#pernese dragon

[ranticore]

I wanted to keep drawing some pern dragon stuff because I'm now writing a full AU set in weyr but I didn't want to put this stuff on my main blog or patreon due to it being basically for my own reference, though i felt others would like it too! so here is My Take On Dragon Wings By Type...

It's no secret I love drawing bird wings and prefer them a lot over traditional dragon wings. Growing up, I read the pern books featuring cover art of dragonfly-like wings with lots of little translucent panels, which I always loved. So I thought I'd try to nail down some wing shapes & structures by blending those two things i like together. I am aware dragons fly by telekinesis but I prefer a more realistic type of creature design so I will be choosing to ignore that fact. I do not care about strict canon compliance but I do like to keep some of that framework there as well, for fun.

The wing is made up of three main sails, as well as a propatagium sail (in front of the elbow). They are relatively polymorphic and can expand or contract to an extent to change the shape of the wing in response to flight demands, like the wing of an airliner. The trailing edge can expand and the slots between the spars of the 1st wingsail can deepen or become shallower (where those are a feature). The main structural matrix is opaque, while the membranous 'sails' are translucent and let light through like stained glass. These are a bilayer of membrane with air sandwiched between, which forms part of the air sac & respiratory system.

It makes sense for the original engineers of dragons to diversify dragon wing types by colour so that when fighting Thread, there's a dragon for every conceivable aerial job.

[individual descriptions under the cut]

Queens have the longest wings, though the largest bronzes can rival them for surface area. Gold wings are high endurance - a queen can fly further than any other dragon in active level flight, leaving even the swiftest bronzes behind if they can't muster up the energy reserves to catch her. She is an effective flier at all elevations and can pass very low over terrain without issue as well; she is an expert at taking advantage of the ground effect, where extra lift is generated within one half of a wingspan above land. This way, she can pass low below the main wings fighting Thread to catch any stragglers without expending too much energy. However, she is not very agile and may need a bit of a run-up or cliff-edge to get airborne.

Bronzes are suited for command positions during Threadfall, rising highest and maintaining that altitude effortlessly by soaring on thermals. From this vantage point they can easily survey the wings of riders below and make tactical decisions to direct the tide of battle. They have the size and stamina to chase queens, but might find it difficult to keep up on the flat, so they continually select for fitter hatchlings as only the best manage to mate. It takes a very clever and agile bronze to catch a green, if they are so inclined.

Browns are swift, highly agile, and the fastest vertical fliers, ideal for diving through the Thread mass from top to bottom while the other types pass horizontally. During earlier Passes, browns were capable of using their speed to catch queens, but as queen & bronze endurance gradually increased, browns struggle to keep up if they haven't managed to immediately catch their mate in the starting scrum, which is unlikely due to the bulkier bronze dragons being able to shove the browns aside.

Blues are fast on the flat and nicely manoeuvrable, with enough endurance to last a full Threadfall. Good all-rounders with a characteristic vertical take-off, they work best in the horizontal plane in battle but really they can do a little bit of everything. They often beat browns to catch greens, being very precise in flight and almost as manoeuvrable as their green mates.

Greens make up for their low stamina with their extreme manoeuvrability. Their short and elliptical wings let them turn on a dime, hover, and even fly backwards if they are sufficiently skilled. They have the fastest wingbeats, flying with a distinct thrumming sound. Of all the types they are least likely to be hit by a stray Thread, but they tire easily on the flat and have no soaring ability at all, often tapping out midway through battle in favour of replacements. In battle, greens excel at catching odd and skewed clumps of Thread that don't fall as predicted, or ones that are missed by the other riders. Green mating flights are a whole different beast to gold mating flights, where extreme aerial acrobatics are favoured instead of endurance and altitude, and these flights may be over within seconds. You need to be able to withstand a Lot of G-force to be a green rider.

#dragonriders of pern #hi it's me again. this is my sketch dump blog (very new) #pernese dragon #pern

[peregyr]

Patreon commission for Kestrel!

#dragonriders of pern #oc #dragon #dragonrider #pern dragon #pernese dragon

[dksartz]

Waiting room doodles pages, Pernese dragons (and a Rider).

