The Dragons of Pern

[Admin]

The Dragons of Pern

Draconic anatomy[/font]
Dragons are easily the largest creature on Pern, with the largest dragon ever measuring in at 42 feet from nose to tailtip. They come in a wide range of colors, with color indicating both gender and “rank”. Male dragons may be bronze, brown, and blue; female dragons come in gold and green. Gold dragons are the largest, reaching the maximum of 42 feet, while green dragons are the smallest, with the smallest greens measuring in only around 14 feet, with a body roughly the size of a draft runner. However, despite their varying sizes, draconic conformation is very similar across colors, and usually referred to in equine terms.

Unlike the creatures of Terran mythology, dragons do not possess scales, instead being covered with a leathery hide. Like leather, dragonhide must be oiled regularly to prevent flaking and even cracking, a condition which can cause severe injury and even death, particularly if a dragon were to go between. During their growing Turns, dragons require frequent oiling, particularly the larger colors. An adult dragon may not need to be oiled more than once a fortnight, depending on diet: a dragon with higher fat in its diet, such as deep-sea fish or sea-'snakes, will need to oiled less often than a dragon who dines on wherry and bovine. A dragon's hide should “gleam” or “glow” with health; ill dragons are usually noticeably dull, with tinges of gray (due to withdrawal of ichor from the surface vessels), and even chalky to the touch. A female may also “glow” when she approaches her Flight.

Like humans, dragons “tan”, changing color in the sun. Golds tend to bronze, bronzes tend to brown, and brown, green, and blue dragons tend to darken. Dragons also change color as they age, though they tend to pale, as opposed to darken. A midnight-blue dragon may be pastel by the time he reaches eighty Turns of age. Dragons can be any shade of their color, and usually bear markings such as brindling, mottled color, limning, splashes, and freckles. Many are also marked in an equine paint pattern, though in another shade of their base color, rather than in white.

The draconic head is wedge-shaped, ranging from very powerful and almost canine faces to delicate, dished equine muzzles. They possess incredibly strong and defined jaws, capable of crushing rock to gravel and powder or of splintering bone. A full grown dragon has 48 teeth, organized similar to an equine. The front section of the jaw bears fangs capable of ripping meat. These teeth are not razor sharp, but serrated. It is the crushing, tearing force of the jaws which kills the prey. A gap of about four inches separates the front teeth from the back molars. While the front fangs grow in once and are replaced as necessary (a second set lies in the jaw, and grows into any gap in the teeth), the molars grow constantly and are ground down by mastication of bones and firestone.

Dragon eyes are famed for being multi-faceted and for glowing in the dark, an effect of the light catching on the highly reflective surfaces rather than internal illumination. The eyes protrude from the skull in an almost insect-like fashion, but are fairly deep-set and protected by the heavy eye-ridges running along the top edges of the skull. Their eyes display emotion, whirling through a variety of colors to indicate even very complex emotions, as well as injury and sensing of Thread. Dragons have almost 360-degree vision, but have a blind spot directly behind their skull, and will turn their long necks to see what's going on back there. The also only have depth perception in the front, above, and below themselves, where their individual eyes' vision ranges intersect. Thus, dragons often swivel their heads side to side while flying near other dragons or near terrain hazards. Dragons and riders can also “look” through the other's eyes, though doing so tends to produce headaches in both members.

Emotions are correlated loosely to the following colors:

• Bright red: hunger or danger
  
• Dark red: anger or fury
  
• Red-violet: lust
  
• Orange: ire, intense worry
  
• Yellow: over-excitement, dislike, or irritation
  
• Bright green: excitement, cheerfulness
  
• Green: calm; teal may indicate boredom
  
• Blue: peacefulness and drowsiness
  
• Purple: love, adoration
  
• Lavender/pink: curiosity or flirtation
  
• Black: hatred
  
• White: extreme fear and panic
  
• Gray: injury, illness, depression, or shock.

