual or bisexual, though some are heterosexual. In interviews, Anne has stated that homosexual women may be able to Impress a Blue dragon, however it has only been shown to happen once in the books with Xhinna Impressing Tazith.
Green dragons are the smallest normal color (30-40 feet long), and make up about half of all dragons on Pern (50%). They are female, but unlike the queens, they are infertile and can produce flame. They are extremely valuable in Threadfall because of their agility, but they lack the stamina to last an entire Fall and generally fly in two or three shifts. Originally, greens Impressed to girls; however, after various natural disasters and plagues decimated Pern's population, women were needed to help repopulate the planet. Since going between during pregnancy can induce miscarriage and because removing pregnant riders from the Wings reduced the effectiveness of the Wings, it became impractical to present large numbers of women as candidates for Impression. Thus, green dragons began Impressing homosexual boys; by the time of the end of the Second Pass, female greenriders were becoming rare. By the time of Moreta in the Sixth Pass, female greenriders were entirely forgotten, although greens gradually begin Impressing to women again in the Ninth Pass. Females of any sexual orientation may Impress Green.
White dragons - only one is mentioned anywhere in the Pern novels: Ruth, whose rider is Lord Jaxom of Ruatha Hold. He is not an albino, as his hide contains very faint patches of all the normal dragon colors, visible on close examination when Ruth is very clean. Ruth's egg would not have hatched if Jaxom had not forced it open and released the dragonet from an unusually tough shell; thus, it seems likely that white coloration in dragons is normally a lethal mutation, as it is tradition to not assist dragonets who can't hatch on their own. It appears that a white dragonet is unable to break out of their own egg, perhaps due to possibly inadequate strength of the dragonet or the unusually tough shell of a white's egg such as Ruth's had, or a combination of both. Although his parents are the largest queen, Ramoth, and largest bronze, Mnementh, in the history of Pern, Ruth is smaller than even a normal green dragon in his time; he is only slightly larger than the largest dragons of the first generation. While his exact length is never specifically mentioned in the books, it does state that he stands higher than a runnerbeast (horse) at the shoulder, extrapolations suggest that he might be eighteen feet long. He is male or neuter (undetermined), and assumed sterile, with no urge to mate. Ruth also has the unusual ability to intuitively orient himself in time.
The larger a color is, the less common it is. For instance, there are more Blues than Browns, and there are more Browns than Bronzes. Half the dragon population is female, with Green dragons being roughly fifty percent of the population and Golds being one percent or slightly less.
Riding a larger color of dragon confers higher social status in Pern's extremely hierarchical society, color rankings following the dragons own strict instinctual hierarchical organization based on fire-lizard structures. Perhaps as a result of this, it is commonly believed that the larger colors are more intelligent, although recent novels imply that this may not be true.
The Pernese believe that chewing firestone makes female dragons sterile; they therefore refuse to allow queens to use it. Greens, on the other hand, are so common that if they produced offspring it would quickly lead to overpopulation. They always chew firestone, and because of their numbers and agility they are vital to any Thread-fighting force. However, Dragonsdawn suggests that Kitti Ping -possibly motivated by old-fashioned ideas about gender roles- deliberately engineered greens to be infertile and gold dragons to be incapable of producing flame in order to protect the gold dragons, the only reproductively fertile females, from the dangers of Thread fighting.
Mating and reproduction
Mating
Both gold and green dragons experience a periodic mating urge. During a Pass a gold dragon will rise roughly once per Turn, and more often at the beginning of a Pass, yet less often towards the end of a Pass. During an Interval a gold dragon may rise to mate only once every four or five Turns. Greens will rise to mate three or four times a Turn, whether this increased or decreases depending on whether or not it is a Pass is unknown. Greens will mate with any male, usually blues or browns. As they are smaller and have less stamina, a green mating flight is much shorter than a gold one.
When a female comes into estrus, interested males compete to catch her in a mating flight. Usually, the female chooses the male who impresses her the most with his skill in the flight, although inexperienced females may be caught before making their choice. The pair actually mate in midair; thus, the higher they get during the flight, the longer their mating can last. The Pernese commonly believe that longer matings result in larger clutches. For this reason, queenriders are strongly encouraged to restrain their dragons from eating heavily just before a flight, instructing them to drink blood instead for a quick burst of energy.
Effects on rider sexuality
Due to the intense psychic bond between rider and dragon, dragonriders are overcome by the powerful emotions and sensations associated with mating flights. The riders of the mating pair engage in sex themselves, to varying degrees unaware of what they are doing. This contributes to a much looser attitude toward sexuality in general among dragonriders than in the rest of Pernese society.
For much of Pern's history, all greenriders are male. During these periods, all green mating flights result in homosexual intercourse between the riders of the dragons involved. This homosexual intercourse is accepted in the Weyr as being separate from the rider's personal preferences unless the rider has shown otherwise. Mating flight sex between two riders, one of whom is not the other's chosen partner (known as a weyrmate) is not considered to be "cheating." It is understood within the Weyr that sex during mating flights is not optional for the rider. Anne McCaffrey stated that "The dragon decides, the rider complies." Dragons do not usually consider the preferences of their riders when considering what female they wish to chase, or for a female dragon, what male dragon might catch her. A primary example of this behavior is between Weyrleader T'gellan, Weyrwoman Talina and greenrider Mirrim. T'gellan and Mirrim are weyrmates, but T'gellan's bronze dragon must mate with Weyrwoman Talina's gold dragon at least yearly in order for T'gellan to maintain his position as Weyrleader. Mirrim, known to be an extremely acerbic and temperamental rider, shows no jealousy or other problem with her weyrmate's sexual contact with Talina.
