Post by DMITRI on Jul 7, 2017 0:38:25 GMT
---FORENOTE: This is not a canon story, but is based in canon ideas. The names of the Weyrs and Holds are different (largely because I didn't want to tangle myself in remembering all the names and histories), but serve the same purposes. The dragons' colors, sizes, Impression choices, and riders' gender roles were all strictly canon until the events occurred that set this site in motion.
THE BLEACHING OF THE WEYR
Tazum Weyr and Thomos Weyr were two of many Weyrs spread across the continent. Now, they are the only two who are remembered--one for its survival, and one for its demise.
The disease struck first in the oft-neglected watch-whers. At first it presented as sluggishness, then unpredictability and aggression, infertility, and ultimately death. A blue rider in search of candidates was probably the first to carry the sickness to the Weyrs, but his name is forgotten now, for the sudden cascade of deaths left no room to record events. The disease first manifested in the youngest weyrling dragons, who began to exhibit confusion in their training, went between, and never returned. The sickness sabotaged the dragons' ability to orient themselves in physical space. First the weyrlings were grounded and quarantined, until they became unable to orient themselves in mental space. At their physical worst, they were barely able to walk or eat, but at their mental worst they fluctuated wildly between aggression and total, vacant stupidity and loss of memory. The condition affected their bonded riders just as violently. If not contained, they were provoked by any perceived slur, were paranoid to the point of attacking friends, families, and lovers, and at times fell nearly catatonic.
And then they began to die.
Many of the weyrling dragons were too incoherent to go between. Their corpses became an immediate problem--no one had ever had to physically pull a dragon from its weyr, nor bury one. The strongest dragons and their riders were tasked with taking the dead between. Unfortunately, this often resulted in the corpse-carriers becoming infected and dying in the same slow, horrible fashion. When the Queen was struck with the infection, the last horrible revelation occurred: the sickness resulted in eggs that were almost entirely dead, and the dragons that did hatch, seemed to be born with another form of illness altogether. Some were utterly without pigment, strikingly white. Others came only in patches of color. They Impressed, and lived, but were typically mentally eccentric, and a few turned violent. While they never succumbed to death via the illness, several fought to the death, speeding the fall of the Weyr.
This 'bleaching' disease spread swiftly as the Weyrs tried to aid each other. Gradually, each fell, as their Queens became infertile. Some riders and dragons committed suicide en masse after seeing the collapse of their Weyr and the deaths of friends and families.
Eventually only two Weyrs remained, Tazum and Thomos.
Tazum had escaped contamination by early quarantine. A small Weyr, it was easy for them to exile anyone who showed signs of infection. Thomos was more heavily infected, but seemed to be more able to fight the disease than the other Weyrs. The disease seemed to be faltering to an end. Thomos, down to its last viable clutch, called to Tazum for help in delivering candidates.
The Weyrleader of Tazum, S'los, rider of Harth, was not only willing but determined to help the second remaining Weyr out of fear that dragonkind could face extinction.
His son, S'ris, rider of the barely matured Urmath, was equally determined to preserve dragonkind.
Out of fear that Thomos would spread the infection to them, S'ris convinced a group of fellow riders to overcome their elders in a violent coup. He personally killed his father. With the eldest leaders dead, S'ris declared himself Weyrleader. He then declared that Tazum would offer no aid. There would be no interaction between the Weyrs until the infection had run its course.
Out of desperation, some remaining riders of Thomos attempted to seek refuge anyway. As soon as they arrived, S'ris enlisted his weyrmate's aid. Hydaja, the young but telepathically powerful rider of the young Queen, Soforith, used the authority of her Queen dragon to force the refugees between to their deaths.
Eventually, riders stopped seeking refuge. Thomos was empty. Their last clutch had stagnated into rot and their last Queen, Isith, lay in death in her weyr.
Now only Tazum remained.
Despite S'ris's callous efforts, the infection reached them. However, it had indeed begun to run its course, and its symptoms were lesser. Few dragons died. It had the most impact devastating on nest fertility. While Soforith had laid an immense clutch for a young Queen, only thirteen hatched. Seven were normal, but the rest were either bleached white, stripped of color, or were piebald with only patches of blue or bronze. A few of these discolored dragons proved fertile, but produced more colorless dragonets, and occasionally, a hatchling of unpredictable and unmatchable bloodthirstiness.
Nearly forty turns later, S'ris remains Weyrleader, and Hydaja, his weyrmate and Weyrwoman of Tazum. He has run the Weyr with a ruthlessness necessitated by disaster: instituted policies to ensure as many clutches are laid as possible, policies of intimidating and attacking Holds to ensure that the Weyr receives their regular tithes of good and candidates, and an iron hand over the entire doings of the Weyr. However, he is reaching the silvering years of maturity, and Hydaja has gone half insane mourning dead eggs and the murders she committed decades ago.