Stretching back from the eye-ridges are head knobs. The shaft of the head knobs are hollow bones, while the bulb at the end assists with the dragon's telepathic ability. Usually, dragons with longer or larger head knobs have greater telepathic range, but this is not always true. Behind the head knobs and slightly below is a small hole which can be pinched shut during rain or high winds. This is the entry to the ear canal. However, dragons have relatively poor hearing, and tend to only be able to hear sounds close-by, or very loud ones (such as a draconic bugle, or the thrumming Hatching hum which is felt more than heard). However, dragons have a wider range of hearing than humans, and can detect sounds no human could hope to hear.

Dragons have three pairs of limbs (hexapedal). Their forelimbs and hindlimbs are analogies of arms and legs, while the midlimbs are wings. The hind legs of a dragon are large and well-muscled, as they must leap into the air. The hind feet carry three forward-facing toes with heavy and dull talons, a hind toe slightly higher up the leg, and a dew claw. The fore legs are smaller and weaker, with five digits in a hand orientation, and retractable claws. Dragons are capable of grasping with these fore feet. The unevenness in limbs also gives dragons a bunny-like walk, though they are capable of a swift bounding run.

In the wings, there are three main “fingers” stretching from a centralized point where a small “thumb” is also visible. This is due to the first and second finger-bones being fused for strength-- if you feel along this bone, it is slightly indented at the fusion point. In hatchling dragons, this bone is not yet completely fused. A smaller “finger” in the wing, closest to the side, is actually a cartilage spar used to stabilize the membrane. Membrane stretches between each of the fingers, connecting along the side of the dragon to the hip (the “trailing edge”). Membrane also stretches between the join of the wing-hand to the shoulder, a portion of the wing known as the “leading edge”. A dragon's wings usually span a width equal to the length of the dragon. They can fold along the body.

Bones are much stronger and lighter than those of a human being. Almost every joint in the draconic body is ball-and-socket, making dislocation much less likely. There are ten vertebra in the neck, and fifty-six more along the back and tail. Neck ridges start at the base of the skull and continue down to the forked tips of the tail. The neck ridges are small or nonexistent along the base of the neck and shoulders of a dragon. In most dragons there is little more than a hard ridge. Instead of blood, dragons have copper-based ichor, which is green. The insides of their mouths and their tongues are colored green from the ichor. Dragon muscles are shiny, silvery-green.

Dragons possess two stomachs. The first is used to digest food, while the second produces a gas which bursts into flame upon contact with oxygen. While digested food is turned into defecation, digested firestone must be vomited up as ash. They also possess several hearts, with one nearer to the base of the neck. All are contained within the ribcage. The lungs are cyclic, similar to those of a bird, and highly expandable. A dragon in full inhalation may expand their chest to twice the normal size, and hold their breath for ten or more minutes.


Abilities: Telepathy, Teleportation, Telekinesis
Dragons are well-known for many of their abilities. These include a mental tie to their rider, general telepathy (the ability to “speak” with the mind), the ability to teleport between any place to another, “timing it” (betweening times), and telekinesis (the ability to move things with the mind). Some greens are capable of directed telekinesis, while all dragons are able to life as much as they think they can – the reason why they can fly at all. Neither “timing it” nor telekinesis are playable at Hidden without express administrative permission.

At Hatching, newly hatched dragons choose a person to bond with, a process called Impression. This forges a mental and emotional link between human and dragon without which a dragon cannot survive. Many humans, having shared such a bond, choose to suicide if they lose their dragon. Some riders describe Impression as having your other half find you-- dragon and rider are inseparable. A dragon usually chooses their rider from the presented Candidates, but Impression out of the Stands is not unheard-of. If no suitable matches are found, a dragon will between and die. Dragons and riders can communicate mentally, and usually affect each other emotionally. Dragons adore their riders wholeheartedly, and most riders return the feeling.

Dragons can also choose to communicate to other creatures. Usually, they are not fond of contacting creatures other than other dragons and their riders, though some are relative chatterboxes. Aside from words, dragons can also send mental images or coordinates for between, and can broadcast to multiple creatures. Dragons are also capable of commanding other creatures, particularly firelizards. Gold dragons can command just about any other creature.

