AVIS brought the end of Thread and ushered in an era of peace in Pern. Crops and livestock flourished as did the Weyrs and Holds. The South was all but forgotten as the abundance spread in the North as trade between the two had been limited to begin with. However, there was one question that was never too far from everyone’s minds: What role would the dragons play in this new Pern? Most figured they would become a transport service or perhaps guards like the majority of whers were doing at the time. It was expected that the need for dragons and riders would diminish as would their numbers especially as AVIS technology grew. For a while, no one really brought it up, they just went about their business as usual. Turns passed with no Thread and things began to relax, slipping into a new routine. Riders and Handlers remained vigilant in their watches for the Red Star as small towns and communities sprang up around the Holds. Life on Pern was good, for a hundred turns.
Then the Holds stopped tithing.
They stopped sending much needed supplies to the Weyrs, keeping it for their own people and needs. With Thread no longer falling, they didn’t feel the need to support the Riders and Handlers like they had in the past. The Weyrs struggled to not go under, even with the Weyrleaders sending multiple envoys out to all but beg the Holds to send supplies. The Holds refused to listen, turning away everyone sent by the Weyrleaders. They told them to tell the Weyrleaders to figure it out themselves. It apparently was no longer the Holds responsibility to keep up with the problems of the Weyrs when they had their own issues to deal with. Over population was a problem everywhere, didn’t the Weyrs realize that? Some of the smaller Weyrs, like Igen, High Reaches, and Ista did their best to establish self-sufficiency and succeeded after a rocky start. The bigger Weyrs, Telgar, Benden, and Fort though, struggled immensely with this.
Fort Weyr was the first to turn to violence to try to force the Holds to send supplies. Their efforts were met with rebellion from the Holds and rebuke from the other Weyrs who were trying to develop their own supplies and become self-sufficient. Fort, however, didn’t stop until their Holds had no choice but to send supplies. They pillaged, and plundered their way east, ignoring the Weyrs in their focus on the Holds. The other Weyrs tried to stop them in the beginning but quickly realized it was useless. Fort’s Weyrleaders were relentless in their mission to put the Holds back in their place. Nothing prepared them, though, when the burning began. It was a minor hold, the first time. Then Nabol burned. The other Holds, fearful the same would happen, began sending tithes to the Weyrs once again. The actions of Fort Weyr, though, left a bitter taste with the Holders.
Then Fort Weyr called a meeting of Weyrleaders.
Benden sent their Junior pair, as did Telgar and High Reaches. The Weyrleaders of Igen and Ista came themselves since they had no junior pairs to send. Little did any of them know, it was a trap. The dragons and their riders were captured and imprisoned by F’len of Bronze [name here], the Weyrleader of Fort. Unbeknownst to anyone but a few, he’d held a coup of sorts, and his new prisoners found that the Senior Goldrider and Weyrwoman Reilanya and her dragon, Gold Lilivath, were also being held captive. The other Weyrs were sent an ultimatum: Swear fealty and loyalty to F’len or burn as Nabol had. Igen and Ista really had no choice but to comply and they did it swiftly, with High Reaches and Telgar soon following despite the vehement objections of their Junior Leaders. Benden’s Weyrleaders, Vitanya of Gold Fuhinath and M’ran of Bronze Leshath, demanded the release of their Junior Leaders and the other prisoners in exchange for their compliance. Fort Weyr’s answer came the next morning.
Bitra burned.
It burned and the lifeless body of the Junior Weyrleader, T’van, was on morbid display for all to see. Knowing F’len did not intend to release his prisoners, Vitanya and M’ran reluctantly sent their compliance as they mourned. They didn’t know what F’len’s next move would be but it would surely come soon and they needed to prepare. So Vitanya selected a special group for a scouting mission to the South. She wanted a safe refuge for her people and she was going to get it come hell or high water. The goldrider saw the group off herself and as she watched them go Between she sent up a prayer to whatever powers may be that they were successful in their mission. As they waited for news, Benden hunkered down, for all intents being brought to heel under F’len’s rule. As Benden waited, the scouting group found themselves in a new, unforgiving landscape. It was hot, muggy, and full of new things they knew little or nothing about.
But they found something that made it worth it.
