Dragonflight characters

Appears from the start

The last surviving member of Ruatha Hold's ruling Bloodline. Ten Turns earlier the conqueror Fax slaughtered her family and seized the hold; she survived by hiding among the kitchen drudges, filthy and unremarked, and has spent the years since quietly ruining Ruatha's prosperity so that Fax gains nothing by holding it. Small, fierce and patient, she has an unusual talent for touching and nudging the minds of animals and, to a degree, of people, though she does not understand it and uses it sparingly. She wants Fax dead and Ruatha restored to her line, and she has waited a long time for the chance.

Appears from the start

Bronze rider of Mnementh and a wingleader of Benden Weyr, the only dragonweyr on Pern still occupied. Where most riders and holders treat the ancient Threadfall as a story, F'lar has read the Weyr's oldest Records and is convinced the deadly spore is about to fall again after four hundred Turns of quiet. Cool, controlled and out of favour with the Weyr's complacent leadership, he rides out on Search for a girl fit to Impress the queen dragon's next clutch, and treats that Search as the first move in a much longer plan.

Appears from the start

F'lar's great bronze dragon, the largest at Benden Weyr. Dragons are telepathic and speak mind to mind with their own riders; Mnementh is placid, dryly amused and unusually willing to notice things his rider misses.

First appears in chapter 2

A conqueror who styles himself Lord of the High Reaches, having taken seven holds by force, among them Ruatha, whose ruling family he had killed. Brutal, vain and openly contemptuous of dragonriders, whom he regards as a useless relic living off the holds' tithes. He attaches himself to the Search party out of suspicion rather than courtesy.

First appears in chapter 2

Brown rider of Canth and F'lar's half-brother, his wingsecond and the person he trusts most. Easier-tempered and more approachable than F'lar, he handles much of the practical work of the Search and of the Weyr, and he shares his half-brother's conviction that Thread is coming back.

First appears in chapter 3

A weaver at Ruatha, taciturn and weighed down by grief: he was once a dragonrider, and his dragon died. Riders who lose their dragons rarely survive the loss; Lytol did, and lives with it. He knows the Weyr's ways from the inside and speaks plainly about what Fax's rule has done to Ruatha.

First appears in chapter 3

Fax's principal lady, worn down by repeated childbearing and far into a difficult pregnancy when her husband drags his household to Ruatha. The dragonriders treat her with courtesy and pity; Fax treats her with indifference.

First appears in chapter 5

An infant born at Ruatha Hold and orphaned at birth, installed as its Lord Holder with a warder appointed to govern in his name until he comes of age.

First appears in chapter 5

The golden queen dragon hatched at Benden Weyr, and the only queen on Pern once the previous one has died. Queens are the largest dragons and the only ones that lay eggs, so the survival of the species rests on her alone. She grows at an alarming rate and proves as strong-willed as the woman she chooses.

First appears in chapter 5

A senior bronze rider of Benden Weyr and its established leader, comfortable with the long quiet and hostile to change. He regards F'lar's warnings about Thread as dangerous nonsense, and takes charge of instructing the new queen's rider along strictly traditional lines.

First appears in chapter 5

Headwoman of Benden Weyr's lower caverns, who runs the Weyr's domestic life and its people with quiet authority. She is F'nor's mother, and among the first at the Weyr to treat its new Weyrwoman with straightforward kindness rather than suspicion.

First appears in chapter 8

One of the young women brought to Benden Weyr on Search, ambitious and frankly interested in the standing that a dragon and a bronze rider's attention could bring her.

First appears in chapter 12

The Masterharper of Pern, head of the craft that carries teaching songs and ballads to every hold, which makes him one of the few people whose word travels everywhere. Shrewd, sociable and a keen judge of politics, he takes the dragonriders' warnings seriously when the Lord Holders will not, and he knows the oldest songs better than anyone alive.