The Political Structure of the Weyrs
On this page there is a basic examination of the inner workings of the Weyrs. A Weyr is, to put it very simply and bluntly, a barracks. The dragonriders are in effect the military of Pern. This can be shown in various ways: the most basic being that the dragonriders are the force which protects Pern from invasion. Invasion, that is, by Thread. Thread, silver "mycorrhizoid organisms"1 which fall upon Pern for 50 year Passes, with a gap of 200 years between each Pass. Another point of similarity between a Weyr and a regiment (all six Weyrs make up an army) is ranks. It is clear that there are ranks within a weyr, determined by the colour of the dragons. The Golds an the Bronzes are the officer classes, with the Browns as sergeants and corporals, and the Greens and Blues as the rank-and-file (privates). This determines how the 'wings' of each Weyr are staffed. The 'Wingleader' is always a bronze rider, usually supported by a brown or young bronze rider, or two. Green and blue dragon/rider pairs generally make up the rest, though of course this fluctuates due to the number of each colour dragon there currently are, as they may well be young browns as privates in a wing. But I do not think that dragon-colour immediately qualifies a dragon/rider pair to a certain position, but each colour has certain qualities that push it towards a certain position in the hierarchy. The way in which the leadership of the Weyr is decided, however, is less like an army. The Weyrwoman is the rider of the senior queen dragon in the Weyr. The Weyrleader is determined by who's dragon 'flies' the queen when she rises to mate. In practice this exclusively the Bronze dragons by the Ninth Pass, as they are much larger than the other dragons and so can last long enough. Because of this, it is possible for the Weyrleader to change every time the senior queen rises to mate. However, this is not especially common, as both the Weyrwoman and the senior queen often get attached to just one dragon/rider set, who then consistently 'fly' each other. An example of this is Ramoth/Lessa and Mnementh/F'lar. As senior queen of Benden Weyr, whoever's dragon flies Ramoth becomes Weyrleader, but as both dragons and riders are committed to each other, it does not happen. However, it can and does happen.
Below is my representation the very basic political relationships between the various riders of the weyr. The boxes are sized so as to give a very basic idea of the numbers.
Notes: 1 Anne McCaffrey, The Skies Of Pern (BCA, 2001) p. 19 |
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