Why Are We Dark?
You're probably wondering why Fort Weyr in our Pern is so dark compared to the books or even the other Weyrs...well this page is an attempt to clear up that question. To do that it is necessary to explain about Masena, who was the Weyrwoman responsible for putting the 'dark' in 'Dark Fort', which is Arisen Dark: Fort Weyr’s predecessor.
Masena came from Fort Hold and was the sister of Barol, who was the Lord Holder for Fort Hold. The Fort Hold in our game actually has a longstanding reputation for its prejudices and the unconditional persecution of homosexuals. Women *are* second class citizens, and this is as ingrained as their prejudices and persecutions (to read more about women’s treatment please check out our ‘Women at Fort’ page). This is where if someone saw your character doing anything that could even slightly be considered gay it was very possible to find your character running from a mob whose intent was to stone the ‘pervert’ character to death. When Barol became Lord Holder he took all those ideals and prejudices and made them EVEN WORSE (yes, it’s possible) because he was quite a bit psychotic.
Now, back to Fort Weyr which was not like Fort Hold at all before Masena came. It was tradition that dictated that women shouldn’t ride fighting dragons, because Threadfighting was man’s work and not suitable for a ‘weaker sex’. Tradition also said that only homosexual men rode greens and most blues, and that those lesser colors were not capable or suitable of holding ranks. Gold and bronzeriders. tradition said, really *were* better than the others by definition of having something better about them that let those gold and bronze dragons choose them, and as such it was believed their children were destined for greatness as well. All these ideals were the traditions established by the First Weyr, these were the ‘old ways’. In recent times some Weyrs (Ista, Igen to a point, and Southern when it was made) had moved away from the beliefs set forth from the First Weyr and decided to embrace more open-minded practices; however, Fort prided itself on its strict adherence to the traditions that had made it so esteemed and grand in the first place.
So, when Masena was Searched, Impressed a Gold, and then soon became Weyrwoman it was a set of situations that spelled disaster. Part of that was due to the fact that with a bronzerider named K’met as her Weyrleader Masena was the one who wore the pants in the relationship and manipulated/convinced K’met to support her ideals and way of doing things. If he’d been able to withstand the Goldrider’s will and keep her inline, instead of bowing to her will, Masena wouldn't have actually had too much power to change things, but that was not how things were. As a result, the pair of them surrounded themselves with other bronzeriders who were like-minded (or at least sympathetic ears) and began to push the boundaries.
During this time of Masena’s reign as Weyrwoman, things changed. Now, it wasn't just a freak accident when a fighting dragon Impressed a woman; now. that woman was considered the worst kind of freak and was subject to nonstop abuse for it. The Weyr’s view on homosexuality as a necessary but distasteful aspect of dragonriding also changed. Now, being gay (or people thinking you were gay) could result in you being beaten near to death for no other reason than some bronzerider claiming seeing you holding hands with your partner or even just saying you looked at him funny. Under Masena’s power-greedy grip of the Weyr it wasn't enough that gold and bronzeriders were considered above all those lesser people and held rank, now those same gold and bronzeriders began to grind the lesser colors underneath their bootheels. Abuse was uncontrolled and unchecked, and completely unfair treatment was the way of things unless you happened to ride gold, bronze, be a favored brown, or were a green/blue that had ‘sold’ yourself to a gold, bronze, or favored brown in return for their protection (meaning you had agreed to be loyal and do anything and everything you are told, no matter what it is, in return for that protection, or had paid that ranker marks for their protection). However, things still were not completely fair toward you for treatment unless you were a gold or bronzerider...favored browns and those ‘sold’ green and blue riders just had it slightly better than the rest of the lessers.