Between is a non-place through which dragons can travel, a skill they share with both firelizards and dragonettes. In between, there is utter sensory deprivation, which often manifests as extreme cold to the senses. Many people are terrified during their first trip between, and weyrlings are always given a hop between before their dragon learns, as teleporting is very dangerous. Without a clear image of the place to teleport, also known as coordinates, a dragon pair may be lost between or come out somewhere deadly (like inside of a mountain).


Diet[/font]
As a weyrling, dragons eat voraciously, particularly larger colors. While adult dragons may hunt for themselves, weyrling dragons must have their food pre-killed and cut into bite-sized pieces. Often they must be reminded to chew, as they will swallow out of hunger and may choke. Young dragons are also prone to gorging, a habit which will given them indigestion and sometimes induce vomiting. It is the duty of the rider to prevent gorging and to monitor the young dragon's diet. Young dragons also require a high percentage of the richer meats, such as livers and hearts, and should be fed a diet of mostly copper-based foods. Feeding a growing dragon iron-based food will severely curtail their growth and cause “growth bands” on the bones and talons due to lack of copper to incorporate. As dragons age, they need less food. While dragons may grow for up to three Turns, fully adult dragons usually only need to eat one or two times a sevenday, usually a meal of one to two beasts. This may be higher or lower depending both on the size of the dragon and its activity level/base metabolism.

Dragons are carnivores; they feed primarily on wherries, lopers, and other Pernese natives with copper-based blood (ichor). However, herdbeasts, runners, and even the occasional wooly are not unheard of meals, as many dragons like the flavor of blood. However, a healthy diet consists of a mainly copper prey. Dragons devour the entirety of their prey, grinding bones with their molars and leaving very little mess. Most dragons hunt outside of the Weyr, taking from captive herds as well as wild beasts. Some dragons also go out to sea, taking large sea creatures. Feeding on dolphins, however, is highly discouraged. The herds of the Weyr are maintained both for weyrling food (though dragonriders often bring back a second animal from a hunt to contribute to the young dragons' food supplies) and blooding for queenFlights.

While dragonriders often joke about dragons betweening to defecate, in reality they just discretely deposit droppings outside of the Weyr. Dragons are capable of holding their excreta for up to four or five days, depending on the size of their last meal. Weyrling dragons incapable of flight have sand pits in their Barracks to utilize, which must then be cleaned. Weyrling dung is often used for fertilizer. Firestone ash is vomited into the firestone pit on the Heights. A similar cesspit is used to hold excess dung from weyrlings until it can be used as fertilizer. Composted dung is sometimes sold to farmers in the Weyr's territory, and many also welcome the occasional “deposit” on their grounds.


Reproduction: Flights and Hatching
Unlike firelizards and other draconids, green dragons were genetically altered to be infertile, to prevent overpopulation of the massive creatures. While a very few greens are capable of Clutching, due to a mutation, the vast majority of reproduction belongs to the gold dragons, who generally comprise about 1% of the draconic population. While some golds are very loyal mates to their first-Chosen, most golds will change mates several times during their lifetimes, a genetic predisposition intended to widen the gene pool.

Regardless of fertility, female dragons pick mates during a Flight. Though the actual Flights generally play out quite differently, the physical changes in a female dragon just prior to Flight are very similar. Females will usually become "proddy," a physiological as well as psychological shift. Proddy females are often flirtatious and pay more attention to males than they would ordinarily, a shift which may be paralleled in the actions of their riders. Females also "glow", a change resulting from a boost in oil production and an increase in pigment concentration. Females close to Rising will usually gleam with health and appear brighter than usual, though they do not actually glow (as in, they do not give off light).

Before Rising, a female dragon usually falls into a torpor-induced sleep which may last a day or more, but usually is about twenty hours in length. When they wake, they are fully in heat and capable of a massive unconscious empathetic broadcast which incites lust in nearby males, as well as affecting sensitive humans to a degree. While gold dragons generally only affect bronze dragons (and sometimes browns), the broadcast of a green dragon may summon bronzes, browns, and blues with ease. While in neither case is the call a command, few bronzes will resist a gold's call. Green flights are more likely to see a mixed turnout.

