your new source for pern salt

i play pern at apocalypse weyr. i like to argue (affectionate) about pern. follow me for rants, discussion, sometimes shitposts, and i might re-read the series. you may know me from dragonfly dreams. icon by @kiwihounds.

[blackberrybug55]

did a really deep dive over the weekend taking a look at the remaining Pern community we could find through discords, webrings, web searches, and socmed - mostly just by looking around at all the weyrs, MUSHes, and PBEMs (both inactive and active).

we've never been in the pern fandom online, so it's been an interesting ride.

here's some very very old art i did when i first got into pern nearly a decade and a half ago!

[tlirsgender]

Being critical of your interests is sooooo fun when you have the critic gene & then you sound kind of insane to the average tv watcher when you're like "this is my favorite show, It's Racist" & then you try to clarify what you mean & get that [Speech (legendary) - FAILURE] "the racism is really interesting though"

[tlirsgender]

[Speech (legendary) - SUCCESS] I find the sociopolitical context of pulpy old sci-fi born circa the civil rights movement really fascinating to analyze especially when it was progressive for its time but still reveals the writers' unexamined biases in the subtext

[sqbr]

Them: So you're saying its bad and I shouldn't watch it?

Me: I mean depends on your tolerance for this type of racism, but like I said it's my favourite show, it def has some great parts if you're up for it.

Them: Oh so it's not racist.

Me: It absolutely is.

Them: So you're saying racism is ok??

Me: No.

[mikkeneko]

[blackberrybug55]

i have this headcanon that over time, they try to mimic human facial expression, especially their rider!

[keksdrache]

*wakes up in a cold sweat*

the red star/thread is periods and the. the dragons are space tampons

*falls back asleep*

[shipfishwrites]

it all makes sense now!!

[blackberrybug55]

all the dragon colors! and just for fun a little size comp with a human for scale.

Dragon physiology is quite varied. They all have different fore and hind paws, which are the standards of their color (so a gold will always have big soft paws, a bronze will always have spurs, etc.)

Their tails, spines, ears, and plumicorns are all unique to each dragon and no two will have a similar looking kind. As are their faces. :)

As for hide color, dragons are usually different hues of the same color (jade vs. emerald, etc.) but they can also have some light patterning, markings, and mutations that occur naturally, like piebald.

(and just for fun, the dragons in this lineup are:)

green Jeuleth (Looks to Etze) blue Chulaith (Looks to Wingleader Nels) brown Rangth (Looks to Weyrlingmaster K'ey) bronze Nicharth (Looks to Wingleader F'ah) gold Cheoth (Looks to Weyrleader Amise)

[shipfishwrites]

gorgeous!! I love the feets! the green looks like she might be able to hang from the ceiling...

[d1s4strous]

can you think of anything better than dragons. no you can't. this is because dragons are the best thing ever forever.

[blackberrybug55]

Brown Rangth, who looks to Weyrlingmaster K'ey. His personality is described as: "A bit of a nag."

The dragons at our Weyr all have unique traits to their colors, and browns are known for their very big forearms and dextrous paws. During Threadfall, the Browns are the dragons who have the strength and dexterity to rescue other dragons in distress. (They're also adept climbers.) And historically brown dragons have been seen as guards, shepherds, wingseconds, protectors, babysitters, and work great in search and rescue.

[shipfishwrites]

i love this extremely!!!! wingwalking! ears! also what a delightful brown

[grirnoires]

a sudden uncontrollable wave of nostalgia is upon me

[shipfishwrites]

love to see these folks again

[helianthus-ambiguus]

green dragon Geth, designed for @ichoracle

[atcharachara]

Some of the described European Ferals:

The Lithuanian Feral. Described with narrow heads and large boney crests upon them in stripes of orange and yellow. They were green and brown, though one individual was described to be similar to Lien and another being simply green with a crest in orange and brown. They like fancy plates.

The Scottish Feral, Ricarlee. Ricarlee has been described as mottled dark green with a purplish brown belly, but also being grey(?). The latter could be excused as part of his body paint, which he is shown here (minus the grey paint).

The first harnessed dragon of the Western (European) World, Vici taking a moment to yawn. She was described as looking similar to her mother but with blue spines, so a muddy green with paler green stripes and spots.

A lot of yapping under the cut.

I'm not actually familiar with any dragon folklore from either countries, so I read up a little on them.

The Lithuanian feral! Oh how I adore crests. I had to control myself to not give it the classic dilophosaurus double crest and settle with just one. For my design I gave it neck spines and long tail filaments bring to mind a rooster. Perhaps it may be called an Aitvaras locally with that resemblance.

The Scottish feral was in a dearth of descriptors, so I filled it in with... Dearc! I'm obsessed with the (not so) little guy since it's publication! Alas, I stayed a bit conservative with the design. I knew exactly where a "purplish brown" is on the color wheel, but color being relative it just looks plain purple next to the green. I think I used the wrong reference for the warpaint, since it seems like they go way brighter (but I don't know much about Scottish things, so maybe it's just those awesomebro reconstructions that I'm seeing?)

Vici is more of fun thing to round out the trio, based on my old design for her back when I did Smaugust some years ago. Back when I still had some semblance of focus to do monthly prompts...

Longer than the Dragon of Brusidium, Vici's mother is around 4-6 in elephant weight. Assuming a Carthaginian elephant, which I cannot find the average weight of so I'm using its closest in (alleged) size the African Forest Elephant (4.25 t), mom would be in the range of 17-26 tons. Vici is probably around that too.

