Culture

Lexicon

Vocabulary

*Agenothree*
A common Chemical on Pern. Flamethrowers us agenothree to create their fire and can be used both a-dragonback and on the ground to sear threads.
*Between*
An area of utter nothingness and cold which dragons use to travel between any two places in no longer than it takes a man to cough three times.
*Black Rock*
Pernese coal, occasionally also called Cromcoal
*Camilid*
a large herd animal similar to a Terran alpaca that produces very fine wool.
*Day Sisters*
a trio of stars visible from Pern. They always appear in the same area of the sky and never seem to move and are most visible at dawn and dusk. Often called the Dawn Sisters.
*Deadglow*
an insult implying stupidity in the person it is being applied to. Derived from glow.
*Fellis*
a flowering tree
*Fellis Juice*
a juice made from the fruit of the fellis tree. It is a soporific and induces sleep.
*Fire-Stone*
a phosphine-bearing mineral which dragons chew to produce flame. The rock is digested in the dragon's second stomach and the gas produced ignites when it contacts oxygen.
*Glow*
a light-source which can be carried in a hand-basket. It is the most common light-source on Pern and does have a limited life, but this can be extended by fully covering it.
*High Reaches*
a mountain chain in the north-western corner of the north continent.
*Hold*
a place where the common people live; originally they were cut into the mountains and hillsides.
*Impression*
the joining of minds of a dragon and his rider-to-be at the moment of the dragon's hatching.
*Interval*
the period of time between passes, normally about 200 turns.
*Klah*
a hot stimulating drink made of tree bark and tasting faintly of cinnamon ((think coffee and you'll have the right idea))
*Looks to*
is Impressed by
*Long Interval*
a period of time, generally twice the length of a standard interval, in which no Thread falls and Dragonmen decrease in number. Occasionally they are thought to herald the end of Threads.
*Month*
four sevendays
*Mosstea*
this herb is packed into wounds to prevent infection or can be infused to make a soothing tea.
*Needlethorn*
Pern's version of needles, these are both easier and harder to come by. They grow readily in Nerat, but during most of the Spring and Summer months are filled with a deadly poison and only become safe even to harvest at the end of Summer.
*Numbweed*
a medicinal cream which, when smeared on wounds, kills all feeling, used as an anesthetic
*Pass*
a period of time during which the Red Star is close enough to drop Thread on Pern
*Pern*
third of Rukbat's five planets. It has two natural satellites.
*Red Star*
Pern's stepsister planet, It has an erratic orbit and travels in and out of the Rukbat system.
*Redwort*
a Pernese herb that when steeped and applied to the skin or a wound acts as an antiseptic wash. It leaves a characteristic red stain on the skin.
*Rukbat*
a yellow star in the Sagittarian Sector, Rukbat has five plantes and two asteroid belts.
*Sevenday*
the equivalent of a week on Pern
*Thread*
(mycorrhizoid) spores from the Red Star, which descen don Pern and burrow into it, devouring all organic material they encounter. The Dragonriders were establishe in order to fight Thread and stop the spores from reaching the planet surface.
*Turn*
a Pernese year which contains 13 months
*Watch-wher*
a nocturnal reptile distantly related to dragons. They are often the guardians of holds.
*Weyr*
a home of dragons and their riders. Most often a extinct volcano.
*weyr*
a dragon's den within the Weyr
*Weyrsinger*
the Harper for the Dragonriders, usually a rider him or herself
*Wherries*
a type of fowl roughly resembling a turkey, but about the size of an Ostrich.
Withies
water plants resemblint he reeds of Earth.

