Pern
Encyclopedia
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
created by Anne McCaffrey
Anne McCaffrey
Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American-born Irish writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award...
for the Dragonriders of Pern
Dragonriders of Pern
Dragonriders of Pern is a science fiction series written primarily by the late American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. The series comprises 22 novels and several short...
series of fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
and science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
books. It is said to be "Rukbat 3", the third planet in orbit around the star Rukbat
Alpha Sagittarii
Alpha Sagittarii is a star in the Sagittarius constellation. It has the traditional names 天淵三 , Alrami and Rukbat, derived from the Arabic rukbat al-rāmī = the knee of the archer...
, counting outward.
After June 2011, there are two collections of Pern stories and twenty-two novels, some written jointly or solely by Todd McCaffrey
Todd McCaffrey
Todd J. McCaffrey is an Irish American author of science fiction best known for continuing the Dragonriders of Pern series in collaboration with his mother Anne McCaffrey.-Life:...
. The figure shows the habitable portion of Pern's northern continent and a tiny portion of its southern continent, which are the setting for the first novel Dragonflight
Dragonflight
Dragonflight is a fantasy or science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. It is the first book in the Dragonriders of Pern series. Dragonflight was first published by Ballantine Books in July 1968...
(1968) and its sequel Dragonquest
Dragonquest
Dragonquest is a fantasy or science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. It is the sequel to Dragonflight, set seven years later and the second book in the Dragonriders of Pern series...
. East–West it shows approximately the known hemisphere. It does not show the abandoned region of "Landing" and early colonization, further to the southeast, whose rediscovery and resettlement is one unifying theme of the stories that follow Dragonquest in Pern historical time, perhaps one third of the series.
The Atlas of Pern
The Atlas of Pern
The Atlas of Pern by Karen Wynn Fonstad is an authorized companion book to the science fiction Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey...
(1984), a companion book produced by Karen Wynn Fonstad
Karen Wynn Fonstad
Karen Wynn Fonstad, née Wynn was the author of several atlases of fictional worlds.Born Karen Lea Wynn in Oklahoma City to parents James and Estis Wynn, she graduated from Norman High School in Norman, Oklahoma, and then earned a B.S. degree in Physical Therapy and an M.A...
in consultation with McCaffrey, provides geographical detail for a region extending that extends further south and east. In their geographical scope The Atlas maps cover the settings for all but the latest book, Dragon's Time
Dragon's Time
Dragon's Time is a fantasy or science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd McCaffrey, the latest in the Dragonriders of Pern series that she initiated in 1967...
(2011).
Exploration: The Chronicles of Pern: First FallThe Chronicles of Pern: First FallThe Chronicles of Pern: First Fall is a 1993 collection of short fiction by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. All five stories are set on the fictional planet Pern; First Fall is one of two collections in the science fantasy/science fiction series Dragonriders of Pern.-The Collection:The...
Pern was explored and cleared for colonization by an Exploration and Evaluation Corps team, two hundred years before the actual colonization commenced. This is in keeping with McCaffrey's themes of space exploration and colonization to escape from a polluted and overcrowded Old Earth, explored in many of her different series.The EEC team spent ten days assessing the planet. They recorded geographical, geological, botanical, ecological and zoological information in a variety of locations, some of which are recognizable as areas of interest in other Pern stories. One member of the EEC team, Shavva bint Faroud, found the pristine planet so beautiful that she struggled to remain objective. (In a classic McCaffrey inter-story connection, Shavva is later revealed as an ancestor of Avril Bitra, the astronavigator of the Pern colony.) Despite the beauty of the planet, the EEC team were puzzled by a repeated random pattern of circles of bare dirt, which they observed across the whole globe. Eventually, they labelled the planet with the acronym: Parallel Earth, Resources Negligible (i.e., insufficient to support interstellar commercial investment).
Colonization: Dragonsdawn
In the novel, DragonsdawnDragonsdawn
Dragonsdawn is a science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. It was the ninth book published in the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne or her son Todd McCaffrey. It was first published in 1989...
, Pern was colonized by settlers originally from Earth, First Base on the Moon, and the colony at Alpha Centauri. These people had lived in a technocratic society recovering from a war with an alien race. The colony was led by Admiral Paul Benden and Governor Emily Boll, who had both been key leaders in the war. The 6,000 colonists wanted to return to an agrarian society with a low level of technology so badly that they were prepared to take a fifteen-year one-way journey to an isolated part of the galaxy.
Less than a decade after the first colony was established, the settlers discovered that their chosen planet was subject to periodic attack from space by the destructive Thread, a spaceborne spore that destroys organic substances on contact. This was responsible for the mysterious bare circles noted in the EEC report. Unable to retreat from the peril, the settlers developed methods of combating the Thread. A small indigenous lifeform, the Fire-Lizard, was discovered with remarkable adaptations against Thread: flight, teleportation
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
, limited telepathy
Telepathy
Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...
, and the ability to chew phosphine rock and generate bursts of flame. (McCaffrey explored another of her favourite themes, biological manipulation, using it as a plot device to allow the colonists to battle Thread.)
