"Justin Baker" <justin.baker@<removethis>ntlworld.com> wrote in message news:<RKL6b.3357$1%2.65201@newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net>...
> I wonder if anyone could clarify what rank bronze riders have, compared to
> Lord Holders and Craftmasters, assuming they aren't Weyrleaders?
>
> In Dragonflight, F'nor introduces F'lar to Fax as Lord F'lar, and Fax refers
> to him as such. Is this simply due to F'lar being a bronze rider, or is it
> due to his status as a Wingleader? It's also stated that the names of all
> bronze riders should be well known, is this due to their holding high rank,
> or simply because there weren't very many left on Pern at that time?
>
> If there
There probably aren't any _exact_ matches. Broadly speaking, in
Pernese society in the time of the Ninth Pass, I would (IMO) estimate
that:
Weyrwoman/Weyrleader = Lord Holder = Craftmaster
Bronze Rider/Gold Rider = No exact equivalent. Higher than Holder or
a Journeyman. [1]
Brown Rider = Holder = Journeyman Crafter
Blue/Green Rider = Cotholder/Commoner = Apprentice Crafter [1]
[1] The B/G Rider would still rank a little above the Commoners, but
below any of the 'titled' commoners like Journeymen or Holders. The
junior Gold Riders would carry approximately the same rank as the
Bronze Riders, with the juniors Golds having a theoretically slightly
higher rank, too small to matter in practice most of the time.
During the Intervals the social standing of Dragonriders would slip a
little, whatever their theoretical status, though in most Turns not
nearly as far as in the one before the Ninth Pass. I suspect that a
Weyrleader was probably a high rank even during the middle of most
Intervals.
During the Long Interval before the 9th Pass, things became very odd.
The absence of the other Weyrs acted to elevate the remaining Benden
Riders for a long time, so that a Bronze Rider was probably at the
practical level of a Lord Holder. F'lar muses to himself that
normally (normal for the 400 (or 450?) years since the other Weyrs
vanished), the names of the Bronze Riders should be known to everyone
on Pern. Since there would be only a few, that was probably true.
The senior Gold of Benden would literally be _unique_ on Pern during
the Last Interval, the only Weyrwoman (capital W) on Pern. Of course,
later in the Last Interval, for several draconic generations there was
only one Gold at a time, making her status even more rarified, even as
the sheer indispensability of the Gold meant that she and her Rider
could not be allowed to take any risks or do anything that might
imperil the survivor of the Dragons. The Weyrwomen of the last
generations of the Last Interval probably felt a little like the Queen
of England, who has vast power on the condition that she never use it.
I get the impression that the total contempt for Dragons and Riders
that we see in _Dragonflight_ was a relatively recent situation.
Probably there had been a long, slow slide, but even relatively young
Manora could remember when having Dragonrider sons was a source of
pride for commoner families. Even Larad, as he led the march against
Benden Weyr, was fighting the sensation that he was committing what
amounted to blasphemy, so the old reverence was not totally dead.
The Weyr itself, under the leadership of R'gul, had played a big part
in its own irrelevance. Of course, even F'lar would have had a hard
time asserting Weyr power if he'd been stuck with Jora as his working
partner.
Shermanlee
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