Elysian Fields: Aterrima Weyr - Elysian Fields

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For six hundred turns Pern lived without the threat of thread thanks to AIVAS's work. No longer did dragons and their riders have to risk their lives to keep home and hold safe. They gladly settled into their new role in the world. As the turns passed, it was only the tales of their past heroics that kept the weyrs supplied with enough candidates and food to care for the dragons. And while the weyrs struggled, new advancements were made both in medicine and technology. Surgeries that would have killed before now became plausible, steam-powered fire lizards became the pets of Lord and Lady Holders. It was not long after a failed test with a steam powered airship that things began to change. It started first with a simple hatching. Once a moment of joy for those who would impress, hatchings became nothing short of a nightmare for all. It started with one hatchling attacking another, and then the hatchlings began attacking the candidates themselves. The incident was not an isolated one. Over and over the grisly scene played itself out in the weyrs until becoming a candidate was thought of as little more than a death sentence. The stories that had sheltered the weyrs for so long were no longer enough, and the people of Pern, frightened by what was happening, turned away from them.

Pern, it seemed, would never wake up from this nightmare. The violence, once restrained to hatchling dragons, spread through the ranks of the elder dragons. Soon dragons were not only attacking each other but even their own riders. If there was one silver lining to be found, it was that the afflicted dragons would die no more than a month after their symptoms appeared. After three maddening, bloody months, the last dragon falls, the final victim to the ‘Plague of Madness’. All of Pern waits in fear of the next wave of bloodshed, but it never comes. The horrible fate of the dragons seemed to pass over the smaller creatures, leaving the whers and firelizards untouched. As the turns passed, everyone began to believe the nightmare had finally ended. Some people mourned the loss of the dragons while there were those that chose to forget them, the memory of their loss too great. But many chose to remember the dragons as they were before they vanished, vicious creatures that only wished to spill their blood.

Such dark thoughts pervaded the Pernese conscious for hundreds of turns. Two hundred turns after the dragons vanish the unthinkable happens as Thread begins to fall. Whers and firelizards struggled to protect the world just as the dragons had done before them, but at the end of the fifty turn long Pass Pern’s new protectors had nearly wiped themselves out with the effort. Another two hundred turns passed and their numbers had yet to recover. Just as many believe their world will fall into darkness once more a light of hope shines upon them. As the Lord Holders prepare to announce the grim news, a great golden beast appears in the sky flanked by six hundred dragons ready to protect a world that thought them gone. Both hope and fear fill the people of Pern, but before anyone can decide which they they dared trust, the Queen vanished, leaving behind fifty dragons and their riders as well as a precious gift. A clutch of twenty-nine eggs donated to the newly formed Aterrima Weyr, one holding the coveted golden Queen. The search for Candidates began in earnest, and willing or not the young men and women of Pern were conscripted to Stand. And Stand they did. All of Aterrima bore witness as the first strange hatchling, a gold and purple male like a richly colored sunset, stepped onto the Sands. And all of Aterrima bore witness as Kaltith appeared once more and sought to destroy it.

Golden Rimeth saved her Topaz brother, and in the process died. Kaltith would have crushed the rest even then, but the dragons of Aterrima rose against her at Rimeth's last command. Remember Rimeth, and protect my siblings.

Weyrleader S'zar intends to do just that and much, much more.


Will the dragons' return be a dream come true


or just another nightmare?

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For six hundred years Pern prospered under the protection of AVIAS. The seasons came and went, the crops grew and were harvested and the population flourished. Undisturbed by the threat of thread fall technology and medicine advanced in dragon lengths. Basic steam powered machinery emerged and previously mortal wounds are now treatable. However the paradise was a short lived dream. Not long after the failed testing of a steam powered airship the sweet fruit of life turned sour.

A dragon hatching that occurred a short time afterwards both shocked and devastated the weyrs and holds. The freshly hatched dragonets turned on each other, ripping their siblings apart with unbridled violence before shockingly turning on the candidates. With the sands soaked in ichor and blood, the weyr hoped it would be a freak event never to repeat. Their hope was in vain and hatchings quickly built the reputation of being a slaughter.

The affliction didn’t stop at the new born however. A short time after, the madness began to affect mature dragons who turned on their fellows and most unnervingly, their riders. The only respite to this nightmare was that those infected died no longer than a month after symptoms emerged. Within three months the entire dragon population was destroyed and pern held its breath in apprehension of the next bloodshed, but when none occurred everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Mercifully whers and firelizards appeared immune to the affliction and prospered.

The reprieve was to be short lived however as AVIAS unexplainably failed and thread once more rained death on Pern’s land. This time there were no dragons to paint the skies in green, blue, brown, bronze and gold, instead the whers and the firelizards inherited the responsibility. For fifty long turns the dragon cousins protected the world, however their population was devastated in the process.

Over two hundred turns later while the whers and firelizards are still struggling to recover the wind carried the sound of great wing beats and the horizon winked with dragon hide lead by a huge golden queen, larger than even the great Ramoth. The group counted six hundred in total with a vast clutch which she gave to Aterrima along with a small tithe of dragons to set up their own weyr. However nothing is as it was and the weyr was forced to steal candidates as those that volunteered were few and far between, the haunting story of the madness plague still fresh among the holders.

Miraculously Aterrima gathered enough for their first hatching but it would once more be bathed in blood. The first dragonets hatched healthy and strong, bonding quickly however a male hatched his hide painted with the colours of a deep sunset, unlike anything ever seen before. Kaltith became enraged at the sight of it and attacked the clutch aiming for the purple and gold hatchling. The queen egg broke and the gold saved her brother from the blow but was killed in the process.

Unfortunately this would not be the only injury suffered by Aterrima, as the weyr still reeled from the loss of their gold Rimeth, Kaltith sent her dragons to steal the candidates from Aterrima for Kaltith’s new clutch. Powerless to respond openly the Aterrima riders waited and plotted. For five seven days they bided their time. It wasn’t until they joined forces with a rogue group of whers that they made their move; infiltrating Telgar and making off with a 23 of Kaltith's eggs. Kaltith was angrier than ever, but did not pursue. Instead she gave Aterrima a grace period, of sorts. On the first day of Spring, Aterrima and Telgar will be at war.

This, of course, gave the Aterrimans enough time to take their winnings to another, empty Weyr, where they had hidden the mutation Weyrlings after the first hatching. Enroute to this other Weyr, however, two of the eggs were stolen from them, including one of the two Queen eggs. Kaltith is also claiming that Aterrima stole well over forty of her eggs. There are tensions in the air, and upon arrival, the remaining eggs are well guarded until the day arrives...

Not long after they arrived, the eggs hatched and a new colour was revealed. Gold Ullrith has announced that Abandoned Weyr is her home, and that Aterrima can keep their Beryl - she will not follow. So now the Aterrimans face a difficult choice. Do they hope that their Beryl really is a Queen? Or do they stay with Ullrith, who, for all her youth, appears to be similar to Kaltith in more ways than her hide?

Will the dragons' return be a dream come true


or just another nightmare?