Here is the master news file for Threads of Pern, grouped in various categories.
Ancestors
However, we have to consider the notion that someone would attempt to troll, grief, or otherwise impersonate someone else. In the hopefully unlikely event, a player is considered innocent until proven otherwise. Much like RL court, the person who is claiming impersonation will need to prove their claim and the incumbent player will have the opportunity to refute the objection. Staff will make a final determination and act accordingly.
Activity
Guess what? That's cool with us.
We're all here to roleplay and have fun and as such, the staff aren't going to be sticklers for massive amounts of online time, even for high-ranking roles. All we ask is that folks who have volunteered to help out OOCly get their projects done in a timely fashion, such as dragon-egg coding and hatching preparations.
The only other caveat is that players of major high-ranked roles (from the first two rows on the chart in 'news rank') pop in now and again to ensure people don't wonder if you've fallen down a well. We ask that if you're going to be away for more than 1 RL month, please notify staff and consider creating an exit strategy for stepping down from the role.
In the extreme circumstance that the player of a high-ranked role vanishes for over 1 RL month without notifying staff, their character will be OOCly removed from the role. Their IC exit will be handwaved so as to allow the player to decide what happened should they return later.
Age
Also as a general rule, crafting apprentices will be between the ages of 12 to 16, journey-ranked crafters will be anywhere between 16 to late twenties, and masters late twenties onward. It is possible for a crafter of lesser talent, by choice, or craft politics not to be promoted to master rank.
In the Holds, the age of majority is 16, but a young Lord or Lady might not be Confirmed as their full rank until the age of 18 like Jaxom.
In the Weyrs, potential candidates must be between the ages of 12 to 20, with a preference to older candidates as we near the Pass. Weyrlings may not be tapped for a fighting wing until the age of 16, so the Weyrleaders are likely to restrict younger candidates from standing as the Pass approaches.
Finally, in general terms, merit-based ranking roles (i.e. Headwoman, Steward, etc.) tend to gravitate to older characters. Note how Manora and Silvina didn't become Headwoman until they were at least in their 30s, if not older. At the very least, they should be above possible Search age, because they're high-responsibility jobs ICly, so they need more mature characters to do them well.
Alts
When it comes to dragonriders, players may impress up to two alts. They can either be two chromatics or one chromatic and one metallic. As the game progresses, this rule may be lifted if our population supports it and more Weyrs open up for PCs. The use of temporary NPCs for plots or to facilitate the hatching cycle is fine.
As for crafters, players may only have one master-ranked character at a time, but may also have a journey-ranked or lesser character in another craft in another open PC area. For example, a player could have a master healer at the main Hall at Fort Hold and an apprentice baker at Fort Weyr.
The biggest caveat about alts is making sure you have the time to give your alts reasonable on-screen RP. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Sometimes, the best decision is to not create an alt and let someone else play a role you're interested in if you're nearly overextending yourself.
Background
When it comes to your character's rank, unless specifically approved in advance, we do not accept instant dragonriders or high-ranked individuals like the roles found in 'news npcs' as ones staff will be creating. When it comes to being a Blood at a Hold, the PC Lord and/or Lady has to pre-approve the relation before submitting an application. For NPC/off-camera Holds, staff requests that a player wishing to RP being a Blood be a secondary relation to the NPC Lord or Lady in the NPC list, such as a cousin or something highly unlikely to inherit the Hold. It's a good idea to check around to see if a particular Hold already has other Bloods to coordinate backgrounds.
For Weyr-born characters, staff requests that there be limits to the number of relatives of goldriders, since queens are so few in number and will be specified in our master NPC list so we don't have continuity errors.
If staff sees that certain concepts are overused or we're getting to the limits of reasonability, we will temporarily restrict certain ideas until such time as it's not so full.
As with all things, asking to be a relative of a PC requires that player's approval. If they decline, please respect that and seek out another character concept.
Finally, while all of our characters are technically related to the 6600 colonists who arrived on the three starships, we follow the long-standing fandom rule from the McCaffrey family that states none of our characters may be directly related to their named characters. We have to handwave the fact that our dragons are descended from the original 18 and pretend that the Telgar line from Sallah and Tarvi is no longer in control of their namesake Hold, for example.
Between
Going *between* without a good visualization is dangerous and can be life-threatening. While firelizards have an instinctive reaction where they will go *between* to where they were hatched if they're frightened, dragons will simply get stranded *between* and die without a strong visualization from their rider, such as what happened with Moreta and Holth in the Sixth Pass. It's one of the most intensely-trained aspect of a Weyrlings life, and the one that breaks more Weyrlingmasters than even losing Weyrlings during Threadfall. That's why some Weyrlingmasters will show their charges a dragonrider pair that was entombed in solid stone as a lesson why it's so important to visualize correctly.
An OOC running gag of where do dragons go (i.e. urinate/defecate) cropped up when Anne McCaffrey joked 'between!' as the answer, leading to the notion that Weyrlings had to muck out the barracks and clean up after their dragons until they could go *between*.
Candidacy
Due to their mental limitations, drudges will never be selected for Search. Someone pretending to be a drudge is another matter entirely. Due to certain incurable physical disabilities (blindness, deafness, etc.), the dragons will not Search certain individuals. Sadly, the canon pretty much specifies candidates must be physically and reasonably mentally capable. A dragonrider becoming disabled after their Impression is of course one of the hazards of the profession and a viable RP hook.
Once brought to the Weyr, candidates live in barracks together and will be supervised by the Weyrlingmaster and his staff. The Weyrharper will teach any candidates their sums and how to read if they haven't been taught already, including ensuring they're aware of their rights under the Charter of Pern. Candidates may not leave the Weyr without permission unless it's a scheduled field trip for all, and it's expected that candidates will remain celibate, even the ones of age.
While the dragons can Search a woman who is pregnant, she will be given a choice of waiting to stand until after the birth of her child, or risk the potential of miscarriage due to the strenuous nature of candidate and then weyrling chores should she Impress. It's expected that a candidate or new weyrling who gives birth will immediately foster their child so they can focus on their candidacy or new dragon. Our example for this is Sorka, who was pregnant when she Impressed Faranth and Faranth freaking out due to the pain of contractions when Sorka gave birth.
Candidates can have their status removed and would be returned to their home Hold or Crafthall due to certain injuries, or poor behavior such as breaking the rules, fighting, bearing false witness, etc. Random harmless pranks are no big deal and aren't cause for being removed unless it gets out of hand.
Candidates who have Impressed firelizards will be expected to train them to behave, and other pets will have to remain at home.
Please check out search for the OOC process regarding Search.
Canon
Children
Even as young children, they are expected to do chores no matter where they live, a long-standing Pernese tradition of everyone contributing to the common good. Chores tend to reflect a child's temperament and abilities, with increasing responsibility and freedom for those children who show maturity while doing their daily work. Pern does not have the equivalent of child-labor laws, so it's not all playtime for the kids.
