goldguide

~ Introduction ~
Congratulations! You're now the proud (and you'd better be proud or the BoD will want to know why not) owner of a baby gold dragon. After much painful deliberation (and believe me, it was very painful), you were selected to Impress the weyr's newest gold. Remember that this was based on your stories and your contributions to running the weyr. So we expect just as much from you now as we did before, if not more. After all, suddenly your Candidate character that required only one story in order to be considered for the gold is going to be required four stories.

Fortunately that first story still counts. Now that you're done basking in the afterglow of Impressing a future queen, I'll bet you're wondering, "Now that all my fandom dragon dreams have been realized, what comes next?" Well, at the beginning, not much more than if your dragon were any other color. The new gold weyrling lives in the weyrling barracks with all the other weyrlings until it's time for the weyrling riders to move into their own weyrs. At that time, the weyrling goldrider moves into one of the ground level queen weyrs- there are seven of them and currently only three are occupied. They're the ones closest to the Hatching Grounds- convenient in later Turns when your dragon is brooding over her clutch and her rider would really appreciate a bath.

~ What Does Come Next? ~
Well, first the rider feeds her new lifemate and then. Oh, wait, you've no doubt done all that before. Well, weyrling training begins the day after the Hatching so you'd best see that your pair gets a good night's sleep. They have a busy day ahead of them.

Weyrling training will progress as normal up until about Month 8. When classmates are given evenings off for free time gold weyrlings will be given further tutelage under the weyr's goldriders and the Headwoman. Additionally, in Month 9, while the rest of your dragon's clutchmates will form the Weyrling Wing, your gold pair will move directly into Emerald (Queen's) Wing. But before we bombard you with information on what a mess we're turning your character's life into, why don't we begin with a simple introduction?

~ About Gold Dragons: Stuff you probably already know but I'm telling you anyway ~
A gold dragon is usually the largest and strongest of all dragons. It is also said that the golds are the most intelligent. Perhaps that is where the title "queen" came from. Victory golds will range from 60 to 80 feet in length and have wingspans of 180 to 240 feet.

A gold dragon begins her life like all dragons- in an egg. Her egg will be unlike any other. Eggs containing golden occupants are larger than their clutchmates. A gold egg on Victory's sands would be about four feet by two feet. Running around my apartment, I find that a gold egg would be larger than my microwave oven but smaller than my refrigerator. I have the really small sized refrigerator. Gold dragons lay gold eggs. Only gold dragons lay eggs. Green dragons, as we all know, don't lay eggs at all. Whether green dragons are genetically sterile or have a genetic predisposition to sterility after chronic firestone use is a hot debate. But this isn't the time or the place for that.

A gold egg, in addition to being larger than its clutchmates, will usually have a golden hue or sheen to its shell. Gold eggs are a rarity. Not quite as rare as hen's teeth, but just about. Of course, with chickens themselves being rare on Pern. A gold dragon will dote on her gold egg. Not to say that she will neglect the rest of her clutch but she will lavish extra attention and care on the golden one. A dragon queen with a gold egg on the sands is a thing to be respected and, if at all possible, avoided. You might like to avoid her rider, too, while you're at it.

At Victory, all female Candidates are potential goldriders (unless, of course, their writers have excluded them by sexual preference). As such, there is no circle of chosen girls surrounding the gold egg. The gold egg will hatch as any other. The golden dragonet will be given her choice of the Candidates on the sands. Of course, the BoD knows exactly whom she'll look to but they're not telling!

After a dazzling Impression that has no doubt left a very special member stunned and flattered and about to bust their chair for all their jumping up and down, the bronzes will fly down to the sands of the Hatching Grounds and pay homage to their newest queen. Feel free to freak out now.

The gold dragonet looks just like all the other dragonets except, well, she's gold. Unless you've requested that we do so for you, you'll be allowed to describe her yourself. She'll have two eyes and two head knobs and. you get the idea.

A gold weyrling and her rider will go through weyrling training with all her clutchmates and their riders. Month 8 sees the rider stuck with extra lessons that go with the extra duties those unfortunate enough to Impress gold dragons are stuck with. Month 11 sees the pair in a full fighting wing, if not officially graduated.

A gold dragon will usually rise later than her green siblings will. One and a half to two and a half Turns after her hatching, a gold will take her maiden flight with the weyr's bronzes (and browns if she's a junior queen and their riders dare) in hot pursuit. And that's what everyone wants, isn't it? The chance to have eggs after a mating flight!

~ OOC Stuff: What we're going to make you do now ~
Well, you've been chosen. Poor you. Now you're stuck doing the drudge work around here. Actually, since you were chosen, it's pretty obvious that you've seen your share of drudge work already! After all, we didn't elect you because we're nice.