Before Masena’s time at Fort there had always been a small movement of people trying to loosen the traditionalists and encourage change, but before Masena they really didn’t have anything huge to fight against. That movement did have something to fight now and so was formed the beginning stages of the Resistance, and as these riders fought back Masena and K’met lashed out even worse. If you were even suspected of working against ‘the establishment’ (gold and bronzeriders) in any way Masena and K’met took steps against you. Someone might tamper with your ridingstraps to be sure that the next Threadfall you died, or you could even be put on point and someone could ‘accidentally’ make sure Thread took you. Other alternatives were that you could be cornered in a dark and unpopulated hallway and break some of your bones as a warning, or have one of your loved ones gang raped. Fort became a place of terror for everyone under the bootheels of those gold and bronzeriders to live. Some Resistance members began to simply provide safe havens for their fellow lessers...but others who were more radically minded began to truly fight back by organizing assassination attempts, their own sabotages, etc.
Another aspect into this darkness, in the opposite direction actually, is Nalire. She had been born at Fort a little bit before Masena actually came to the Weyr, and so she was raised in the original tradition of the weyr, or the ‘old ways’ and grew up right as Masena was beginning to change the Weyr. So, when Nalire Impressed a gold and became mentored by Dirma (an older goldrider who represented the ‘old ways’) Nalire did not conform to Masena’s ideals and agenda for the Weyr. This alone would have made Nalire a threat to Masena, but then Malire began a relationship with a candidate who was one of K’ment’s sons and became pregnant. After Nalire gave birth Masena had Nalire transfered to Telgar Weyr, separating mother from son, and then banned K’met’s son from candidacy which took away any chance for him to become a bronzerider like his father.
During the reign of Masena (and K’met) they were the cause of a lot of really awful events. They took over Southern Weyr, back at this game’s predecessors’ creation, and they had people killed left and right, without cause. The pair of them essentially pushed the Resistance so far with their actions that nowadays a lot of people running the Resistance don’t even remember their goal was to be pressing for change; they just want the punishment/death of ‘the establishment’ that has given them so much pain and death.
So that being said, when some older bronzerider refers to ‘Old Fort’ they are actually referring to Masena’s Fort. A lot of people who talk about ‘Old Fort’ only ever knew that Fort (not the traditional Fort with its ‘old ways’) because they either came from outside the Weyr or were born during Masena’s reign. Truthfully, it’s only people who were born 15 or more turns before this Pass started (making them about 37 in this current 22nd turn) and who were born at the Weyr who know that Masena’s Fort isnt how it always was.
Eventually, Masena went crazy, was forcibly removed from the Weyrwoman position, and retired to Ista where she died in a volcano eruption. K’met met his fate when he was murdered and a young goldrider named Kamma became the new Weyrwoman. Kamma adopted Masena’s ideals although things were not quite as bad until Kamma also went crazy and her gold snapped and stomped all over another gold’s clutch on the sands.
With Kamma going crazy and being transferred, Nalire took this opportunity to request a transfer from Teglar back to Fort Weyr to stabilize and restore the First Weyr to it’s pre-Masena greatness. And indeed things did get better under Nalire’s reign as Weyrwoman, the Resistance continued its work to bring greater change but along the way it seemed they had lost their resolve and commitment with not near the bad treatment of lessers to fight against. They became an unorganized group that only occasionally took matters in their own hands with a show of resistance or a well placed dagger into a bad ranker. They even took the son of the brownriding Weyrleader captive to force the Weyrleadership to make changes, but the Resistance was content to do these small things and wait for change.
During this time Nalire’s gold clutched a gold egg, was flown and caught by a brown (shocking!) and began to change and work to right the wrongs that Masena had done to Fort. Not long after the young gold and rider graduated from weyrlinghood another older goldrider, Nioli, transferred into Fort Weyr from Teglar. The transferred goldrider didn't stay long however before she was called back to her original Weyr, High Reaches, leaving just a mother and daughter gold at Fort for a while. Disgusted with the Resistance’s lack of action, it was actually the Radicals who, over the turns since the beginning of Nalire’s reign, began to plot and seethe that change wasn’t happening fast enough. Over turns they planned, targeting those who were the worst rankers with their special tunnlesnake venom coated daggers even while they released the smaller more lethal tunnlesnakes they’d been breeding into the Weyr to have something to blame for the almost too suspicious deaths.