Effects on non-rider sexuality
Both green and gold dragons broadcast their sexual feelings on a wide band during mating flights. Weyrfolk tend to become somewhat inured to this and therefore can hold their sexual reactions until an appropriate place and time. However, flights are usually not over the Weyr itself and sometimes the flightpath of the mating flight brings the mating dragons over Holds or Farmholds where the average people occasionally find themselves engaged in unexpected activities. This is especially common among young teens working out in the fields who react to the sudden, unexpected and overwhelming urges with potentially embarrassing results.
Riders of the losing dragons usually seek sexual relief after the intense flight, if they do not have a chosen partner they may seek the comfort of any willing and available partner of their sexual preference. The weyrfolk tend to happily accommodate these riders, especially if they have been affected by the flight's sexual urgency. This is one of the major reasons for the Weyr's reputation for being sexually very open.
Significance
As the primary line of defense against the Thread, dragons are a requirement for the survival and prosperity of humans, not to mention other forms of land life, on Pern. However, the great beasts require a good deal of maintenance, to the degree of requiring a large part of Pernese infrastructure - especially cattle farming - to be centered around their upkeep. This has been known to cause resentment among those doing the supporting, especially at times when Thread is not falling.
For more indepth INFO, Consult Pern Wiki
Basic Plot
(Female seeking Male partner)
Wild girl, is living in the Wilds of the Southern Continent, its a veritable Jungle paradise lined with crystal blue beaches. Always warm. Never cold. The young woman is the sole survivor of a shipwreck some 12 years prior. Initially her father survived as well, she was barely 7 turns years old when they washed up on Shore, But Her father died in the weeks following, of a severe fever, much like scarlet fever. The young woman survived, impressing a small flight of Firelizards, she turned completely feral, forgetting language and all that she had known as a child. Living 12 years alone on the island.
She is a rare young woman in that she has the ability known as HAD, or Hear All Dragons. Most young girls with this ability are taken to the Weyr and almost always impress Queens. She is at present undiscovered, because she is in an undiscovered part of the Southern Continent.
The Premise is that she would be discovered by either a Search Dragon, because in a fly over he or she, Search Dragons can be Browns (male) or Greens (Female) heard her. OR She can be discovered by a young Bronze rider taking a sabbatical in a pristine cove he discovered.
Once Tamed, the Wild one would be taken to the Rider's Weyr for training to stand on the sands for the Next Golden Egg lain.
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The World of Pern
Life on Pern as presented in the novels resembles a pre-industrial society with lords, holds, harpers (musicians, entertainers, and teachers), and dragons.
Pernese people are described as belonging to four basic groups: Weyrfolk (including Dragonriders) who live in the Weyrs, Giant Craters, with great halls and suites for the riders. These Craters are dead Volcanos, the Center of the Weyr, the crater, or the WeyrBowl as they call it is where the Queen lays her eggs on the volcanic sands. The Holders who live in the Holds (cities, towns and farms), the crafters who live in Crafthalls (or are assigned to work their crafts in certain Holds), and the Holdless who have no permanent home (including traders, displaced Holders, and brigands).
One of the main threats to Pernese civilization in the series is Thread, which is described as a mycorrhizoid spore that periodically rains down on the planet due to the orbit of the Red Star. The Red Star is set out to be a rogue planet in the Rukbat system. The Red Star, characterized as a "Sedna-class inner Oort cloud object", has a 250 Turn (or Pernese year) elliptic orbit around its sun. Thread can reach the planet Pern for about 50 Turns while the Red Star is at perihelion. Thread is described in this series as an agent that consumes organic material at a voracious rate, including crops, animals, and any humans in its path.
The Pernese use intelligent firebreathing dragons and their riders to fight Thread. The riders have a telepathic bond with their dragons, formed by Impression at the dragon's hatching.
There is a Northern Continent and Southern Continent. The North is where most of the population lives. The south had been deemed 'uninhabitable' by legend over the centuries. However exploration deemed that not true and a Weyr and a Hold have been Established in the Southern Continent.
Weyrs are usually established in craters of extinct volcanoes. They are the living places of dragons, dragonriders and all the support staff needed to get a dragon and rider in the air. Weyr complexes are a collection of smaller weyrs, or caves, for habitation and everyday activities.
There are 6 Weyrs. 5 in the North Continent. 1 In the Southern.
High Reaches Weyr
Ista Weyr
Igen Weyr
Telgar Weyr
Benden Weyr
Southern Weyr
Structure of the Weyr
Leadership
The plural Weyrleaders typically refers to the Weyrwoman as well as the Weyrleader, though in some contexts it may refer to a council of Weyrleaders, a conference among the military leaders of the Weyrs. Until the 9th Pass the Weyrwomen were usually not invited or welcome at such meetings or conferences.
Domestic Management
The domestic head of the Weyr is the Weyrwoman, the rider of the ranking gold ("queen") in the Weyr. If the Weyrwoman dies, or if her dragon ceases to mate due to old age or serious injury, the rider of the next gold to rise to mate will take the position. Though she and her gold are called "senior pair" they are senior in rank, not necessarily in age or in experience.