As an extra: The "Lien-like" individual and Ricarlee without his body paint.

The pale one wasn't described in any other way other than being similar in looks to Lien, but on that thought might either be leucistic or albino which brings me to a tangent.

Lien is weird to me in regards to being albino. An albino's "red" eyes is due to the lack of pigment in the iris highlighting the blood vessels (even then is dependent on angle, though some types of albinism still have pigments in the eyes which would be unlikely to be red for a Celestial's case.)

Dragons, however, has been established to have dark red-black blood, most frequently being simply black. Lord Jinai's eye has even been explicitly described as being shot through with broken black vessels. The blue wing spots could be shrugged as turning red due to being a structural color (optics and color is not something I like studying </3), but I don't know, I'm still hung up on the eyes. In the defense of the eyes, that really old celestial had translucent black scales tinted red by his flesh and blood. (Though if there is enough flesh in your iris to tint it a color instead of uhh eye jelly that's a cause for concern)

Black and blue vs White and red is such an iconic color opposites for rivals, so I'll give it that. Rule of cool.

Relevant very old doodle of the different Celestials in the Chinese court, more of an exploration in color variation, learning how the brush worked, and finding out how I wanted the dragons to look. No attempts has been made to description accuracy otherwise (except for the colors of the old guy and Lien.)

[blackberrybug55]

Some portraits from the current cast of our Pern campaign, called The Tenth Clutch, which I've been slowly shaving the serial numbers off (it's now more 'Inspired By' atp.) From top left to bottom right; U'lon (First Wingleader) Cogh (Masterharper) Ustav (Masterhealer) T'gaun (Wingmaster; a new position that used to be 'Weyrleader') Amise (Weyrleader, instead of 'Weyrwoman') Lantam (Major Holder)

[shipfishwrites]

i love these !!

also i am intrigued by the mention of a campaign... a pern ttrpg?

[blackberrybug55]

Yes!! Me and my wife have been working on it since early last year. As we've worked on it, we've moved away from it being Pern and it's now our own setting that we're continuing to develop.

BUT, I'd really like to share all of the assets, worldbuilding, etc. that I made while it was still Pern! And maybe run a fun campaign/forum/Weyr in the future if there's interest.

[shipfishwrites]

yessss please show!! i'm always interested in ttrpg stuff

[saltissalty]

Ramoth of Benden Weyr.

Finally have time to do things for myself again. Quick n rough pern for my enrichment

[blackberrybug55]

Some portraits from the current cast of our Pern campaign, called The Tenth Clutch, which I've been slowly shaving the serial numbers off (it's now more 'Inspired By' atp.) From top left to bottom right; U'lon (First Wingleader) Cogh (Masterharper) Ustav (Masterhealer) T'gaun (Wingmaster; a new position that used to be 'Weyrleader') Amise (Weyrleader, instead of 'Weyrwoman') Lantam (Major Holder)

[shipfishwrites]

i love these !!

also i am intrigued by the mention of a campaign... a pern ttrpg?

[mayaohmu]

reminder to get those artfight refs done early !!

mildly amusing size-comparison under the cut

the difference in front leg anatomy.... it's fine though, I don't think Elphie exists in the same Pern AU as the other two anyway <3

also i love that she's the smallest but still as tall as a house

[shipfishwrites]

LOVE these creatures

[mayaohmu]

Best boy Mnementh and Lessa (because i liked that she was friends with more dragons than just Ramoth <3)

[shipfishwrites]

i love the clouds toooo ahh

[taimasartblog]

Birthday Discount on my Ko-fi shop x3

Hi there everyone x3 I have an announcement to make........ I GET OLD on Saturday xDDDDD (and i'm already old xD)

AND THIS MEANS DISCOUNT BIRTHDAY WEEK xDDDDD

So yes you will get a discount of everything in my shop! Bases and Adopts will be 33% off from now to Sunday next week the 26th of April o((>ω< ))o

( why 33% off..... because i will get this old T_T .... xD )

All you need to do is click on this link and the prices will be come automatically with the discount x3

-> https://ko-fi.com/taimatala/link/TUNASBIRTHDAY

I really hope some of you will finally get the base or the Adopt they wanted from me with this discount!

Also i am work on a new very cute spring dragon base that i will upload hopefully tomorrow! If not then definitely on Tuesday!!!!!

Hope you all have nice day x3

~Taima

[alltherestofus]

Seeing the diminishment and erasure of the legacy of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series occur in my actual lifetime is mind-boggling.

You've got people out here making youtube videos about the legacy of dragons and dragonriding in fantasy fiction without talking about the dragonriding Grand Master of SFF herself Anne McCaffrey.

This isn't some obscure thing where I'm trying to promote someone who is only kind of known because of forgotten representation. Anne McCaffrey was A HOUSEHOLD NAME when I was a kid when it comes to fantasy literature. She's the first woman to win a Hugo and to win a Nebula. In 2002 there was a TV pilot filmed for Dragonriders of Pern.

Eragon, Temeraire, Toothless, and the dragons of Fourth Wing exist because these people grew up on the blueprint set by the Pern novels. Talking about dragons and not mentioning Pern is like talking about Orcs and not mentioning Lord of the Rings.

Y'all need to read your fucking classics before you go talking like an authority on a topic. Jesus Christ.

[shipfishwrites]

that's what i've been saying!! same page here.