Pernese oaths

  • By the Egg
  • By the shards of my dragon's egg
  • By the first egg
  • By the Egg of Faranth
  • Shells
  • Through Fall, Fog, and Fire
  • Scorch it
  • Shards
  • Crackdust
  • Shaffit
  • Jays
  • fardles

Maledicta

  • Wherry teeth: nonesense; I don't believe you
  • That's well dusted: It's nasty or unpleasant
  • He was born under the Red Star: someone evil or generally disliked or unlucky
  • Bend a tail: defecate
  • A hunk of firestone; all gas and ash:a braggart or a blowhard
  • Has a dragon's two stomachs: a "hollow leg," endless apetite
  • Tail fork first: backward
  • Wherry hunt: "wild-goose chase," a fruitless, foolish quest
  • Like trying to draw an inside straight in Bitra: an impossibility
  • Hatching fire lizards: building castles in the air
  • Chew it raw and swallow: accept the inevitable
  • A dragon among the wherries: cat among the pidgeons
  • Smokeless weyrling: useless (refers to a person or animal)
  • Go for a blow: go soak your head; shove off

Specific Medicines and Their Possible Sources

  • Analgesic: red willow salic, meadowsweet
  • Anodyne: aconite, whitehorm, adonis, glovecap, hops
  • Antispasmodic: parsley, basil
  • Burns: aloe, dragon's tongue (Pern aloe), comfrey, cucumber, witch hazel
  • Cough medicine: tussilago, comfrey, hyssop, thymus, borrago
  • Diaphoretic: box, ezob
  • Diuretic: ash bark
  • Febrifuge: sweatroot, spearleek, whitebulb
  • Tonic: featherfern, nettleweed, tansy

Units of Measure

  • fingertip: 1/2 in wide
  • hand: 4 in
  • handspan: extended thumb to little fingertip; 8-9 in
  • manheight: varies; over 5'2", under 6'2"
  • dragonlength: size of a green; 10 feet
  • weaver's length: from nosetip to extended arm fingertip; approx. 1 yd

Social Culture

Dragonriders and the Weyrs

  • To not know the name(s) of the queen(s), queen rider(s), bronze(s), or bronze rider(s) is considered an insult to the Weyr and the holds it protects.
  • During a Pass (the time when Threads fall) items are often gifted to the riders outside of the standard tithes as a show of gratitude, but commisioned items (whether for crafter or holder) are not given.
  • A Weyr usually protects three holds or parts of holds
  • Even though a Weyr only protects certain areas, its riders often have friends in other areas and spend time outside of the Weyr's 'stomping grounds'
  • Bronze riders are addressed with the title 'Lord'
  • Queen riders are addressed with the title 'Lady'

Holders

  • Lord Holders own the principle holds (one hold per lord) and are addressed with the title 'Lord'
  • Major holders run the ((*ghasp*)) major holds and tithe a portion of their goods to the principle holds who grant them protection
  • Minor holders run the ((*douple ghasp*)) minor holds and tithe a portion of their goods to the major holds who grant them protection
  • When a Lord Holder dies a conclave of all the other Lords Holder is called in which they vote on which of the possible heirs should replace the dead Lord
  • General hold size is, from smallest to largest minor - major - principle

Crafters

  • Within the crafts there are three ranks. In order of importance and knowledge they are, from least to most: Apprentice, Journeyman, Master
  • One member of each craft (always of Master rank) is voted by all the other masters to be the master of the entire craft. He or she is responsible for posting Journeymen and Masters, as well as advancing students in rank, and the advancement of knowledge and discovery within the craft
  • Apprentices have no personal property and are considered to have no intrinsic value until they have earned it.

General

  • Within both craft and Weyr the advancement from one rank to the next is called 'walking the tables'
  • Pern is, overall, a complex Fuedal-Agrarian and highly stratified society in which goods are traded for protection. Furthermore, as in feudal society, there are only a few large holds which control all of the non-Weyr land and the holds that dwell on that land have to tithe some of their goods to that principle hold

Knots

Knots for Ista can be found here. If you attempt to edit the page, you can find the embed code for the knot you want to copy.

Songs

due to the length and complexity of the song page, it has its own page here

Colors/Crests

Colors and crests for craft, hold, and weyr can be found here

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