Kitti Ping, a scientist trained in genetic manipulation by the Eridani, genetically "upgraded" these into full-sized flame-breathing telepathic dragons
Dragons (Pern)
The Dragons of Pern are a fictional race created by Anne McCaffrey as an integral part of the science fiction world depicted in her Dragonriders of Pern novels....
, who were able to sear the Thread before it could fall to the ground. Dragonriders became a vitally important and highly respected profession, especially after a mass migration to the northern continent, where they lived in Weyr
Weyr
A Weyr is a collection of dragons, their riders and support staff in Anne McCaffrey's fictional world of Pern.The function of a Weyr is to fight Thread, a spore that originates in the Oort cloud of the Rukbat solar system, carried by a planetoid referred to as the Red Star with a loose elliptical...
s, and, as time progressed, the settlers forgot their Terran origins.
Last Contact: The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
In the weeks following the first Thread attack, the colonists debated sending a homing capsule to Earth, asking for help. The colonists demonstrated independence and bravery, traits that come to typify the Pernese, in deciding to fight Thread alone. A small segment of the community disagreed, and Ted Tubberman, colony botanist, sent an SOS off with a homemade beacon. As a punishment for this, Ted was shunned by the colony.Some fifty years later, a Fleet battle cruiser, the Amherst, passed by the Sagittarian Sector on a search for alien incursions, and noted that the Rukbat sector had been flagged for investigation by passing ships. (Such heartlessness of large bureaucracies is another common theme in McCaffrey's novels.) The captain on board, Anise Fargoe, authorized a rescue run under the leadership of Lieutenant Ross Vaclav Benden, nephew of Admiral Paul Benden, to discover the reason for Tubberman's SOS. Upon arrival planetside, Ross flew the shuttle Erica in a scanning pattern, but failed to notice the new settlements in the northern hemisphere, as these were situated in deep cave systems to protect them from Thread. In the southern hemisphere, the Erica found the original settlement buried under volcanic ash, but a faint beacon still pulsed in the southern mountain range. Ross and his crew found original colonist Stev Kimmer, now an old man, in charge at Honshu Hold. Stev and his people convinced Ross and his crew that they were the last survivors of the colony, thanks to the depredations of Thread. They were evacuated, and the Rukbat system was interdicted, ensuring that Pern would remain undisturbed in future centuries.
Planetary system data
Pern is the third of five planets in the RukbatAlpha Sagittarii
Alpha Sagittarii is a star in the Sagittarius constellation. It has the traditional names 天淵三 , Alrami and Rukbat, derived from the Arabic rukbat al-rāmī = the knee of the archer...
system (the Pernese star is also known as Alpha Sagittarius
Alpha Sagittarii
Alpha Sagittarii is a star in the Sagittarius constellation. It has the traditional names 天淵三 , Alrami and Rukbat, derived from the Arabic rukbat al-rāmī = the knee of the archer...
). In a departure from reality, Rukbat is a class G (yellow) star in the series; the real Rukbat is a blue, class B star—although it could be that the star Pern orbits is simply a solar-type star that is near the real Rukbat which was given the brighter star's name for convenience. (See spectral classification for more information.) Pern has two moons, Belior and Timor (in order of distance). The Rukbat system in the novel also contains two asteroid belts and an Oort cloud
Oort cloud
The Oort cloud , or the Öpik–Oort cloud , is a hypothesized spherical cloud of comets which may lie roughly 50,000 AU, or nearly a light-year, from the Sun. This places the cloud at nearly a quarter of the distance to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun...
. The Oort cloud and a rogue "sixth" planet, the Red Star (a Sedna-class inner Oort cloud object), plays a major role in the series, as it is the source of Thread.
Geography
Pern bears three continents, four major oceans, and a large number of islands. The largest continent, the Southern, is noted for large areas of grasslandGrassland
Grasslands are areas where the vegetation is dominated by grasses and other herbaceous plants . However, sedge and rush families can also be found. Grasslands occur naturally on all continents except Antarctica...
and jungle, as well as high tectonic
Tectonics
Tectonics is a field of study within geology concerned generally with the structures within the lithosphere of the Earth and particularly with the forces and movements that have operated in a region to create these structures.Tectonics is concerned with the orogenies and tectonic development of...
and volcanic activity (probably due to the two moons, although this increases with the coming of the Red Star). The Northern Continent, in contrast, is relatively infertile, composed primarily of 'shield' bedrock and is the most tectonically stable landmass on the planet. Not much is known of the small Far Western Continent, as it has never been explored; its existence is known only from orbital satellite surveys and maritime expeditions.
Pern is noted for its high incidence of cave systems, particularly in the Northern Continent. This feature heavily influenced the development of human society on the planet, as humans forced to take shelter in these caves eventually developed an intricate culture associated with cave-dwelling in a feudal society at a medieval to Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
level of technology.
Pern is relatively lacking in most major metals. Nonetheless, sufficient deposits of petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
and metals exist to supply a high-technology agrarian society, though not a high-technology industrial
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...
one.