So the questions begin to loom: Who will lead the Weyr next? How will it be led? Will the Holds submit to Tazum's iron hand, or will they wage a revolution? Soforith has laid one of the last, if not the last, of her clutches. The Impressions made and dragons hatched will paint the future of the bleached Weyr and the people of Pern.
---MAJOR ALTERATIONS FROM CANON
Dragons do not go between unless prompted by emergency or by a Search. Traveling between was correlated with infection and infertility, and so it became a taboo. Instead, riders will fly the long distances, which limits their sphere of influence and allows holders to spot them coming. Some riders will go between in emergencies or sneakily for their own convenience despite the general rule against it. Exceptions are made for Search dragons.
Hatchings are a clusterfuck of color, sex, varying size, and death. Gone are the days of calm hatchlings making a beeline to their chosen candidate. Instead, the hatchlings emerge unpredictably, if they emerge at all. Roughly 2/3 of eggs laid are infertile. Given the desperate need for dragon births, some hatchings end with the remaining eggs being pried apart in hopes of finding something which was too weak to emerge, but still alive and able to Impress. Of those who can hatch, they Impress aberrantly. Sometimes a male Dragon will Impress on a female candidate, sometimes a Green will hatch as a male. Some fail to Impress at all, and disappear between. This results in the presentation of an unusual number of candidates, in hopes that every possible dragon can hatch and Impress.
(all Hatching results will be determined through the use of a random number generator to ensure fairness)
Any potentially reproducing dragon is held back at the Weyr until proven sterile. A female of any color is withheld from duties and scrutinized until after her first mating flight, just in case she might produce eggs. Queen dragons are cloistered at the Weyr regardless of whether they're bleached, pied, solid, or have so far proven totally infertile. Once a female dragon of other colors has proven her infertility, the rider is then given the same liberties and responsibilities as the rider of a male dragon.
Dragonriders raid the Holds both for candidates and sustenance. It being a Long Interval, the Holds no longer feel 'beholden' to supply the Weyr. However, the Weyr has never been less able to provide for itself. They have resorted to intimidation to force the Holders to supply them with food, goods, and their children as possible candidates. Some Holds resist and retaliate as violently as they can, while others (often with stronger bonds and familial relations with Weyrfolk) try their best to cooperate. Many Holders are suspicious that the disease that struck down the Weyrs can infect them and their livestock.
Many people have fled the Holds and Weyrs altogether. The holdless generally fall into two categories: ravagers, and scavengers. Ravagers form traveling bands on runnerbeasts, strike Holds and other small communities to steal from them, operate via violence and brute force. Scavengers keep a low profile, take refuge where they can, steal what they can, and try to live off the land while keeping moving to avoid the chaos of the war between Weyr and Hold.
THE BLEACHING OF THE WEYR
Tazum Weyr and Thomos Weyr were two of many Weyrs spread across the continent. Now, they are the only two who are remembered--one for its survival, and one for its demise.
The disease struck first in the oft-neglected watch-whers. At first it presented as sluggishness, then unpredictability and aggression, infertility, and ultimately death. A blue rider in search of candidates was probably the first to carry the sickness to the Weyrs, but his name is forgotten now, for the sudden cascade of deaths left no room to record events. The disease first manifested in the youngest weyrling dragons, who began to exhibit confusion in their training, went between, and never returned. The sickness sabotaged the dragons' ability to orient themselves in physical space. First the weyrlings were grounded and quarantined, until they became unable to orient themselves in mental space. At their physical worst, they were barely able to walk or eat, but at their mental worst they fluctuated wildly between aggression and total, vacant stupidity and loss of memory. The condition affected their bonded riders just as violently. If not contained, they were provoked by any perceived slur, were paranoid to the point of attacking friends, families, and lovers, and at times fell nearly catatonic.
And then they began to die.
Many of the weyrling dragons were too incoherent to go between. Their corpses became an immediate problem--no one had ever had to physically pull a dragon from its weyr, nor bury one. The strongest dragons and their riders were tasked with taking the dead between. Unfortunately, this often resulted in the corpse-carriers becoming infected and dying in the same slow, horrible fashion. When the Queen was struck with the infection, the last horrible revelation occurred: the sickness resulted in eggs that were almost entirely dead, and the dragons that did hatch, seemed to be born with another form of illness altogether. Some were utterly without pigment, strikingly white. Others came only in patches of color. They Impressed, and lived, but were typically mentally eccentric, and a few turned violent. While they never succumbed to death via the illness, several fought to the death, speeding the fall of the Weyr.
This 'bleaching' disease spread swiftly as the Weyrs tried to aid each other. Gradually, each fell, as their Queens became infertile. Some riders and dragons committed suicide en masse after seeing the collapse of their Weyr and the deaths of friends and families.
Eventually only two Weyrs remained, Tazum and Thomos.
Tazum had escaped contamination by early quarantine. A small Weyr, it was easy for them to exile anyone who showed signs of infection. Thomos was more heavily infected, but seemed to be more able to fight the disease than the other Weyrs. The disease seemed to be faltering to an end. Thomos, down to its last viable clutch, called to Tazum for help in delivering candidates.