The Weyrwoman is in charge of all matters that pertain to housing, food, the raising of children living in the Weyr, training, organization and discipline of the support staff of the Weyr, as well as the day-to-day living requirements of the dragons and their riders. The Weyrwoman is also a diplomatic ambassador, responsible for relations to other Weyrs, Holds and the Crafthalls. Most of her duties are administrative, delegating responsibilities to her Headwoman or junior goldriders.
The Headwoman is the Weyrwoman's primary assistant. The Headwoman is responsible for implementing the Weyrwoman's orders regarding management of the Lower Caverns, where the bulk of the support staff live and work. She is in charge of the cook staff, the cleaning staff, maintenance staff and the Fostering staff. She wields a great deal of power inside of the Weyr.
Retired goldriders often remain in the Weyr as an assistant or advisor to the Weyrwoman. They are sometimes designated to represent the Weyrwoman in the Weyrwoman's absence.
Junior goldriders are also assistants to the Weyrwoman. All dragons will obey the orders of a queen, unless they contradict the orders of the senior gold. Because of this, all goldriders must act as leaders. The junior goldriders are typically assigned to record keeping, lower level diplomatic duties, training gold weyrling pairs and fostering teenage girls who are likely to rise to a leadership position within the Weyr. This provides them with important experience for future leadership positions, as each junior pair has the chance to become Weyrwoman on very short notice.
Military
The military side of the Weyr is headed by the Weyrleader. Weyrleadership is determined by the mating flights of the senior queen. The rider of whichever bronze catches (mates with) her becomes the Weyrleader. The Weyrleader is in charge of making sure that the fighting wings are up to strength, and well trained, he also determines the strategy for threadfighting. The turnover of Weyrleadership varies greatly.
Wingleaders each lead a wing of 12-33 dragons. Each Wingleader has two Wingseconds who may be brownriders or young bronzeriders in training to be a Wingleader. The Wingleaders are technically equal in rank, but as seen in Dragonflight some Wingleaders have more power within a Weyr than others, based on their relationship with the Weyrleader.
One of the most important ranks in the Weyr, below the Weyrleaders and Wingleaders, is that of the Weyrlingmaster. He is in charge of the training and discipline of the young dragonpairs known as weyrlings. While under his care, weyrlings learn everything from basic dragon husbandry to advanced threadfighting techniques. The Weyrlingmaster must be appointed by the Weyrleaders. The Weyrlingmaster must have a good deal of experience, and thick skin, because as many as 25% of all Weyrlings can die before the end of their training. Weyrlingmasters are usually bronzeriders, though highly respected and very senior brown or blueriders are sometimes assigned to the position.
Determination of leadership
Leadership is determined through chance. The first gold dragon to rise to mate after the previous Weyrwoman's gold dragon has died or ceased to mate becomes Weyrwoman; the rider of the bronze dragon that catches that dragon becomes Weyrleader. This system was established by the first Weyrleader, Sean Connell, in the short story The Second Weyr. This system can (and in the books has) produce inept or otherwise unsatisfactory leadership. There is no way to remove a bad Weyrwoman and the only way to replace a Weyrleader is for a different bronze to fly the Weyrwoman's gold dragon. During an Interval, it may be as long as a decade between mating flights.
When a new Weyr is opened the first among the newly assigned gold dragons to rise to mate becomes the first Senior gold at that Weyr and the rider of the bronze that catches her is the new Weyrleader. Often when the golds are assigned to the Weyr they assign only a single gold at first, to insure the chosen leadership, or they wait until the chosen goldrider's dragon is about to rise to mate to assign golds to the new Weyr.
A retiring Weyrwoman may choose her successor by timing her retirement to occur just before her chosen successor's dragon is about to rise to mate. However, this may not be possible if her choice of successor is not going to rise to mate in a reasonable amount of time. A Weyrwoman who fails to retire in a reasonable amount of time after her gold has failed to rise to mate may be forced to step down by force of the junior goldriders, the bronzeriders and/or the weyrfolk. This method of choosing a successor is also no guarantee of a quality replacement, as the Weyrwoman herself may choose her successor based on cronyism, personal bias against an otherwise capable goldrider or on poorly thought-out criteria.
If a Weyrleader dies "in office" the Wingleaders rule by committee until the Weyrwoman's gold rises to mate. However, in the book Dragonquest when a Weyrleader is incapacitated the Weyrwoman Mardra takes his place in the Wings, an action met with shock and outrage by other Weyrs.
Wingleaders and Wingseconds are chosen though merit, though in canon stories only bronzeriders are considered for Wingleader and only bronze and brownriders for Wingsecond.
New Wingleaders are selected by The Weyrleader, advised by existing Wingleaders.
Wingseconds are chosen by the Wingleader from among his wingriders, though with permission he might be able to recruit a promising rider from another Wing.
Wing Structure
A Wing is led by a Wingleader, who is always a bronzerider. The Wingleader is responsible for ensuring that his Wing is capable of safely fighting thread. He also appoints Wingseconds and recruits newly graduated weyrlings. Ideally a Wing has two Wingseconds, which are also typically bronze or brown dragons. They fill the Wingleader's position in the case of an emergency, and help to convey the Wingleader's orders to the rest of the Wingriders. A healthy Wing contains thirty Wingriders and their dragons, of which more than 3/4 are blue or green. The smaller blue and green dragons do not have the stamina to safely fly an entire threadfall and must be rotated out in two or three shifts. If a Wing falls to fewer than 12 healthy dragon/rider pairs, the Wing is disbanded and absorbed by other Wings.