That something was a suitable spot for a Weyr. A green, Torsath, and her rider, Lanya, were sent back to Benden to give them the news. The rest of the scouts got to work turning the place into a home. Despite the heat, wild animals (felines and wild whers were the worst until they got whers of their own), and unusual weather they prevailed. It helped that soon after the greenpair left she sent riders to join them. Slowly at first, of course. because Benden was still being very carefully watched.
Finally it came time for the last group to come South. Somehow F’len found out what Vitanya and M’ran had done, though, and he sent a wing of riders to make sure they didn’t go anywhere. It was a brutal, bloody massacre, with only five riders and their dragons making it South including Vitanya. M’ran sacrificed himself to make sure they got to safety and the Goldrider vowed that F’len would pay, one way or another.
F’len’s fury was immediate and swift. He imprisoned the former Junior Goldrider of Benden and put Telgar’s Junior pair in Benden as its new proxy leaders before moving riders from other Weyrs over. He didn’t want the Weyrs whining about overcrowding after all. Everyone knew, though, that F’len was the absolute ruler of the North now. He set about making sure people loyal to him were in positions of power. He had prisons built - including a new Weyr and those that opposed him quickly ended up there if they were too vocal about or acted on their distaste for the way things were being run. Life was slowly turning into hell in the North and there wasn’t much that people could do about it. They all had to wonder something though.
Where did Vitanya take her people?
The answer was she took them South. Vitanya and her group of refugees founded a home in the humid jungles of the Southern continent: New Benden Weyr. Perhaps not the most original in name but they were all too tired to come up with anything else just then. They were more worried about shelter, food, clean water, and whether or not F’len was going to send people after them. The Weyrleader of the North as he was calling himself, though, had other things on his mind, besides hunting down the now Southern rebels that had escaped him. Lilivath’s clutch of twenty hatched on the hot sands of Fort’s hatching grounds.The first inkling that something unusual might happen with this clutch was that there were not one but two Gold eggs. The Weyrfolk took this as a good sign, though, that the Senior Queen and Bronze were both healthy dragons and that good things were coming.
This clutch, however, had some surprises.
The first being two large, silver colored hatchlings. The male, who called himself Verreth, hatched from a large cream colored egg, and the female who called herself Naireth, hatched from one of the golden eggs. The male was the size of a large bronze while the female was the size of a small gold. Stunned whispers and gossip flew around the Weyr as the twins found their riders, a brother and sister, [names here], respectfully.
Then the other golden egg hatched a set of twins.
The two perfect, golden girls, Hanzoth and Hariyath, rejoiced that their siblings had hatched and impressed safely. They did not take kindly to the whispers and insults thrown about as they found theirs in the twins, Vireya and Virani, daughters of the Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold, Lord Varen. It was unavoidable, though, and F’len didn’t know what to think of the strange colored hatchlings. He allowed them to live thinking it was a mere fluke in genetics that created them and it was nothing to be concerned about. He had his empire to worry about in any event, quelling rebellions and soothing discontent among the Holders though he brought the North to heel quickly enough.
So the silver siblings grew alongside the rest of their class and their golden sisters until graduation. It was a time of celebration throughout the Weyr for Lilivath’s graduating clutch, though there were still whispers and resentment toward the quartet who - since their hatching - were never far apart. The next morning after the celebration dawned bright and clear despite the shock that it brought to the Weyr. The silvers had vanished into thin air, along with their twin golden sisters, most of their weyrling class, and a handful of other riders. F’len was furious, knowing they were still alive since no dragons keened in loss but not having a clue where they went. He had no idea that they had heard a whisper of a rumor about a new Weyr being started in the South and they wanted in.
But they got the wrong coordinates.
Instead of going to New Benden Weyr, they appeared in the coastal Southern skies far to the east of their destination. With limited supplies, no idea where they were or how to get where they were going, the group decided to find a place to establish a Weyr of their own. In a long extinct caldera they found their new haven and began the painstaking task of making it theirs. It took nearly a turn before it was completed with everyone constantly looking over their shoulders for F’len or northern riders. No one wanted the barely on its feet Weyr to be found and destroyed before it had a chance to thrive. They decide to call their new home Hollow Mountain Weyr.