Clutches
The following numbers represent a maximum of each kind of hatchling for a firelizard hatching, and no one is required to make all possible PC eggs for a clutch. For a dragon clutch, story and the Search committee will determine the colors of the PCs, although they are still limited to a maximum of one gold hatchling per clutch between a gold and bronze.
Colors
Just like in the books, the golds and greens are female and bronze, brown, and blue are the males. Only golds can lay eggs. While technically, a blue or brown can win a gold flight, and a bronze can win a green flight, in practice it's most commonly gold/bronze and green/blue or green/brown. In the Weyrs, blues don't rise to chase golds, and it would take an immensely daring and overlarge brown to attempt a queen flight. Since there is no possibility of a queen egg from a gold/brown flight, brownriders are ICly discouraged from trying. It's not quite solidified into Tradition, but it's getting there.
Consent
For us, consent means that aside from the game's overarching story as defined by staff or public events, you as a player retain the right to say 'no' to any RP path that you don't feel is appropriate for your character. This doesn't mean a player can call 'no consent' and those events don't happen. It simply means they can elect not to participate in the RP surrounding them for the duration of the event.
Please check out 'news flights', and 'news tinysex' with regards to what happens involving sex, which is where the consent policy is strongest and most clearly defined.
Consent is also involved in daily RP, such as where someone can never pose touching your character or successfully punching them (for example). They must always pose an attempt and leave it up to you to determine if they succeeded.
Above all, our goal here is to ensure that people have fun, so if you're not sure about something you're going to do to or about another character, ask that other player if it's okay. If they say no or pose a dodge, then accept it and move on. It's never appropriate to pressure the other player into agreeing to your RP choice, so if they decline, please let it go and keep the scene flowing another way.
Crafters
While some disciplines within the crafts are practiced to a lesser standard by laypeople at Holds and Weyrs, the crafters themselves hold separate ranks and look to their Craftmaster for leadership. Crafter ranks follow the RL practice of apprentice, journeyman, and master methodology. Apprentices tend to be ages 12-16, journeymen 16-25(ish) and masters 25 and up, although craft politics, inability, or desire may keep an older journeyman from obtaining their mastery. Most crafts elect a single master to be their overall spokeperson to the rest of Pern, responsible for the rest of the crafters and the caretaker of craft secrets.
While canonically, women were kept back from crafting after various plagues and the need to keep shelling out babies, here on Threads of Pern, we ignore that in favor of having the crafts be equal-opportunity ventures. While some characters may have personal prejudices or beliefs, the overall craft structure does not discriminate based on gender.
Unlike either Hold or Weyr, crafters tend to organize their residency based on rank. Apprentices will share a dormitory at their Crafthall, while journeymen and masters have private rooms of sizes suitable to their rank. A journeyman or master who has a family will be granted additional space for their children. The Harper and Healer Hall's support staffers, if not married to a journeyman or master, tend to live in cotholds at nearby Fort Hold. The sole exception is the Headwoman, who has a room and office along the same corridor as the masters.
While crafters may be posted outside their Crafthall with a written contract for their services, they are answerable to their Craftmaster first and aren't directly beholden to their Lord/Lady/Weyrleaders. If a Lord Holder is so intransigent that crafters are being treated poorly, a Craftmaster has the right to withdraw the craft's services to the Hold and pull his or her people out until such time as Craft autonomy and proper treatment of crafters is assured.
Credits
More certainly to come!
Descs
Also, please bear in mind that Pern isn't the same as anime, and thus people would look similar to people on Earth without all the cosmetics we have to change our appearances. Aside from minor things such as henna, no one has strange hair colors or strange eye colors. While heterochromia (two different eye colors) or albinism isn't unknown, it shouldn't be common in descs, and staff will expect someone who wants to 'look cool' by being an albino to be willing to RP the actual medical downsides.
In terms of tattooing and multiple piercings, the art of tattooing is nowhere near as safe and complex and colorful as it is IRL, so please keep that in mind.
Finally, Threadfall hasn't happened in over 200 years at the time of the game's founding. Until Threadfall begins ICly, there shouldn't be Threadscore in any descs. After it starts, please try to duck.
Disclaimer
Disputes
Dragons
Dragons also have an intense mental bond with their rider such that a dragon cannot survive their rider's death with the sole exception of a brooding queen, and a rider whose dragon dies will attempt suicide. They can telepathically communicate with their rider. Technically they can hear anyone who tries to talk to them, but in general terms, a dragon will not bespeak someone who isn't their rider except in extreme emergency situations such as their rider being in mortal danger or through a long-standing relationship such as Holth bespeaking Moreta. There are a few canonical exceptions for singular individuals like Robinton, but as most dragons can hardly remember a non-rider's name, it's not surprising they don't talk to others. There are also very few equally singular people who can hear some or all dragons, but this is a talent the staff will be keeping off the table for character concepts for the time being.
Dragons won't attack someone who threatens their rider verbally (unlike firelizards) and tend to have poor memories beyond what's drilled into them since weyrlinghood. Dragons can and will ignore the wishes of their rider in special circumstances, one of which is when the senior queen of the Weyr issues a restriction against some action, such as when Telgar's senior forbade their dragons from leaving the Weyr to help Moreta during the plague in the Sixth Pass.
Please see impression, flights, clutches, and size for more information.
Firelizards
Firelizards share the same color scheme as dragons, with the biggest difference being that their greens are fertile. Like with dragons, the bigger ones (golds, bronzes) tend to be considered more intelligent and can provide their owner with sharper and more detailed mental images. Anne McCaffrey has more than once referred to their intelligence along the lines of your average housecat. Queen firelizards can command others to obey them during a crisis, although they tend to stick with their own fairs. Firelizards, unlike dragons, will attack someone who threatens their owner. Also, unlike dragons, a newly-hatched firelizard is able to fly as soon as their wings dry immediately after hatching and do not require a strong visual to go *between*.
They can be trained to complete simple tasks such as delivering small messages, although they may not return quite as promptly as their owner might wish. The notion of banding them to identify their home area hasn't been invented yet, so there shouldn't be any firelizards with affiliation colors on their necks.
Firelizard eggs are highly prized in our part of Pern because there are no readily-available sandy beaches. Everyone post launch who wants a firelizard will have to Impress one either by being given an egg as a gift or through a planned hatching. Of course, eggs are often used as political bargaining chips, so a lesser-ranked owner of a queen firelizard may be asked to give their clutches over to their Lord/Lady, Craftmaster, or Weyrleaders to divvy up.
Please see impression, flights, clutches, registration, and size for more information.
FL Abilities
Firelizards can be trained to complete simple tasks such as delivering small messages, although they may not return quite as promptly as their owner might wish, especially the chromatics. It helps if the firelizard knows the recipient. They are not capable of following complex instructions, even if they are more willing than cats to do so.
They are not strong enough to carry much; it took Menolly's whole fair to bring her pipes to her and they were struggling. As long as the load is light enough, such as a message or fish small enough for firelizards to catch, they can go *between* with the objects. But again, as with Menolly's fair needing to fly out an open window with her pipes, anything heavy will need to be flown straight.