Although Pern has four major ocean
Ocean
An ocean is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
s, the only ocean of major concern to most inhabitants of Pern is the Southern, which separates the Northern and Southern Continents. Few expeditions have explored the Western and Eastern Oceans to either side of the main continents, and the Ring Sea is known only from satellite observations.
The Southern Ocean is noted for its volatile weather and strong currents, which present a challenge for mariners. At least one tropical cyclone
Tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones strengthen when water evaporated from the ocean is released as the saturated air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapor...
has occurred in the ocean in the course of the books.
Firestone
Firestone is a phosphorusPhosphorus
Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus as a mineral is almost always present in its maximally oxidized state, as inorganic phosphate rocks...
-bearing rock found on Pern. Dragons
Dragons (Pern)
The Dragons of Pern are a fictional race created by Anne McCaffrey as an integral part of the science fiction world depicted in her Dragonriders of Pern novels....
and fire lizards are able to produce spontaneously flammable phosphine
Phosphine
Phosphine is the compound with the chemical formula PH3. It is a colorless, flammable, toxic gas. Pure phosphine is odourless, but technical grade samples have a highly unpleasant odor like garlic or rotting fish, due to the presence of substituted phosphine and diphosphine...
gas from firestone, and to burn Thread out of the air by emitting the gas.
There are two firestone varieties. One is highly unstable, prone to release potentially explosive gas on contact with even the slightest bit of moisture, which makes it extremely dangerous to mine, store, transport, and consume. (Evidently it does not explode in a dragon's mouth, however.) The second variety is relatively stable, and must be "digested" in a dragon's second stomach to produce phosphine. The stable variety was discovered on the beaches of the Southern Continent soon after Landing, by observation of the native fire lizards (in Dragonsdawn
Dragonsdawn
Dragonsdawn is a science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. It was the ninth book published in the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne or her son Todd McCaffrey. It was first published in 1989...
). About 500 years later it was rediscovered by Kindan the harper and successfully mined (in Dragon's Fire
Dragon's Fire
Dragon's Fire is a fantasy or science fiction novel novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey and her son Todd McCaffrey, Published in 2006, it was the twentieth book in the Dragonriders of Pern series that she initiated in 1967....
), and thereafter used exclusively by dragonriders.
Golden queen dragons cannot produce phosphine from firestone. They help fight Thread by deft spotting and flying with riders who use mechanical flame throwers.
Firestone is believed to render female dragons sterile, which is considered beneficial regarding the green females. They are the smallest dragons, and sexually active, which would produce too many too small dragons if they were fertile.
The traditional theory is debunked for the reader's benefit in Dragonsdawn
Dragonsdawn
Dragonsdawn is a science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. It was the ninth book published in the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne or her son Todd McCaffrey. It was first published in 1989...
, where it is noted that green dragons are sterile and gold dragons are unable to use firestone by design. Evidently that knowledge was lost and the folk explanation generated, before the Third Pass at latest. (Both the gold and green female fire lizards are fertile, and both use firestone to flame Thread. There has been little study of fire lizards since the early days, however, and wild green clutches produce few young because greens do not defend their nests or carefully choose secure sites.)
Ecology
Pernese biomeBiome
Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Some parts of the earth have more or less the same kind of abiotic and biotic factors spread over a...
s have been profoundly affected by the cyclical appearance of Thread, a spore which destroys organic material. This has resulted in a relative dearth of terrestrial plants and animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
s. However, as Thread drowns in water, Pern has a much more populous and thriving aquatic ecology.
Pernese biome
Biome
Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Some parts of the earth have more or less the same kind of abiotic and biotic factors spread over a...
s contain both indigenous Pernese flora and fauna and introduced species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
from other worlds—primarily Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
. (The original EEC team found that there was very little biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
, meaning that the colonists, coming two hundred years later, brought flora and fauna species with them.)
Flora
The plants best known to humans residing on Pern are those that are useful. There are several types of plants which are edible to humans: the redfruit tree, which produces a red, plum-like fruit, and the klah tree, whose bark is infused, like coffeeCoffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
beans, into a stimulant beverage reminiscent of chocolate, coffee, and cinnamon. Native medicinal plants include dragon's tongue, which produces a gel similar to aloe; the Needlethorn, whose hollow thorns can be used as hypodermic needles; Numbweed, a strong analgesic
Analgesic
An analgesic is any member of the group of drugs used to relieve pain . The word analgesic derives from Greek an- and algos ....
plant that is made into a cream after boiling it in large pots for 3 days that numbs small wounds completely, and dulls larger wounds; and Fellis, which produces a juice used as a soporific
Sleep
Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, and is more easily reversible than...
drug. Text in Dragonquest indicates that the flower of the Fellis plant produces a strong yet pleasant odor, and is used as a decoration for special occasions.
Fauna
Pern is host to a number of invertebrateInvertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
species, including the insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
-like trundlebugs, rollers (analogous to a woodlouse
Woodlouse
A woodlouse is a crustacean with a rigid, segmented, long exoskeleton and fourteen jointed limbs...
), VTOLS (a type of fly), springs (a type of parasite), and spider
Spider
Spiders are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, and chelicerae with fangs that inject venom. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species diversity among all other groups of organisms...