It seems New Benden Weyr and Hollow Mountain Weyr will be safe for now but they know F’len will come looking eventually. Their safety and certainly their peace won’t last forever. But what will happen once their safe haven is discovered? Will the two fledgling Southern Weyrs discover each other before the North does? Will F’len let them be? Or will he try to bring these new Weyrs to heel as he did the others? And how will the North respond to the stealing of candidates?
They got their answer sooner than they thought.
The North did not appreciate their candidates being stolen - nevermind the ones who came willingly. It wasn’t long after Fuhinath’s clutch was hatched that New Benden Weyr realized it had been betrayed. Wings of Northern dragons appeared in the skies above the Weyr with the crackle and boom of between and wingbeats. There was no escaping the waves of destruction that came for them. Within hours the new Weyr was brought to its knees, most of their riders and handlers dead including the Weyrleaders. The survivors that could not flee were forced to return North and promptly locked in Central Prison Weyr.
Amazingly the Weyrling Master, [name, of dragon rank and name here], managed to get all eighteen weyrlings and a few other riders (some mature, some older weyrlings) safely away.
They wandered for two sevenday, doing their best to stay alive and avoid serious injuries. It was a hot, miserable journey that seemed to have no end in sight. Not only did they have to battle the sweltering jungle, they were attacked by wild felines and other jungle fauna. With several of them injured to varying degrees, the group was about to give up when a bluerider of Hollow Mountain spotted them. The exhausted group was quickly gathered up and brought to the Weyr to recover. The Weyrling Master told the Weyrleaders what had happened to New Benden and they were horrified. For now, though, all they could do was sit quietly and hope that the North was satisfied with wiping New Benden off the map.
They aren’t sure their safety and peace will last, especially when they don’t know who betrayed them.
With Hollow Mountain Weyrs' completion, the twin golds took to the skies, rising together for an unprecedented event in Pern’s history. Not only did they rise together but they flew together instead of fighting each other. They amass a large group of chasers - a mix of bronze and brown as well as their silver brother, Verreth - as the Golds tear through the Southern sky. Hanzoth choses her winner first in Silver Verreth, securing her place as Senior Gold, though Hariyath was right behind her in choosing Bronze [name here]. It seemed the twins shared more than just their riders as they took to the new hatching grounds within hours of each other two months later - though on opposite sides with a small amount of hissing involved between the sisters.
Hanzoth laid fifteen eggs with a bright, gleaming golden one nestled close to her side while Hariyath laid twelve, also with a gold egg carefully nestled in the center of the clutch. With twenty seven eggs rapidly hardening on the new hatching sands the scramble is on to find candidates. But numbers of candidates are limited in the South.
They'll have to brave the North.
Then the Holds stopped tithing.
They stopped sending much needed supplies to the Weyrs, keeping it for their own people and needs. With Thread no longer falling, they didn’t feel the need to support the Riders and Handlers like they had in the past. The Weyrs struggled to not go under, even with the Weyrleaders sending multiple envoys out to all but beg the Holds to send supplies. The Holds refused to listen, turning away everyone sent by the Weyrleaders. They told them to tell the Weyrleaders to figure it out themselves. It apparently was no longer the Holds responsibility to keep up with the problems of the Weyrs when they had their own issues to deal with. Over population was a problem everywhere, didn’t the Weyrs realize that? Some of the smaller Weyrs, like Igen, High Reaches, and Ista did their best to establish self-sufficiency and succeeded after a rocky start. The bigger Weyrs, Telgar, Benden, and Fort though, struggled immensely with this.
Fort Weyr was the first to turn to violence to try to force the Holds to send supplies. Their efforts were met with rebellion from the Holds and rebuke from the other Weyrs who were trying to develop their own supplies and become self-sufficient. Fort, however, didn’t stop until their Holds had no choice but to send supplies. They pillaged, and plundered their way east, ignoring the Weyrs in their focus on the Holds. The other Weyrs tried to stop them in the beginning but quickly realized it was useless. Fort’s Weyrleaders were relentless in their mission to put the Holds back in their place. Nothing prepared them, though, when the burning began. It was a minor hold, the first time. Then Nabol burned. The other Holds, fearful the same would happen, began sending tithes to the Weyrs once again. The actions of Fort Weyr, though, left a bitter taste with the Holders.
Then Fort Weyr called a meeting of Weyrleaders.