FL Admin
After each firelizard hatching Maz will be creating the firelizard object(s), setting up generic attributes, and giving it/them sky access. She will +mail those who impressed asking if they want the object, and will give the objects to those who want them. If a person wants to keep his/her firelizard virtual, Maz will keep the object around in case the person changes his/her mind.
Maz will also be including the clutches in the firelizard archives (#10). Each clutch will include the descs, the firelizard's eventual name, and the name of the person who impressed the firelizard. To help with this, she requests that after the hatching, the person who ran the clutch either let her chown or clone the virtual hatcher object. Also, please consider letting Maz see the descs and such before the hatching so she can get the critters set up for the eventual impressees.
If you decide not to use the virtual hatcher, please contact Maz before the hatching to make arrangements.
Flights
In terms of pairings, the only possibilities are gold/bronze, gold/brown, green/bronze, green/brown, green/blue. Only a gold/bronze pairing will have the possibility of a queen egg. For either firelizards or dragons, blues and most browns will not rise to chase even the smaller golds. Due to the no queen egg thing, brownriders are subtly discouraged from attempting to chase golds at the Weyrs, although it's not entirely unheard of for a large brown or ambitious brownrider to have a go anyway.
OOCly, a flight is hosted by and decided by the rider or owner of the female that is rising. It's considered courteous to inform all chasers whether there is a pre-arranged winner. In general terms, a firelizard flight shouldn't take more than two hours, and a dragon flight not more than three hours, including blooding and actual flight.
As a canonical point, the Weyrs do try to keep tabs and will ground riders whose dragons are due to rise. Also, the female's rider won't suddenly change personality. When their dragon is proddy, they may act slightly more irritable, but it's possible a gold's rider won't even realize their queen is due to rise until the males start blooding.
Gender
Note: we do not restrict the two metallic dragons based on the rider's sexual orientation. Because proxies of a rider's choosing are available for flights, there's no reason a queenrider or bronzerider must be heterosexual, just that they must be the same gender as their dragon. The other dragons will Impress whoever they want in terms of the LGBTQA+ spectrum. What this also means, since we do permit the notion of female-ridden browns to win queen flights (including the Senior's), it is possible on this game for there to be a legitimate female Weyrleader. It's ICly discouraged, but not OOCly impossible.
Also, while Pern doesn't have the surgical knowledge anymore for full gender-reassignment, we feel it's important that an IC herbal equivalent to hormone therapy be available.
It must be noted that while we are OOCly attempting to be as inclusive as possible by overriding canon to some extent, it's also equally permissible for someone to be ICly conservative and/or uncomfortable with people who do not fall within the gender binary. As long as it stays IC, and isn't being deliberately hurtful in an OOC manner (someone using IC as an excuse to be rude), then staff will allow it.
Harassment
Staff will review the incident(s) and address it promptly.
It should be noted that IC harassment and dislikes and prejudices are permitted. The Pernese aren't always known for getting along and being enlightened souls, and thus RP should reflect it. However, staff politely reminds players to make sure it stays IC and doesn't cross over into someone OOCly using IC as an excuse to be hateful.
Holds
Holds are required to keep greenery away from their primary buildings, and to staff ground crews with flamethrowers during Threadfall. Even during Interval, Holds are expected to tithe well to the Weyrs, who cannot grow their own food. Holds also supply raw materials to the Crafts depending on what their speciality is and rely on barter and other trade with the other Holds and Crafts to supply their needs.
Should a Lord or Lady Holder die without naming an heir, the Hold will fall into contention, and it's not unknown for duels to break out amongst the Bloods to determine who gets to be the new Lord or Lady.
Not all Holders live within the main Hold itself. Various cotholds may be built nearby attached to the mountainface itself and may also be dotted around the landscape in the Hold's territory near the fields and/or pastures. Typically, most Hold families have their own rooms or cotholds, with only bathing and kitchen facilities shared communally.
Honorifics
Firstly, female riders do not contract their names with an apostrophe. They can elect to shorten their names, but it's not required. For example, Mirrim could have gone to Mir, but everyone just called her Mirrim after she Impressed Path anyway.
Male riders will contract their names with an apostrophe. The basic pattern is as follows:
X'xxxxxx
There is no particular limit to the number of letters after the apostrophe, but it's extremely rare for someone to rearrange letters. Someone named Denneor would typically change to D'neor, not D'reon, for example. It's also extremely rare for the first letter after the apostrophe to be a vowel. There was only one such case in the canon, so our earlier example of Denneor would be highly unlikely to change his name to D'eor.
When naming male characters with an eye to Impression, please remember that the same rules against pop culture/OOC references is still in place. Please check out names for more information.
ICC
This is part of our consent policy, the rest of which is available under consent.
Whenever your character does something unruly, you the player should be prepared to accept the IC repercussions of those actions. Whether it's something simple like mouthing off to a Craftmaster or more serious like stealing, no one can get away with breaking the IC rules forever. While a thief, for example, might be able to sneak away with his or her prize a few times, eventually they're going to be caught and possibly punished.
While we do honor the notion of consent, it may not be used as a get out of jail free card when your character does something wrong. In all of the Pern books, the antagonists always lost in the end, and that's how it will be here as well.
Impression
Dragons will hatch and clumsily stumble toward the most suitable mind in the Candidates nearby, their eyes whirling redly. As the dragon Impresses their chosen human, their eyes turn blue and their cries turn joyous. Their new rider is suddenly aware of a hole in their mind that is now full, and at some point in the initial conversation, the dragon will state their name telepathically to their new lifemate. If unchosen Candidates aren't swift on their feet, a hatchling could plow right over them to get to their preferred rider behind them and cause them serious harm, if not actual death. In very rare circumstances, a dragon's chosen rider isn't found amongst the Candidates, and the dragon will seek a rider amongst the attendees in the galleries, or even someone in the hatching grounds entrance. For the sake of not getting too special snowflakey about it, we won't be entertaining the notion of a queen finding a rider amongst the galleries, and stands impressions will be kept a very rare and unusual circumstance, so as not to disrespect the stories of regular candidates.
One key canon point about Impressing dragons, and that is that ICly, each dragon is perfect for the rider they Impress, and no new weyrling would feel they Impressed the wrong dragon if they got blue instead of bronze or green instead of gold. Of course, it's ICly reasonable for a Candidate to want to Impress the metallics more than the smaller dragons because that's a taught bias on Pern. OOCly, however, staff will work with Candidates to ensure they Impress the color they want, but for the rarer dragons, it may take a hatching or three to get there, particularly for those seeking to play a queenrider.
As mentioned in 'news dragons' and reiterated in 'news gender', queen dragons will only Impress to biological females, and bronzes will only Impress to biological males, while the other colors will pick whoever they find suitable. To confirm the major overturned canon point in 'news gender', Threads of Pern has no sexual orientation requirement for which colors they may Impress.
