Fort Weyr

Lost in the mists of time are the details of the Ancients’ crossing from the southern continent to the north, what is definitely known is that Fort Hold and the Weyr were founded first after the crossing, with Sean and Sorka O’Connell leading the Weyr on bronze Carenath and gold Faranth.

Between the Second Pass and the Fifth Interval, little of note is recorded in Fort’s history: Thread was fought with greater or lesser degrees of success, the Weyr maintained through every Interval, until the end of the Sixth Pass when the plague brought Fort to prominence. Due to its central
role in managing the cure for the plague and its heroine Moreta who gave her life to save others, Fort Weyr and its leaders of the Sixth Pass are forever memorialized in the “Ballad of Moreta’s Ride”.

Between the Sixth Pass and the 8th Interval, again history is relatively quiet until the inhabitants of Fort Weyr vanish at the start of the 8th Interval only to re-appear as ‘Oldtimers’ in the 9th Pass as a result of Lessa of Benden’s quest to the past. Initially lauded as unexpected saviors, the Oldtimers and particularly the Weyrleaders of Fort, T’ron and Mardra became a thorn in the side for the leaders of the 9th Pass. T’ron challenged F’lar of Benden for the leadership of Pern at the wedding of Lord Asgenar of Lemos to Famira of Telgar at Telgar Hold. Badly injured, T’ron was exiled along with many of the Oldtimers to the South. Fort’s leadership eventually passed to N’ton, a bronzerider fomerly from Benden.

During the 9th Interval, many of the discoveries of the 9th Pass and the particular ingenuity of the Smithcrafters of that time period have led to mild and gradual technological progress that was supported by many of the Weyrs including Fort. Through the course of the 10th Pass, Fort has held a
marginal role in historical events on Pern, though the Weyr continues to be plagued by the occasional mudslide that originally ruined the curve of the bowl above the lake. Most recently, the Weyr was among those hard hit during the ‘Comet Pass’, many of Fort’s oldest and youngest riders
perished or were incapacitated in the rogue falls that kept the planet on constant alert for the better part of 8 Turns.

As the ‘Comet Pass’ came to an end, Fort faced the loss of two queens, Weyrwoman Jenna and her gold Niyath having been crippled in one of the last few rogue Falls and her successor, Weyrwoman Zahava, having contracted a wasting sickness that led to her death and the suicide of her gold Ciath. It was the newly graduated Berit from the Weaver Hall and her gold Zibeth who rose next to become Senior Weyrwoman, with the former Telgari R’uen and bronze Zaiventh becoming Weyrleader in month 12 of turn 16.

In the spring of turn 18, Berit stepped down as Weyrwoman due to issues arising from her pregnancy. Cirse, gold Peirith’s rider took on the mantle of Acting Senior until the next gold rose at Fort, with R’uen continuing as Weyrleader. Peirith rose and was caught by Zaiventh confirming both Cirse and R’uen as Weyrwoman and Weyrleader of Fort Weyr.

During the summer of turn 18, failures of the cotton and sisal fiber crops put the crunch on the Fort region, leaving all hard up for key fabric staples. To add insult to injury, Fort Seahold held several key tithe shipments at the hold for months and also traded off some of the tithe to turn a profit during the autumn and winter of turn 18 leading to strained relations with much of the rest of the immediate region. Fort Hold finally stepped in and forced the release of the tithe to the Weyr during the summer of turn 19 and collaborated with policing Fort Sea and keeping an eye on greedy Holder Rivellan. The tithes were released to the Weyr during the week of 7/7/19.

The rest of turn 19 was largely uneventful barring continued high prices on fabric staples and rumors of bad marks being passed at the turnover gather at Fort.

Early in month 3 of turn 20, junior weyrwoman’s father, the Holder of Ruatha River Hold died of seemingly natural causes. The goldrider’s younger brother, generally known to be somewhat less-than-competent and easily led took over the reins of Ruatha River Hold immediately after his father’s death. Rivellan of Fort Sea reached out to the young holder to arrange a match between him and one of his daughters to forge an alliance between the two holds.

R’uen continued as Weyrleader of Fort through early Turn 20 when Peirith rose somewhat unexpectedly and ahead of time on the evening of the 18th day of month 3 of turn 20. With Zaiventh and R’uen out of the Weyr that day visiting family, by rumor with warning by the Weyrwoman, the field was left open for another Weyrleader to take charge of the Weyr. T’rev’s bronze Mecaith, Zaiventh’s clutchmate won the queen making another former Telgari bronzerider Weyrleader at Fort.

Pern History through the 9th Pass drawn from the works of Anne McCaffrey, all books, plots and characters, © Anne McCaffrey. Post-9th Pass on-camera history summarized from logs of play on PernMUSH and NorConMush.