-like creatures called spinners (in the very first story, Weyr Search, they were referred to as crawlers). There is also a type of worm or millipede called a grub, which was genetically engineered by the settlers to consume Thread. It serves the important purpose of protecting fields and crops by tunneling underground, eating any Thread that has reached the ground and burrowed. However it has only flourished in the Southern Continent and its existence was forgotten by most of the inhabitants of the North for many years. The only people who knew about the grubs had been eradicating them whenever they appeared in the North; an error in records interpretation led them to believe they were parasitical instead of beneficial. After the error was corrected, the grubs were encouraged to flourish—indeed it was noted that areas sown with the grubs prospered better due to the grubs aerating the soil and preventing Thread from destroying the crops or potential infestations forcing the burning of the field.
Native Pernese vertebrate
Vertebrate
Vertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...
s have a body-structure with six limbs. Flying creatures, such as the fire-lizards and wherries (carnivorous creatures not dissimilar to large birds), have two wings and four legs. Ground-bound creatures like most tunnelsnakes have six legs, which may include specialized digging feet or hunting claws. Some tunnelsnakes are aquatic or semi-aquatic, and have one or more set of fins or flippers in place of legs. Wherries are edible, and have been domesticated for food; some tunnelsnakes are edible, but they are primarily considered a pest animal in Weyrs and Holds
Holds of Pern
Holds, in Anne McCaffrey's science fiction series Dragonriders of Pern, are the residences of the bulk of the planet Pern's population.Members of specialized professions on Pern live in Crafthalls and dragonriders live in Weyrs, but for most people, the Hold is both the residence and primary social...
.
The native dragonet was genetically engineered
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
using advanced high-tech Eridani techniques, such as a mentasynth enhancement, by settlers into the much larger and more intelligent dragons
Dragons (Pern)
The Dragons of Pern are a fictional race created by Anne McCaffrey as an integral part of the science fiction world depicted in her Dragonriders of Pern novels....
. Other experiments resulted in the enhanced fire-lizards and the watch-wher, a stunted, photophobic cousin of the dragon
Dragons (Pern)
The Dragons of Pern are a fictional race created by Anne McCaffrey as an integral part of the science fiction world depicted in her Dragonriders of Pern novels....
. Fire-lizards proved compatible with the original dragonets, but the enhanced genetics of the Fire-lizard proved to be a much bigger advantage, and dragonets eventually bred out of existence. Whers
Whers
Whers, or Watch-whers are dragon-like creatures in the fantasy series Dragonriders of Pern. In comparison to the majestic dragons that were the end result of Kitti Ping Yung's genetic experimentation, whers are deformed and stunted...
are used in mining and as guards of Holds, and were long thought to be a mistake made by Wind Blossom, the Eridani geneticist who was credited with (or blamed for) developing them. It was later revealed for the readers' benefit (in Todd McCaffrey's "Dragonsblood") that their 'flaws' were deliberate: they were designed to fight Thread by themselves on the few occasions when it fell at night. Their infrared eyesight not only allowed them to see Thread but to discern live Thread from Thread that had been frozen by the night atmosphere, and the shorter wingspan was intended to minimize Thread damage. Unfortunately, this information was kept from the general population and soon lost, and it became customary to chain whers up, which prevented them from playing their intended role in the fight against Thread. The Watch-wher's role is finally realised in Todd McCaffrey's New Tales of Pern, where they play a critical role in the fight against thread after the creation of a specialised Wherhold.
A wide variety of fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
-like creatures dwell in Pernese seas, many of which are edible to humans, including the oily-fleshed packtail, the prized redfin, and the easily preserved whitefish.
Flora
Most of the plants introduced by Pernese colonists are providers of food, fiber or medicine. Most grains, vegetable crops, and fruit trees were imported to Pern, as were a wide variety of herbs and fiber plants such as flax and cotton. Notably, the Pernese lack cocoa and coffee plants.Fauna
The original Pernese settlers brought a wide variety of animals (transported in coldsleep or as ovum and sperm to be bred in the revived birthing stock) and plants with them when they originally settled the planet. However, due to both the disastrous threadfall and the natural Pernese landscape, some animals never adapted at all. Deer and other forest-dwelling animals did not fare well in Pern's warm, tropical climate. Other animals required "genetic adaptation" but survived in some form or another. One type of genetic adaptation needed was the altering of the digestive processes of animals like cows to allow them to digest the boron-heavy grass successfully and without ill-effects.The Pernese circa the Ninth Pass of the Red Star tend to categorize animals by use more than by species. Herdbeasts are animals kept in large numbers for meat or leather, and include bovines, ovines and caprines (which became the standard Pernese terms for cows, sheep and goat
Goat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
s). Milchbeasts are the same species as herdbeasts, but kept for milk. Draybeasts are donkey
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
s, ox
Ox
An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...
en or draft horse
Draft horse
A draft horse , draught horse or dray horse , less often called a work horse or heavy horse, is a large horse bred for hard, heavy tasks such as ploughing and farm labour...
s. Runners are a particular breed of horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
developed by the Pernese, a riding/racing beast vaguely analogous to the Anglo-Arabian
Anglo-Arabian
The Anglo-Arabian or Anglo-Arab is a crossbred horse that now also has its own status as a horse breed. It is a Thoroughbred crossed with an Arabian. The cross can be made between a Thoroughbred stallion and an Arabian mare, or vice-versa...
