History of White Lightning Weyr

White Lightning Weyr was founded during the last Turn, and it was founded in ignominy.  Doubly so, as it happens.  

At first, it wasn’t even a Weyr, nor a proper hold.  The current site of the Weyr was first inhabited by a group of holdless smugglers who used the hidden canyon as a hole up point.  Eventually, the extensive, though hard to find cave system became a more or less permanent base for the smugglers, due to several factors.  Not the least of which was the system of geothermal springs that ran throughout the complex and eventually fed into the Black Rock river.  Before too long, the enterprising smugglers began manufacturing potent distilled liquors and marketing them as “White Lightning” at most Southern Continent gathers.  As the smugglers were operating completely without the blessing of the vintnercraft or any local Lord Holder, they were also not paying the requisite tithes on their goods.  Add to that that they were more than likely procuring their raw materials through shady means, and the White Lightning folk were not in the good graces of several groups of Pern’s elite.  In fact, plans had begun to flush the smugglers out, by force if necessary, when something completely unexpected happened.  

Dragons at the nearby Eastern Weyr spontaneously began to mutate.  

Well, perhaps not entirely spontaneously.  The truth was a bit more complicated than that.  Several Turns before, Eastern Weyr’s brilliant (and, some said, half-mad) dragonhealer had managed to access some ancient records found in the excavated Landing complex.  Though most had dismissed the records as undecipherable, the dragonhealer had labored over them for Turns, until he was able to understand their content.  It turned out that they were some of the notes left by the original colonist’s geneticist, Kitty Ping.  Using these notes and a great deal of his own intuition, this dragonhealer began to work in secret, experimenting with the dragon genome under the guise of caring for Eastern Weyr’s queens and clutches.  Eventually, one of his subjects laid a clutch twelve eggs, only six of which hatched.  This was tragedy enough, but the interesting thing was that none of the surviving six fell into the five standard dragon phenotypes.  The largest hatchling, a female, was a distinctly grey color overlaid with a slivery-blue sheen.  Next to her in size were the two males, one a dark blue grey, one a deep, glossy blue-black.  Then there were two other females, one a deep blood red, one a rich violet color, and the last was a pristine white.  The white Impressed to a man, and identified himself as a male, but all of the other dragons in the clutch Impressed to riders of the opposite gender than themselves, with one exception.  The silvery-blue female Impressed to a woman named Garrah.  The Weyr was stunned, and didn’t know what to do.  The golden clutchmother, however, insisted that her offspring were healthy, no matter how unorthodox, and they were raised and taught like any other weyrling class.  

During the normal course of things, it became apparent that the silver-grey female seemed to exhibit the same allergy to firestone that young queens had.  This raised a few suspicions, and sure enough, when the time came, the newly nicknamed “Titanium” dragon rose to mate, only to be caught by a bronze dragon.  This mating pair produced a clutch of ten eggs, of which nine hatched.  Much to the relief of the Weyr, three of the nine were the traditional colors.  The other six fell into the new color categories, including a new Titan queen.  By the time two more Turns had passed, it was decided that the “mutant” colors (a term that their riders hated, by the way) would move together to a new location, and due to the geothermal activity in the Black Rock River cave system, that site was chosen.  

Unfortunately for the cast-off riders, their de facto leader, Garrah, rider of the first Titanium queen, Parazeth, had become entirely bitter and angry.  She saw the Weyr’s treatment of his queen and the other “mutants” as unconscionably unfair. She began to drink heavily and indulge in other, more dangerous substances as a method of escape.  This led to a tragic accident shortly before the “mutant” move was announced, when Garrah’s intoxicated mind failed to make correct coordinates and she and Parazeth were lost between.  A sevenday later, the remaining Titan queen and her siblings graduated from Weyrling training, and were told that they would be moving to a new location.  

It’s now summer of the 45th Turn of the current Pass.  The cast-off “mutant” dragonriders have just been taken to their new home and left with an allotment of supplies.  Imagine their surprise when they found their cave system was already occupied…

When the exiled dragonriders arrived at their new home, imagine their surprise to find that a group of holdless (read: criminal) bootleggers and smugglers had set up shop in the very canyon cave system that the former Easterners had wanted to use. Never one to miss out on an opportunity, the leader of the smugglers (a man named Avidian) wasted no time in concluding an alliance with Br'son and Sidran, acting in their capacity as Weyrsenior and Weyrleader.

The arrangement turned out to be fortuitous for both sides. The smugglers gained a small modicum of legitimacy, and more importantly, the presence of dragons deterred even the most dedicated of Holders' men from trying to find the place. In addition, the smugglers' children were invited to fill out the ranks of candidates for Yllaveth's soon-to-be laid clutch. In this way, the dragonriders benefited, and the smugglers began to transition into a rough-and-tumble sort of weyrfolk.

Soon it was official. White Lightning Weyr, named after the pure, punishing liquor that came from the canyon's stills, was born. And none too soon, for Yllaveth laid a clutch of thirteen eggs shortly after the heated floor in the Hatching Cavern was completed. Excitement built as everyone watched the eggs harden and wondered what they would mean for the nascent Weyr.

Their Hatching, however, was heralded by a strange visit. Weyrwoman Firene, whose gold Olenath had laid the first Titan queen, paid Br'son and Yllaveth a clandestine visit. Unbeknownst to no one, the former Weyrwoman of Eastern passed Br'son a cryptic message, and then left just as the first egg started to rock. Yllaveth wasted no time in calling to the Weyr to attend, and thirteen healthy dragonets joined the ranks that night. Of those thirteen, only one was of a traditional hue, which was shocking in and of itself, but that fact paled in comparison to what else happened. Four of the thirteen dragonets were of an entirely new color. Two male Smokes, both as grey as their name, and two female Shadows (dark as night and with a temperament to match) made their debut. Br'son revealed that part of Firene's message was that the Shadow dragons were fertile females, and that while they wouldn't match a Titan queen in clutch numbers, they would rise early and often, and produce living offspring.

Br'son decreed that Teagan, Shadow Eniseth's rider, and E'zen, Shadow Aliseth's rider, would be his 'seconds until one or the other of them rose first. As Teagan was only twelve years old at the time, Br'son vehemently hoped that Aliseth would be first by a number of years. Twelve was just too young, no matter how hard Teagan works to show that she's capable.

In addition to the drama of the dragon Hatching, the dragonriders had honored their alliance with the canyoners in another way. Avidian (now called the "Stillmaster") had a daughter named Dividia, who had managed to attach herself to a brown wher, Divisk, in her youth. Divisk was a highly useful asset to Avidian's criminal enterprises, and he'd expressed a wish for more whers. So it was that Divida and Divisk led a mixed group of dragonriders and canyoners on a raid, where they "liberated" the last clutch of a dying queen wher, and brought four healthy wher eggs back to the Canyon.