#dragon #dragons #pernese dragon #pernese dragons #sketches #sketchbook #not a doodle #doodles #fanart #dragonriders of pern #pern #dksartz

[artofgeist]

Finally finished her! Get a copy here !

#dragons #pern #pernese dragon #queen dragon #gold dragon #brooding queen #pern dragon #dragonriders of pern #color your own #template #base #dragon base #adoptable base #kofi

[ciameth]

A few Pernese dragon head concepts, based on different animal skulls, the author's descriptions, and Michael Whelan's art. To meet the book descriptions, Pernese dragon must have eye ridges, head knobs instead of ears, a wide field of vision through multifaceted eyes, smooth suede-like skin, and jaws capable of both grinding stone and predating large animals. I also decided to play around with the spectrum of Bronze while coloring the designs. I decided the Bronze palette should be a blend of Gold, Green, and Brown.

Equine: Classic horse headed Pernese dragon. Anne McCaffery described her dragons as having 'horse-like' heads, which could mean anything from wedge-shaped with large cheeks to recognizably equine.

Giraffine: This is how I pictured the dragons while reading the books as a kid. Giraffe and Okapi skulls look very draconic, have both knobs and ridges, and big globular eyes.

Ursine: Leaning more into the predatory nature of fire lizards and dragons, here is a design with bite power. Based on a Giant Panda skull with the snout elongated. This design has a bulky skull with massive jaws. A well-developed cranium, zygomatic arch and sagittal crest.

Varan: As much as Anne McCaffery insists her dragons are not reptilian, a monitor lizard skull makes a great design base. They have wedge-shaped heads with incredible bite force, perfect for crushing firestone. The fire lizard progenitor to the Pernese dragon is a coast scavenger and piscivore; a monitor head shape is perfect for both tasks. Perhaps fire lizards would look more delicate, like a tree monitor, while dragons would look more like a rock monitor.

Whelan-like: Michael Whelan's amazing cover art was what drew me to pick up Pern books in the first place. But his designs do not have head knobs and the anatomy is very 'shrink-wrapped' so I've tried to address those issues while keeping it recognizably "Whelan."

Alien: Not based on any earth skull. Bulbous eyes oriented high on the head to see Threadfall. Large surface area for nasal turbinates to warm/humidify the vast quantities of air required by a flying creature, and to filter out Thread char. Head knobs less bony, more fleshy and flexible. Still vaguely "horse-like" shape to the head.

#dragonriders of pern #pern #pernese dragon #creature design #dragon design #speculative anatomy #bronze dragon #anne mccaffrey #ciameth art

[2lim3rz]

Dragonriders of Pern

I love

#dragonriders of pern #pernese dragon #green dragon #blue dragon #brown dragon

[vianthegryphonart]

Here's some simple sketches of how I imagine some Pernese critters, the Firelizard, Wher, Dragon, and Tunnelsnake.

I do plan on using these to learn how to make digital art, cleaning them up and maybe colouring them, it would be very good practice.

#Dragonriders of Pern #pernese dragon #watchwher #firelizard #tunnelsnake #fanart

[wyrmoftheweb]

dragonriders of pern creatures. hehehehe. based mostly on what i thought of them in reading the guide rather than the official art.

#pernese dragons #dragons #dragonriders of pern #my art

[erganyfoxart]

A bronze Pern dragon commission TrashCat14!

#my art #Bronze Dragon #dragonridersofpern #dragonriders of pern #dragon #art commisions #pern #pernese dragons

[jack-of-all-daws]

I have this one fic idea rattling in my brain and the fact that there's nothing similar to it on ao3 means that I should take the plunge and write it myself 😔 pray for me dear followers

#i am really here thinking of writing a swanqueen dragonriders of pern au in the year of 2023 #BUT IT FITS SO WELL #regina is of course a rider of a gold queen and emma should be a bronze rider #pern is really a great setting for family drama with some dragons thrown in #one big hinderance might be that i only read some of the pern books and in polish so i don't have all of my pernese lingo figured out #also that i despise writing but oh well #caws

[superjacobworld]

Oh yeah also I’m obsessed with the Pern series a Very Normal Amount having read all *checks wikipedia* 24 novels. That’s a lot of pages about weirdly horny fantasy (technically sci-fi) politics featuring dragons.

