Post by Kit on Apr 25, 2010 2:33:05 GMT -5
Geography, weather, and time:
Nova Weyr is situated in the north central area of the Southern Continent, somewhat north of Drakes' Lake. The weather here is semitropical, there is no snow, but there is a rainy season that begins in the eighth month and lasts through the end of the Turn and somewhat into the the first two months. Pernese months are 28 days long, but there are thirteen of them, making 364 days, plus Midsummer and Turns' End, which are holidays on which the Weyr hosts a Gather. Time is measured in candlemarks, or marks for short, which are about an hour long. Pernese keep time by the use of special candles which are designed to burn at a specific rate and are marked by several lines...most candles measure eight marks. So when your candle has burned three lines down, its been three marks since you lit it. Also they keep time by the sun.. for example, weyrlings need to have their dragons bathed and oiled by one mark after dawn, called the first candlemark, which is not one o'clock in the morning, but approximately seven a.m. earth time. The pernese day is actually closer to twenty five hours long.
Dating:
All posts will be dated in this format month.day.Turn. The current Turn is 2707. Check the news scroller for the current season. Posts may be dated to any day in the season, just try to make sure events are in a coherent order.
Structure
Nova Weyr is the only weyr left on pern, after the war, and whatnot, the northern continent has been left alone for over five hundred years and there are no people living there though there surely are some animals. Therefore, all the dragonriders know eachother, and its rather hard to keep a secret in the weyr, as dragons are rather gossipy. Nova Weyr has one major Hold, that is also called Nova, which is just outside the weyr proper, at the foot of the extinct volcanic caldera that houses the dragons. However, Nova has many smaller holds under its jurisdiction, ranging from mining camps, farms, dairies, beastholds, fisheries, wineries, and carefully protected forests. In this timeline, the grubbing has not gone exactly as planned. The grubs keep the infestation from spreading, but they still kill any plant they touch so dragonriders remain the first line of defense during threadfall. The weyr is now in the last years of an interval, the next pass is scheduled to begin during the next Turn. The weyr has a vast areas to cover, though smaller still, than what a northern weyr would have been used to, but since they have fewer dragons, it works out somewhat. Crafters all train, and most in fact live, in the craft complex just on the other side of the hold from the weyr. The Hall is ruled by a joint council of all the craftmasters, there is rarely more than one master for any craft at any time. Journeymen would either be sent to a minor hold to teach, or depending on their craft they might be sent to the weyr or remain at the hall. That will be explained more in another post.
There are nine Wings in the Weyr, excepting the Weyrlings Wing and the Queens' Wing. They are organized into three Flights, the High Altitude, the Mid Altitude and the Low Altitude. Each Flights has three wings, the right, forward, and left. The Flightleader is usually the Wingleader of the forward wing. Each Wingleader has a second and a third. Wingleaders are usually bronze but occasionally brown, Wingseconds are usually brown, but Wingthirds can be of any color. The Weyrleader usually leads the forward wing of the High Altitude Flight.
Dragons and Their Riders
The life of a dragonrider is much less strict than that of a weyrling. They of course, work with their wing and most be present (barring illness or injury) whenever their wing is scheduled to fly Fall, patrol, or have practices. They will be informed by their wingleader when these occur. Also, they might have other duties, like watch duty, or Search. Otherwise, as long as they care for their dragon, they can do much as they wish. Of course they can't fly off and leave the weyr without permission, but they have the freedom to sleep in, and do only what chores are required of them personally, such as keeping their weyr clean, maintaining their flying gear, and bathing and oiling their dragon. But still, a dragon rider's life is fairly ordered.
Weyr Politics
Though there are no other weyrs to compare it to, Nova would have been considered liberal by the weyrs in the old time. The only drudges at the weyr are people who are mentally disabled in some way, who are able to only do simple tasks, like laundry and dishes. They are treated well, given good food and clean clothes, and a soft bed. All other chores are performed by candidates, weyrlings, or lower caverns staff in their various crafts of Headwoman, Steward, Cook, and other various jobs. More menial labor that is not done by the candidates or weyrlings is performed by the cooks apprentices, or weyrbrats, which are the children of dragonriders, and other weyr personnel, that are not old enough to Stand as a Candidate. A child of a dragonrider (affectionately called dragonseed) is automatically granted Candidate status upon starting their menses for girls and for boys upon reaching the age of ten. Most riders do not have time for children and make poor parents. Thus, if they have a child, whether on purpose or by accident, once the child is weaned it is sent to the weyr creche, where all the children are raised communally by creche workers, a whole craft of its own, though an informal one.
Riders of lesser colors are not demeaned at Nova, they can have ranking positions, such as Candidate Master, if they are deemed worthy, though a smaller dragon would never be a wingleader, only because they do not have the stamina to last an entire Fall. Both males and females have equal rights as well, abuse of woman or rape is not tolerated and would be punished severely if discovered.
