top of page

The Dragons of Pern

The reason the dragons are known as Pern's "renewable air-force" is because originally, the colonists fought thread with ships. As fuel and resources dwindled, they knew they needed a more sustainable army. What better than an organism that reproduces, flies and breaths fire? That has been the dragon's intended function since Kitti Ping bio-engineered the from the tiny native dragonets.

Key Classifications

Warm-blooded

Oviporous

Sentient

Genetically modified native Pernese life-form

DNA formed with a tripple-helix

Boron-based molecular structure*

Six-limbed quadruped

Compound eyes

External ears

Natrually telepathic

Mentasynth Enhanced*

* Whether Pernese dragons should truly be boron based is up for debate. I'm currently looking into the canon of this, but for our purposes, dragons will have boron in their bones, but will not be chemically boron based, or they may not be edible to thread, nor might Pernese life be edible to Terran organisms. I wouldn't expect numbweed to work on dragons like it does on humans either.

​

* Mentasynth is an alien tool that originates from the Eridani race, which is able to enhance the intelligence and empathy of various life with sometimes unpredictable effects.

Conformation

Additional details:

  • The neck is powerful, and just long enough to reach the ground without bending their legs, and to twine with another dragons' as a sign of affection or to mate - but is no longer than necessary, to maintain it's sturdiness. (This is according to calculations for the feet scale.) 

  • Anne points out that dragons have musculature in their chests for their wings, but artists rarely if ever depict this.

Run Cycle:

The dragon run is referred to as a "hop-skip" because their front legs have a shorter stride than their hind legs. This way of getting around, while carrying such big heavy wings, is quite energy expensive. This is why dragons prefer not to run on the ground unless they have to - if not only to avoid being chuckled at by their rider for how silly they look. For their slower terrestrial gait, one might reference a squirrel or raccoon - with similar limb ratios - where the dragon may keep it's hind feet in a more plantigrade position to equlaize the difference in length.

Biology

Biological functions: 

​

  •  Scenes in early books like Dragonflight (pg. ?) describe scales, ears and flicking tongues like those of snakes. Later Anne denounces reptilian traits.

  • Dragons salivate excessively when tempted with food, but otherwise are not reputed as having very wet mouths in the litterature.

  •  Green copper-based blood, known as ichor

  • Silver-green muscles

  • Multiple hearts

  • Two stomachs. The second stomach allows fire-breathing by dissolving phospine-bearing rocks (firestoen) to produce a gas which ignites when it comes into contact with the air. 

  • Dragons' rectum are located at the base of a fork in their tail. It's not a spade as the cover artists depict. 

  •  Dragons are purely carnivorous, but can eat bread and certain human foods. They typically waste nothing of their kills, and often like to start with the entrails.

  • They require boron in their diet, so the herd animals they feed on have been genetically modified to absorb it from the native Pernese plants. 

  •  When dragons chew a phosphine-bearing rock, dubbed "firestone," their body reflexively directs the substance to their second stomach after swallowing. When it meets the acids therein, it creates a gas as it breaks down. As the dragon belches, the gas ignites in contact with air. Perhaps it is their powerful lungs that help propel the gas outward at such impressive distances (Which, I would also reckon, keeps the dragon from charring it's own face.) After the firestone has broken down, and the chemical processes that produce the gas have been exhausted, they vomit up the firestone, which has been reduced to soggy, stinking black sand.

  •   Note that if a dragon's airway was connected to it's esophagus, as it is in humans, it could theoretically explode if they belched slowly and exhaled air. So I assume that dragon's esophagi are not connected to the airway until the back of the mouth.

  • Boron bones form a much stronger cellular structure than ours, and "ball and socket joints" protect from dislocation during landing and take-off, (though I am not sure how that would really work with mobility, unless the socket wasn't too deep.) 

  • The rib-cage is fused, and does not expand. (The wing muscles encasing it are probably far too powerful, and would influence breathing too much.) Thus the abdomen caves in under the ribs and expands when they breathe.