The Weyrleader of Tazum, S'los, rider of Harth, was not only willing but determined to help the second remaining Weyr out of fear that dragonkind could face extinction.
His son, S'ris, rider of the barely matured Urmath, was equally determined to preserve dragonkind.
Out of fear that Thomos would spread the infection to them, S'ris convinced a group of fellow riders to overcome their elders in a violent coup. He personally killed his father. With the eldest leaders dead, S'ris declared himself Weyrleader. He then declared that Tazum would offer no aid. There would be no interaction between the Weyrs until the infection had run its course.
Out of desperation, some remaining riders of Thomos attempted to seek refuge anyway. As soon as they arrived, S'ris enlisted his weyrmate's aid. Hydaja, the young but telepathically powerful rider of the young Queen, Soforith, used the authority of her Queen dragon to force the refugees between to their deaths.
Eventually, riders stopped seeking refuge. Thomos was empty. Their last clutch had stagnated into rot and their last Queen, Isith, lay in death in her weyr.
Now only Tazum remained.
Despite S'ris's callous efforts, the infection reached them. However, it had indeed begun to run its course, and its symptoms were lesser. Few dragons died. It had the most impact devastating on nest fertility. While Soforith had laid an immense clutch for a young Queen, only thirteen hatched. Seven were normal, but the rest were either bleached white, stripped of color, or were piebald with only patches of blue or bronze. A few of these discolored dragons proved fertile, but produced more colorless dragonets, and occasionally, a hatchling of unpredictable and unmatchable bloodthirstiness.
Nearly forty turns later, S'ris remains Weyrleader, and Hydaja, his weyrmate and Weyrwoman of Tazum. He has run the Weyr with a ruthlessness necessitated by disaster: instituted policies to ensure as many clutches are laid as possible, policies of intimidating and attacking Holds to ensure that the Weyr receives their regular tithes of good and candidates, and an iron hand over the entire doings of the Weyr. However, he is reaching the silvering years of maturity, and Hydaja has gone half insane mourning dead eggs and the murders she committed decades ago.
So the questions begin to loom: Who will lead the Weyr next? How will it be led? Will the Holds submit to Tazum's iron hand, or will they wage a revolution? Soforith has laid one of the last, if not the last, of her clutches. The Impressions made and dragons hatched will paint the future of the bleached Weyr and the people of Pern.
---MAJOR ALTERATIONS FROM CANON
Dragons do not go between unless prompted by emergency or by a Search. Traveling between was correlated with infection and infertility, and so it became a taboo. Instead, riders will fly the long distances, which limits their sphere of influence and allows holders to spot them coming. Some riders will go between in emergencies or sneakily for their own convenience despite the general rule against it. Exceptions are made for Search dragons.
Hatchings are a clusterfuck of color, sex, varying size, and death. Gone are the days of calm hatchlings making a beeline to their chosen candidate. Instead, the hatchlings emerge unpredictably, if they emerge at all. Roughly 2/3 of eggs laid are infertile. Given the desperate need for dragon births, some hatchings end with the remaining eggs being pried apart in hopes of finding something which was too weak to emerge, but still alive and able to Impress. Of those who can hatch, they Impress aberrantly. Sometimes a male Dragon will Impress on a female candidate, sometimes a Green will hatch as a male. Some fail to Impress at all, and disappear between. This results in the presentation of an unusual number of candidates, in hopes that every possible dragon can hatch and Impress.
(all Hatching results will be determined through the use of a random number generator to ensure fairness)
Any potentially reproducing dragon is held back at the Weyr until proven sterile. A female of any color is withheld from duties and scrutinized until after her first mating flight, just in case she might produce eggs. Queen dragons are cloistered at the Weyr regardless of whether they're bleached, pied, solid, or have so far proven totally infertile. Once a female dragon of other colors has proven her infertility, the rider is then given the same liberties and responsibilities as the rider of a male dragon.
Dragonriders raid the Holds both for candidates and sustenance. It being a Long Interval, the Holds no longer feel 'beholden' to supply the Weyr. However, the Weyr has never been less able to provide for itself. They have resorted to intimidation to force the Holders to supply them with food, goods, and their children as possible candidates. Some Holds resist and retaliate as violently as they can, while others (often with stronger bonds and familial relations with Weyrfolk) try their best to cooperate. Many Holders are suspicious that the disease that struck down the Weyrs can infect them and their livestock.
Many people have fled the Holds and Weyrs altogether. The holdless generally fall into two categories: ravagers, and scavengers. Ravagers form traveling bands on runnerbeasts, strike Holds and other small communities to steal from them, operate via violence and brute force. Scavengers keep a low profile, take refuge where they can, steal what they can, and try to live off the land while keeping moving to avoid the chaos of the war between Weyr and Hold.