All the Radicals plans culminated just 4 short months after the newest goldrider arrived at Fort in the ‘Night of Never-Ending Keening’ for both Fort and the rest of the Weyrs of Pern...
Masena came from Fort Hold and was the sister of Barol, who was the Lord Holder for Fort Hold. The Fort Hold in our game actually has a longstanding reputation for its prejudices and the unconditional persecution of homosexuals. Women *are* second class citizens, and this is as ingrained as their prejudices and persecutions (to read more about women’s treatment please check out our ‘Women at Fort’ page). This is where if someone saw your character doing anything that could even slightly be considered gay it was very possible to find your character running from a mob whose intent was to stone the ‘pervert’ character to death. When Barol became Lord Holder he took all those ideals and prejudices and made them EVEN WORSE (yes, it’s possible) because he was quite a bit psychotic.
Now, back to Fort Weyr which was not like Fort Hold at all before Masena came. It was tradition that dictated that women shouldn’t ride fighting dragons, because Threadfighting was man’s work and not suitable for a ‘weaker sex’. Tradition also said that only homosexual men rode greens and most blues, and that those lesser colors were not capable or suitable of holding ranks. Gold and bronzeriders. tradition said, really *were* better than the others by definition of having something better about them that let those gold and bronze dragons choose them, and as such it was believed their children were destined for greatness as well. All these ideals were the traditions established by the First Weyr, these were the ‘old ways’. In recent times some Weyrs (Ista, Igen to a point, and Southern when it was made) had moved away from the beliefs set forth from the First Weyr and decided to embrace more open-minded practices; however, Fort prided itself on its strict adherence to the traditions that had made it so esteemed and grand in the first place.
So, when Masena was Searched, Impressed a Gold, and then soon became Weyrwoman it was a set of situations that spelled disaster. Part of that was due to the fact that with a bronzerider named K’met as her Weyrleader Masena was the one who wore the pants in the relationship and manipulated/convinced K’met to support her ideals and way of doing things. If he’d been able to withstand the Goldrider’s will and keep her inline, instead of bowing to her will, Masena wouldn't have actually had too much power to change things, but that was not how things were. As a result, the pair of them surrounded themselves with other bronzeriders who were like-minded (or at least sympathetic ears) and began to push the boundaries.
During this time of Masena’s reign as Weyrwoman, things changed. Now, it wasn't just a freak accident when a fighting dragon Impressed a woman; now. that woman was considered the worst kind of freak and was subject to nonstop abuse for it. The Weyr’s view on homosexuality as a necessary but distasteful aspect of dragonriding also changed. Now, being gay (or people thinking you were gay) could result in you being beaten near to death for no other reason than some bronzerider claiming seeing you holding hands with your partner or even just saying you looked at him funny. Under Masena’s power-greedy grip of the Weyr it wasn't enough that gold and bronzeriders were considered above all those lesser people and held rank, now those same gold and bronzeriders began to grind the lesser colors underneath their bootheels. Abuse was uncontrolled and unchecked, and completely unfair treatment was the way of things unless you happened to ride gold, bronze, be a favored brown, or were a green/blue that had ‘sold’ yourself to a gold, bronze, or favored brown in return for their protection (meaning you had agreed to be loyal and do anything and everything you are told, no matter what it is, in return for that protection, or had paid that ranker marks for their protection). However, things still were not completely fair toward you for treatment unless you were a gold or bronzerider...favored browns and those ‘sold’ green and blue riders just had it slightly better than the rest of the lessers.
Before Masena’s time at Fort there had always been a small movement of people trying to loosen the traditionalists and encourage change, but before Masena they really didn’t have anything huge to fight against. That movement did have something to fight now and so was formed the beginning stages of the Resistance, and as these riders fought back Masena and K’met lashed out even worse. If you were even suspected of working against ‘the establishment’ (gold and bronzeriders) in any way Masena and K’met took steps against you. Someone might tamper with your ridingstraps to be sure that the next Threadfall you died, or you could even be put on point and someone could ‘accidentally’ make sure Thread took you. Other alternatives were that you could be cornered in a dark and unpopulated hallway and break some of your bones as a warning, or have one of your loved ones gang raped. Fort became a place of terror for everyone under the bootheels of those gold and bronzeriders to live. Some Resistance members began to simply provide safe havens for their fellow lessers...but others who were more radically minded began to truly fight back by organizing assassination attempts, their own sabotages, etc.
