The White Dragon characters

Appears from the start

Lord Holder of Ruatha in name since infancy and, since a Benden Hatching some Turns ago, rider of the white dragon Ruth. In his mid-teens and still under his warder's authority, he is the only person on Pern who is both a Lord Holder and a dragonrider, and Pern has decided he cannot properly be either: the holds will not have their Lord risking himself against Thread, and the Weyrs will not accept a rider whose first duty is to a hold. Conscientious, quietly stubborn, and increasingly resentful of being managed by everyone who has an interest in him.

First appears in chapter 3

Jaxom's dragon: white, and about half the size of a full-grown dragon, hatched from an undersized egg that Jaxom opened with his own hands. He is not expected to fly Thread or ever to mate, and most riders treat him as a pet rather than a dragon. He is also unusually quick-witted, fire lizards adore him and gather round him in numbers no one else attracts, and he has one ability no other dragon possesses: he always knows exactly where and when he is.

Appears from the start

Lord Warder of Ruatha, who has governed the hold on Jaxom's behalf since the boy was an infant and raised him himself. A former dragonrider whose dragon died, he has never recovered from the loss, and watching his ward Impress a dragon has made his own position harder rather than easier. Rigorous, fair and undemonstrative, he is determined that Jaxom's inheritance be secure whatever else happens.

First appears in chapter 2

Weyrleader of Benden, bronze rider of Mnementh, and the effective leader of Pern's Weyrs through most of the Pass. He carries the responsibility for the split that exiled the irreconcilable riders to the Southern Continent, and for what those riders do next. He has taken an interest in Jaxom since the Hatching, without ever settling what the boy is supposed to become.

First appears in chapter 2

Weyrwoman of Benden and rider of Ramoth, the senior queen of Pern, and the woman who brought the five lost Weyrs forward through time. Protective of Benden's dragons to the point of ferocity, and firmly of the opinion that a white dragon half the proper size should be kept safely out of the sky.

First appears in chapter 2

Once a queen rider, now a healer of dragons and people at Benden Weyr, living with F'nor after losing her dragon Turns ago. She is gentle, exact and among the very few who never treated Ruth as a curiosity.

First appears in chapter 2

Brown rider of Canth, F'lar's half-brother and the Weyr's most dependable hand for work that has to be done away from Benden. He partners Brekke, knows the Southern Continent better than most northern riders, and is willing to hear Jaxom out where his half-brother is not.

First appears in chapter 4

A young woman of a small farming hold on Ruathan land, where Jaxom calls on hold business. Practical and unimpressed by titles, she offers him the one part of his life that nobody else is supervising.

First appears in chapter 5

A journeywoman of the Harper Craft and the most gifted songwriter of her generation, apprenticed directly to the Masterharper. She is bonded to nine fire lizards, having been the first person on Pern to Impress them deliberately, and she is one of very few people near Jaxom's age who treats him and Ruth as entirely ordinary.

First appears in chapter 5

The Masterharper of Pern, the best-informed and most widely trusted man alive, with harpers posted in every hold and craft hall. He works constantly to keep Pern's Lords, Weyrs and crafts from flying apart, drinks more wine than his healers allow, and takes an interest in Jaxom that the boy does not fully understand.

First appears in chapter 5

Weyrleader of Fort Weyr, one of the modern riders raised to leadership after the Oldtimer split, and responsible for the skies over Ruatha. Young for the rank, comfortable with craftsmen and holders, and readier than most to ask what a boy and a white dragon might actually be capable of.

First appears in chapter 6

Holder of Southern Hold on the far continent, running a settlement of northerners on land no Lord Holder has ever surveyed. Shrewd, energetic and quietly taking in far more territory than the north realizes, he means to be treated as the equal of the northern Lords.

First appears in chapter 10

A young journeyman of the Harper Craft who lost a celebrated treble voice to adolescence and was redirected into work that suited him better. He has spent Turns wandering the unmapped Southern Continent with a queen fire lizard and a runnerbeast for company, and knows more about the south than anyone in the north.

First appears in chapter 13

A healer of Southern Hold and Toric's sister: competent, direct, and unbothered by rank or reputation. She takes charge of Jaxom's recovery when he is sent south to convalesce, and is one of the few people who has never known him as anything but himself.

First appears in chapter 14

Weyrleader of Ista, one of the riders brought forward from four hundred Turns in Pern's past and one of the few who made peace with the modern world. Honourable and worn out, he faces the loss of his Weyrwoman and the end of his own leadership at the same time.

First appears in chapter 14

Leader of the riders exiled to the Southern Continent after the Oldtimer split, left to grow old there with a dwindling Weyr, no queen of breeding age and no Thread of his own to fight. Proud, embittered and long past being reasoned with.