We also hope that you'll help us do various other things. Like promote the weyr, talk us up to all your fandom friends; bake us cookies and the like.

We obviously love you and think highly of you as a writer. So please don't abuse the little OOC privileges we'll probably shower on you.

~ IC Stuff: What your character can get away with ~
Now for the good stuff; now that your character is a goldrider, she can get away with a lot more than she could as a lowly Candidate or even as a sniveling weyrling.

Gold weyrlings need permission from the Weyrlingmistress or the Weyrwoman to leave the weyr. Other then being revered as a possible future Weyrwoman must follow all rules that other Weyrlings are required to follow.

Gold weyrlings are not superior. Riders will treat a gold weyrling as any other Weyrling. Riders will, however, do anything to protect a Gold Weyrling.

Gold weyrlings can have felines or canines for pets. As a goldrider, she is guaranteed a ground level weyr.

There are other privileges that come with gold dragons.

A gold dragon and her rider have rank. Even bronze dragons and their riders have to answer to them. So no one gets to tell a goldrider what to do. Unless the Weyrwoman or her Senior Queen tells them what to do, that is. Basically this boils down to one thing. Your character has power but must obey the WeyrWoman and WeyrLeader.

You get to have EGGS! And, except for getting away with telling other people what to do once in awhile, this is about the only thing that separates golds from any other color.

~ After Graduation ~
Although the weyrling pair will have been flying in a fighting wing for 10 months, they do not officially graduate until they have been paired for two full Turns like the rest of their classmates. This allows the pair to learn and become accustomed to their extra duties.

A weyrling goldrider and her dragon will have had a Turn of extra instruction in preparation to take their place in the weyr's hierarchy. Her post-graduate duties are as follows:

Weyrwoman

Coordinates all weyr activities- hears reports from all departments of the weyr from the Weyrleader to the Beastherder and ensures that everyone is working together at maximum efficiency.

Coordinates all weyr functions- Hatchings, Gathers, etc.

Maintains all weyr records- mating flights, clutches and Hatchings, new weyrlings, births and deaths; incorporates reports from all weyr departments into the weyr records.

Takes supply requisitions from all weyr departments.

Delegates responsibilities to goldriders.

Represents the weyr at all social and political functions. Attends Conclaves as the weyr's representative.

Weyrwoman 2nd

Assists the Weyrwoman in coordination of activities, functions, and recordkeeping.

Executes specific tasks assigned by the Weyrwoman.

Reports to the Weyrwoman.

Oversees the training of weyrling goldriders.

Represents the weyr at social functions. Attends Conclaves in the stead of the Weyrwoman should she be indisposed.

Goldriders

Assists the Weyrwoman in coordination of activities, functions, and recordkeeping.

Executes specific tasks assigned by the Weyrwoman.

Reports to the Weyrwoman.

Represents the weyr at social functions.

~ Mating Flights: Now we're talking the good stuff ~
And now it is time to talk about that one thing that separates the golds from the greens. Mating flights, eggs, and Hatchings! A gold dragon will have her first flight from two and a half to three and a half Turns. A day or two prior to rising, a gold may become moody and short-tempered. Her rider's behavior will be similarly effected. This temporary condition is sometimes referred to as "proddiness." Not all gold dragons and their riders will experience proddiness.

A gold dragon will rise after waking from a deep slumber, the color of her hide deepening in hue and appearing bright, as if glowing. Her mind will be chaotic and her eyes will spin in oranges and reds. She will fly to the feeding grounds and promptly bring down a beast. Her rider must inhibit her from feeding, as the meat will weigh her down in the flight. She can be permitted to drink the blood, as it will provide energy to sustain her. Bronzes may or may not kill a beast and their riders will instruct them accordingly.

When she is satisfied and the moment is right, the gold will spring into the air, followed closely by the bronzes. Although browns have a lesser chance of catching a gold, some of the larger browns may join the flight, their riders permitting. Brown-gold matings are not unheard of but they have been known to happen, especially when the riders share a bond.At Victory, another rider will transport the goldrider to the top of the cliff where the feeding grounds are located. A close friend of the goldrider usually does this, typically a blue or greenrider. All other goldriders will be busy fleeing the weyr with the exception of golds with eggs on the sands. The bronzeriders will be waiting for her there. A small shelter was built when the weyr was founded and is kept supplied with fresh linens and spare clothing. More than one couple has been eternally grateful to the riders that came before them.

As the gold flies, her rider will be with her in mind. The rider must prevent her dragon from going between at all costs lest she be lost there. This is no small task, as the rider herself will be caught in the maelstrom of her dragon's thoughts. Which will be rather preoccupied with out-flying the males who give chase. Unlike greens, who delight in the mating flight and enjoy being caught, golds will hiss and sneer at their pursuers. Males who are very young or very old will usually drop out of the flight before it is over, leaving those in their prime. One of them will eventually managed to entwine his neck about the gold's own, catching them on their plummet to the ground with his wings and locking in the mating embrace. (Add sighs of happiness here.)