. Burdenbeasts may be donkeys or llama
Llama
The llama is a South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since pre-Hispanic times....
s.
Cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
s and dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
s, called felines and canines, are kept for pest control or, in the case of dogs, as herd or guard animals. The felines and canines have adapted to fit the colder climates of Pern, having developed thicker, shaggier coats. A large feline (mentioned to be a cheetah in "Dragonsdawn") was engineered by a renegade settler for the purpose of being an intelligent helper, but they turned on the settler and went wild on the Southern Continent.
A genetically altered breed of dolphins, subsequently called shipfish by the native population (due to their tendency to follow ships), accompanied humans to Pern. These dolphins had greatly increased intelligence, including a degree of telepathic ability, and had developed means of verbally communicating with humans because of the genetic metasynth enhancement. Unlike many of the other animals that accompanied humans, dolphins took to their new home well. They were trained to come to the sound of bells, help troubled sailors in the oceans, and inform sailors and fishermen about the currents and fish. Unfortunately, intelligent contact between dolphins and humans was soon lost following the first thread fall, as the humans struggled for survival. For much of Pernese history they were not known to the human population as intelligent beings, and were considered as merely another animal, though forbidden and unlucky to harm. While the dolphins were forgotten about by the humans, the dolphins remembered the contract between the two species (made when the two species originally arrived on Pern), and continued to help sailors in distress, and returning lost cargo to shore, awaiting the day when humans would remember and again honour the old contract.
Human settlement patterns
At the time of colonization, the eastern portion of the Southern Continent was selected as the most hospitable site to initiate the spread of civilization. Accordingly, Landing was established near the dormant volcano Mount Garben, on a fertile plateau near the Jordan River. Suitable stakeholds were established across much of the Southern Continent.The arrival of Thread and the eruption of Mount Garben, both consequences of a close pass by the Red Star, forced the evacuation of first Landing, and then the entire Southern Continent, to Fort Hold on the Northern Continent. Circumstances then constrained human settlement for the next twenty-five centuries to the tectonically stable, cave-riddled Northern Continent. During the Ninth Pass of the Red Star, population pressure and improved technology made possible the recolonization of the Southern Continent and the rediscovery of the original settlements along with the creation of brand new ones such as the telescope project on the oft forgotten Western Continent mentioned towards the end of The Skies of Pern.
Thread
Thread is the name of a deadly phenomenon that appears throughout Anne McCaffreyAnne McCaffrey
Anne Inez McCaffrey was an American-born Irish writer, best known for her Dragonriders of Pern series. Over the course of her 46 year career she won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award...
's series of science-fiction novels about Pern. Thread are thin silver filaments of a space-borne mycorrhizoid
Mycorrhiza
A mycorrhiza is a symbiotic association between a fungus and the roots of a vascular plant....
spore
Spore
In biology, a spore is a reproductive structure that is adapted for dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many bacteria, plants, algae, fungi and some protozoa. According to scientist Dr...
that devours all organic
Organic compound
An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon, and cyanides, as well as the...
matter that it touches. Pern periodically experiences Threadfalls where this deadly organism rains down from the sky.
Orbital dynamics
Thread is brought to Pern by another planet in its solar system, the inexactly named Red Star. The Red Star has a two hundred and fifty Turn (Pernese year) elliptic orbitElliptic orbit
In astrodynamics or celestial mechanics an elliptic orbit is a Kepler orbit with the eccentricity less than 1; this includes the special case of a circular orbit, with eccentricity equal to zero. In a stricter sense, it is a Kepler orbit with the eccentricity greater than 0 and less than 1 . In a...
around its sun, Rukbat
Alpha Sagittarii
Alpha Sagittarii is a star in the Sagittarius constellation. It has the traditional names 天淵三 , Alrami and Rukbat, derived from the Arabic rukbat al-rāmī = the knee of the archer...
. When at aphelion, the Red Star travels as far as Rukbat's Oort Cloud
Oort cloud
The Oort cloud , or the Öpik–Oort cloud , is a hypothesized spherical cloud of comets which may lie roughly 50,000 AU, or nearly a light-year, from the Sun. This places the cloud at nearly a quarter of the distance to Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun...
, the natural habitat of Thread. As the Red Star moves through the Cloud, some of the Thread falls into the planet's gravity well, remaining there as the Red Star leaves the Cloud on its journey sunward. As the Red Star approaches perihelion, gravitational perturbations
Perturbation (astronomy)
Perturbation is a term used in astronomy in connection with descriptions of the complex motion of a massive body which is subject to appreciable gravitational effects from more than one other massive body....
and outgassing
Outgassing
Outgassing is the release of a gas that was dissolved, trapped, frozen or absorbed in some material. As an example, research has shown how the concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has sometimes been linked to ocean outgassing...
from the Red Star's interior launch Thread on trajectories that impact Pern.
