Dragonriders of Pern

The Dragonriders of Pern is a series of science fiction novels by Anne McCaffrey with more recent contributions from her son Todd. The novels are set on the planet Pern, which has a low-tech feudal society divided into three main factions: Holds, Halls, and Weyrs.

Holds
Pern's Holds are like medieval manors. Each Hold is run by a hereditary Lord or Lady Holder. Minor holds look to their main Hold for government and support in times of crisis. The main Holds on the Northern Continent during Ninth-Pass (or present-day) Pern are:


 * Benden, led by Lord Raid
 * Bitra, Lord Sifer; later Lord Sigomel
 * Crom
 * Fort, Lord Groghe and Lady Benoria
 * High Reaches, Lord Bargen
 * Igen, Lord Laudey
 * Ista, Lord Warbret
 * Keroon, Lord Corman
 * Lemos, Lord Asgenar and Lady Famira
 * Nabol, Lord Meron; later Lord Deckter
 * Nerat, Lord Begamon
 * Ruatha, Lord Warder Lytol; later Lord Jaxom
 * Southern Boll, Lord Sangel
 * Telgar, Lord Larad
 * Tillek, Lord Oterel

Note: Prior to the start of the Ninth Pass, the tyrant Lord Fax had taken over High Reaches, Nabol, Crom, and Ruatha Holds, as well as three minor holds. The lords listed above are those who succeed him after F'lar kills him.

Halls
The Halls are similar to medieval craft guilds. Each Hall is autonomous and led by a Mastercrafter, who is elected by his or her fellow craftmasters. Crafters begin as apprentices at about the age of 12, become journeymen after a period of training, and may choose to continue their studies and become masters. Important Halls in Ninth-Pass Pern are:


 * The Harper Hall, led by Masterharper Robinton
 * The Healer Hall, Masterhealer Oldive
 * The Smith Hall, Mastersmith Fandarel

Weyrs
The Weyrs are where the dragons live. At full capacity, each Weyr can house around 400 dragons and their riders as well as a considerable support staff. Each Weyr is autonomous and led by a Weyrwoman and a Weyrleader. The Weyrwoman is the rider of the most senior gold dragon, or queen. The Weyrleader is the rider of whichever bronze dragon catches the queen in her mating flight(s). There is only one inhabited Weyr at the beginning of the 9th Pass--Benden Weyr--but there are six total on the Northern Continent:


 * Benden
 * Fort
 * High Reaches
 * Igen
 * Ista
 * Telgar

The Dragons
Pern's sentient, telepathic, telekinetic, fire-breathing dragons are what makes the world special. At its hatching, each dragonet bonds with, or Impresses, one human rider. From then until death, the two share a telepathic bond. The rider is responsible for the care and feeding of the dragon, and in return the dragon provides unswerving love and devotion. There is no closer bond than that between dragon and rider.

The dragons come in five colors. In order of size:


 * Gold dragons (38-42 ft) are the egg-layers of the Weyr. They do not breathe fire, as they are incapable of processing the phosphate-bearing firestone. Golds are very intelligent, but they are haughty and possessive of their mates. They Impress girls only.


 * Bronzes (35-38 ft) are the largest males, which is why they are usually the ones to catch the queens in flight and lead the fighting Wings. They are very intelligent, but sometimes vain. They Impress boys only.


 * Browns (30-35 ft) are middle-sized males. Occasionally a large brown is a contender for leadership positions, but mostly they are lieutenants, or wingseconds, to bronze wingleaders. Browns are often credited with having the most sense of all the colors. They Impress boys only.


 * Blues (25-30 ft) are small, sturdy males. With greens, they make up the bulk of the Wings. They are too small to fly the golds, but their riders can hold leadership positions such as Weyrlingmaster, Weyrharper, etc. Blues also tend to have the best sense for which humans are most likely to Impress. They Impress boys only.