Thread Fighting Tactics
The standard formation used in thread fighting is a V-formation of dragons, called a wing. There are 33 dragons to a wing - 1 wingleader, two wingseconds and 15 wingriders on either side. A group of 3 wings is called a flight. A Weyr will usually have at least 3 flights, but can successfully fight thread with 1 flight, although this is the bare minimum and considered highly dangerous.
The capacity of a Weyr varies from 300-600 dragons. However, during a Pass the dragonriders' duties leave little time for any other activity, so each Weyr has a large support staff that can number into the thousands. The residents of weyrs are known as weyrfolk.
Residents of a Weyr include:
Dragonriders - living in weyrs (lower case w, or the individual cavern where a single dragon and his/her rider lives), usually in the cliff faces in Northern Weyrs.
Weyrlings - young, immature dragons and their riders. Young dragons generally fly for the first time at about one Turn (year) and train with the Weyrling Wing until mature enough to join a Fighting Wing, usually between 1 1/2 to 2 Turns. Weyrling dragonriders may not join a Wing until age 16, no matter how mature their dragon. Weyrling riders who have completed training but are not yet Turned 16 are often assigned messenger or sentry duties until they come of age. They do not have adult level rank/status until they have been accepted into a Fighting Wing.
Lower Caverns staff - Often, but not always, the Candidates who failed to Impress a dragon, or those who have run away from home to live in the more liberal, accepting atmosphere of the Weyr. Lower Cavern staff are often the grown children of dragonriders. This includes cooks, servers, cleaning staff for common areas, those who care for the beasts that will feed the dragons, and many others. Lower Caverns workers often satisfy the sexual needs of riders who have lost a mating flight. They are lead and organized by a headwoman, who is usually ranked just under the weyrleaders in authority.
Weyrbrats - The children who are born in the Weyr are called (affectionately) Weyrbrats. Weyrbrats may be the children of Dragonriders, Lower Cavern staff or Crafters. It is the tradition in the Weyr that children are not raised by their natural parents, as dragonrider parents do not have time to raise a child while caring for a dragon. This community model also serves to reduce parental favoritism. Children are Fostered as soon as they are weaned from their mother's milk, and initially sent to the Weyr's creche. Once the child has grown to show distinct personality and talents, they are matched with a Fosterer (foster parent) who suits the child's temperament. Every male Weyrbrat has the right to become a Candidate and stand for Impression at age 12. Female Weyrbrats may become Candidates if there is a gold egg in the Hatching Grounds. By the end of the Ninth Pass, female Greenriders have become more common, so female Weyrbrats may be allowed to join the ranks of Candidates even if there is no gold egg in more progressive Weyrs.
Candidates - Young people who are given the opportunity to become a dragonrider. They are chosen through Search, where a sensitive dragon, usually a blue or green, seeks mentally sensitive boys and girls who are of the correct temperament to match minds with a dragon hatchling. Usually those searched are young males, aged 12 – 18, although older girls (aged 16–22) are sometimes searched if there is a gold egg available. With the addition of any Weyrbrat aged 12–18, the Searched are familiarized with the eggs and are present when the eggs hatch. The Hatchlings choose, or Impress a Candidate who suits his or her temperamental and/or other (still unknown) needs. The minimum age of the Candidates is decided by the Weyrleaders and may be changed according to the Weyr's needs. If there is a greater need for older more responsible riders, the age may be pushed back, if there is a lack of Candidates, the age may be lowered. The minimum age may also be changed depending on whether Pern is experiencing Fall or Pass. The youngest anyone has Impressed a dragon is aged 10 (F'nor), the oldest seems to be in their early twenties. There have been periods of time in Pern's history where females have been able to Impress and ride Green dragons. Whether or not female Candidates are allowed on the Hatching Grounds if there is no gold egg is unknown, but it can be speculated this may be allowed in more progressive, or liberal, Weyrs.
Craftsmen - assigned to the Weyr by their Craft, Craftsmen serve the dragonriders and support staff as they would serve any Hold. The position is usually a high prestige assignment, and they are autonomous from Weyr structure. However some craftmen gain their position at a Weyr by being Searched and proficient in their craft discipline, at which point they are appointed by their Mastercrafter as the official representative.
Social Mores
Marriage
There is no marriage in the Weyr, as dragonriders are so involved in their dragons' needs that it would be unfair to a romantic partner to commit to a permanent relationship. Instead, Weyrs have "weyrmates." In rare cases, weyrmating is as deep and permanent as a marriage. However, a weyrmate would usually be the equivalent to a long-term "boyfriend" or "girlfriend": a form of serial monogamy. A weyrmate might be another rider, a crafter or a lower caverns worker. The term indicates that the pair usually share living quarters, for the time being. Such relationships can be severed at any time by either partner for any reason.