  • Dragons can actually survive periods of time in a vacuum, and extreme cold. They can basically tolerate the conditions of space as long as they can hold their breath. It isn't fully understood why or how, but it would only make sense for that to have to do with their psychic abilities. 

Mentality and Behavior

Brain:
 

Dragons have relatively human intelligence, but poor memory retention, with only a three day event recall, after which, when and how something happened isn't always clear to them. Long term memory extends only to the most repetitious and familiar things. Dragons seem to follow a program, and instinct, perhaps due to the fact that they were wild animals before their intelligence was augmented. Their way of perception is sometimes referred to as "the now of dragon thought," as they don't normally concern themselves with threats and concepts that are not immediate unless their rider explains a need to.

  Something within the dragon's huge brain enables them to manipulate space-time to an impressive degree. They can teleport - a trick called "going between." They are also telepathic, and can make any human hear them this way if necessary, though they rarely do it with anyone but their rider. Certain people are receptive to dragons thoughts the way the rider is to his companion, or the way dragons are with each other, but it is an uncommon ability. To complete their list of psionic abilities, dragons are telekinetic, however dragons don't use this ability on a conscious level. When a dragon chooses to do something that defies physics, like carrying huge loads, they will usually succeed as long as they don't know they shouldn't.

​
What is Impression?          

  
"The moment when a newly hatched dragon links minds with a suitable human partner; a bond of such complexity and depth that no other union can be compared with it; almost overwhelming in the initial moment of recognition, and certainly the most intense emotion a dragon rider will ever experience"[RSR/3:86] 

Dragonic choice will always be somewhat of a mystery. Immediately after hatching, dragons desperately seek a compatible human to "impress" upon, or they will soon die. In the egg they require their mother's protection, and nurturing - perhaps even on telepathic levels.  Because the human mind complete's a dragon mind, a hatchling dragon is, therefore, highly volatile and unpredictable until the moment of impression. The less certain they are of where the human they seek is, the more frightened and dangerous they'll be. Allowing Candidates to frequently touch the eggs so the dragons can more quickly identify a familiar mind in the crowd of candidates and give them a sense of direction, is a good way to prevent such confusion at hatching.

 

Read more about impression. 

​

Dragons do not fight one-another.

 

 The only time dragons have been known to fight is if overpopulation crowds queens in a Weyr, and they rise to mate at the same time. Aside from capturing designated food, aggression is highly unusual in a dragon.
  Dragons are extremely "in the loop" with their own kind, but have minimal interest in humans - beyond what their riders require of them. Dragons still remain a mechanism of gossip, though. Once in a while a dragon will offer information about their rider to another dragon, who passes it to his own, if he thinks his rider is interested. Keeping track of his rider's lies isn't a dragon's best skill, and for this, it would be well advised not to keep secrets in the Weyr.

​

Vocals: 

​

  • Rumble - Pleasure, amusement. A loud rumble is the closest equivalent to laughter. (Dragons can voluntarily imitate laughter, but don't actually laugh.)

  • Bellow - A "yell" that get's attention or voices frustration.

  • Bugle - Greeting or triumph

  • Roar - Anger or pain

  • Growl -  Threat, dislike

  • Moan - Dismay, misery, angsiety

  • Hum - A "pre-birth-lullaby." A low frequency hum, just within human audible range that dragons produce collectively to signify an imminent hatching. It has variable emotional, psychic impact on Humans.

  • Keen - A response to death. As with humming, it can spread through a large network of mentally linked dragons.

  • Warble - Gratitude, appreciation

  • Trill - Excited amusement, enjoyment, satisfaction, intense affection

  • Croon - Pleasure, reassurance, apology 

  • Wail - Grief, helplessness, fear, pain

  • ​

Dragons don't constantly make noises to express every emotion, but sometimes they can't control themselves either. Dragons are not computers, personality will influence their choice of expression.

​

Eye Color Chart

Dragon eyes are one of their most stunning features. They whirl with changing colors that reflect their emotions. The speed of the "whirling" represents the intensity of what they are feeling. 