On the ground, the rider will often mimic her lifemate, hissing at the male riders and warding off their very obvious attempts to "catch" her. When her gold is caught, the rider of the victorious dragon will commence "ravishment of the fair female." While this would probably make a really great story, this is a PG13 weyr. So keep it clean and couch the potentially dirty parts in euphemisms, please.

You, the writer, determine the winner of the flight. You might choose someone based on his or her writing abilities, or for their contributions to the weyr, or because their character and yours would create a wonderful Plot (we encourage Plotting here), or you may roll dice or use some other random method of determining the winner. The point is, you choose who wins your dragon's flight. But do keep the following things in mind:

Bronzes have a better chance of catching a gold than browns do.

Dragons in their prime have a better chance of catching a gold than old or young dragons. Dragons just out of weyrling training probably aren't going to catch a gold, even if your characters are in love.

Dragons who are healthy and well rested have a better chance of catching a gold than those who are tired and/or injured.

The dragon who has flown the queen with the greatest frequency has the best chance of catching her again.

Sometimes there will be a consensus in the weyr. The majority of the people will prefer one dragon to all the others. This may have some influence over the flight.

Sometimes the emotions of the riders will have an effect over a flight. Sometimes.

It is only after she has flown and mated that a gold dragon will be referred to as a queen. Until that time, her rider is simply a "goldrider."

~ Clutches ~
Four to six weeks after the flight, a queen will lay her clutch. It typically takes several days for her to lay all of her eggs. Most prefer to have their rider present the whole time and no other observers. After all, would you want an audience at a time like that?

The week prior to clutching, a queen will not fly. Think of it as being nine months pregnant. There's not much a woman wants to do then except get it over with already! After the clutch is laid, a queen will rarely leave the Hatching Grounds except to eat and bathe. And she will only do these things with reluctance and great haste at the urging of her rider. Instincts prevail and a brooding queen will not want to leave her nest of eggs unattended for long.

A queen may delay her clutching up to ten days if suitable circumstances for laying her eggs do not present themselves but it is highly unlikely that this would happen as a queen so close to clutching will not fly and, thus, will probably be in her own weyr. However, another clutch on the sands may, on some occasions, delay her by a few days.

Clutches will range from 10 to 20 eggs. Clutches laid in an Interval and at the end of a Pass are smaller than those at the beginning and during a Pass are. A gold's first clutches will be smaller than her later clutches, though her clutches will shrink in size as she approaches "menopause" after which time she will lay no more clutches. The clutches of a more senior queen will typically be larger than the clutches of her juniors. The clutches of a bronze-gold mating will be larger than the clutches of a brown-gold mating.

Gold eggs will only be laid when the BoD sanctions them. To determine the color ratios of a bronze-gold clutch, use the following:

Half of the clutch will be green. Divide the total number of eggs by two and round down if the result is not a whole number.

One fourth of the clutch will be blue. Divide the total number of eggs by four and round down if the result is not a whole number.

One eighth of the clutch will be brown. Divide the total number of eggs by eight and round down if the result is not a whole number.

The remainder of the eggs in the clutch will be bronze.

If the BoD has determined your clutch will contain a gold egg, there will be one "extra" egg that will not be counted in the total number of eggs.

~ Hatchings ~
The eggs will hatch four to five weeks after they are laid. Persona sheets for Candidate personae that have been approved by the BoD will be forwarded to you and color distributions will be made based on their preferences. If they state no preference you must contact them for information. If their preference is a "surprise dragon," you will be allowed to write as little or as much about that dragon as you please, in addition to determining its color and name. This is your dragon, thus it is your Hatching. If there is a gold egg in the clutch, the BoD will determined who will Impress the next gold dragon and will inform you of such. In the event that there are more Candidates than there are eggs, it will be at your discretion who will Impress and who will not.

When the day of the Hatching arrives, you may post the results to the mailing list and e-mail each person with a Candidate persona or Candidate personae the information they will require. It's often nice to script a Hatching story for each of them or to write a 'zine piece that you deliver to the editors as well as everyone with a Candidate persona. Or you can just role-play the whole Hatching if you want. Try to be creative!

After you have contacted each new weyrling individually, e-mail the Weyrlingmaster and inform her of the new weyrling pairs so that she can contact them herself.

~ Is That Everything? ~
Well, apparently it is since I'm completely out of ideas. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact the BoD. If you are interested in writing about some of the lessons detailed in a prior section, contact the person with the appropriate character. And once again, congratulations on your Impression of the newest gold dragon at Victory Weyr!