Red River Weyr: Dragonriders of Pern

[Fellis]

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In the Year 72, in the foothills of the temperate steppes of the northern continent, a small little weyr was founded. Fiora of Gold Ravath and her Weyrleader, M’lel of bronze Duseth, blessed the newly opened weyr with a clutch of 31 eggs and a new queen, Jugrenth, bringing good tidings and happy beginnings to the little weyr hidden in the side of a cliff.

Then change began.

Plague swept through the continent, killing many and sparing few. And while green dragons continued to pick from those offered to them, the trend began that would turn the tide against Red River and ultimately outcast them. Men did not want their daughters, sisters or betrotheds going off to fight a menace that seemed insatiable and left many riders and their mounts dead. While the rank of a Queenrider was still coveted by any holder, a female on a green became to be seen as a promiscuous, unstable woman, a pariah among pariahs.

Red River fought this trend, and welcomed those women greens who were shunned elsewhere. Relationships with other weyrs and with their own tithing holds grew cool, then resentful, and eventually all but one Major hold was lost to Red River, and the small weyr was forced to make due if it wanted to keep its views.

As a result, Red River withdrew from many attempts to strengthen relations and began to accept castaway riders, candidates, crafters and holders, working to sustain itself and uphold their promise to the people to protect them from Thread.

A few hundred years passed, and Red River remained reclusive. The old queen produced her last clutch, producing with it the much needed gold that would be set to replace her, Gold Kessuth who Impressed to Raliel. With this clutch, three odd-colored dragons were also born, further marking Red River as the black sheep among Weyrs. On this night, however, a small band of riders in the form of Sari of Gold Aurath and a few others arrived to help the weyr, revealing to those in charge that they had been kidnapped just hours before, only to return on fully grown dragons and a few years older due to the phenomenon of Timing. They also brought news of a deranged brownrider named T’mii, who a very short time later appeared to claim what he believed to be his. However, when his brown Betweened one of the new RoseGold riders, believing to be in love and with delusions of a weyr of her own at her command in her mind, defected and took T’mii and fled Between to the Other Weyr in the past.

With the loss of riders due to this fight, a plague that followed brought even more devastating losses. The death of the newest gold weyrling nearly broke the spirit of the Weyr, and the losses took many in the path of the plague before a cure was found. With the rising of two RoseGold’s in quick succession, bringing much needed dragons, and the arrival of a firey-tempered Fay of Gold Pilarth from Fort as answer to the pleas for help, Red River began to see the hopes of survival.

In response to this plague, S’ton of Bronze Bannith, the weyrleader at this time, called together his forces and Timed them all to the past, planning to end the disastrous events caused by Other Weyr and their now dragonless and half-crazed leader. There were, again, many losses on both sides, and the weyrleader and his dragon were irreparably injured, but with a queen egg soon gracing the sands, hope sprung anew.

But it is not for Red River to experience happiness for too long. The Weyrwoman, Raliel, had begun to find her mind failing, and with the pressure of internal forces and external, Raliel cracked and Kessuth, finding no hold or trace of her former rider in the woman, Betweened. The young queen Amitath of Faveonn rose, introducing her to Weyrwomanship, only to be lost as well in a wild attempt to save her sister, but not before the gold’s clutch had procuded another gold, Amaranth. With political tensions growing ever taught between Weyr and its tithing hold, Red River found itself in the leadership of another young queenrider, barely out of Weyrlinghood.

But now rumors spread. The most recent loss, that of RoseGold Nalisth and the results of her undersized and seemingly underdeveloped clutch has gossip spreading like wildfire. What caused the young RoseGold to Between so suddenly? Why are those of her clutch diminuative and weak?

And what, by the first shell, is causing so many dragons to fall ill?
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