 * Greens (20-25 ft) are small, agile females. They breathe fire and are infertile, which is fortunate, because they rise often to mate. They are the most numerous dragon color with the number of greens equaling the number of all the other colors combined. They can be temperamental, but their dexterity in the air makes them the best Threadfighters. They Impress boys and girls, though the practice of presenting girls as candidates to any but a queen egg died out sometime after the end of the First Pass. It was revived during the Ninth Pass when Mirrim quite unintentionally Impressed Path from the stands.

One exception to the above exists in canon: Ruth, a white dragon (though it is noted that he has hints of all colours in his hide), who was born from an unusually small egg and Impressed Jaxom who broke the shell open himself. He is repeatedly stated to be unique; should any other oddly-hued dragon appear in a fanfic, it is most certainly a charge.

Fire-lizards
Smaller and less intelligent, fire-lizards are the dragons' ancestors. Kitti Ping, a geneticist with the original colonists, genetically engineered the dragons from fire-lizards to provide a renewable fighting force to protect the colonists from Thread (see below). They are indigenous to Pern and come in the same gendered colors as dragons, but only grow to about the length of a man's forearm.

In the wild, fire-lizards go in groups called "fairs," led by a gold. Gold fire-lizards are attentive mothers, and a whole fair will often attend a hatching and provide their gold's hatchlings with food items. Hungry hatchlings may devour their clutchmates in desperation. Green fire-lizards lay clutches, mostly containing greens, but they are often careless with their nests and have poor survival rates.

Fire-lizards can be Impressed like dragons and are often kept as pets by people lucky or high-ranking enough to obtain an egg. They possess limited telepathic abilities, transmitting mostly images and feelings to their owners. It is impossible to tell the color of a hatchling still in the egg, even a gold, and anyone can Impress any color. The most fire-lizards ever owned by one person was ten, and they belonged to Harper Menolly. (In fanfic, possessing more fire-lizards than Menolly is a charge.)

Thread
The dragons exist to fight Thread, which threatens Pern's existence every 250 Pernese years, or Turns, when the Red Star's elliptic orbit brings it within planetary spitting distance of Pern. Thread is actually a mycorrhizoid spore picked up by the Red Star as it passes through the Oort cloud on the edge of the solar system. When the Red Star passes near to Pern, there is a 50-Turn period (a Pass) during which the spores fall through Pern's atmosphere, where their protective coating melts off, releasing the long, silver spores. Thread eats any organic material it touches, but it drowns in water and is consumed by fire.

Each Weyr, with its contingent of fire-breathing dragons, protects the Holds nearest to it. Every Threadfall, the Weyrleader leads the fighting Wings to meet Pern's enemy in the air. Each Wing is responsible for a certain portion of the Fall. Each rider in the Wing takes his or her direction from the wingleader, who in turn takes his direction from the Weyrleader. Even the gold dragons rise to fight Thread, aided by flamethrowers carried by their riders. They fly below the Wings and mop up any Thread they might have missed.

The Characters
Pern is chock-full of interesting people, each one of them distinct and worth mentioning. However, due to the limitations of space, only the main characters of the Ninth Pass will be included here. Characters are listed more or less in order of appearance.


 * F'lar, rider of bronze Mnementh, Benden Weyrleader
 * Lessa, rider of gold Ramoth, Benden Weyrwoman
 * F'nor, rider of brown Canth, F'lar's half-brother and wingsecond
 * Lord Warder Lytol of Ruatha Hold, caretaker of Jaxom; formerly L'tol, rider of brown Larth
 * Robinton, Masterharper of Pern
 * Fandarel, Mastersmith of Pern
 * T'kul, rider of bronze Salth; former Oldtimer Weyrleader of High Reaches
 * T'ron, rider of bronze Fidranth; former Oldtimer Weyrleader of Fort
 * Lord Jaxom of Ruatha Hold, also rider of white Ruth
 * Menolly, harper; Impresses nine fire-lizards
 * Piemur, harper; explorer of the Southern Continent
 * Brekke, rider of gold Wirenth, junior weyrwoman at Southern Weyr and F'nor's weyrmate
 * Sebell, Masterharper after Robinton and husband to Menolly
 * Mirrim, rider of green Path; the first girl to Impress a green in the 9th Pass

Naming Conventions
Pern has some fairly strict naming conventions, and ignoring them constitutes a charge.