Female dragons may wake very hungry, particularly gold dragons. In this case the rider is trained to keep their female from eating their kills, and to merely blood--that is, drink the blood of their prey, for quick energy without meat-weight. Some greens do blood, but it is mainly a gold act. During the female's preliminaries, males will often gather on the ledges and cliffs nearby, waiting silently for her to Rise.

When a female is ready, she will usually roar or bugle to call her males to her. Then she launches into the sky and the Chase begins. Golds, with their massive endurance but poor agility, usually lead males to high altitudes and test their endurance and power. Smaller golds may favor more agile browns and small bronzes; large golds tend to prefer the most powerful of the dragons following them. Green dragons lead their Chasers in agility competitions, which are fast-paced races filled with twists and turns. Green Flights may be dangerous for larger dragons, and many greens favor smaller dragons as their mates.
Queen dragons are highly territorial during mating Flights, and will attack any other female to Rise while she is in the air. A queen near Rising will often be incited into Rising should another queen Rise, leading to a brutal fight which often ends in the death of one or both of the queens. Green dragons do not seem to be so affected, and may Rise in conjunction without significant fighting.

Regardless of the type of Flight, females pick their mates at high altitudes, for a longer mating. It is believed the longer mating Flights result in larger or “better” Clutches. The male must spread his wings and slow the fall as they mate, or twine. At the same time, the human analogs to the dragons will also have sex together, regardless of their normal sexual preferences. If they are prevented from reaching their "mate", they will have sex with whoever is available. The practice of joining Flights without dragons is known as "Flightmothing." Losing riders may very well take mates with Flightmoths to slake their lust, and Flight-related sex carries no stigma.

After Flights, females will generally rest with their mates for several hours. As most female Rise in the afternoon or evening, they may remain with their mates overnight. The "morning-after" for riders is usually accompanied by very little memory of the mating Flight, though sometimes dragons will fill them in on the activities of the previous afternoon. Mating bonds do not generally last more than a few days for green dragons, though some will be closer mates than others. With gold dragons, the mate becomes a Weyrleader and also a Clutchsire. While golds may or may not be emotionally close to their mates, the bronze (or brown) in question will protect their mate and guard the eggs while the gold feeds and bathes.

Greens are generally infertile and do not have any associated gestation period. Gold dragons, however, are almost always fertile. A gold dragon has a gestation period of thirteen weeks, during which she usually produces between 8-18 eggs, each large enough to hold and sustain a baby dragon until it reaches the size of a large mastiff or small pony. The first cleavage of the fertilized ova occurs before the egg even candles, and most development occurs while the egg is not yet layed, but full development does not occur until the eggs are heated on the Hatching Sands, which mimic the heat of beaches on which firelizards, the genetic base of dragons, lay their eggs.

Eggs heat on the sand for five weeks. It is only during this time that the embryo of the dragon can complete development. The extreme speed (6.5 months versus 10+ months for similarly-sized creatures on Old Earth) during which the dragon embryo goes from a single cell to the size of a small pony carries a toll. Baby dragons are not only born ravenous--a result of their stomachs being empty, despite adequate nutrition--but with weak bones. A young dragon is quite capable of breaking bones from accidents that wouldn't faze an older dragon. Bone strength from cross-bonds in the bone is gradually added during the first six months of a dragon's lifespan.

The dragon mating and gestation period is immortalized in a teaching song:

"Rise in glory,
Bronze and gold.
Dive entwined,
Enhance the Hold.

Count three months and more,
And five heated weeks,
A day of glory and
In a month, who seeks?

A strand of silver
In the sky...
With heat, all quickens
And all times fly."

After about four weeks, the dragons are developed enough to be somewhat cognizant, or at least capable of sensing those with Potential when touching their eggs. It is at this time, or slightly after, that Touchings are conducted, allowing the dragons, in theory, to sense those who they may Impress to. In practice, the Touching has only minor effect on the Impression. However, the percentage of successful Impressions increases when Touchings occur, so the practice is still followed.