Mating and Reproduction

Rise in glory,
Bronze and gold.
Dive entwined,
Enhance the Hold.

Count three months and more
And five heated weeks,
A day of glory and
In a month who seeks?
A strand of silver
In the sky...
With heat, all quickens
And all times fly.


  I believe this teaching ballad interprets as three months or longer being the time between mating and clutching. Five heated weeks is the time the eggs gestate on the hot sands of the hatching ground. A possible translation: "Three weeks or more, and up to five weeks for the eggs to gestate on the sand. The eggs are laid and hatch about a month later." The bit: "A day of glory and in a month who seeks" could be reiterating that the eggs hatch roughly a month after being laid.

So dragon gestation would most likely be: 
Mating to clutching - twelve weeks or longer.
Gestation on the sands - four to five weeks.

 

Eggs:


  Clutches normally range between 20 and 40 eggs, with larger queens producing larger clutches. The eggs are laid with thick leathery hides, which are slightly pliable. They are mixed creamy shades of dragon colors. Bronze eggs can have distinct markings, and I suspect it is because the colors and stretching of pigments relate to the size of the egg. As they mature they harden and tighten, causing stretch-marks to become visible. As evidenced in the books brooding queens will constantly fuss over and turn the eggs. This may be to maintain their spherical shape as they transition from soft to hard. By the time the eggs are fully brittle, the yolk - which is actually a padding evenly coating the egg walls - is fully absorbed. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Hatching:


  By the time the entire clutch has fully absorbed their yolks and are becoming hungry, an unknown cue will trigger them to simultaneously break through their shells. Synchronized hatching is not outside of logic, considering that dragons are psychic. The maternal crooning of the queen signifies hatching is imminent, which is joined by the hum of the other dragons, gaining intensity until the instant the shells crack. There is little time at this point, for the Candidates in the weyr to don the traditional white robe and gather around the rocking eggs on the hatching ground. Lower cavern's staff race to begin preparation for the celebratory meal that will take place after the hatching.

  Once in a while, an egg fails to hatch. Necropsies revealed handicaps that prevented the dragon from being able to escape it's shell, and in other cases, the dragons were formed with no discernible flaws. The Weyrleader would promptly dispose of unhatched eggs between by the second Pass. Another possible cause for unhatching eggs is a speculated fail-safe.  This proposed fail-safe will activate if a certain part of the genetic code is compromized/altered, resulting in an unnaturally thick shell and membrane which prevents any fetus that is aberrant from escape. This more or less happened in the case of the white dragon, Ruth, who was apparently intended by Anne to be the only one of his kind. (Dragonquest, The White Dragon, and following chronological novels.)



Mating and Sexual Maturity:


  Queens mate as often as every 2-5 years, and reach sexual maturity at about three years of age during the 9th Pass. We can assume it doesn't take as long for previous passes, when the queens didn't grow to such enormous sizes. Greens will mate as often as a few times in one year and likely become sexually active a little earlier. 

Dragons mate on the wing, and altitude is critical. If dragons have to break apart because they met the ground too soon, fertilization could be weak. Worse, the dragons could be so distracted that they fail to react in time and are injured or killed. This is one of the main reasons a female's instinct is to fly as high as possible as quickly as possible, before she is caught. Dragon mating can also be referred to as "twining necks" though dragons can also twine necks on the ground out of simple affection, so  with this term, context is key.

  If it were not for greens, who frequently have an urge to mate, the weyr would be full of frustrated virgin male dragons. If it were not for greens, small agile dragons would not be able to fight thread in place of the larger and more cumbersome colors. Despite being sterile, greens serve a vital purpose in the spectrum. 

  Dragons reach sexual maturity at less than two years of age for greens and males, and up to three for Queens, (Dragonflight). In Dragonseye (beginning of the Second Pass) Zulaya mentions that greens hatched in the tenth month would fly no sooner than the fourth month of the next year. That is only six months! I would think that size and time spent growing has a bearing on this. Dragons don't mate until it is "time." For greens this can be as frequent as every few months. For the Queen it only happens every other year to every three years or more... It all depends on the position of the Red Star. At the beginning of a Pass Queens lay larger clutches and more often. 