Parenting
Parental ties are loose, and children are considered to be the property of the Weyr, not of the parent. Usually a child knows who his or her parents are, but many have no more contact with them than any other Weyr resident. There is often some fondness between parent and child; a parent might give a "birthing day" or "Turn's End" gift to their child and keep tabs on the child's development. Other parents completely ignore their child's existence. Severing a child's emotional ties with their natural parents is also considered to be a balancing factor, as expectations for Weyrbrats are not tied to the rank or qualities of their parents. Children are seen as individuals who must succeed or fail on their own, not on parental merit. During a Pass, when a dragonrider parent risks life and limb fighting Thread, this also limits the child's trauma should a parent die.
Sex
Sexual relations in a Weyr are typically very liberal. Sex is a form of tension release, and can be triggered through telepathic cues that are produced by the dragons in mating flights. A goldrider can be expected to be open to sexual relations with multiple males (especially bronzeriders) and greenriders are expected to not mind having many sexual partners as well. Sexual contact during mating flights is not considered to be any indication of a dragonrider's preference in either individual or gender preference. In addition, sex with a person other than a weyrmate during a mating flight is not considered to be "cheating." This behavior is considered anathema to the Holders (who are very conservative in their morals) and, to a lesser degree, the Crafters.
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is accepted in the Weyr as a necessity for the dragons' well-being. Green dragons prefer to impress a female or gay male rider while blue and some brown dragons may choose gay or bisexual male riders. However, homosexuality is not well accepted outside of the Weyr, so the Weyr often becomes a sanctuary for homosexual men and women.
Suicide
Suicide is considered to be a "normal" response to the loss of a dragon. A dragonrider whose dragon has died is usually given the option of accompanying another pair Between and releasing from the pair before emerging, effectively killing him or herself. Few riders would ever deny a dragonless rider due to the strength of the bond between dragon and rider, losing one's dragon almost always results in insanity in all but the strongest of character such as Lytol, though these people remain emotional vulnerable to any mention of Dragons.
Abortion
Abortion is also accepted in the Weyr, while Holders and Crafters believe abortion to be "evil." Going into the absolute cold of Between during the first trimester of pregnancy usually causes a miscarriage; therefore any female dragonrider risks aborting before she even knows she is with child. As such, there can be no stigma against abortion within a Weyr. Any woman in the Weyr who finds herself with an unwanted pregnancy has the option of asking assistance from a dragonrider. "A short ride Between" is a common euphemism for ending an unwanted pregnancy.
Status
For dragonriders, social and Wing status are completely dependent on the colour of their dragon. This is due to the natural/instinctual social structure of the dragons themselves, a legacy of their firelizard ancestors. Gold and bronze dragons and their riders are at the top of the social/military structure. Brown dragons and their riders have the most flexibility and can achieve rank nearly equal to bronze dragons or fall to lower ranks, according to ability and personal preferences of the Riders. Blue and green dragons and their riders are at the bottom of the social and military hierarchy, the dragons because they will obey gold and bronze (and sometimes brown) dragons generally without question, their riders tend to have matching "follower" personalities and are usually content to do so.
While the Weyrwoman and the Weyrleader hold the same rank as a Lord or Lady Holder or Mastercraftsmen, even the lowest ranked adult dragonrider is equivalent to a senior journeyman in a craft, and are given the respect due any dragonrider as the protectors of Pern.
DRAGONS
Pernese dragons are similar to traditional Western dragons in the fact that they can breathe fire and resemble great lizards or dinosaurs with wings, but the resemblance ends there. Unlike most dragons in previous Western literature, Pernese dragons are entirely friendly to humanity. Furthermore, they are not magical at all. Instead, they are a heavily genetically modified species based on one of Pern's native life-forms, the fire lizard.
In Dragonsdawn, the race was intentionally engineered to fight Thread after it first caught the human colonists on Pern unawares, with devastating results. Geneticist Kitti Ping Yung designed the dragons by manipulating the genetic code of the indigenous fire lizards that had been acquired as pets by the colonists. The dragons were named after their resemblance to Western dragons from the legends of old Earth.
Dragons are described as carnivorous, oviparous, warm-blooded creatures. Like all of Pern's native large fauna, they have six limbs - four feet and two wings. Their blood, referred to as ichor, is copper-based and green in color, they have multifaceted eyes that change color depending on the dragon's mood. Their head and general body type is described by McCaffrey as being similar in shape to those of horses. On their heads they have small headknobs, similar to those of giraffes, and no visible ears. Unlike the dragons of Terran legend, they have a smooth hide rather than scales; the texture of their skin is described as being reminiscent of suede with a spicy, sweet scent when clean. They are described as having forked tail ends with a defecation opening between the forks; however, most artistic renderings depict their tails as having spade-shaped tips. The dragons usually get from one place to another by going through a teleportation process known as 'going between'.
Kitti Ping designed the dragons to gradually increase in size with each generation until they reached pre-programmed final dimensions. The dragons of the first Hatchings were not much bigger than horses. By the Sixth Pass (1500 years later) they had reached their programmed size and remained at that size until a single isolated dragon population suffered severe inbreeding, resulting in much larger beasts. In the 9th Pass, when the most of the novels have so far been set, the largest Pernese dragon on record, Ramoth, hatched. According to the novel All the Weyrs of Pern these dragons were roughly three times the size of the largest first-generation dragons. Ramoth's great size is often attributed to mutation and the genetic isolation of Benden Weyr for over 400 years (or Turns). Ramoth, at full length, was forty-five feet (Although the Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, written by Jody Lynn Nye with input from Anne McCaffrey listed it incorrectly as forty-five metres). In All the Weyrs of Pern, AIVAS, an artificial intelligence still in operation after all this time, notes that all of the primary Benden dragons, Ramoth, Mnementh and Canth, are notably larger than Kitti Ping's specified end-size of the dragon species. Newly hatched dragons are the size of very large dogs or small ponies, and reach their full size after eighteen months. Because young dragons grow so fast, their riders must regularly apply oil to their hides to prevent the skin from cracking or drying out, daily bathing in cold water can effect the fingers of the riders chill bane.