Firelizards, on the other hand, don't care who they Impress, whether it's human or another firelizard. They'll Impress to whoever feeds them first and don't stick to the gender binary, so men may Impress queen firelizards, and women may Impress bronzes. Also unlike dragons, humans can Impress multiple firelizards, whereas dragons are one to one.
Language
Words that are wholly Pernese include, but are not limited to, "Klah" for the coffee analog since coffee beans didn't grow on Pern, but luckily klah bark contained caffeine and tasted somewhat like mocha with cinnamon. "Runners" are descendants of horses which were genetically altered to be more useful on Pern. Horses will die out in Moreta's plague, but that has not happened yet. Everyone would know the diffence between a horse and a runner; the former tends to be faster and less hardy while the latter have endurance and are more adapted to Pern life. There are no "Spiders," but native "Spinners" make webs and bite.
Some things have slightly different meanings on Pern. Bees did not survive, so there's no honey, though the word still exists as a color. Likewise mulberry bushes did not adapt and therefore there are no silkworms or silk. "Silky" is an adjective, however.
Finally, some concepts simply don't exist on Pern. Religion is a big one -- although in the early books "By the void which spawned us" is used, as Anne McCaffrey built on the world the oath of choice became, "By Faranth's first egg." Marriage is a wholly secular institution. As per 'news marriage' "Handfasting", which is an important religious ceremony often co-opted by fantasy books which cannot even be bothered to depict it correctly, is not a Pernese concept.
Marriage
Marriage is an institution that has fallen by the wayside in the Weyrs due to the needs of the dragons. Weyrmating is a looser convention amongst weyrfolk (rider or not) and is a more informal affair, pun intended. In the Holds and Crafthalls, marriages are most formal amongst the Lord Holders due to succession needs and the exchanging of a dowry, but marriage ceremonies are common amongst consenting adults. The ceremonies themselves are only as ornate as can be afforded by the intendeds, and are officiated by a harper of journey rank or higher. Generally, it's only the wealthy who can afford a gold marriage mark, and it can be inscribed with the name of the couple and the date. Bloods also have a ceremonial inscription of their names and Bloodlines in a Hold's Records.
Handfasting is typically not the sort of ceremony performed on Pern, as that's been imported into the fandom from other fantasy series. Same-gender or multi-person marriages are known to the Pernese, but the more-conservative Holds tend to frown on them. However, aside from questions of succession and the need for heirs from the Lord or Lady Holder, most Pernese have better things to do than worry about other peoples' marriages.
Divorce is known on Pern, and due to the more informal nature of relationships in general, it only becomes a big production when there is a Hold and its leadership involved. A harper can be called in to mediate when there is a dispute regarding property in such an event.
Names
Firelizards and other pets can have names like we'd name our pets IRL, but again, they cannot be IRL pop culture references.
All dragons will have a name ending in *th, just like Faranth and Carenath. Due to over twenty years' worth of PernMU* hatchings, staff has elected to set aside the massive dragon name lists on the net and allow players to pick a name they like, as long as it's not already in use on this MUSH or one of McCaffrey's named dragons.
Staff has chosen Star Wars as the theme for their names so players will know immediately that they are staff and not IC characters.
Finally, all of the names in the Pern books and major names in Anne McCaffrey's other books (Killashandra, the Rowan, etc.) are off-limits. This is to respect the long-standing fandom rule against their use. The only exceptions are for short nicknames such as 'Mo' that were used for one-shot characters in the books.
NPCs
Beyond that, players are welcome to create NPCs for their stories as long as it doesn't conflict with the game's master list of NPCs or the overall canon setting. If you're not sure if your NPC will fit in, feel free to ask a member of staff.
OOC
Places
The quad we're familiar with from the Harper Hall trilogy is not present, having been in the process of construction two Passes into the future. Other crafters are currently in residence at either Fort Hold or Fort Weyr.
Should the game's population create a need for more PC areas, staff will consult with our player base to determine which area(s) will be opened up and leaders will be recruited to build and administer them.
Privacy
That being said, staff has no particular interest in snooping on players. However, you should be aware that nothing you say or do on this or any other MUSH can be considered truly private.
Puppets
However, puppets' listening abilities can also be used nefariously to snoop on other players. The staff of ToP wants every player to be aware that the use of a puppet object to spy on other players is not permitted and may be grounds for loss of high-ranked role and in the most extreme circumstances, ejection from the game itself.
Please put code on any puppet you create to ensure that it announces when it turns its listening abilities on or off, for the peace of mind of the players around it.
Quota
Race
Rank
Typically, the Weyrs are a little more loose in terms of formality in rank when addressing another person, unless it's during Threadfall. On the other hand, Holders and Crafters of rank should be referred to by their title by those of lesser rank. It would be 'Master So and So' or 'Holder Such and Such'. For example, Piemur was warned to refer to Meron of Nabol as 'Lord Meron' even in his thoughts by Sebell. This is different from people of equal rank talking amongst themselves, but they should still keep an eye out to make sure someone of higher rank didn't catch them seemingly being disrespectful.
Rank is ICly visible through the use of braided shoulder knots. The higher the rank, the more complex the knot. The most basic knot is just two colors, while more complex ones will have three. Dragonriders have an extra fourth strand in their knots to denote their dragon's color. Knots are affixed on whichever shoulder the wearer prefers, with the main loop going under the arm. As an affectation, we refer to the OOC chat system as 'knots', but they are not IC lines of communication.
Persons of lower rank are expected to do things like make way or follow orders from someone of higher rank, even if that person isn't a local high-rank person. Most high-rank people know better than to issue orders like they own the place when they're visiting another Hold, Hall, or Weyr, so outside of emergencies, this normally shouldn't happen. The basic notion of equality doesn't exist on Pern in terms of one's rank in life. People in every Hold, Hall, and Weyr are taught to behave appropriately around people of higher rank. No one says a person has to like someone of higher rank, but there are IC consequences from getting caught being disrespectful by flouting their rank.
Everyone on Pern has some kind of rank, and while a group of girls studying at Harper Hall are officially not to use their rank as a pecking order, for example, people do jockey for position based on their rank anyway.
Rating
When it comes to public OOC commentary, such as on the knots and OOC rooms on the MUSH, please keep your language and content reasonably family-friendly. The occasional mild cussword isn't a big deal, but constant four-letter words or references to adult behavior and content should be kept to private conversations.