  The mating urge is completely overwhelming to female dragons. They are irresistibly compelled to eat, while the males gather and watch tensely. Once sated the queen takes to flight, and the males will pursue her. Her body has saved reserves for this flight. Charged with vigor impressive even among the powerful bronzes, she gives the males a run for their money. Flying closer then diving away to leave them far behind... the male that handles the game with the best intelligence, reflexes and stamina is the one she will allow to catch her. Some inexperienced females get caught before they've made up their minds. 

  Because of the telepathic bonds, the human counterpart of the dragon is nearly incapacitated by the dragon's mental images and emotions. The lust is potent enough that the telepathic green or gold can share these signals to any living thing around her, but fortunately these third parties can  remain in control of their actions. For the rider it is an out of body experience, and if they do not "follow" their dragon at this crucial time, the bond can swing just as far the other way, leaving them farther apart than ever... not healthy for the symbiotic pair. (Particularly implied in Dragonflight as well as other books, when queenriders are urged to stay with the dragon or else she may go between.)

  In the Weyr, chambers are set aside just for the event, so the riders of the mating dragons can have privacy as their dragon's urges completely overtake them.  They can be arranged together or with their significant others instead if they have them. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for other colors, the experience is not exclusive to Queens and bronzes.

 


Population Growth:


The fact that they have a large number of infertile offspring makes them an ideal soldier race. A large population is needed to throw at thread, but if 50% of that population were fertile females, the multiplication of the population would overwhelm Pern. Thus a handful of fertile queens who produce large clutches when the red star is near is the solution. Because the survival rate of dragons is so good, realistically, each queen should only produce only one or two other queens in her lifetime, and a few more during a Pass. Fertility might be hindered by, not only passes, but crowding in weyrs, making it more realistic that Ramoth produced a queen egg in her very first clutch.

 

As sad as it is, this also explains why queens kill each other when they rise at the same time. As crowding occurs, the likelihood of queens rising at the same time grows. If queens who rise at the same time eliminate each-other, then the population will balance it'self. 

 

 

Growth Rate and Life Span:


  Over the course of 18 months, a dragon can grow from the size of a dog or small pony, to the size of a jet plane, and young dragons must eat copious amounts to facilitate this feat. Dragon life-spans are comparable to human's, although, if their death were not synonymous with their human bonded, they may greatly outlive any human. Please refer to the "Dragon Growth Chart," under the "Dragons" category at the top of the page.

The Debate on Dragon Appearance

What might Anne mean that Whelan's dragons look "too reptilian," and what is "right" about Colin Saxton's art? What does Anne McCaffrey say about the dragons in her own words, and what does each cover artist do right and wrong according to her?

 
 
In Anne's Own Words:
​

"Well, none of the illustrators have got my Pern dragon down right and it's very hard to explain what the differences are, except the dragon is NOT as reptilian as Whelan draws him -- though his depiction is certainly eye-catching. They certainly don't have all those bits and bobs on them as the English version shows. They have heavier haunches, since they have to spring from the ground and put all that weight into the air and their wings are best as the umbrella type which Whelan does do very well indeed. Their heads are more horse-like...much broader through the occipital lobes since dragons are very intelligent. Their eyes are bigger and set forward in their heads -- since their eyes are faceted they do have lenses on a fairly wide arc to see Thread falling out of the corners of their eyes, as it were. They have horse-like cheek bones, and their muzzle is well-shaped with wide, but not too wide, nostrils. Their chests are very broad with musculature for both front legs, which are shorter, and the wings. They do have ridges along the spine which stop at the withers, and start again below the wings. They have headknobs rather than ears. They have fangs but certainly not the raptor-type lotsa teeth as in dragonhead or even Dragonseye where the dragons were really rather clunky. Strong teeth but not sharklike rows of them as the D'EYE would suggest. Their skins tend to look slightly mottled, as if someone had cleaned a paint brush in whatever and the various colors have allowable shades...as in red hair or even brunette. Or the various shades a bay horse can be. I know when I've seen a drawing if that IS my dragon but it's very difficult to describe accurately because the same words have different connotations to different people - as witness the variety of shapes dragons have taken for different artists...."