Dragons Hatch after five weeks. Hatchings usually go fairly quickly, rarely taking more than an hour from start to finish. The eggshell, so strong during most of the heated period (strong enough for two men to stand on after hardening), is weakened from mineral leaching used to build the bones and pigments. This makes the shell brittle and thin, enough so that a dragon mother will not turn the eggs the last two days or so before they Hatch, sensing their weakness.

The baby dragon has an "egg tooth" on the front of their nose. This bony protuberance is made of a keratin-like substance and is used to puncture the shell. The hole is then broken open by a series of kicks and shoulder slams, often cracking open the egg on two sides or entirely shattering it. The egg tooth is usually lost before the dragon makes its entrance, though rarely a baby dragon will have its egg tooth for periods of up to a few hours of Hatching, at which point the egg tooth dries and falls off.

Once Hatched, a baby dragon is capable of speech, between, and, after a few moments, of walking. They either Choose a human to Impress to, or they take themselves between to die.


Impression
Impression is the defining moment of a dragon's life. From that point on, they are joined soul-to-soul with another thinking being, in a union far closer than any other. But what is Impression? How does it even work?? These and other questions are often part of the soul-seeking a Candidate or new weyrling may find him- or herself wondering about.

The act of Impression is fairly simple. The draconic mind is incapable of independent existence. Without a human mind to anchor on, once a dragon starts breathing air, a dragon will go mad from the sheer emptiness of the world. Though gold dragons may remain to guard their eggs even after they have lost Theirs, the gold on the sand is no longer a sane dragon. They are more beast than person, and will gladly fling themselves into oblivion to escape the gaping nothingness where once vibrant life existed.

Exactly how a dragon Impresses is less certain. Some have suggested that pheremones play a part in the process, while others claim a more spiritual meeting of souls. What is known is that a newly-Hatched dragon is capable of telepathically linking their mind to the mind of a human. This link varies in strength, but on average, a dragon-human pair can "think" conversations privately with each other, "hear" especially "loud" thoughts (particularly dragons overhearing their human's thoughts), and sense the presence of the other. Extremely tight bonds may involve emotion sharing and occasionally even phantom sensations.

The circumstances of Impression make the whole process even more complex. In an ideal world, each dragon would have someone on the Sands or in the Stands who was a close enough of a match to their "missing half" to Impress to, and a happy time would be had by all. That, unfortunately, is a very unlikely circumstance. Panicked and young dragons can and do Impress to the only available mind, or fling themselves between without a true look-over of the available prospects. More than one dragon has lost itself between at the moment they finally find who they were looking for.

Extremely occasionally, two dragons will make a near-simultaneous Impression... of the same person. In such an event, usually the dragons will battle until one kills itself or is killed. Impression, once made, cannot be withdrawn--or the latecomer would just turn away. Humans with such a predicament are almost never able to prevent their mindmates from attacking in blind defensive rage, despite the horror of the thing. Luckily, this situation is incredibly rare.

Re-Impressions are possible, both for humans and (extremely rarely) for dragons. Humans who lose their dragon usually are distraught enough to take their own life, but in the few cases where this is not so, a human may be able to re-Impress. The Potential is still there--and even greater, if the pair were Bonded for any length of time. In dragons, the possibility of re-Impression is usually only in the circumstance of golds guarding Clutches... or when an un-Impressed HAD is near enough to force-Impress a dragon. Bereft golds are generally too crazed with mental pain to so much as allow someone to get close to them, and HADs are few and far between, but the possibility exists.

Force-Impression is also fairly unlikely, due simply to the danger of being clawed in half by an irate dragon. By physically grabbing a dragon and forcing eye contact, usually with speaking involved, a human can force the mental contact which leads to Impression. In many cases, these bonds are just as strong as an Impression would normally be, but the human partner may exert a controlling impulse on a dragon thus Impressed--a bad thing in a partnership. Force-Impressing is frowned upon (strongly), and discrimination is quite likely.

---