Registration
+mail Maz=Gold Mirage's Second Clutch
So, you've just impressed a little critter of your own, and you want him/her to show up in +fl and if you've created an object, you want him/her to be able to fly. Please +mail (Not page) Maz Kanata with the cardinal color, name, and DBRef if you've created an object. Egg color and exact shade are not necessary, but dam and sire would be nice. Please also remember that you don't have to create a puppet object -- you can put the critter's desc into a +detail on yourelf and include his/her actions in your poses. If you'd like to keep it virtual, let Maz know in the +mail. If you ever make a puppet object and want it to have sky access, please +mail Maz with the DBRef. For instance:
+mail Maz=My New Firelizard
Residency
Major Holds have posted crafters and watchriders along with Lords and/or Ladies, heirs, staff and regular residents. In the books Stewards are mentioned but not Headwomen, though on other games as well as ToP Headwomen are present in much the same capacity as in Crafts and Weyrs. To join the hold, please contact Lexi with your proposed background (Were you born there? Are you a fosterling? A posted Crafter?) and if it's ok she'll add you to the Hold knot. Note that Lexi does not require minimum stays before search, but if you want to be stand she does request that you let her know beforehand, and if you Impress or otherwise decide not to return to the Hold, that you tell her so she can remove you from the knot.
While some PernMU*s restrict residency in the Weyrs during Search, we do not. However, it must be noted that being a Weyr resident doesn't increase one's chances of being Searched or Impressing a dragon.
Rooms
Search
Aside from the IC aspect of Search, the staff of Threads of Pern want to run our Search process differently than has been traditional for MUSHes. Our goal is to minimize the stress and potential for OOC drama or disappointment and to maximize the fun aspect. There won't be any in-depth applications, no interviews for golds and/or bronzes, no candidate projects. All a player has to do is register in the OOC search room ('@tel #35', then '+view'), and the Weyr will start looking for folks out RPing, preferably at their IC home. Not everyone who wants to be Searched will be selected (generally no more than 2x the number of PC eggs).
One of the biggest changes is that, unless a player elects for full immersion and doesn't want to know if they'll Impress or what they get, they will know in advance and will have a direct hand in creating the dragon their character Impresses. We want you to be happy with that dragon.
Think of our Search process as a play that the Weyr is putting on. Every player will know their parts and will contribute to the end result. Some will work on the technical side such as coding the eggs and coordinating the temporary players running the hatchlings. Others will be painting the scenery (i.e. writing the descs and personalities), but mostly it's a case of planning out a script.
Naturally, we cannot Impress every potential candidate simply because there aren't enough gold or bronze-bearing eggs to go around. However, we want to help craft reasonable stories for players to have candidates who eventually do Impress if that's what the players want.
Size
Dragons
Firelizards use the same numbers, except in inches instead of feet.
Social
Spoilers
Staff
Summary
Summary2
Please see canon for more information as to which bits of the McCaffrey books we are retaining for our history and cultural reference.
Threadfall
Other than dragonriders, everyone else with any sense gets under cover, preferably in stone Holds with tightly-shuttered windows. A light scoring will draw blood and leave a permanent scar, even if a dragon is fast enough to blink *between* to prevent Thread from doing any more damage to itself or its rider. Ground crews are provided by the Hold, but they are the exceptions.
Timeline
190 Before Landing – Pern is discovered.
Game History: - Will be rearranged/filled in with info on major dates for the area leaders.
???: ??? is elected as Masterharper of Pern.
758: The Fourth Pass will begin
Timing
Despite the prevalence of timing it in various Pern books, Threads of Pern currently OOCly restricts use of timing until and unless we decide use it for super-epic plot purposes.
TinySex
While it is canonical for dragonriders or firelizard owners to hook up after flights, at no time is it required to RP it out. It is perfectly permissible for a player to elect to use a proxy so their character may have a bed partner of their IC choosing. It's also required that the scene fade to black if either of the parties requests it. At no point is it permissible to pressure the other party into RPing the sex.
As with any RP of sex, no means no. Threads of Pern will not tolerate any sexual RP that is nonconsensual, either ICly or OOCly. Further, due to RL law concerning underage sex, the game will not tolerate sexual RP involving characters under the age of 16, even if some of the canon supports it.
TPs
A Weyr's hatching cycle is a kind of TP, and there can be other TPs in and around this cycle that won't hamper it much. It's always important for TPs to be pre-approved, if only to ensure there's no conflict with other major plots/events already in progress.
Traders
Traders typically travel in the summers, wintering at Holds. During a Pass they set up their travel schedules very carefully to be sure they can find shelter when Thread is falling. They usually pay for the shelter by bartering their goods. They will usually be at scheduled gathers, not so much the impulsive ones as occured in the Harper Hall novels. The arrival of Traders may be the focus of an impromptu gather, though, and often their presence is considered cause enough for celebration.
Traders go by two names, a given and a family name. Jayge Lilcamp is an example. The MUSH is set up to allow characters to have two names, though the Trader knot has a field for the family name. As far as player characters go, Traders would be a good fit for people who are frequently unable to get online for significant periods of time, since they can always say they were travelling. Maz Kanata is the Wizard in charge of Traders; if you would like to be one, please +mail her with your character background and proposed family name. Please keep in mind that book names cannot be used.
Transfers
Threads of Pern currently doesn't permit the wholesale transfer of characters from other Pern games. Nominally, we like to consider ourselves ancestors of characters who eventually existed on PernMUSH, but we are not currently entertaining the notion of importing other games' characters in. If a player wants to reuse a beloved character concept from another game that might be closed, that's fine, but this has to be a new character born on this Pern in this time and may not be an instant dragonrider or ranked character. They would have to earn those on-camera.
Trust
We would rather not enforce these via hard code or micro-managing. Please help us prove that Pern fans are the classiest people out there.
Updates
Vacation
Weyrlings
Older Weyrlings will learn to fly straight, strengthen muscles, catch firestone sacks mid-air, *between*, and of course, firestone or flamethrower training. Once Weyrlings are capable of flight within the Weyr, they're moved out to their own personal weyrs to make space for the next clutch of Weyrlings to eventually move in. It's not uncommon for a Weyr to have multiple sets of Weyrlings, given that queens clutch more than once a turn.
Weyrling goldriders have additional training to ensure the rider is fully capable of leading the Weyr should they ever accede to the role of Weyrwoman, and weyrling bronzeriders are expected to spend some time shadowing the Weyrleader and Wingleaders to learn their jobs.
Weyrs
The Weyrs each have their own special characteristics, such as Fort and Benden's stonecutter-smoothed walls or Ista's outside-the-bowl forest-facing weyrs. Most ground or first-level weyrs in the bowl will have natural springs in a bathing cubicle, and only the queens' and Weyrleader's weyr will have steps down to the bowl.
Other than the dragonriders and their weyrmates, all other residents live communally in the lower caverns or weyrling barracks. Candidates have their own barracks within the lower caverns, and there are communal bathing facilities. Families can live together in separate suites, but there are also nursery facilities for those female riders who need to foster their children. Resident crafters get their own rooms, with apprentices and sometimes even journeymen sharing rooms, while a master would have his or her own separate room with a workroom set aside.
Wizards
Back to the home page.
This game is based on the notion of nostalgia for a Pern-themed game with the traditional limited technology setting, originally based around PernMUSHers playing their character's descendants. However, with the decision to be a Fourth Pass game to avoid stepping on toes, we're now allowing people to play their PernMUSH character's ancestors instead.