About Mating
A Gold or Silver Flight affects the whole weyr, as the dragons broadcast their feelings on a wide band. Whenever one is about to rise, or has just risen, all weyrlings with dragons under ten months and children under the age of twelve will be escorted from the premises, so as not to get them involved. Green, red, and gray flights are a different story, most people in the weyr can tune it out, but the more adventurous (or desperate) sometimes attend the flights anyway, as those riders rejected need someone to find solace with. Smaller dragons need less preparation than Queens for a Flight. They do not always blood their kills first. Firelizard mating flight usually only involve the flitters' individual owners, but often with no less passion. Both gold and green flitters can lay eggs. Golds and silvers lay 12-20 eggs at a time, with a few bronzes, blacks and rarely another Queen. They are good mothers and usually all of their eggs hatch. Greens however, lay clutches of no more than ten and usually only about half will hatch, as the green often forget where they laid them and the poor things get eaten by tunnelsnakes. Only an extremely watchful owner would be able to find the nest of a green. They never lay bronze or gold eggs, and brown are even rare.
A mating flight often proceeds in this way-the female dragon(or flitter) wakes up, glowing, with an insatiable hunger. The rider must control the dragon, forcing it to drink the blood of its kills only, as a full stomach will make the mating flight slow and short. After blooding a few herdbeasts, the dragon will realize what's up, and yell a challenge to all the males, which meanwhile have been blooding all their kills in preparation. Then she takes off and all the males follow. Females are faster than males and she will lead them on a merry chase for a while, until the weaker ones drop from exhaustion. Then she'll begin to toy with them, and its up to a clever, and quick male to catch her, because, whoever catches her has won the flight and the right to mate with the female. The riders, meanwhile, have gathered, either in the goldrider quarters, for a goldflight, or the flight room, for greenflights. Flitter flights are less formal, usually they happen without notice and take place in someone's personal weyr. The riders, during the mating flight, link mind to mind with their dragons and share all their emotions, often seeing through the dragon's eyes. Once the flight is won, the riders whose dragons lost slink off, to find another lover, or drink themselves into a stupor while the winner and the female's rider share their dragon's lust. There is no ties required after a mating flight, sometimes it leads to a relationship, sometimes not, and if there is a child, the father has no real responsibility to it, as it will be raised by the weyr creche with the rest.
Nova Weyr is situated in the north central area of the Southern Continent, somewhat north of Drakes' Lake. The weather here is semitropical, there is no snow, but there is a rainy season that begins in the eighth month and lasts through the end of the Turn and somewhat into the the first two months. Pernese months are 28 days long, but there are thirteen of them, making 364 days, plus Midsummer and Turns' End, which are holidays on which the Weyr hosts a Gather. Time is measured in candlemarks, or marks for short, which are about an hour long. Pernese keep time by the use of special candles which are designed to burn at a specific rate and are marked by several lines...most candles measure eight marks. So when your candle has burned three lines down, its been three marks since you lit it. Also they keep time by the sun.. for example, weyrlings need to have their dragons bathed and oiled by one mark after dawn, called the first candlemark, which is not one o'clock in the morning, but approximately seven a.m. earth time. The pernese day is actually closer to twenty five hours long.
Dating:
All posts will be dated in this format month.day.Turn. The current Turn is 2707. Check the news scroller for the current season. Posts may be dated to any day in the season, just try to make sure events are in a coherent order.
Structure
Nova Weyr is the only weyr left on pern, after the war, and whatnot, the northern continent has been left alone for over five hundred years and there are no people living there though there surely are some animals. Therefore, all the dragonriders know eachother, and its rather hard to keep a secret in the weyr, as dragons are rather gossipy. Nova Weyr has one major Hold, that is also called Nova, which is just outside the weyr proper, at the foot of the extinct volcanic caldera that houses the dragons. However, Nova has many smaller holds under its jurisdiction, ranging from mining camps, farms, dairies, beastholds, fisheries, wineries, and carefully protected forests. In this timeline, the grubbing has not gone exactly as planned. The grubs keep the infestation from spreading, but they still kill any plant they touch so dragonriders remain the first line of defense during threadfall. The weyr is now in the last years of an interval, the next pass is scheduled to begin during the next Turn. The weyr has a vast areas to cover, though smaller still, than what a northern weyr would have been used to, but since they have fewer dragons, it works out somewhat. Crafters all train, and most in fact live, in the craft complex just on the other side of the hold from the weyr. The Hall is ruled by a joint council of all the craftmasters, there is rarely more than one master for any craft at any time. Journeymen would either be sent to a minor hold to teach, or depending on their craft they might be sent to the weyr or remain at the hall. That will be explained more in another post.