-Anne McCaffrey

 
 
Cover Art Depicting Pernese Dragons:
​

In 1983 Anne stated in an interview with Princessions magazine that Colin Saxton's depiction of the Pernese dragon looked most correct to her. Allegedly she reiterated this later in the 2000's. So what can we extrapolate from her claims that Whelan's art was "too reptilian?" How did Colin "follow her directions," as she put it? 

 



(Please read more about Colin Saxton's piece here: Pern Museum & Archives. Hans Van Der Boom and Cheryl Miller Photographed the original art in 2002 in Anne's home in Ireland, Dragonhold Underhill, and the artwork is shown here with permission from Hans.)

​

Classically dragons were mostly drawn to be lizard or anthropomorphically. A reptile's weight is spread out horizontally, meaning their spine bends side to side when they walk. They don't have to put much effort into balance. In mammal-like reptiles and more advanced vertebrates we see creatures who's weight is centered vertically, affording them more acrobatic capability. Modern dragons are not often seen anymore with the squat reptilian stance. Aside from forward facing, protruding eyes, headknobs, short front legs, horse-like head, and big haunches, Colin Saxton most notably seems to have achieved a proper waist and mammalian configuration. They're hefty but with a nice defined torso that compliments having to hunch and hop with small front legs. His dragons actually remind me of a squirrel, and people perceive his design as more pudgy and "fat" than it structurally is. Furthermore, lizard backs don't arc the way Anne describes her dragons to before launch to flight. This all points to vertical spine movement and a more mammalian build.

Sources and Citation

*** By hosting cover art and any official artist's work I have no intention to copycat other informational sites, nor do I intend to steal anyone's thunder. They are here as references for discussion only. I showcase these images with no intention of taking credit as the illustrator and have done my due diligence to give credit to the original artists. At the bottom of this page, I have cited my resources. If you have rights to this content or authority over it's distribution and I have inadvertently infringed on copyright, please inform me at rhodalle@gmail.com and I will act immediately to comply.

​

Brom, Gerald. "The Masterharper of Pern." 1998. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database: Publication Listing. <http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?272950>
Morril, Rowena. "The Dolphins of Pern." 1994. 1001Votes.com. Wallpapers. <http://www.1001-votes.com/f/wallpaper-652365.html>
Peterson, Eric. "Dragon's Eye." 1997. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database: Publication Listing. <http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?436971>
Edwards, Les. "Dragonheart." 2008. The Art of Les Edwards Gallery. 2012. <http://www.lesedwards.com/galleries/fantasy/dragonheart/1564#full-descr>
Whelan, Michael. "Dragonflight."  1978. Muddy Colors Gallery: The History of Dragons in Art. <http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2012/07/history-of-dragons-in-art.html>
Whelan, Michael. cover for "The White Dragon." 1978 Tumbler Blog of Cimness <http://cimness.tumblr.com/post/10277756205/the-white-dragon-by-michael-whelan>
Whelan, Michael. cover for "Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern." 1983. Glass Onion Graphics: Whelan World Gallery: <http://www.draconic.com/gallery/whelan.php>
Saxton, Collin. Cover of "Dragonsinger." The Pern Museum and Art Gallery:  <http://www.pern.nl/art_gallery/official/saxton.html>
Saxton, Collin. Cover of "Dragondrums." Sariel's guide to Pern: Pern Cover Artists Collin Saxton <http://pern.srellim.org/c_saxton.htm>
(Relative Size) Jodi Lynn Nye. Dragonlover's Guide to Pern, Second Edition. 1993. <http://peoplepern.narod.ru/books/dlg/iv.htm

bottom of page