Threadfalls occur on Pern for about fifty Turns while the Red Star is near Pern's orbit. This is called a Pass, while the two hundred Thread-free Turns during which the Red Star is farther away are called an Interval. Twice, the Red Star did not come close enough, leading to a Long Interval of four hundred and fifty Turns. McCaffrey's first Pern novel, Dragonflight
Dragonflight
Dragonflight is a fantasy or science fiction novel by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. It is the first book in the Dragonriders of Pern series. Dragonflight was first published by Ballantine Books in July 1968...
, begins near the end of such a Long Interval. Long Intervals are of such duration that, by their end, most of the Pernese population believes Threadfall has permanently ceased.
The two Long Intervals were caused when dragons were sent back in time by AIVAS to detonate large explosions on the Red Star's surface. The explosions perturbed its orbit, causing the long intervals. A third explosion in the present completed the calculated change in the Red Star's orbit, ensuring that thread never again threatens Pern once the present pass is complete.
Biology
Thread remains dormant in inner-system space as a small, icy ovoid, but is reactivated by passage through the atmosphereAtmosphere
An atmosphere is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, and that is held in place by the gravity of the body. An atmosphere may be retained for a longer duration, if the gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low...
. Heat and atmospheric friction
Friction
Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and/or material elements sliding against each other. There are several types of friction:...
burn off the outer shell, releasing "thread-like" strings which float down to the surface in sheets, tangles and clumps. The size of a single strand is initially comparable to a long, silver strand of yarn. However, while feeding, Thread grows visibly, being described as a "heavy hawser" rope or "wriggling sausages" about 10 cm by 3 meters in size.
Structurally, Thread is composed of many thin, tightly wound filaments within a very fine outer shell or film. Complex proteins (presumably including proteases, nucleases, glycolases and adipases linked to molecular motors and fibrils) allow Thread to consume any carbon-based substance through direct physical contact as well as providing wriggling mobility. Contact with Thread results in "Threadscore," similar to a chemical burn.
A small clump of Thread can devour a fully-grown cow in moments. Feeding Thread grows rapidly, pulsing with sickly grey and green colors as it consumes. The exterior shell thickens with growth, and Thread dies from the inside out, suggesting that Thread's explosive consumption interferes with its metabolism. The shell thickens and hardens in death, while the inside undergoes an "unravelling/melting" process that leaves a foul stench. Water drowns Thread quickly, leaving a "soggy, bubbling mess".
Thread has no brain and is not sentient. The majority of Thread dies after landing, due to starvation. However, if Thread survives to begin its feeding cycle on the organic component of soil, the result is a burrow that multiplies extremely rapidly. A single burrow can devastate multiple square miles of land before perishing.
Close examination of Thread ovoids under inert conditions (near-vacuum pressures and subzero temperatures) reveal an ice shell embedded with cometary matter (rocks and dirt), requiring special glass tools to cut. Dissection reveals a mass of tightly wound fibers, tubes, and yellow goo (liquid helium
Liquid helium
Helium exists in liquid form only at extremely low temperatures. The boiling point and critical point depend on the isotope of the helium; see the table below for values. The density of liquid helium-4 at its boiling point and 1 atmosphere is approximately 0.125 g/mL Helium-4 was first liquefied...
). Captured Thread ovoids, when exposed to warm laboratory conditions, explode into a writhing, devouring mass that later melts into a dead puddle after a short time without food.
Social Structure
The Pern of the Ninth Pass is a highly structured society, consisting of four different groups of people, Weyrfolk, Holders, Crafters, and those without a permanent home, the Holdless and Traders. The Weyr, Hold, and Craft Hall are all separate from one another and the leaders of each are equal in rank. But in the same way, they are interdependent, and no one group could exist without the other two. Individual Weyrs, Holds, and Halls are autonomous, but generally maintain good relations with one another.Anne McCaffrey uses clothing ensignia throughout the Pern Chronicles to identify role and rank of different individuals. In the stories of the Ninth Pass, these ensignia include general colours, such as harper blue, and accessories described as shoulder knots. The colour and pattern of knots denotes geographical affiliation, Craft and rank, such as apprentice, journeyman, or Master. Amongst the sailing members of Pern society, such knots can also indicate the rank of Captain.
Weyrs
The Weyrs are the home of the dragonriders of Pern. They are expansive structures, often situated in a cave-riddled extinct volcano, or along a mountain face, where there is enough space for the dragons, their riders, and the people of the "lower caverns", i.e. the staff which maintain the Weyr. Due to the unsuitable terrain of Weyr locations (volcanoes, cliff faces), Weyrfolk are generally unable to grow food. They depend on tithes of goods from the holds in order to survive, and in exchange, the Dragonriders have pledged to protect those holds from Threadfall.Holds
The Holds of PernHolds of Pern
Holds, in Anne McCaffrey's science fiction series Dragonriders of Pern, are the residences of the bulk of the planet Pern's population.Members of specialized professions on Pern live in Crafthalls and dragonriders live in Weyrs, but for most people, the Hold is both the residence and primary social...
are where the majority of people on Pern live. Holds are literally castles, just not quite like the castles from the Middle Ages. There are three sizes of Hold: Major, Minor, and Cothold. Major Holds are ruled by a Lord and Lady Holder, and their family. The remainder of the residents are staff and workers who run the hold, and professional crafters; all told, they usually number around one thousand. The Headwoman is in charge of the inner hold, and looks after all of the workings inside, while the Steward runs the outdoor parts of the hold. Major Holds tithe a portion of their produce to the nearest Weyr in return for protection from Thread.