#I don’t actively search out what the current fan base looks like but I know they’re there #every time I see content it’s a little joy for me #keep on keeping on y’all #right also yes Ræ’s tail is supposed to be a nod towards Pernese dragons #like I said very normal obsession

[dksartz]

And a couple more pernese dragons 😊

#doodles #dragons #dragon #pernese dragons #pernese dragon #fanart #sketches #sketchbook #dragonriders of pern #dksartz

[artofgeist]

Vyliath portrait comm for Abyss

#dragon #pernese dragon #vermilion dragon #vyliath #abyss #commission #dragonriders of pern #valynor weyr #anne mccaffrey #pern

[sanctus-ingenium]

i can break my no fanart rule since it's the theme of the day and i got nothing else to share, here are some old sketches of Pernese dragons i did. Their names were Shonath and Noroth. I was always really interested in the blue dragons since they so rarely got any limelight in the books.

#i have a piebald blue somewhere as well but i can't find it. rip #(whispers in aside. this was for an au of inver characters btw)

[krinsbez]

World building/Storybuilding: BattleTech+Pern

I said I would do it, and so here we go.

Pont the first: IIRC from *Dragonsdawn*, a one of the reasons that many of the original Pernese colonists were willing to leave their lives behind and try to make a go at down-teched pastoralism on a resource-poor planet out beyond the edges of settled space was because a big chunk of them were veterans of a brutal interstellar war. Also, because it was Admiral Benden's idea, and after the leadership he showed during said war, they were willing to follow him anywhere.

Well, that sounds familiar. So the original colonists being a segment of the Exodus Fleet that misjumped to ~2,000 years into the past somewhere in the Deep Periphery makes sense. And really, who but the SLDF is going to have a sapient supercomputer and the ability to turn small psychic flying lizards into Dragons? I'm gonna leave out the dolphins, though.

You are perhaps asking, wait, if you are leaving out the dolphins, why are you including AIVAS? Well, because I want to not just have Peen exist in BT, I want it to be RELEVANT, and since it's a single, resource-poor largely pre-industrial world, that means I need to give them as many advantages as possible, and an advanced AI with all the knowledge of the Star League goes a long way towards that goal. For the same reason I am considering having Yokohama be a WarShip. Although it's been sitting in orbit without maintenance for 2500 years, it probably isn't in fighting shape even before they used it to move the Red Star (can you do that with KF Drives, BTW?). I also considered that they have basically a Brian Cache at Landing, but again over 2500 years with no maintenance, and also that might be a bit much

Anyways. It's noted that the Dragonrider playbook was adapted from space fighter tactics, and AIVAS still recognized them as such in the Ninth Pass, so theoretically Dragonriders can be retrained as ASF pilots. Although, I am not sure that's needful: I vividly remember an illustration in The Dragonlover's Guide To Pern that show Ramoth as being roughly the same size as a jumbo jet. Ramoth is, of course, the biggest dragon ever, but there's no indication that she has gigantism, so one presumes the other Golds, while smaller, are of roughly similar size, that the Bronzes are only somewhat smaller than that, and the Browns only slightly smaller than that. Who knows about the Blues and Greens? But anyways, something that big dropping on your head out of *between* (stupid phone not letting me italicize on Tumblr) is going to ruin pretty much any Mech's day, even if they weren't also able to breathe fire or yoink you off to *between*, and maybe do other TK tricks.

Ok, so. As you might imagine by what I have said thus far, I am figuring that, on the Pern side of things, the planet is rediscovered during All The Weyrs of Pern, or perhaps slightly after if we leave out AIVAS deactivating itself. Not sure what's a good time on the BT side, or by who or how, and no idea what comes next.

Hence my asking y'all. Please help?

#Fanfic #Crossover #BattleTech #Pern #Dragonriders of Pern #BT #BattleTech Crossover #BattleTech Fanfic #Pern Crossover #Pern Fanfic #Storybuilding #Worldbuilding #Random Thoughts #A Request

[aneu-rism]

#digital art #vunioreth fursona #vunioreth #dragons #dragon #pernese dragon #pern dragon #between #drop #dragonriders of pern #alt