Dragonflight

Like the people of Pern, Dragonflight’s dragons have social hierarchies. The most important dragon type is the queen dragon; in Dragonflight there are two queens, Lessa’s Ramoth and Kylara’s Pridith. Golden in color, queens are the rarest dragon, and the only type that can produce eggs. As a result, the rearing and protection of queens is of utmost importance to Weyr society.

Second in line are the bronzes. Bronze dragons like F’lar’s Mnementh and R’gul’s Hath are bigger than other dragons and more powerful in battle, but fewer in number. Bronzes alone can mate with queen dragons, and their riders are held in special esteem for this reason; Gemma, for example, remarks that she “do[es] not want [F’lar] killed,” because Perth “[has] so few bronze riders” (42). We learn little of the third type, the blue dragons, in Dragonflight, but the promiscuity often ascribed to the novel’s human women is also projected onto the fourth dragon type, the green dragons, who are known for their highly sexual, feminized nature.

While Dragonflight implies that watch-whers are related to dragons—a concept other Dragonriders of Pern novels develop further—both humans and dragons believe watch-whers to be lesser than dragons somehow.

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