Post by Tariala on Jul 6, 2009 14:45:45 GMT -5
AIVAS left Pern with two gifts before passing into oblivion: an end to Thread and the myriad of technology that had long ago been lost to the Pernese people.
It has long been known, however, that the greatest disasters are born of the best intentions, and even Pern could not escape this fate.
With Thread banished, presumably forever, dragons ceased to hold value for Pern. At first, gratitude kept tithes coming to the Weyrs and candidates to the sands, but human memories, while longer than dragons', are still short, and it took less than a century for the tithes to dwindle and the candidacies to be refused. At first, this was all small. Over time, however, it began to rapidly increase.
At the same time, crafters worked to understand the failing technology that AIVAS had left them. They lacked the information to truly understand what was left behind, but it was enough to give them a solid base from which to work, and, using what they gleaned, technology began to advance, albeit slowly, due to the lack of plentiful metals on Pern and the subsequent necessity of locating supplies of metal or discovering alternative materials for many items.
Over the next few centuries, Pern advanced and dragons began to evolve in an effort to survive. Impression restrictions began fading as dragons became more and more desperate to survive with a dwindling supply of candidates. Clutches stopped becoming smaller, despite the absence of Thread, due to high mortality rates. The few gold dragons remaining flew twice per turn with regularity, despite the interval. At the same time, slowly overcoming the complications of their limited resources, technology on Pern continued to advance.
Today, the remaining dragons of Pern live in a single Weyr. Once called Benden, this single, largest Weyr on Pern was renamed Umbra, for the shadow of destruction continued to loom over dragon kind, and there is strength in memory, so, lest they ever forget their constant danger, the dragonmen of Umbra gave themselves this grim reminder.
It was a starsmith with an abiding distaste for the leeching Weyr who founded Perihelion Hold almost 90 turns ago, because it is at the perihelion that shadows are the darkest and the crispest. The subtle message was not lost on the Weyr. Within the walls of Perihelion Hold, the technological crafts thrived, and, slowly but surely, Pern has reached the age of steam engines and clockwork machines.
For more than 80 turns, an uneasy tension maintained peace between Umbra Weyr and Perihelion Hold, but the last clutch to hatch on the sands of Umbra saw a notable shift in their relationship when Weyrwoman Toshiva of gold Faliath was forced to order the kidnapping of candidates for the small clutch. Since then, tensions have escalated rapidly, rising from terse words to open violence. Indeed, a scant six months ago, Toshiva herself paid the price for this violence when the father of a stolen candidate stabbed her, piercing her lung and killing her. With Toshiva and Faliath dead, only one gold dragon yet lives on Pern, the radiant Inosensuth, making her young rider, Yukito, the Weyrman of Umbra, in too tense a time, with too little experience. As Inosensuth grows and ages with each passing day, the Weyr feels ever more pressingly the precariousness of its situation. Will the last dragonmen be lost to Pern, or will Inosensuth be able to keep her species alive?
Upcoming Events:
[/b]-Inosensuth's maiden flight
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