We understand that life happens, that a MUSH is a hobby for one's spare time. People have jobs, families, homework, friends, things that will take them offline for considerable periods of time.
While there are characters of all ages on Pern, as a general rule, we will not permit player characters under the age of 12 (i.e. apprentice age for crafts) due to the mature content of dragon flights. The IC age of consent is 16 turns old. Please see 'news rating' for more information on overall game content and 'news tinysex' for information on RPing sex. Players may utilize NPCs under the age of 12, but they can't be turned into a full PC until they're 12.
Players are not restricted in the number of alts they can create. However, they may only have one major ranking character at a time. By major rank, we mean any of the roles listed in NPCs as part of the master staff-created list of NPCs. Our goal is to ensure that the all the big knots aren't held in the hands of a few people and that more people have a chance to play one of those roles.
Every character should have a background, whether it's publicly known or not. This history should cover where they were born, where they live now, what their rank is, and how they got from point A to point B. We do not restrict origin locations, so if you want to be from Benden Weyr, Ruatha Hold, etc., we don't care. The only caveat is that the Southern Continent is currently uninhabited, so no one can come from there. Also, on our Pern, no one ever colonized the Western Islands, so please keep that in mind.
*Between* is that void through which dragons and firelizards can teleport instantaneously to anywhere on Pern (or technically off of it to the orbiting Yokohama if they knew how). In general terms, going *between* from any point on Pern to any other should take no more than eight seconds, assuming the dragon or firelizard wasn't deliberately attempting to time it.
Candidacy on Threads of Pern will run similarly to how it did in the books. The Weyrleader may tap young weyrfolk to stand, while riders fly out on Search to the Holds and Halls, looking for suitable young people. Once selected, the candidate is brought to the Weyr and begins a life of chores and instruction until the hatching. Blue dragons have the best sensitivity to potential candidates, and queens do not ride Search. Candidates will be aged between 12 and 20, with a preference of 14+ Turns old as the Pass approaches.
Here at Threads of Pern, we are choosing to adopt a traditional Pern setting similar to the Moreta era. To that end, we'll be using the older-published books as our guide and ignoring innovations to the canon from more recent books. While some books are historically before our chosen Fourth Pass era, we're not including their information or history in our backstory, particularly the Third Pass canon created mostly by Todd McCaffrey.
On Pern, children are considered so until their 12th turn, when they're eligible to be apprenticed in a craft or begin taking on more adult responsibilities. However, they are still considered minors until their 16th turn. Fostering is a common practice in all areas, where children are raised communally or sent off to another area on Pern for a few months here or there. Of course, fostering isn't required, but can often be suggested by a mother's healer if the mother is ill or has huge responsibilities that would preclude raising their child(ren) themselves.
Here's the general breakdown of how both dragon and firelizard clutches tend to work. Please note, both dragons and firelizards can ICly have more eggs than will hatch on-camera. As a general rule, gold firelizard clutches are limited to eight (8) PC eggs and greens are limited to five (5) PC eggs. Dragon clutches can have a maximum of ten (10) PC eggs. Green firelizard clutches often have mishaps because the silly greens pick bad places to clutch and don't guard them either.
As in canonical Pern, dragons and firelizards come in only five colors: gold, bronze, brown, blue, and green. White sports such as Ruth will not be a part of our game. Variants of shading is permitted, but the base color has to be one of those five choices.
The staff of Threads of Pern are strong adherents to the notion of consent: that is, things shouldn't happen to your character without your consent. There is one big exception to this outlined in 'news icc' that you should also read.
Crafters are specialists who make things for the rest of Pern. Threads of Pern currently only recognizes the same crafts that were present during Moreta's time, so the 9th Pass innovation of a separate Woodcraft has not yet evolved for example. Players can be Healers, Harpers, Smiths, Miners, Beastcrafters, Farmers, Vintners, Fishers, Weavers, and Tanners. There is a shared Harper and Healer Hall at Fort Hold, the remains of the old College (although no one remembers that name anymore), but most crafters will simply be posted to Hold or Weyr as needed.
The game Staff is entrusted with the upkeep of the game and do not get any special accolades for doing their jobs. There are some players, however, who go above and beyond to improve the game. This is where we recognize those who have done so. Please note that this gives them bragging rights, but will not get them special consideration for IC things like dragons or firelizards.
Your character's desc is important. One key thing to remember when writing a desc is that you cannot force someone to have a specific reaction to how your character looks. It's also important to avoid mentioning a specific pose, such as always sitting or always standing or always smiling. Think of your desc as a photo, so you're describing what you look like all the time. Naturally, there is code available to allow players to change what clothes your character is wearing, but in general, a desc shouldn't be more than 25 lines long, including any header or footer spaces.
Threads of Pern cheerfully acknowledges the trademarks and copyrights owned by the McCaffrey family and their publishers and in no way impinges on them. This is a free game made with love and utterly no desire to stomp on anyone's legal rights. We operate under the broad overall permission granted by the McCaffrey family.
OOC disputes are handled by our staff. Whenever a player has a dispute with another player, either covered under 'news harassment' or otherwise, they are requested to log all pertinent information relating to the dispute and forward it to staff. Staff will speak to all involved parties to get all sides of any particular dispute and then review all information submitted. They will then render a decision on what to do about the dispute and inform all parties. Once a decision is made, it is final and all parties are expected to abide by the decision peacefully.
Dragons are the majestic creatures known to have been somehow bred from the firelizards by the original colonists of Pern. They Impress a suitable candidate upon hatching and grow to hopefully become part of Pern's defense against Thread. The gold or queen dragons will only Impress to a female rider, and bronzes will only Impress to a male rider. The other colors Impress to whomever they find suitable. In size, the golds are largest, then bronze, brown, and blue, with greens being the smallest. Of the females, only golds are fertile. Since we're closer to Landing than the 9th Pass, our dragons here will be roughly less than the average between the sizes of the original dragons and the ones from F'lar and Lessa's time.
As a point of canon, firelizards have never been 'flits'. The closest canonical reference has been 'flitterby', which was used pejoratively. Please do not refer to them by that term. Despite there being no firelizards mentioned in most of our nearby valid canon and a comment how hardly anyone had one by the Second Pass, we're going to allow their presence on Threads of Pern.
Anne McCaffrey has more than once referred to firelizards' intelligence along the lines of your average housecat. Like with dragons, the metallics (Golds, bronzes) tend to be considered more intelligent and can provide their owner with sharper and more detailed mental images. The chromatics (Browns, blues, and greens) can generally only convey strong emotions, such as feelings of contentment or fear or hunger or itchiness, and not images unless several of them are working together.
Anyone who owns a gold or green firelizard can run hatchings once she is at least 1 VR year (3 RL months) old. Please see 'news clutches' for color distribution. Please do not run PC hatchings more than once every VR year. No one is required to run hatchings and, if they do run one, no one has to impress the maximum number of hatchlings. If you only want to impress one PC critter, that's up to you.