Minor Holds are always beholden to a Major Hold, and tithe to them in return for protection from Thread and other dangers. They are run by a person who bears the title of Holder, and are home to smaller numbers of people than Major Holds.
Cotholds are small, family-run holds, and usually all those who live there are family or close friends. 'Family' on Pern generally means an extended family of several generations and branches, as opposed to the nuclear family
Nuclear family
Nuclear family is a term used to define a family group consisting of a father and mother and their children. This is in contrast to the smaller single-parent family, and to the larger extended family. Nuclear families typically center on a married couple, but not always; the nuclear family may have...
common in Western societies on our own world.
Each hold is responsible for the discipline of its wrongdoers. Most times the Lord Holder will make the wrongdoer pay restitution and service to the wronged party. The next level of punishment is incarceration. Death penalty can also be used in response to heinous crimes. One of the greatest punishments is to be named holdless. This is where a person is stripped of all rank and status and thrown out of the hold. The most severe punishment of all is exile, usually to the island archipelago known as the Eastern Ring Islands. The reason this is the most severe punishment is because the holdless have nowhere to go during Threadfall and have no other human contact. This punishment is usually followed by a Shunning, which, in effect, causes the Shunned to be ignored completely by all humans. It is established in Dragon's Fire that the holdless are marked on their foreheads with an indelible dye for identification.
Halls
The Crafthalls are the home to craftsmen; those Pernese skilled in a particular industry. The Crafts of Pern are: Harper, Smith, Healer, MinerMiner
A miner is a person whose work or business is to extract ore or minerals from the earth. Mining is one of the most dangerous trades in the world. In some countries miners lack social guarantees and in case of injury may be left to cope without assistance....
, Weaver
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
, Farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
, Fisher
Fisherman
A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...
, Tanner, Baker
Baker
A baker is someone who bakes and sells bread, Cakes and similar foods may also be produced, as the traditional boundaries between what is produced by a baker as opposed to a pastry chef have blurred in recent decades...
, Vintner
Vintner
A vintner is a wine merchant. You pronounce it like this In some modern use, in particular in American English, the term is alsoused as a synonym for winemaker....
, and Herder
Herder
A herder is a worker who lives a possibly semi-nomadic life, caring for various domestic animals, in places where these animals wander pasture lands....
. For example, the Harper Hall
Harper Hall
The Harper Hall at Fort Hold is a central location in Anne McCaffrey's Chronicles of Pern.- Role within Pern Chronicles :Anne McCaffrey combines the roles of teachers, historians, lawyers, diplomats and musicians into the guild of Harpers on the planet Pern...
is responsible for the arts (specifically music) and teaching young children the Teaching Ballads, which provide them with basic knowledge. When a child is ten or twelve, they can be sent to be an apprentice at a Crafthall if they show a flair for that particular craft. The Crafthalls train the crafters and send them out all over Pern to provide their skills to even the remotest hold. Note that it is not necessary for someone to be (for example) a trained farmcrafter in order to grow food; holders have a wide variety of skills, but it is the crafters who are the experts.
The most recent craft, Starsmith (astronomy) was created during the Ninth Pass when Wansor, a Master of the Smithcraft, began his research into local celestial bodies. His work was influential to the major events of the Pass.
The crafts all use the same hierarchy. Everyone in each craft begins as an apprentice, usually from age twelve to eighteen, then becomes a journeyman
Journeyman
A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....
(eighteen to thirty) with a great deal of hard work and dedication, attainment to the status of Master (thirty+) is possible. Not everyone makes it to Master, and some leave before even the rank of Journeyman is reached. Such a step from apprentice to journeyman is called 'walking the tables', based on the custom that apprentices and journeymen eat at different tables at a crafthall. The craft rank and hold they are beholden to are indicated by complicated knots which are worn on the shoulder.
The crafthalls are located near or in the Major Holds. For example, the Harper Hall and Healer Hall of the Northern Continent are both located in Fort Hold. At least some crafts have local crafthalls at other Major Holds; for example, there is a small Weavercraft Hall at High Reaches Hold, as well as a branch of the Healer Hall in South Telgar Hold.
The leaders of the Halls are called Mastercrafters, for example, the Masterharper is the head of the entire Harper Hall, and is not to be confused with a Master Harper, of which there may be several.
