Weyrling Information

The first sevenday will be an arduous cycle of feeding, cleaning, oiling and sleeping. The second week if followed by light lessons that are short but frequent to give Weyrlings ample time to feed their charges. The intense emotions emanating from the dragons will make the candidates feel lethargic, and the cracking hides will be perplexing. Dragon care and dealing with the bond between dragon and human will be the main lessons for the first four sevendays.

*3rd Week: Bronzes are shooting up in size. Browns are merely days behind them. They will have issues with their skin moreso than any other colors and will need more attention.
4th week: Blues and greens are catching up in size, but the gap between the ranks is growing. There will be itchiness and peeling and care should be taken. Some dragons might be having more problems than others.
5th-8th week: All dragonets are suffering more or less equally with the growing pains. Bronzes and browns are obviously growing a bit faster to reach their full sizes, and all but the biggestl of blues and greens are noticeably smaller.

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* Flight and Weyrs
During the 4th month, controlled gliding and short flights are slowly introduced by dragons, and encouraged during play. These are unmanned flights that should not exceed a dragonlength or two from the ground.

At the beginning of the 5th month, dragons now learn to hunt for themselves. This practice will be perfected through the month on small game.

During the 6th month, manned flight begins. After their first successful flight, they are moved into their own Weyrs as the dragons are now practically spilling out of their couches. Flight is still mildly restricted to getting to and from the ground to the Weyr and whatever lessons they are given to avoid strain.

Wing exercises continue and drills are started. During the 7th month, weyrlings will learn to go /between/. Firestone is introduced soon after and the first thread experience will happen anywhere from 8-10 months depending on the state of the Weyr. Normally this starts with flying in a lower wing above the queen's wing. Later on, smaller wings will be given firestone duty and will have to deliver firestone.

Between 10 months and graduation, the Weyrlings are split up to begin work with full dragonriders to learn to work in the wings with the 'big boys'. They will not fight threadfall with their new wings until they are assigned permanent wings after graduation.

Unless further training is needed, graduation occurs within the 12th month. After this they will promptly be assigned to a Wing and will begin full dragonrider duties.


((Much more will be added to this, but I wanted to make sure I got some of the more important questions out of the way.))

Ooo, thank you! I was going to ask for some time frames, and you've done covered 'em all!

LOVE to Nako, our fearless, wise, and goodlooking-leader!
(I can suck up now that the hatching is over... LOL!!!)

Teehee! I figured those would be the most asked questions. I hope to fill more things out as I go. Also, if you have ANY questions about weyrlinghood, PLEASE post them! It will help me flesh things out so much more! Even the tedious, seemingly dumb questions. =D Most likely, they aren't so dumb.

Good looking? You silly XD

I have questions! They're kind of on the subject of, um, functions, though. A lot of stuff seems to just get glossed over in Anne's fiction.

Question one: Assuming dragons eliminate when they go between, what about baby dragons? I know from housebreaking my darling Misha that puppies need to go potty about once every two or three hours until they're four months old. What do the weyrlings do with poop from a Great Dane-sized baby dragon?

Question two: How much intelligence does a baby dragon have? Should we RP them gaining it gradually? I've always wondered about this, because they're born fully articulate in the books, and their personalities tend to stay the same through adulthood. I've usually played my dragonets being wide-eyed with childlike wonder at the world right after hatching, then gradually getting wiser and more able to comment intelligently about their environment as they get older.

Question three: Are the weyrling barracks a real barracks at Kharasi, with human and dragon beds ranged along the walls of a long room in order to accommodate as many inmates as possible while taking up no more precious space than necessary? Forgive me if this one's nitpicky; I really want to get a good picture in my head about all the surroundings.

That's all for now, though I'm sure I'll have more.

Elimination: One of the glossed over things is that they typically have to be led out to eliminate outside, probably during feeding time. There are bound to be accidents though, probably within the first few weeks. Once preparing their food outside becomes routine, they'll eliminate off to the side in a special area. They'll be doing this until they have mastered the art of between

Intelligence: In reality, they gain much of their intelligence from their rider. In short stories of F'lessan Impressing to Golanth though, he had to teach him to chew, since the dragon could hardly comprehend the word. I'd suspect they would learn fast, picking up on words in their thoughts and conversation based on context, but as very young babies they will probably still get hung up on words and concepts, and totally be incapable of understanding sex and relationships beyond friendship with other weyrlings until closer to a turn old.

