Post by Flame on Mar 20, 2011 15:02:14 GMT -8
DRAGON GENERAL
The Dragons of Pern are a fictional race created by Anne McCaffrey as an integral part of the science fiction world depicted in her Dragonriders of Pern novels.
In creating the Pern setting, McCaffrey set out to subvert the clichés associated with dragons in European folklore and in modern fantasy fiction. 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.
COLORS[/color][/b]
Gold dragons, also called queens, are the largest dragons (40–50 meters long) and the only ruleing 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 are incapable of digesting 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 (35–45 meters long), although they are generally 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 (25-40 meters 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.
Blue dragons are the smallest males (24–30 meters 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 not yet happened in the books.
Green dragons are the smallest normal color (20–24 meters long), and make up about half of all dragons on Pern (50%). They are female, but unlike the queens, they are infertile due to the chronic use of firestone 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 2nd Pass, female greenriders were becoming rare. By the time of Moreta in the 6th Pass, female greenriders were entirely forgotten, although greens gradually begin Impressing to women again in the 9th Pass. Females of any sexual orientation may Impress Green.
Blacks are always females, and can not breed, but like greens fly 2-3 times a year. They are larger than any queen (30-40 meters long), and yet they follow their Queen’s orders. They take all types of riders, much like the greens. They can fly higher than any other dragon, and like Ruth, they have a superb sense of WHEN they are. They are elegant, and they are wise. Reckless rarely they have been known to take chances. Black's can not clutch, but they do rise.
Reds are the second smallest (15-24 meters long), and are male. They have very good endurance, though they may or may not ever catch a Queen, Black, or Silver/White. They like greens are the fastest. They often have the longest flame, and no one understands why. They often bond with homosexual males or strong females, though a heterosexual male isn’t far out of their reach. Brave and violent these dragons are hard to handle.
Silver They are male, and are around the size of a small bronze. (35-45 meters long) Their color ranges from the darkest of gray, to the brightest of whites. Being that they can be either male or female, they also bond to the full range of riders. They are built for speed, and they can out fly a green.
White The white dragons are the smallest dragons around. (10-20 meters long) These white dragons don't clutch, but do have genders. Female or Male. Females and Males do not rise, but they do flame. They are smarter than most queens, and considered good luck.
Special Color!!!
Bi-Toned: 15-70 meters tall. These dragon are two colors. They range in personalities, and just like the rest of the colors they may or may not be able to clutch, the females that is. They are both genders, and all are different. They can be any two colors. ONLY an admin can create a Bi-Toned dragon.
The larger a color is, the less common it is. For instance, there are more Reds than blues, Blues than Browns, and there are more Browns than Bronzes. There are more Bronzes than the Silver/Whites. Half the dragon population is female, with Green dragons being roughly fifty percent of the population and Golds and Blacks being one percent or slightly less. Whites are extremely rare, and mainly are female, though males do pop up (Ruth anyone?)
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.[/center]