Dragons

[Oracle]

The Wikipedia's entry on Pernese dragons also has some fantastic details about dragons, and much of this information comes from that resource.

Dragons are carnivorous, oviparous, warm-blooded creatures. Like all of Pern's native large fauna, they have six limbs - four feet and two wings. Their blood, referred to as ichor, is copper-based and green in color. They have multifaceted eyes that change color depending on the dragon's mood. Unlike the dragons of Terran legend, they have a smooth hide rather than scales; the texture of their skin is described as being reminiscent of suede with a spicy, sweet scent when clean. They have forked or spaded tail ends. The dragons usually get from one place to another by going through a teleportation process known as 'going between'.

Newly hatched dragons are the size of very large dogs or small ponies, and reach their full size after twelve months. Because young dragons grow so fast, their riders must regularly apply oil to their hides to prevent the skin from cracking or drying out.

Dragons, like their firelizard ancestors, can breathe fire by chewing a phosphine-bearing rock, called "firestone", which reacts with an acid in a special "second stomach" organ. This forms a volatile gas that can be exhaled at will and ignites upon contact with air. The flame is used to burn Thread from the sky before it reaches the ground. However, the chewed firestone must be expelled from the body after it is used up, for the dragons cannot digest it.

[Oracle]

Dragon Size Chart
Dragon Size Calculator

Gold

Impress to: Women only

Gold dragons, also called queens, are the largest dragons (38-45 feet long) and the only fertile females. Gold dragons are by far the rarest dragons on Pern, at just less than 1% of the population. They are dominant over all other colors; any non-gold dragon will invariably obey a queen's orders, even against the wishes of its own rider. Queens are incapable of digesting firestone and producing flame, as it is believed to render them sterile; however, they do fight Thread - they fly in the lowest Wing, with their riders armed with specially designed flamethrowers to flame any Thread missed by the above wings. An egg that is going to hatch a gold dragon is notable: It is gold-colored and larger than other eggs.

Bronze

Impress to: Men only

Bronze dragons are the largest males (35-42 feet long), although they are generally significantly smaller than the queens. Bronzes only comprise of about 5% of all dragons. They are almost always the ones to mate with queens, as the smaller colors generally lack the stamina to chase and catch the gold dragons when they rise to mate, though brown dragons do mate with queens as well. Due to the 5-1 bronze/gold ratio and the infrequency of gold mating flights, they often mate with greens, but their size often puts them at a disadvantage in chasing the agile, smaller females.

Brown

Impress to: Men preferentially, women occasionally

Brown dragons are the next largest color (30-37 feet long). About 15% of all dragons are brown. They may occasionally mate with queens, although this is rare, and they will never rise to mate in a leadership Flight, presumably because they are socially inhibited from doing so. Gold-brown pairings do produce bronze offspring, but do not produce queens. Because their dragons are large enough to last the full six hours of a complete Threadfall, brownriders may hold any rank except Wingleader or Weyrleader. Less than 1/5th the population of brownriders are women, as browns preferentially seek men.

Blue

Impress to: Men and women equally

Blue dragons are the smallest males (26-33 feet long) and make up about a third (30%) of all dragons on Pern. They are nearly as agile as greens, but unlike the greens, they often have enough stamina to last for an entire Threadfall. They mate only with greens, as they are simply too small to keep up with a massive queen over a long mating Flight. Blueriders who have shown themselves to be of exceptional ability with dragons who have enough stamina to last the full six hours of a Fall can rise to the rank of Wingsecond; for all other blueriders, ranks are limited to Weyrlingmaster, Assistant Weyrlingmaster, Candidatemaster, and Wingrider. About half of blueriders are men, and half are women, as blue dragons do not seem to have a preference for either gender.

Green

Impress to: Women preferentially, men occasionally

Green dragons are the smallest normal color (20-27 feet long), and make up about half of all dragons on Pern (50%). They are female, but unlike the queens, they are infertile; the Pernese believe this is because green dragons chew firestone (though, in truth, they are genetically incapable of producing offspring). They are extremely valuable in Threadfall because of their agility, but they lack the stamina to last an entire Fall and generally fly in two or three shifts. Because they lack the stamina to last an entire Fall, greenriders are not capable of becoming Wingleaders or Wingseconds. They may hold rank as Weyrlingmaster, Assistant Weyrlingmaster, or Candidatemaster. Green dragons preferentially Impress to women, though male greenriders are not uncommon.

You may have noticed, in reading that information, that there is no mention made of sexuality with regards to Impression.  That's because, as far as the dragons are concerned, it doesn't matter.  Because Pern outside the Weyr is more conservative than within, even the dragonriders did gradually come to associate gold and bronzeriders with heterosexuality - if only because it put them on "equal ground" with the conservative Holders.  That said, this is not a governing rule; it's simply assumed that bronzeriders and goldriders are heterosexual.


All re-colors of the dragon templates were done by Oracle.
Templates came from: VagabondSentinel (gold, bronze, and green), Shekruth (brown), and HeartOfPern (blue).

[Oracle]

After a queen mates, her eggs gestate for a period of three months.  At that point, she Clutches them onto the Hatching Sands, where they will further harden prior to hatching.  Newly Hatched dragonets are clumsy, awkward, and dangerous.  They are ravenously hungry and, because they are not yet Impressed but are desperate to do so, they can and often do hurt people in their efforts to find their rider.

When they find their rider, there is a surge of emotions as the new bond is formed.  The moment of Impression is usually euphoric as the relief and love of the new dragonet imprints on their rider.  They are capable of instant communication, speaking intelligibly from the moment of Impression.  They are also able to communicate to their rider and other dragons (or firelizards or whers) using images or by evoking different senses.  Dragons rarely communicate with people other than their own riders, with this occurring only in extremely heightened situations - such as life or death.

Dragons Impress already knowing their own names, and will communicate this to their rider.  Once Impressed, the bond is unbreakable except by death.  A rider whose dragon dies often commits suicide because the loss is unbearable; a dragon whose rider dies suicides by going into between.  The only exception is a queen who either has not yet Clutched or who has eggs on the Sands; she will stay until her eggs Hatch before suiciding.

[Oracle]

Dragons and firelizards can teleport. They do this by briefly entering a hyperspace dimension known as between.

Both humans and dragons experience between as an extremely cold, sensory-deprived, black void. After spending no more than eight seconds in between, the dragon or firelizard can re-emerge anywhere on Pern, along with any passengers or cargo they carried. This ability is extremely useful as a defense against Thread; not only does it allow them to quickly escape from Threadfall, but the intense cold of between kills any Thread that has already burrowed into them. If a dragon attempts to between without a clear mental image of the place where they intend to reappear, they may simply fail to emerge from between and thus, be gone forever.  As such, dragons either require the mental image to be given from another dragon or their rider.

Going between allows dragons to travel through time as well as space, as long as they have a clear picture of what a particular place looked like (or will look like) at the desired time. However, the practice is highly dangerous to both dragon and rider and is severely restricted. Existing in two places at once for extended periods of time, or in close proximity, causes severe weakness and psychological disturbance for humans but not for dragons. In addition, while betweening through space always takes the same amount of time, when a dragon travels through time, the amount of time they spend in between increases depending on how long ago or how far in time the destination is. Thus, traveling to remote times poses severe dangers from hypothermia and oxygen deprivation. This is how Lessa died.