Post by Advertising on Jan 24, 2009 15:36:58 GMT -5
Beginning
.They removed the danger of Pern using Aivas' knowledge. After the Pass no longer would Thread return to haunt the Riders. The Pass was finished, the Southern Continent opened for exploration and the seeds of a war were started.
With Thread no longer falling from the sky, the Lord Holders refused to pay their tithes. The Weyrs began to take care of themselves as their populations dwindled to a mere hundred in each Weyr. One gold and a few bronzes to keep her happy is all that kept the Weyrs going.
The Holders flourished. No longer tithing to the Weyrs their populations exploded exponentially. It was still a matter of Honor to Impress but it was no longer the end all be all it had been centuries before.
Due to a few bloody Hold/Weyr interactions in the North, a treaty was written up. The Dragons would have the Northern continent, the Holders the Southern, divided always by a vast ocean. The Holders did agree to allow Southern Weyr to remain in the South.
Everything was well for many Turns. Benden, Telgar, High Reaches, Ista and Igen were abandoned as the Dragon population shrank, leaving only Fort Weyr, which became Northern Weyr. Ruatha, Fort and Southern Boll remained the only loyal Dragon holds on Pern. Everything was going well until It came.
It was a deadly disease killing without mercy or pity. Some victims lingers for a sevenday others died within hours of contracting it. Only the two Weyrs remained untouched. In a Turn the holder population was decimated. The news was worse though. The last gold had not laid a successor, the final clutch brought forth only bronzes, browns, blues and greens. The Northerners were dismayed.
News reached them that the Southern golds had not one, or two but three gold dragons with another egg on the Sands. Would they send the youngest gold North? No the Southern Weyr answered which left the desperate Northern Weyr no option but to steal the egg. Which they did and succeeded in Hatching it to a Northern girl. The Southern Riders were angry and a brief battle was fought with no side being the winner.
Within Turns the Northern dragon population once more rivaled that of the South.
The Middle
.So now the North and South are equally matched in strength. The insult caused by the Northern riders still pains the Southern riders but what can they do? The Holders will not support them in a dragon war whereas the Northern Holders would support their Weyr. With a volatile situation in the South, it would take only one event to spark a war.
The Southern riders decided to kidnap Lady Elsita, the wife to the most powerful Southern Lord. They took her North and left her at Telgar hold. They did not think she hated her husband, or would fall in love with a rider from Northern but she did. Lord Gaius was angry with the Northern rider for kidnapping his wife and then having the audacity to marry her. He ordered that the Southern Weyr retrieve her in any manner they desired.
Southern Weyr was only to happy to comply. They did not realize the battle would be devastating. Southern Weyr lost two of it's three golds and more than half it's fighting force, while Northern lost one gold and less than half of their force. Southern Weyr returned home defeated, stunned, and worried. Their lone remaining gold had long since pass the age of rising. Would they now be forced to ask a favor of the Northern Weyr?
Lord Gaius was upset with the failure and vowed that any dragon not wearing his colors would be shot on sight. He had his Smiths create a weapon capable of killing a dragon and had them mounted all over the Holds in the South. Any dragon not wearing the colors of Black and white would be shot from the sky. He forced Southern Weyr to swear allegiance to him and told them to take revenge on Northern Weyr.
Now
.Southern Riders snuck into Northern and stole the gold egg on the sands, along with seven other eggs. All eight now sit on the quiet sands of Southern Weyr, waiting for their Hatching Day. The Northern Weyr gears up for war even as the eggs harden, though they must wait until a Weyrleader is chosen to lead them. To make matters worse, there are those in both Weyrs who do not want to fight. Will the legacy of Pern go up in flame and blood? Or will cooler heads prevail?