Names

Dragon names all end in 'th'. They vary in length, but all should be no more than 12 letters long and relatively simple to spell/pronounce, for the sake of fellow players.

We do not, as a game, report to the PernMU*.com dragon name list, nor do we check it to prevent duplicates. We don't accept transfer dragons from other games; we are a completely separate version of Pern to anybody else's. You are, of course, welcome to pick a name for an insta or request a particular name in Search that you've checked, but we can't guarantee that nobody else will use it elsewhere.

Physically

The golds are the largest, followed by bronzes, browns, blues, and greens. While the DLG does state that dragons are measured in meters, we use the more reasonable sizing in feet. Riding a jet plane is just not something people can really get their heads around. The DLG is otherwise a reasonably good source of anatomy information.

It is generally considered that dragons are capable of holding a rider when they are about 3/4 their adult size.

Mentally

Dragons have awful memories, but otherwise are perfectly capable of having intense personalities of their own that may not always mesh with their riders' in obvious ways. Some of them are markedly easier to control than others, and lack of control can present a serious danger during a Pass, so much of weyrlinghood is dedicated to improving the rider's dominance in the relationship.

The metallics, and especially the golds, have a degree of control over other dragons, especially those who are young, elderly, or of a smaller color. This power is rarely exerted in everyday life, but can be invaluable in an emergency, especially when a rider is incapacitated.

Because they communicate directly by thought, a dragon's "voice" is often as much sensation and emotion as actual words, and dragons know each other by their distinctive ways of speaking.

Sexuality

They can form friendships and even quasi-romantic attachments to other dragons, but actual sexual interest revolves around the proddy cycle. Males are capable of a certain amount of faithfulness even to a female who is not currently proddy, especially among metallics, which helps to ensure genetic variation because the best-flying male in the Weyr does not automatically catch all queens. The females are also known to 'throw' flights in a certain male's favor on occasion, although this is rarer and more frequent with greens. These preferences do not always follow their rider's preferences, but weyrmates with compatible dragons do tend to end up in such circumstances from familiarity, if nothing else.

During a flight, the rider's control all but vanishes. Weyrwomen are taught to struggle hard to keep their queens from eating, which leaves them heavy and sluggish, but aside from that, it becomes the dragon's game. The riders of the mated pair come together as surely as the dragons themselves. Flight substitutes are therefore almost impossible to arrange, and even riders whose sexual orientations are ordinarily inflexible may find themselves with some strange bedmates as a result.

Greens may rise as often as 3-4 times per year, although some do considerably less. Golds may rise as often as every year, but considerably less frequently when there is not a Pass on the horizon.

Hatchings

Count three months and more, and five heated weeks…

Gold dragons, again, may rise as often as once a year. Three months after rising, they will go to the hatching sands and lay their eggs over the course of several hours. In the interval, clutches were routinely around ten eggs, but as the Weyr gears up to full strength, thirty is not unheard-of.

After the clutching, riders may go out on Search if there is a gold egg or if there are insufficient young people among the weyrfolk who wish to stand. Riding Search was quite rare in the Interval, but has become considerably more common with larger and more frequent clutches. An open invitation goes to anyone with dragonriding relatives to Stand; this requirement ensures a bloodline with some chance of Impression, but it's not very strictly investigated. Weyrfolk without dragonriding relatives are occasionally asked to stand, which has primarily started to happen with those who have arrived on their own from outside the Weyr.

What the Candidates do with their days depends heavily on the Weyr, but they don't have long; it takes approximately five weeks for the eggs to harden fully. At this point, egg-touchings are universally done in order to familiarize the Candidates with the Sands and etiquette there. Between this and the age reforms instituted starting at Benden in the Ninth Pass, injuries are extremely rare.

The Hatching Day is usually not hard to predict in advance within a day or two, because of the short span of time, but it is known for sure when the dragons start to hum. An hour or so after the humming begins, the eggs will begin to hatch.