Benden sent their Junior pair, as did Telgar and High Reaches. The Weyrleaders of Igen and Ista came themselves since they had no junior pairs to send. Little did any of them know, it was a trap. The dragons and their riders were captured and imprisoned by F’len of Bronze [name here], the Weyrleader of Fort. Unbeknownst to anyone but a few, he’d held a coup of sorts, and his new prisoners found that the Senior Goldrider and Weyrwoman Reilanya and her dragon, Gold Lilivath, were also being held captive. The other Weyrs were sent an ultimatum: Swear fealty and loyalty to F’len or burn as Nabol had. Igen and Ista really had no choice but to comply and they did it swiftly, with High Reaches and Telgar soon following despite the vehement objections of their Junior Leaders. Benden’s Weyrleaders, Vitanya of Gold Fuhinath and M’ran of Bronze Leshath, demanded the release of their Junior Leaders and the other prisoners in exchange for their compliance. Fort Weyr’s answer came the next morning.
Bitra burned.
It burned and the lifeless body of the Junior Weyrleader, T’van, was on morbid display for all to see. Knowing F’len did not intend to release his prisoners, Vitanya and M’ran reluctantly sent their compliance as they mourned. They didn’t know what F’len’s next move would be but it would surely come soon and they needed to prepare. So Vitanya selected a special group for a scouting mission to the South. She wanted a safe refuge for her people and she was going to get it come hell or high water. The goldrider saw the group off herself and as she watched them go Between she sent up a prayer to whatever powers may be that they were successful in their mission. As they waited for news, Benden hunkered down, for all intents being brought to heel under F’len’s rule. As Benden waited, the scouting group found themselves in a new, unforgiving landscape. It was hot, muggy, and full of new things they knew little or nothing about.
But they found something that made it worth it.
That something was a suitable spot for a Weyr. A green, Torsath, and her rider, Lanya, were sent back to Benden to give them the news. The rest of the scouts got to work turning the place into a home. Despite the heat, wild animals (felines and wild whers were the worst until they got whers of their own), and unusual weather they prevailed. It helped that soon after the greenpair left she sent riders to join them. Slowly at first, of course. because Benden was still being very carefully watched.
Finally it came time for the last group to come South. Somehow F’len found out what Vitanya and M’ran had done, though, and he sent a wing of riders to make sure they didn’t go anywhere. It was a brutal, bloody massacre, with only five riders and their dragons making it South including Vitanya. M’ran sacrificed himself to make sure they got to safety and the Goldrider vowed that F’len would pay, one way or another.
F’len’s fury was immediate and swift. He imprisoned the former Junior Goldrider of Benden and put Telgar’s Junior pair in Benden as its new proxy leaders before moving riders from other Weyrs over. He didn’t want the Weyrs whining about overcrowding after all. Everyone knew, though, that F’len was the absolute ruler of the North now. He set about making sure people loyal to him were in positions of power. He had prisons built - including a new Weyr and those that opposed him quickly ended up there if they were too vocal about or acted on their distaste for the way things were being run. Life was slowly turning into hell in the North and there wasn’t much that people could do about it. They all had to wonder something though.
Where did Vitanya take her people?
The answer was she took them South. Vitanya and her group of refugees founded a home in the humid jungles of the Southern continent: New Benden Weyr. Perhaps not the most original in name but they were all too tired to come up with anything else just then. They were more worried about shelter, food, clean water, and whether or not F’len was going to send people after them. The Weyrleader of the North as he was calling himself, though, had other things on his mind, besides hunting down the now Southern rebels that had escaped him. Lilivath’s clutch of twenty hatched on the hot sands of Fort’s hatching grounds.The first inkling that something unusual might happen with this clutch was that there were not one but two Gold eggs. The Weyrfolk took this as a good sign, though, that the Senior Queen and Bronze were both healthy dragons and that good things were coming.
This clutch, however, had some surprises.
The first being two large, silver colored hatchlings. The male, who called himself Verreth, hatched from a large cream colored egg, and the female who called herself Naireth, hatched from one of the golden eggs. The male was the size of a large bronze while the female was the size of a small gold. Stunned whispers and gossip flew around the Weyr as the twins found their riders, a brother and sister, [names here], respectfully.
Then the other golden egg hatched a set of twins.
