Dragondrums characters

Appears from the start

An apprentice of the Harper Hall, small for his age, endlessly curious and famous throughout Pern for a treble voice that has carried the solo part in every major work the Hall performs. He is also an incurable gambler, trader and collector of other people's business, which has made him as many enemies among the apprentices as his voice has admirers. He assumes his future is settled by his singing, and has never seriously considered what he would be without it.

Appears from the start

The Masterharper of Pern, head of a craft with a harper posted in every hold, which makes him Pern's teacher and, quietly, the best-informed man on the planet. He is unusually willing to see what an awkward, over-clever apprentice might be good for, and he does not always explain his reasons in advance.

Appears from the start

A journeywoman of the Harper Craft, the first woman to hold the rank, and the composer of songs sung all over Pern. She is bonded to nine fire lizards and is the recognized authority on them. She has been Piemur's friend since she arrived at the Hall as an apprentice, and is one of the few people who takes his troubles seriously.

Appears from the start

A journeyman harper who travels constantly on the Masterharper's business, quiet and easily overlooked, which is exactly what makes him useful. He handles the errands that require a harper to be somewhere without being noticed, and increasingly takes Piemur with him.

Appears from the start

Headwoman of the Harper Hall, who runs its kitchens, stores and lodgings and keeps track of every apprentice in it. Practical and hard to deceive, she has a soft spot for Piemur that she declines to admit to.

First appears in chapter 2

Masterdrummer of the Harper Hall, who runs the drumheights at the top of the Hall's tower. Pern's long-distance messages are beaten out in drum code from height to height across the continent, and he is responsible for every one of them; taciturn, exacting, and interested only in whether a message is sent correctly.

First appears in chapter 4

Lord Holder of Nabol, who took the hold after the conqueror Fax's death and has run it badly and spitefully ever since. Long an obstruction to Benden Weyr and to the Harper Craft, he is now seriously ill, and Nabol has no clear successor.

First appears in chapter 6

The gold queen fire lizard that hatches from an egg Piemur comes away with, and bonds to him. Fire lizards are small telepathic cousins of Pern's dragons; a queen is the rarest of them, and she becomes Piemur's companion, hunter and, eventually, his only means of sending word to anyone.

First appears in chapter 8

An orphaned runnerbeast foal that Piemur finds and raises in the Southern Continent, named for his opinion of its intelligence. It follows him across a great deal of unexplored country and turns out to be better company than the name suggests.

First appears in chapter 10

Holder of Southern Hold on the far continent, running a growing settlement of northerners on land nobody has ever surveyed. Energetic and shrewd, he is expanding his holding a good deal faster than the northern Lords realize.

First appears in chapter 11

The young Lord Holder of Ruatha, who is also, uniquely on Pern, a dragonrider. He is not supposed to be in the Southern Continent at all.

First appears in chapter 11

Jaxom's dragon: white, about half the size of an ordinary dragon, and unmistakable to anyone who sees him. No other dragon on Pern looks remotely like him.