There are nine Wings in the Weyr, excepting the Weyrlings Wing and the Queens' Wing. They are organized into three Flights, the High Altitude, the Mid Altitude and the Low Altitude. Each Flights has three wings, the right, forward, and left. The Flightleader is usually the Wingleader of the forward wing. Each Wingleader has a second and a third. Wingleaders are usually bronze but occasionally brown, Wingseconds are usually brown, but Wingthirds can be of any color. The Weyrleader usually leads the forward wing of the High Altitude Flight.
Dragons and Their Riders
The life of a dragonrider is much less strict than that of a weyrling. They of course, work with their wing and most be present (barring illness or injury) whenever their wing is scheduled to fly Fall, patrol, or have practices. They will be informed by their wingleader when these occur. Also, they might have other duties, like watch duty, or Search. Otherwise, as long as they care for their dragon, they can do much as they wish. Of course they can't fly off and leave the weyr without permission, but they have the freedom to sleep in, and do only what chores are required of them personally, such as keeping their weyr clean, maintaining their flying gear, and bathing and oiling their dragon. But still, a dragon rider's life is fairly ordered.
Weyr Politics
Though there are no other weyrs to compare it to, Nova would have been considered liberal by the weyrs in the old time. The only drudges at the weyr are people who are mentally disabled in some way, who are able to only do simple tasks, like laundry and dishes. They are treated well, given good food and clean clothes, and a soft bed. All other chores are performed by candidates, weyrlings, or lower caverns staff in their various crafts of Headwoman, Steward, Cook, and other various jobs. More menial labor that is not done by the candidates or weyrlings is performed by the cooks apprentices, or weyrbrats, which are the children of dragonriders, and other weyr personnel, that are not old enough to Stand as a Candidate. A child of a dragonrider (affectionately called dragonseed) is automatically granted Candidate status upon starting their menses for girls and for boys upon reaching the age of ten. Most riders do not have time for children and make poor parents. Thus, if they have a child, whether on purpose or by accident, once the child is weaned it is sent to the weyr creche, where all the children are raised communally by creche workers, a whole craft of its own, though an informal one.
Riders of lesser colors are not demeaned at Nova, they can have ranking positions, such as Candidate Master, if they are deemed worthy, though a smaller dragon would never be a wingleader, only because they do not have the stamina to last an entire Fall. Both males and females have equal rights as well, abuse of woman or rape is not tolerated and would be punished severely if discovered.
About Mating
A Gold or Silver Flight affects the whole weyr, as the dragons broadcast their feelings on a wide band. Whenever one is about to rise, or has just risen, all weyrlings with dragons under ten months and children under the age of twelve will be escorted from the premises, so as not to get them involved. Green, red, and gray flights are a different story, most people in the weyr can tune it out, but the more adventurous (or desperate) sometimes attend the flights anyway, as those riders rejected need someone to find solace with. Smaller dragons need less preparation than Queens for a Flight. They do not always blood their kills first. Firelizard mating flight usually only involve the flitters' individual owners, but often with no less passion. Both gold and green flitters can lay eggs. Golds and silvers lay 12-20 eggs at a time, with a few bronzes, blacks and rarely another Queen. They are good mothers and usually all of their eggs hatch. Greens however, lay clutches of no more than ten and usually only about half will hatch, as the green often forget where they laid them and the poor things get eaten by tunnelsnakes. Only an extremely watchful owner would be able to find the nest of a green. They never lay bronze or gold eggs, and brown are even rare.
A mating flight often proceeds in this way-the female dragon(or flitter) wakes up, glowing, with an insatiable hunger. The rider must control the dragon, forcing it to drink the blood of its kills only, as a full stomach will make the mating flight slow and short. After blooding a few herdbeasts, the dragon will realize what's up, and yell a challenge to all the males, which meanwhile have been blooding all their kills in preparation. Then she takes off and all the males follow. Females are faster than males and she will lead them on a merry chase for a while, until the weaker ones drop from exhaustion. Then she'll begin to toy with them, and its up to a clever, and quick male to catch her, because, whoever catches her has won the flight and the right to mate with the female. The riders, meanwhile, have gathered, either in the goldrider quarters, for a goldflight, or the flight room, for greenflights. Flitter flights are less formal, usually they happen without notice and take place in someone's personal weyr. The riders, during the mating flight, link mind to mind with their dragons and share all their emotions, often seeing through the dragon's eyes. Once the flight is won, the riders whose dragons lost slink off, to find another lover, or drink themselves into a stupor while the winner and the female's rider share their dragon's lust. There is no ties required after a mating flight, sometimes it leads to a relationship, sometimes not, and if there is a child, the father has no real responsibility to it, as it will be raised by the weyr creche with the rest.
