Dragonflights of Fancy

Let's face it, the nearest we're ever going to Pern is in our imaginations. Fortunately, Ms. McCaffrey is good enough to soften the blow by allowing us to play on Pern.

There are loads of authorised Weyrs out there, one of which is sure to suit you. To track it down, try visiting my Dragonquest page.

There are some basic rules that all approved Weyrs follow. If one you find doesn't follow these rules, chances are that it is not approved and is therefore illegal. Ms. McCaffrey is kind enough to let us play on her world. Don't abuse the privilege.

The rules are:

  1. No use of Ruatha Hold, Benden Weyr or the Harper Hall in stories and other work. They may be mentioned, and your character may originate from there, but actual use of those locations is forbidden.
  2. Your characters may not be related to any of Anne's characters. That is to say, no great-great grandsons of Jaxom, no grand nephews of Lessa and so on. Again, characters may be mentioned, but not used.
  3. Dragons come in five flavours: green, blue, brown, bronze and gold. There will be no more sports like Ruth and no other colours. Shading of colour is fine (you may for example have a dragon who is a very dark blue), but no red/black/silver/sky blue and pink with spots on dragons.
  4. There is no religion on Pern. Full stop.
  5. No weird crossovers. No Klingons, no Star Trek, Star Wars or anything else. Pern is not going to be invaded by aliens either.
  6. There is no telepathy besides that between a dragon and his or her rider. So no ESP, no telekinesis or other 'special' powers.
  7. As a rule, gold and bronze riders know of timing but do not use it. Lesser colours are not supposed to know about it.
  8. Queens are ridden by women, bronzes by men. In some of the earlier Weyrs, particularly the M**s, the lesser colours can be ridden in either sex but most Weyrs stick to the conventional pairings but with more female greenriders. Ms. McCaffrey has described it as:
    Gold Heterosexual female only
    Bronze Heterosexual male only
    Brown Heterosexual male
    Blue Masculine homosexual, bisexual or, rarely, heterosexual male
    Green Feminine homosexual male or heterosexual female
    Yeah, yeah, biased against homosexuals but it's Ms. McCaffrey's world and her rules. Faranth knows what happens to lesbians - guess they aren't allowed to Impress...

One Weyr I particularly recommend is Lakesedge. Of course, I'm not at all biased by the fact that I'm on the Council... I have a multitude of personas there:
Rethrys, rider of weyrling gold Celyath
Ij'den, rider of weyrling bronze Khephreth
Y'gadu, rider of brown Jaketh
R'daran, rider of brown Toliath
J'kem, rider of weyrling blue Aradith,
G'liren, rider of green Nedreth
Not to mention Headwoman Lorel!

I'm also involved with Logres Weyr and a totally off-line version of Telgar, set in the Fourth Pass. In Telgar 4, I play Lena, junior weyrwoman to gold Kharanth (who is more orange than gold!) and J'mini, weyrling to blue Mirinath.


The World of Pern © is copyright Anne McCaffrey 1967.
The Dragonriders of Pern ® is a registered trademark.
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