The two perfect, golden girls, Hanzoth and Hariyath, rejoiced that their siblings had hatched and impressed safely. They did not take kindly to the whispers and insults thrown about as they found theirs in the twins, Vireya and Virani, daughters of the Lord Holder of Ruatha Hold, Lord Varen. It was unavoidable, though, and F’len didn’t know what to think of the strange colored hatchlings. He allowed them to live thinking it was a mere fluke in genetics that created them and it was nothing to be concerned about. He had his empire to worry about in any event, quelling rebellions and soothing discontent among the Holders though he brought the North to heel quickly enough.
So the silver siblings grew alongside the rest of their class and their golden sisters until graduation. It was a time of celebration throughout the Weyr for Lilivath’s graduating clutch, though there were still whispers and resentment toward the quartet who - since their hatching - were never far apart. The next morning after the celebration dawned bright and clear despite the shock that it brought to the Weyr. The silvers had vanished into thin air, along with their twin golden sisters, most of their weyrling class, and a handful of other riders. F’len was furious, knowing they were still alive since no dragons keened in loss but not having a clue where they went. He had no idea that they had heard a whisper of a rumor about a new Weyr being started in the South and they wanted in.
But they got the wrong coordinates.
Instead of going to New Benden Weyr, they appeared in the coastal Southern skies far to the east of their destination. With limited supplies, no idea where they were or how to get where they were going, the group decided to find a place to establish a Weyr of their own. In a long extinct caldera they found their new haven and began the painstaking task of making it theirs. It took nearly a turn before it was completed with everyone constantly looking over their shoulders for F’len or northern riders. No one wanted the barely on its feet Weyr to be found and destroyed before it had a chance to thrive. They decide to call their new home Hollow Mountain Weyr.
It seems New Benden Weyr and Hollow Mountain Weyr will be safe for now but they know F’len will come looking eventually. Their safety and certainly their peace won’t last forever. But what will happen once their safe haven is discovered? Will the two fledgling Southern Weyrs discover each other before the North does? Will F’len let them be? Or will he try to bring these new Weyrs to heel as he did the others? And how will the North respond to the stealing of candidates?
They got their answer sooner than they thought.
The North did not appreciate their candidates being stolen - nevermind the ones who came willingly. It wasn’t long after Fuhinath’s clutch was hatched that New Benden Weyr realized it had been betrayed. Wings of Northern dragons appeared in the skies above the Weyr with the crackle and boom of between and wingbeats. There was no escaping the waves of destruction that came for them. Within hours the new Weyr was brought to its knees, most of their riders and handlers dead including the Weyrleaders. The survivors that could not flee were forced to return North and promptly locked in Central Prison Weyr.
Amazingly the Weyrling Master, [name, of dragon rank and name here], managed to get all eighteen weyrlings and a few other riders (some mature, some older weyrlings) safely away.
They wandered for two sevenday, doing their best to stay alive and avoid serious injuries. It was a hot, miserable journey that seemed to have no end in sight. Not only did they have to battle the sweltering jungle, they were attacked by wild felines and other jungle fauna. With several of them injured to varying degrees, the group was about to give up when a bluerider of Hollow Mountain spotted them. The exhausted group was quickly gathered up and brought to the Weyr to recover. The Weyrling Master told the Weyrleaders what had happened to New Benden and they were horrified. For now, though, all they could do was sit quietly and hope that the North was satisfied with wiping New Benden off the map.
They aren’t sure their safety and peace will last, especially when they don’t know who betrayed them.
With Hollow Mountain Weyrs' completion, the twin golds took to the skies, rising together for an unprecedented event in Pern’s history. Not only did they rise together but they flew together instead of fighting each other. They amass a large group of chasers - a mix of bronze and brown as well as their silver brother, Verreth - as the Golds tear through the Southern sky. Hanzoth choses her winner first in Silver Verreth, securing her place as Senior Gold, though Hariyath was right behind her in choosing Bronze [name here]. It seemed the twins shared more than just their riders as they took to the new hatching grounds within hours of each other two months later - though on opposite sides with a small amount of hissing involved between the sisters.
Hanzoth laid fifteen eggs with a bright, gleaming golden one nestled close to her side while Hariyath laid twelve, also with a gold egg carefully nestled in the center of the clutch. With twenty seven eggs rapidly hardening on the new hatching sands the scramble is on to find candidates. But numbers of candidates are limited in the South.
They'll have to brave the North.