 * 1) Dragon names end in -th. No dragon shares a name with any other dragon.
 * 2) Riders may call their dragons by nicknames, but dragons call their riders by name. "Ridermine" and "Mine" are not canon, and their use is a) silly, and b) a charge.
 * 3) When male candidates Impress a dragon, they abbreviate their name with an apostrophe. Thus, Fallarnon becomes F'lar, Naton becomes N'ton, etc. This follows the tradition set by the first dragons of Pern slurring their riders' names during the high-paced action of Threadfall. Women riders' names are not shortened in this way; nor is Jaxom's, but in his case it's because he is more a Lord Holder than a dragonrider, despite Impressing Ruth.
 * 4) Watch-wher names end in -sk and are based on the name of their Impressor or the hold they guard. The closer the match to their Impressor's name, the closer the bond. Thus, if Neshomeh had a close bond with a watch-wher, it might be called Neshomesk. If her bond is not so close, the wher's name might be Nesk.

Other conventions are simply conventions, not hard-and-fast rules, but should still be respected.

With the habit of abbreviating dragonriders' names in mind, many Pernese parents give their children names that can be easily shortened. This is not necessarily the case, though (no one had dragons in mind when they named Lord Groghe). Either way, Pernese names are often variations on sounds present in the names of either or both of the bearer's parents--for instance, F'lar and Lessa named their son Felessan; Lessa is the daughter of Kale and Adessa. However, this too is not necessarily the case. Robinton is named after his grandfather Roblyn, for instance, and Menolly and Alemi's parents are Mavi and Yanus.

The only names you shouldn't see on Ninth-Pass Pern are common names on Earth. They just don't exist except by accident, and the less likely such and accident becomes, the less acceptable the name becomes. For instance, one could probably get away with Dan, Rob, Sam, Kim, etc., and adding another syllable to the aforementioned to create something that sounds like an Earth name (e.g. Roben, Sammi) would probably pass with the parental variation convention in place; however, Daniel, Robert, Samantha, and Kimberly are right out. Furthermore, the Pernese aren't big on naming themselves after nouns, so Jewel, Flower, Virtue, and all their cousins are to be eschewed. Causing a dragonrider's contracted name to be a common Earth name with an apostrophe stuck in it, especially without any explanation, constitutes the most base and reprehensible method of cheating the aforesaid conventions. E'rik, Br'ian, and D'ave are (say it with me) right out.

Fire-lizards and other animals, such as runnerbeasts, are named whatever their owners feel like calling them. Jewel, Flower, and Virtue are welcome here.

Dolphins on Pern are fully sentient and name their own. Their conventions are not well-known, but the names in use during the Ninth Pass may be descended from the names of the original pod brought along with the colonists, of whom many were named after historical places and persons (e.g. Theresa, Amadeus, China, Oregon).

The Books
The original Dragonriders of Pern trilogy is as follows:


 * Dragonflight (1968)
 * Dragonquest (1970)
 * The White Dragon (1978)

For details about the rest of the series, see that other wiki.

Agents Native to Pern
Derik is the only agent native to this continuum. However, Agents Alec Troven and Jennifer Robinson are both known to have lived there in their pre-PPC lives, and consider it like a second home. Oddly enough, all three were dragonriders with harper training.

Missions in this Continuum

 * Brown DragonRider of Pern, Agents Neshomeh, Dafydd, and Alec Troven.
 * Sue: Villa
 * Harry Potter and the Dragonriders of Pern, Agents Nume and Ilraen, Nurse Jennifer Robinson, and friends.
 * Sues: Alanna (Sue), Nadia, Roma Lupin