Dragons, like their fire lizard ancestors, can breathe fire by chewing a phosphine-bearing rock, called "firestone" in the novels, which reacts with an acid in a special "second stomach" organ. This forms a volatile gas that can be exhaled at will and ignites upon contact with air. The flame is used to burn Thread from the sky before it reaches the ground. However, the chewed firestone must be expelled from the body after it is used up, for the dragons cannot digest it. This is done by regurgitation. If a dragon does not do so (usually because of inexperience), the need becomes so great that they will expel it involuntarily.
A favorite activity of dragons is sunning themselves. They will find a high place to perch that is exposed to sunlight and often spread their wings to catch as much sunlight as possible. A favorite place is even better if a vertical surface is nearby to reflect more light and solar heat. They appear to do this especially after going between. Or snow like in Red Star Rising
Psychic abilities
Despite their relatively low intelligence, fire-lizards communicate through a form of weak telepathy. They also imprint on the first individual who feeds them after they hatch, creating a telepathic bond with them; the Pernese call this phenomenon "Impression". In creating dragons, Kitti Ping intensified the creatures' telepathy, greatly increased their intelligence, and gave them a strong instinctive drive to Impress to a human. Upon hatching, each dragonet chooses one of the humans present (usually) and Impresses to that person; from that moment on, the pair are in a constant state of telepathic contact for as long as they both live. Dragons also use telepathy to communicate with each other and with fire lizards. They are capable of speaking telepathically to humans besides their own riders, but not all of them will do so except under unusual circumstances. Being spoken to by a dragon when one is not a rider nor a close acquaintance is considered a great honor.
Dragons and fire-lizards can also teleport. They do this by briefly entering a hyperspace dimension known as between. Both humans and dragons experience between as an extremely cold, sensory-deprived, black void. After spending no more than eight seconds in between, the dragon or fire lizard can re-emerge anywhere on Pern, along with any passengers or cargo they carried. This ability is explained as having evolved in fire lizards as a defense against Thread; not only does it allow them to quickly escape from Threadfall, but the intense cold of between kills any Thread that has already burrowed into them. If a dragon attempts to teleport without a clear mental image of the place where they intend to reappear, they may simply fail to emerge from between and thus, be gone forever.
Going between allows dragons to travel through time as well as space, as long as they have a clear picture of what a particular place looked like (or will look like) at the desired time. However, the practice is highly dangerous to both dragon and rider and is severely restricted. Existing in two places at once for extended periods of time, or in close proximity, causes severe weakness and psychological disturbance for humans but not for dragons, the effects of which are discussed in several novels. In addition, while teleporting through space always takes the same amount of time, when a dragon travels through time, the amount of time they spend in between increases depending on how long ago or how far in time the destination is. Thus, traveling to remote times poses severe dangers from hypothermia and oxygen deprivation. In the first Pern novel Dragonflight, Lessa passes out after having travelled back over 400 turns.
Riders are trained to give the dragon the image of their destination, but it is known that there are some that get lazy and let the dragon do the work instead. This is said to sometimes be the cause of accidental time travel.
The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern states that dragons defecate while between. This idea originated with a statement by Anne McCaffrey herself, in answer to a fan's question about the subject at a con. However, McCaffrey may have been joking when she first said this. As the idea has never been referenced in any of the Pern novels, (in fact, defecation was probably only mentioned a scant few times in all of the books ever written in the Pern series.) it cannot be considered definitively canonical. If true, it would eventually cause serious ecological problems for the planet, as large amounts of Pern's organic matter would be regularly disappearing into an alternate dimension, although when dragons and riders die, they go between, and organic matter is also lost. It should be noted that The Skies of Pern references the use of dragon dung as a repellent against the large felines inhabiting the southern continent. Given the energy needed to take something between, It could be that anything taken between will eventually find its way back into normal space, though not necessarily back to Pern.
Dragons are also capable of telekenesis, though this ability is unknown and used in an unconscious manner (to augment flight) until it is discovered as a conscious ability by the green dragon Zaranth and her rider Tai in the 31st turn of the Ninth Pass. It is speculated that the undersized wings were intentionally created in the dragons by Kitti Ping to reduce the surface area of a dragon that is exposed to possible Thread injury, and that the telekenisis was intended to make up for the loss of wingsail. It is said in many books that a dragon is able to carry whatever it thinks it can carry. This is likely an extension of the telekenesis, mentally "lifting" the extra load. This is the most likely explanation as to the great loads that dragons sometimes carry during emergencies.
Psychology
Unlike their fire lizard ancestors, dragons are fully sapient. They communicate fluently in human language (although only telepathically), and have personalities and opinions distinct from those of their riders. However, their intelligence does seem to be somewhat lower than that of the average human. In particular, their long-term memory is severely limited.