The Holdless
People who do not live in an established hold — either by choice, or due to punishment — make up the Holdless. They have no guaranteed protection from Thread, and the life of a Holdless is often dangerous.Several nomadic groups were part of the initial colonization of Pern. Similar to European Gypsies and Irish Tinkers, they disdain hold life, choosing instead to live on the road, traveling from place to place. They tend to live in tightly knit family groups and are fiercely loyal to their group and way of life. They are extremely distrustful of outsiders and do not often take in strangers, especially ex-holders, without some proof of trust. Many are Traders (see below) and help organize trading caravans which travel from hold to weyr.
Gathers
A Gather is a periodic, day-long event, similar to a county or stateState fair
A state fair is a competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in their categories at the more-local county fairs....
fair
Fair
A fair or fayre is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated carnival or funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may ten weeks. ...
, held by Major Holds for recreation and commerce. References are made to Gathers as seasonal, indicating that several are held yearly at each Hold. At a Gather, Pernese from Weyrs, Crafthalls and Holds may mingle and enjoy various entertainments, including runnerbeast racing (enjoyed by the title character of Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern) and physical competitions such as boxing and wrestling (All the Weyrs of Pern mentions the use of "Gather champions" as guardsmen, and a supporting character of The Renegades of Pern is shown being rendered Holdless for repeated use of deadly force in Gather competition).
Gathers are also a chance for Craftsmen to offer their wares for sale, usually from Craft-run booths (although All the Weyrs of Pern notes that on occasion, apprentices will sell items that did not meet their masters' approval "under the table" to make some pocket money to spend at the Gather). Food vendors also operate at gathers selling snack items (as the hosting Lord and Lady Holder customarily provide a full meal to Gather attendees). Skilled Harpers, often Master Harpers and on occasion the Masterharper himself, are invited to play both performance pieces and dance music for the attendees' pleasure.
Traders
These are the people who take goods to trade to less well-off holds, and to those people who often cannot reach a Gather. It is these isolated holders who need the traders and their trains of goods to keep them equipped with flamethrowers and farming equipment from the Crafthalls. Traders usually visit those holds that have few to no Marks, and so take produce instead of currency. It is very rare that a trader will carry perishable goods that can be found somewhere else such as grain or culled animals. The only way this will happen is if the good in question is local and/or exotic and will be highly valued by those with more marks in the larger holds.Another way the traders serve the rest of Pern is by allowing Craft Journeymen or Masters to travel with them so that these talented men and women do not have to take the long and sometimes dangerous journey by themselves.
Currency
Pern's currency is known as the Mark. Marks are circulated in the form of coinCoin
A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....
s made of wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
, apparently as a fiat currency (though, due to Thread, wood has traditionally been a scarce resource
Natural resource
Natural resources occur naturally within environments that exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a natural form. A natural resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity and geodiversity existent in various ecosystems....
during most of Pern's history), whose value is set by a meeting of the political and economic leaders of the planet, apparently as a command economy. The coins occur in the denominations , , ⅛, ¼, ½, 1, 2, 5, and 10 marks, with a few 100-mark coins for very large transactions.
All the coins are the same size, denominations
Denomination (currency)
Denomination is a proper description of a currency amount, usually for coins or banknotes. Denominations may also be used with other means of payment like gift cards. See also Redenomination.-Subunit and super unit:...
being indicated by a stamped number
Number
A number is a mathematical object used to count and measure. In mathematics, the definition of number has been extended over the years to include such numbers as zero, negative numbers, rational numbers, irrational numbers, and complex numbers....
. They also have some sort of picture marking representing the type of hold or craft mark they are. If the number has a line above it, then it represents a unit fraction
Unit fraction
A unit fraction is a rational number written as a fraction where the numerator is one and the denominator is a positive integer. A unit fraction is therefore the reciprocal of a positive integer, 1/n...
(that is, would be ), whereas a line below the number indicates an integer
Integer
The integers are formed by the natural numbers together with the negatives of the non-zero natural numbers .They are known as Positive and Negative Integers respectively...
. The ½ and 2 Mark coins are the only ones that could be potentially confused.
Every craft produces its own marks, and the supply
Money supply
In economics, the money supply or money stock, is the total amount of money available in an economy at a specific time. There are several ways to define "money," but standard measures usually include currency in circulation and demand deposits .Money supply data are recorded and published, usually...
is kept constant, new marks only being produced to replace old ones. Some craft's marks are valued over other crafts depending on the political climate of the time.
The Mark is a moderately large amount of money, but an exact exchange rate
Exchange rate
In finance, an exchange rate between two currencies is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another. It is also regarded as the value of one country’s currency in terms of another currency...
is impossible to determine due to the differences between the fictional Pernese and real world economic system
Economic system
An economic system is the combination of the various agencies, entities that provide the economic structure that defines the social community. These agencies are joined by lines of trade and exchange along which goods, money etc. are continuously flowing. An example of such a system for a closed...
s.
See also
- Characters in Dragonriders of PernCharacters in Dragonriders of PernCharacters in the Dragonriders of Pern series of science fiction novels by Anne McCaffrey.-AIVAS:An advanced computer called AIVAS...
- Dragonriders of PernDragonriders of PernDragonriders of Pern is a science fiction series written primarily by the late American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. The series comprises 22 novels and several short...
—with a list of works in order published - List of Pern books —books and short fiction in Pern historical order