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Post by Azazel on Mar 1, 2009 18:36:00 GMT -6
Terms To Know
Between: an area of nothingness and sensory deprivation between here and there. Can take you between two places geographically or two times in history.
Candidate: One who is Searched and therefore eligible to Stand on the Hatching Sands for a chance to Impress.
Clutch: A 'litter' of eggs a female lays. (Dragon, Wher, or Firelizard)
Dawn Sisters: Trio of stars visible from Pern
Deadglow/Dimglow: Stupid. Also sometimes used to refer to mentally retarded people.
Dragonrider: One who has Impressed and successfully completed Weyrling Training.
Fellis Juice: Used to dull internal pain. Usually in a drinkable form.
Firestone: Phosphine-bearing mineral which dragons chew to and swallow to their second stomachs in order to produce flame.
Flitters/Flit/Firelizards: Cousins to dragons, ranging from the . Can breathe fire without chewing firestone. Unable to 'talk' like dragons, instead they show their bonded images and send feelings. Can go between. Firelizards average around 2 feet from nose to tail, although size varies with age and coloration (sex). The female fire-lizards can be gold or green in colour while the males are either bronze, brown or blue. While both gold and green fire-lizards can lay a clutch of eggs, only the gold or queen fire-lizards devote enough time and energy to protecting their eggs until they hatch. Green Clutches must be watched over by either the males or their human bonded very carefully. In size the golden queens are the largest followed by the bronze, brown and blue males to the greens which are the smallest.
Hold: Small village like places where non-dragonriders and non-weyr folk live; cut into mountains and hillsides. Holds that are under the protection of a certain Weyr tithe to said Weyr as a sort of payment for protection from Thread.
Honorific: When a male Impresses, their name is shortened. The method for shortening names goes first letter of name + hyphen (') + last syllable Ex. Melenied to M'ied. Usually one drops a vowel, but can drop more if wanted.
Impression: When a firelizard or wher Impresses, it can give its trainer or owner impressions about what it is feeling, and it has the ability to project its thoughts to a limited extent.
However, for a Pernese dragon, this is not only a choice but a necessity. Impression goes far deeper for a dragon. It has been said that a dragon is incomplete without its lifemate, and cannot survive if it does not find one. There have even been cases when a newly-hatched dragon cannot find a suitable match and goes between.
The emotions, thoughts, desires, wants and needs of both dragon and human are known to each other. The dragon knows his or her name, and so tells it to the human counterpart, and would be surprised to learn the human did not know its name at birth. For a dragon and a human, Impression is more than merely the melding of two minds together. They literally become one being with two bodies, their souls intertwined to the extent that there is no way for them to tell where dragon begins and human ends. Thus, it surpasses the familiar concept of telepathy.
Interval: 200 turns in which no Thread falls. Long Intervals last about 400 years. Queens tend to lay fewer eggs during intervals.
Klah: Stimulating hot drink made of tree bark and tasting faintly of cinnamon. Pernese coffee-substitute.
Numbweed: Medicinal cream which is smeared on wounds and kills all feeling; used as an anesthetic.
Pass: 50 Turns in which Thread falls on Pern. In the few Turns before a Pass, Queen dragons begin to lay greater number of eggs to increase the number of dragons.
Rise: When a dragon begins to fly to be mated with. The female bloods kills, along with the males, before she takes off and is Chased. The winner is chosen by the female alone, though the rare case of a male catching a female before she is ready has been recorded. Flightlust from a Rise affects everyone in the area to differing degrees.
Runnerbeast: Animal that is used to plough, race, transport Holdfolk primarily. Resembles a horse.
Runnertail: Ponytail.
Sevenday: A week. Sevenday = seven days... Get it?
Thread: Mycorrhizoid spores from the Red Star, which are spun off onto Pern and devour any organic material they touch. They can destroy whole fields and forests within minutes. It is a thin silvery material which must be scorched from the sky by the dragons - as they were made to do.
Touching: When Candidates touch hardened dragon eggs to get a feel and comfortness with them. It is traditional to touch the eggs before going to Hatching Day.
Turn: a Pernese year
Watch-wher: Nocturnal reptile distantly related to dragons.
Weyr: Home of dragons and their riders; Usually in a volcano.
weyr: A rider and dragon's den in which they sleep. It's somewhat like a large apartment but when an enterance for the dragon to fly into the sky through.
Weyrling: One who was a Candidate, but Impressed.
Wherries: Similiar to a turkey, but the size of an ostrich. Eaten by dragons.
Pernese Oaths/Curses-
"By the Egg"
"By the First Egg"
"By the egg of Faranth"
"Great Faranth"
"Scorch it"
"Shards"
"By the shards of my dragon's egg"
"Shells"
"Shards and Shells"
"Through Fall, Fog and Fire"
There are many more available for those curious. Google is your best friend.
((The information on this page comes from varying sources online including Wikipedia. ))
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