Dragons' telepathic communication is usually limited to contact with their rider and with other dragons, however a dragon sometimes communicates well with a person with whom their rider has close emotional ties. They do understand spoken human language and occasionally reply telepathically to people whom they choose to speak.
As a safeguard against the possible damage that could be caused by such powerful creatures, Ping engineered dragons to be profoundly psychologically dependent on their riders. Any dragonet that fails to Impress to a human shortly after hatching will die. If a dragon's rider dies, the dragon immediately suicides by going between without a destination. The only exception is when the rider of a queen dragon dies while the queen is gravid; the dragon waits just long enough to lay her eggs and see them hatch before disappearing between. (Humans who lose their dragons typically commit suicide as well. However, some do survive, although the experience leaves profound psychological trauma.)
Ping also designed the dragons to be fairly calm in temperament. They never fight one another, unless two queens come into estrus at the same time. They are also not dangerous to humans except shortly after hatching, when it is common for confused and frightened dragonets to maul or even kill humans hoping to Impress.
When a dragon hatches, they announce their names to their new riders upon Impression. Pernese dragons' names always end in -th.
Colors
On canon Pern, barring occasional variations, female dragons and fire lizards are either green or gold in color, and males are blue, brown or bronze.
Gold dragons, also called queens, are the largest dragons (70-80 feet long, with Ramoth, the largest queen ever hatched, said to be as long from nose to tail as a jet plane according to The Dragonlovers Guide To Pern) (it is known that the previously mentioned text mistakenly used meters as opposed to feet, meaning Ramoth was 45-50 feet in length) and the only fertile females. Gold dragons are by far the rarest dragons on Pern, at just less than 1% of the population. They are dominant over all other colors; any non-gold dragon will invariably obey a queen's orders, even against the wishes of its own rider. Queens do not chew firestone and producing flame (see below); however, they do fight Thread - they fly in the lowest wing, with their riders armed with specially designed flamethrowers to flame any Thread missed by the above wings. An egg that is going to hatch a gold dragon is notable: It is gold-colored and larger than other eggs. A gold dragon will always Impress a heterosexual female and are believed by most Weyrfolk to prefer young women who were not raised in the Weyr.
Bronze dragons are the largest males (55-65 feet long), although they are significantly smaller than the queens. Bronzes only comprise of about 5% of all dragons. They are almost always the ones to mate with queens, as the smaller colors generally lack the stamina to chase and catch the gold dragons when they rise to mate. Due to the 5-1 bronze/gold ratio and the infrequency of gold mating flights, they often mate with greens (the losers of a gold flight almost always seek a green for their needs), but their size often puts them at a disadvantage in chasing the agile, smaller females. The senior bronze of a Weyr is determined through which bronze wins the mating flight of the senior gold. In canon Pern, the rider of a bronze dragon is always a heterosexual male.
Brown dragons are the next largest color (50-60 feet long). About 15% of all dragons are brown. They may occasionally mate with queens, although this is rare, and becomes even more rare as the dragons increase in size; by Ramoth's time in the Ninth Pass it is unheard-of. All brownriders in the Pern novels are men; most are heterosexual, but bisexual or "masculine" homosexual brownriders are not rare. Anne has also stated that masculine females also have the ability to impress to a Brown.
Blue dragons are the smallest males (35-45 feet long) and make up about a third (30%) of all dragons on Pern. They are nearly as agile as greens, but unlike the greens, they often have enough stamina to last for an entire Threadfall. They mate only with greens, as they are simply too small to keep up with a massive queen over a long mating flight. There are few prominent blue dragons or blueriders in the books. Some assume the position of teaching the new riders after their Impression. Canon blueriders are typically homosexual or bisexual, though some are heterosexual. In interviews, Anne has stated that homosexual women may be able to Impress a Blue dragon, however it has only been shown to happen once in the books with Xhinna Impressing Tazith.
Green dragons are the smallest normal color (30-40 feet long), and make up about half of all dragons on Pern (50%). They are female, but unlike the queens, they are infertile and can produce flame. They are extremely valuable in Threadfall because of their agility, but they lack the stamina to last an entire Fall and generally fly in two or three shifts. Originally, greens Impressed to girls; however, after various natural disasters and plagues decimated Pern's population, women were needed to help repopulate the planet. Since going between during pregnancy can induce miscarriage and because removing pregnant riders from the Wings reduced the effectiveness of the Wings, it became impractical to present large numbers of women as candidates for Impression. Thus, green dragons began Impressing homosexual boys; by the time of the end of the Second Pass, female greenriders were becoming rare. By the time of Moreta in the Sixth Pass, female greenriders were entirely forgotten, although greens gradually begin Impressing to women again in the Ninth Pass. Females of any sexual orientation may Impress Green.