A flight occurs when a female firelizard or dragon rises to mate after the males blood their kills. It's not always the biggest male that wins. In the Weyrs, sometimes the outcome of a flight will be determined by the overall desire of the Weyr's populace. Even for firelizard flights, the owners of the two involved will feel more amorous. For a dragon flight, both riders will want to mirror their dragon's behavior, although proxies are permitted. See 'news tinysex' for more OOC information regarding expectations for a flight.
For their time, the Pern books were seen as progressive because McCaffrey wrote of female heroines who stood on their own two feet, and she let the majority of dragonriders be homosexual or bisexual men. Here on ToP, we're going to take the notions of gender, gender identity, and orientation a bit further. We feel it's important that players of all stripe can find a role that represents who they are without being slavishly tied to outdated gender binary canon. To that end, the only roles on this version of Pern that are tied to the canonical gender binary are as follows:
OOC harassment is a serious topic IRL and online. The staff at Threads of Pern will not tolerate harassment of our players for any reason. If a player asks you to leave them alone, please respect that immediately, even if you were in the middle of typing up a page, knot message, mail, what have you. If a player continues to contact you after the request is made, log the details and forward it to staff.
Holds are where most Pernese live. Most Holds are built with an eastern-facing courtyard to keep watch for the Red Star. Major Holds are led by a Lord and/or Lady Holder, while minor Holds are led by a Holder of either gender. Typically, only the major Holds have Bloods, families who hand leadership of the Hold down within the family, preferably to a son or daughter, but sometimes to nephews or nieces or further relations in times of crisis. While in the canon, there were no Lady Holders in their own right, on ToP, we overturn that canon to create a more equal-opportunity environment.
Honorifics are the shortened names dragonriders use after they Impress. Whether one believes that they are names given by the dragons or chosen by the riders as a shortcut for shouting things during Threadfall, there is a basic pattern to how it happens.
Xx'xxxxx
In-Character Actions = In-Character Consequences
Impression is the meeting of the minds between a suitable human being and either a dragon or firelizard. The Todd-canon Impression of watch-whers does not exist on this version of Pern. Impression is handled differently between the two kinds of beasts.
Like many alternative realities, Pern has its own set of words. Some of them are substitute words for concepts on Earth, while some are unique to Pern. Due to the time setting, some of the substitution words are in flux. For instance, some people still use "Week" while other use "Sevenday," some use "Year" and others use "Turn," and some people celebrate "Birthdays" while others celebrate "Turndays." The animals which turn spits in kitchens are usually called "Canines," but occasionally someone will use the term "Puppy" or "Dog." Likewise with the tunnelsnake hunters called "Felines," which may sometimes be referred to as "Cats," "Kittens," or "Kitties."
Names on Threads of Pern should be in-theme for Pern. Other than the trader families, all people are given one-word names. No male child is given an honorific as if destined to Impress a dragon, and no one names their children anything that ends in *th anymore out of respect for the dragons. Players can give their characters nicknames, but they still should be a word known on Pern and not an IRL pop culture reference. Commonly, parents will take bits of their names to come up with children's names, but it's not required to do so.
Players may create NPCs for flavor purposes, but there are a few caveats to this practice. Game staff will create and name NPCs for singular/rare ranking notables on Pern as necessary, including the following roles:
It's required that players keep OOC activities out of public IC areas. If you're in your IC room OOCly chatting with a friend, that's cool, but please don't do things like chat OOCly in the living cavern, for example. Use of the knot system is all OOC as well other than the secondary use of the system as a DTU or 'Dragon Talk Unit', which allows us to simulate dragons talking amongst themselves. There is an OOC lounge available for people who aren't RPing and want to hang out and have a good natter. You can reach it by doing '@tel #30'. Other important OOC room numbers can be found in '+help ooc room numbers' on the game.
Pern has a wide variety of places to live, centered around the Hold, Hall, and Weyr trinity. However, due to RP logistics, we are currently only focusing RP on the following PC areas:
Fort Weyr
Harper/Healer Halls
MUSH is not and has never been a completely private venue. Wiz-bitted staff can see each player's login IP address and/or host name as well as in-game location even if that player is set UNFINDABLE. All commands entered on the MUSH, whether code or page or mail or whisper can be logged, although staff will only do this for code debugging purposes.
Puppets are objects owned by players that can be used to interact with locations away from the player themselves. Dragons, firelizards, and pets are common puppets, although the object doesn't have to represent a living creature. Puppets can be set so that a player can see everything going on in the puppet's location.
Characters start out with one unit of quota, which is themselves. Until they are added to a knot they only have that one quota. Once added to one of the Craft, Hold, Weyr, or Trader knots they receive 14 more quota units. Note that this is not cumulative -- even if a character is on all four knots, their total quota is 15. The wizards request that each character have no more than 2 rooms and 8 objects. Unless someone really abuses this, though, we won't be strictly monitoring what a person does with their quota. If you need more than 15 quota for some reaon, please +mail the wizards with your request and reason. Extra quota requests will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
On this Pern, despite the mostly-Caucasian portraits in People of Pern, the human races are reasonably and equally represented. There have been no racially-motivated biases prevalent amongst the founders of Pernese society, and thus no stratification based on race. Any role on Pern is open to any person of whatever race, any color of skin tone, or ethnicity. This is in accordance with our overall desire to ensure OOC player inclusion.
Rank is an IC concept of a hierarchy. Each area of Pern has its own internal set of ranks, and there are equivalent ranks across the areas. Here's a basic chart of ranks for reference.
Weyr Hold Craft
Weyrleader/Weyrwoman Lord/Lady Holder Master
Pern is typically considered 'young adult' material in libraries and for booksellers. What this means for us is that public RP should be kept to a low-end PG-13 or even PG setting, with more mature content kept behind closed doors. If you're unsure whether a line of RP is appropriate for a public setting, please ask a member of staff.
As soon as your gold or green clutch hatches, please +mail Maz Kanata withe breakdown of hatchlings and their news owners. Please use the subject line of '
-Gold Mirage by Bronze Illusion, 01 January 2016%r%r%Gold impressed to Jane%rBronze impressed to John%rBrown impressed to Jack%rBrown impressed to Jill%rBlue impressed to Juliet%rBlue impressed to Romeo%rGreen impressed to George%rGreen impressed to Gracie
-Blue Bob hatched from Mirage and Illusion's most recent clutch. His DBRef number is #NNN.
Both the Weyrs and the Crafthalls have residents who aren't dragonriders or crafters. Most of these residents are support staff, such as helpers in the kitchens, stable-masters, nannies, or they're the families of the riders or crafters. Typically, the Headwoman is in charge of all domestic ordering of the Weyr or Crafthalls and will find suitable housing and employment for all residents.
As noted in 'news quota', the wizards request that a character have no more than two private rooms. Furthermore, if the room is out of theme, please make sure no other characters have access to it.