Weyrling Space: Because of the needs of the growing Weyrlings and their eventual desire for space, they are indeed packed in by rows, but are surrounded by three stone walls, the back wall usually attached to the cavern wall save for a middle 'wall' that has more Weyrs branching off. Each of these have a dragon couch suited for 50 percent of the dragon's adult size, the actual sizes of the couches ranging from 50% of what a gold would need, to what 50% of a green is. Sometimes a little room swapping and moving to a bigger couch is in order, and the dragons are truly spilling out of their couches before they move out into their own weyr. Also, there is no curtain for privacy, as it would only get in the way of a growing dragon (not to mention unless the apparatus was high enough not to gonk the dragon in the head, it could become a hazard) and because it's not practical, it's left out.

So, yes, they pack as many as they can in there, but with enough room for a gold at 55-60% of her growth to maneuver with some decent level of comfort through the barracks, since that's as large as they get.

Hey, quick morbid question:

In firelizard hatchings, there are usually a few flitts that dont Impress. They typically go canibal. Does this occur with non-Impressing dragons? What would the weyr do with a dragon(s) that didnt Impress?

Dragons that don't find a partner immediately go between. :( Poor things.

Yikes! Which book was that in?

I don't remember any book every saying they go between. Theoretically that is true. If they hatched and NO ONE was there, they would go between, but a dragon will always find a suitable mind, even if they have to go into the stands. Dragons do not go cannibal either. I do not believe in dragons going between when the "perfect" person isn't there, because a dragon would choose Impressing over death. When Kylara went to Southern in a different time to raise dragons for the Pass, they knew to send exactly however many candidates for the exact amount of eggs. Do you think that every dragon was "perfect" for the rider? Probably not.. not realistically. The dragon and rider BECOME perfect for one another based on a few things they have in common. There will obviously be first choices, then second, then thirds. You'll love your dragon no matter what, and they'll love you.

But of course, there is the live myth and fear of dragons going between so people avoid it at all costs to make sure there are enough candidates, if not more candidates so that there is no chance of the dragonets being forced to suicide... even though dragonriders know that the dragons will choose before they die, who wants to take chances?

Actually, there are many renditions of firelizard hatchings. In one book they go cannibal. In another, they fly off into threadfall. It's just another one of those inconsistencies that Anne couldn't make her mind up on. I invision firelizards flying off to find food, not go cannibal.

I can't remember where I read it, but I recall being totally distraught when it happened. :( I'll try to find it sometime.

You sure the dragonet wasn't also injured?

Hmm.. it's a possibility. This is going to drive me crazy lol.

Same here, lol. I feel like I might remember something similar. I believe it's in one of the later, wackier books. I feel that there might have been injury involved though.

There is no cannibalization at Hatchings. No egg Hatches that doesn't Impress. I know in more than one case there are unhatched eggs at Hatchings (I think the possibility of such is mentioned in Dragonseye, and in The White Dragon several people thought Ruth's egg would not Hatch) and it is the duty of the Weyrleader to dispose of such eggs Between. If the person who suits the dragon isn't there, then the dragon doesn't hatch. And really, are just a few cases of people arriving in 'the nick of time' who were Searched and then arrived late (I can think of one textual example, but only one off the top of my head). I'd say that 'nick of time' Impressions only occurred very rarely, maybe only say once per Weyr per Pass or something like that.

I don't remember reading anything outside of 'fanon' that says eggs without a partner don't hatch.. just unhealthy and underdeveloped eggs since the eggs grow a thick shell so they can't escape.

I think it's more of a case of Ruth dragons stay in the shell (and other genetic anomalies that would have an overthick shell so they won't hatch and degrade the breeding program) and dragons that hatch make due with what is there.


As far as cannibalization goes.. they might maul and injure but a dragon doesn't worry about food until after Impression. I'd think that if a dragon hatched and.. NO ONE was there.. I wouldn't know what would happen. I'd think the dragon would wander as far as they could until they found someone, or die trying. These are just extreme cases we don't have an answer for since any dragon egg will hatch on the sands and there will be people there... Any situation beyond that we just don't have an answer to because it hasn't happened in canon.

Personally I say he might keep walking.. and walking.. crying his poor little heart out as he tries to find his soulmate.. and finally as death comes upon him he blinks /between/ forever.. D= *bricked!* I'm so depressing sometimes.