Another aspect into this darkness, in the opposite direction actually, is Nalire. She had been born at Fort a little bit before Masena actually came to the Weyr, and so she was raised in the original tradition of the weyr, or the ‘old ways’ and grew up right as Masena was beginning to change the Weyr. So, when Nalire Impressed a gold and became mentored by Dirma (an older goldrider who represented the ‘old ways’) Nalire did not conform to Masena’s ideals and agenda for the Weyr. This alone would have made Nalire a threat to Masena, but then Malire began a relationship with a candidate who was one of K’ment’s sons and became pregnant. After Nalire gave birth Masena had Nalire transfered to Telgar Weyr, separating mother from son, and then banned K’met’s son from candidacy which took away any chance for him to become a bronzerider like his father.
During the reign of Masena (and K’met) they were the cause of a lot of really awful events. They took over Southern Weyr, back at this game’s predecessors’ creation, and they had people killed left and right, without cause. The pair of them essentially pushed the Resistance so far with their actions that nowadays a lot of people running the Resistance don’t even remember their goal was to be pressing for change; they just want the punishment/death of ‘the establishment’ that has given them so much pain and death.
So that being said, when some older bronzerider refers to ‘Old Fort’ they are actually referring to Masena’s Fort. A lot of people who talk about ‘Old Fort’ only ever knew that Fort (not the traditional Fort with its ‘old ways’) because they either came from outside the Weyr or were born during Masena’s reign. Truthfully, it’s only people who were born 15 or more turns before this Pass started (making them about 37 in this current 22nd turn) and who were born at the Weyr who know that Masena’s Fort isnt how it always was.
Eventually, Masena went crazy, was forcibly removed from the Weyrwoman position, and retired to Ista where she died in a volcano eruption. K’met met his fate when he was murdered and a young goldrider named Kamma became the new Weyrwoman. Kamma adopted Masena’s ideals although things were not quite as bad until Kamma also went crazy and her gold snapped and stomped all over another gold’s clutch on the sands.
With Kamma going crazy and being transferred, Nalire took this opportunity to request a transfer from Teglar back to Fort Weyr to stabilize and restore the First Weyr to it’s pre-Masena greatness. And indeed things did get better under Nalire’s reign as Weyrwoman, the Resistance continued its work to bring greater change but along the way it seemed they had lost their resolve and commitment with not near the bad treatment of lessers to fight against. They became an unorganized group that only occasionally took matters in their own hands with a show of resistance or a well placed dagger into a bad ranker. They even took the son of the brownriding Weyrleader captive to force the Weyrleadership to make changes, but the Resistance was content to do these small things and wait for change.
During this time Nalire’s gold clutched a gold egg, was flown and caught by a brown (shocking!) and began to change and work to right the wrongs that Masena had done to Fort. Not long after the young gold and rider graduated from weyrlinghood another older goldrider, Nioli, transferred into Fort Weyr from Teglar. The transferred goldrider didn't stay long however before she was called back to her original Weyr, High Reaches, leaving just a mother and daughter gold at Fort for a while. Disgusted with the Resistance’s lack of action, it was actually the Radicals who, over the turns since the beginning of Nalire’s reign, began to plot and seethe that change wasn’t happening fast enough. Over turns they planned, targeting those who were the worst rankers with their special tunnlesnake venom coated daggers even while they released the smaller more lethal tunnlesnakes they’d been breeding into the Weyr to have something to blame for the almost too suspicious deaths.
All the Radicals plans culminated just 4 short months after the newest goldrider arrived at Fort in the ‘Night of Never-Ending Keening’ for both Fort and the rest of the Weyrs of Pern...