The Search Room is where you can get the most up-to-date information and register your character(s) for search. To get started, please '@tel #35', then do '+view'.
By the Fourth Pass, dragons have reached their full size as programmed by Kitti Ping during the First Pass. However, they're still somewhat smaller than the dragons found in the Ninth Pass. Firelizards didn't change much in size since Kitti Ping worked metasynth on some of the first few firelizards who Impressed the original colonists. When creating dragons or firelizards, please use the following charts. Be aware that the lengths are assuming the dragon or firelizard has extended their neck, tail, and wings to their full natural lengths.
Gold: 38-42 feet with a wingspan of 63-67 feet
Bronze: 35-38 feet with a wingspan of 60-63 feet
Brown: 34-36 feet with a wingspan of 57-60 feet
Blue: 32-34 feet with a wingspan of 53-57 feet
Green: 30-32 feet with a wingspan of 50-53 feet
Threads of Pern has a moderate social media presence, mostly on Facebook and Twitter. You can find us at:
http://twitter.com/threadsofpern
http://www.spundreams.net/threadsofpern
There is a knot for spoilers, 'spl'. If you're discussing anything more recent than two weeks old, please use it instead of the public channel. You are always welcome to use the spoilers channel, even when the spoiler is older than 2 weeks.
At this point the game has no staff other than wizards, who are listed in 'news wizards'. If and when the game is large enough to need support staff this entry will be updated.
There is a lot of news, so to make things easier we have included the news on our webpage. The URL of the page itself is http://www.spundreams.net/threadsofpern and the URL for the news is http://www.spundreams.net/threadsofpern/news.html. In addition we have a very basic guide of MUSH commands at http://www.spundreams.net/threadsofpern/guide.html. For those who want the basics to get started, please check out summary2 for OOC information and summary3 for IC information.
OOC (Out of character) information:
Summary3
IC (In character) information:
Theme
The theme of Threads of Pern is based on the Dragonriders of Pern books by Anne McCaffrey. We're set near the beginning of the Fourth Pass of the Red Star, approximately 750 turns (years) since humans first colonized Pern. Most of the settlers' technology and scientific knowledge has been lost due to the need to survive against the periodic arrival of Thread, a mindless but deadly incursion from space.
Threadfall happens on Pern after the Red Star passes through the Rukbat system. The actual astronomical event is fairly brief, but the resultant Pass last approximately 50 years. Thread falls in reasonably predictable patterns, and the Weyrs have charts to help them determine when and where it will fall. Thread will eat through any organic material swiftly, and only stone, metal, and water are immune to its voracious appetite. If a single clump of Thread successfully burrows on Pern, it could devastate whole swaths of terrain, such as an entire hillside of hardwood trees.
Canonical History:
0: Pern is colonized by 6600 people and dolphins from the Federated Sentient Planets.
8: First Pass Begins, the first 18 dragons are created from firelizards and Impress.
9: Mount Garben erupts, Landing evacuated, Fort Hold and Fort Weyr established.
17: South Boll established.
19: Ruatha Hold established.
28: Benden Weyr and Hold, Telgar and Ista Weyrs established.
58: First Interval begins.
58-258: Loss of most technology, formalization of the Hold/Hall/Weyr trinity.
258: Second Pass begins.
308: Second Interval begins.
508: Third Pass begins.
558: Third Interval begins.
???: ??? is elected as Masterhealer of Pern.
728: Kyriana is born at Ruatha Hold.
746: Journeyman Harper Kyriana Impresses gold Phenith at Benden Weyr.
750: Kyriana transfers to Fort Weyr after a tragic queen fight leaving elderly ??? and ??? as the deteriorating Senior pair.
752: Phenith rises at Fort Weyr, Kyriana informally assumes leadership.
753: Grisslam dies, leaving Lysander in charge of Fort Hold until he adbicates, leaving Lexi as presumptive Lady Holder.
753: Our story begins
Timing it is an ability dragons have where their rider can deliberately visualize another time of day (or month or Turn) and their dragon can go there. Most commonly used when a particularly-clever rider is late and needs to make up an hour or so and accidentally visualizes that earlier time of day, timing it can also be dangerous. It stretches out the amount of time someone is in *between* and humans will pass out from oxygen deprivation after too long, lethal in a dragonrider holding the visualization. People who have gone *between* times run the risk of lethargy, loss of focus, light-headedness, and worse. If they make a habit of adding more hours to their day and not getting adequate rest, they risk exhaustion and death due to a poor visualization. ICly, the knowledge that dragons can go *between* times is restricted to the queens and bronzes, and the information is buried in the Healer Hall's Records, but the Craftmaster keeps it to themselves.
We know that characters will have sex. Public rooms are not valid for this purpose. Please keep public displays of affection no more intense than making out and hugging. Anything beyond that, please seek out a private room to continue if you so desire.
TPs, or TinyPlots, are pre-arranged sets of RP that follows a specific plotline. They can last a week or over the course of months or even years. Generally, daily RP doesn't fall under this, even if it continues stories over the course of time. TPs have to be approved in advance, especially if they grow to be area-wide in scale if not global plotlines. In general terms, staff will be the ones creating the game's overall plot and story, while area leaders are responsible for approving TinyPlots that focus specifically on their area. If you want to submit a request for a TP to your area leader, make sure you include the following details:
While Traders are outside of the Craft-Hold-Weyr system, they are not outcasts. They simply prefer the freedom of movement. They play an important part in their journeys, bringing items which are not easily accessible in one area from another. They also deal in luxury items and the like. As the Pass once again approaches, people will not be able to travel or call upon dragons as much, since the former is dangerous during Threadfall and the dragons are all needed for fighting Thread.
We're working on the honor system in a lot of ways. Among them are the following:
Everyone has the right to take vacations, even from ToP. However, if a player of a high-ranking or plot-intensive role expects to be gone for more than an RL week, it's a good idea to inform staff and/or one's area leader(s) and also to put up a vacation message in +finger. Being away for more than an RL month falls under the policy noted in activity
Weyrlings is a term typically used to refer to immature dragons and their to-be riders. Weyrlings are in the care of a Weyrlingmaster and his or her staff from Impression until their dragon is approximately two turns old and tapped into a fighting or the queen's wing. They live communally in a barracks at a given Weyr. Early in the pairing, a weyrling's life is eat, oil, sleep, bathe, mucking, and whatever chores the Weyrlingmaster finds appropriate. Lessons are given to teach weyrling riders teamwork and wing formations, everything they'll eventually need in order to become fully-fledged members of the Weyr.
Weyrs are the homes of the dragons and their riders. Nestled in hopefully extinct volcanos, the six Weyrs house upwards of 500 dragons each to ensure good coverage of their beholden territories. Each Weyr will have anywhere between one to five queens to keep the dragons' numbers sufficient to the cause of defending their slice of Pern.
The staff of Threads of Pern are here to make sure the game is here for you to enjoy. We have chosen to use Star Wars characters for our staff theme, so you'll know for sure that you're speaking to someone on staff.