White dragons - only one is mentioned anywhere in the Pern novels: Ruth, whose rider is Lord Jaxom of Ruatha Hold. He is not an albino, as his hide contains very faint patches of all the normal dragon colors, visible on close examination when Ruth is very clean. Ruth's egg would not have hatched if Jaxom had not forced it open and released the dragonet from an unusually tough shell; thus, it seems likely that white coloration in dragons is normally a lethal mutation, as it is tradition to not assist dragonets who can't hatch on their own. It appears that a white dragonet is unable to break out of their own egg, perhaps due to possibly inadequate strength of the dragonet or the unusually tough shell of a white's egg such as Ruth's had, or a combination of both. Although his parents are the largest queen, Ramoth, and largest bronze, Mnementh, in the history of Pern, Ruth is smaller than even a normal green dragon in his time; he is only slightly larger than the largest dragons of the first generation. While his exact length is never specifically mentioned in the books, it does state that he stands higher than a runnerbeast (horse) at the shoulder, extrapolations suggest that he might be eighteen feet long. He is male or neuter (undetermined), and assumed sterile, with no urge to mate. Ruth also has the unusual ability to intuitively orient himself in time.
The larger a color is, the less common it is. For instance, there are more Blues than Browns, and there are more Browns than Bronzes. Half the dragon population is female, with Green dragons being roughly fifty percent of the population and Golds being one percent or slightly less.
Riding a larger color of dragon confers higher social status in Pern's extremely hierarchical society, color rankings following the dragons own strict instinctual hierarchical organization based on fire-lizard structures. Perhaps as a result of this, it is commonly believed that the larger colors are more intelligent, although recent novels imply that this may not be true.
The Pernese believe that chewing firestone makes female dragons sterile; they therefore refuse to allow queens to use it. Greens, on the other hand, are so common that if they produced offspring it would quickly lead to overpopulation. They always chew firestone, and because of their numbers and agility they are vital to any Thread-fighting force. However, Dragonsdawn suggests that Kitti Ping -possibly motivated by old-fashioned ideas about gender roles- deliberately engineered greens to be infertile and gold dragons to be incapable of producing flame in order to protect the gold dragons, the only reproductively fertile females, from the dangers of Thread fighting.
Mating and reproduction
Mating
Both gold and green dragons experience a periodic mating urge. During a Pass a gold dragon will rise roughly once per Turn, and more often at the beginning of a Pass, yet less often towards the end of a Pass. During an Interval a gold dragon may rise to mate only once every four or five Turns. Greens will rise to mate three or four times a Turn, whether this increased or decreases depending on whether or not it is a Pass is unknown. Greens will mate with any male, usually blues or browns. As they are smaller and have less stamina, a green mating flight is much shorter than a gold one.
When a female comes into estrus, interested males compete to catch her in a mating flight. Usually, the female chooses the male who impresses her the most with his skill in the flight, although inexperienced females may be caught before making their choice. The pair actually mate in midair; thus, the higher they get during the flight, the longer their mating can last. The Pernese commonly believe that longer matings result in larger clutches. For this reason, queenriders are strongly encouraged to restrain their dragons from eating heavily just before a flight, instructing them to drink blood instead for a quick burst of energy.
Effects on rider sexuality
Due to the intense psychic bond between rider and dragon, dragonriders are overcome by the powerful emotions and sensations associated with mating flights. The riders of the mating pair engage in sex themselves, to varying degrees unaware of what they are doing. This contributes to a much looser attitude toward sexuality in general among dragonriders than in the rest of Pernese society.
For much of Pern's history, all greenriders are male. During these periods, all green mating flights result in homosexual intercourse between the riders of the dragons involved. This homosexual intercourse is accepted in the Weyr as being separate from the rider's personal preferences unless the rider has shown otherwise. Mating flight sex between two riders, one of whom is not the other's chosen partner (known as a weyrmate) is not considered to be "cheating." It is understood within the Weyr that sex during mating flights is not optional for the rider. Anne McCaffrey stated that "The dragon decides, the rider complies." Dragons do not usually consider the preferences of their riders when considering what female they wish to chase, or for a female dragon, what male dragon might catch her. A primary example of this behavior is between Weyrleader T'gellan, Weyrwoman Talina and greenrider Mirrim. T'gellan and Mirrim are weyrmates, but T'gellan's bronze dragon must mate with Weyrwoman Talina's gold dragon at least yearly in order for T'gellan to maintain his position as Weyrleader. Mirrim, known to be an extremely acerbic and temperamental rider, shows no jealousy or other problem with her weyrmate's sexual contact with Talina.
Effects on non-rider sexuality
Both green and gold dragons broadcast their sexual feelings on a wide band during mating flights. Weyrfolk tend to become somewhat inured to this and therefore can hold their sexual reactions until an appropriate place and time. However, flights are usually not over the Weyr itself and sometimes the flightpath of the mating flight brings the mating dragons over Holds or Farmholds where the average people occasionally find themselves engaged in unexpected activities. This is especially common among young teens working out in the fields who react to the sudden, unexpected and overwhelming urges with potentially embarrassing results.
Riders of the losing dragons usually seek sexual relief after the intense flight, if they do not have a chosen partner they may seek the comfort of any willing and available partner of their sexual preference. The weyrfolk tend to happily accommodate these riders, especially if they have been affected by the flight's sexual urgency. This is one of the major reasons for the Weyr's reputation for being sexually very open.
Significance
As the primary line of defense against the Thread, dragons are a requirement for the survival and prosperity of humans, not to mention other forms of land life, on Pern. However, the great beasts require a good deal of maintenance, to the degree of requiring a large part of Pernese infrastructure - especially cattle farming - to be centered around their upkeep. This has been known to cause resentment among those doing the supporting, especially at times when Thread is not falling.
For more indepth INFO, Consult Pern Wiki