Editing Dragonriders of Pern (section)

==Overview==
[[File:Pern kaart.jpg|thumb|Map of the planet Pern]]
Humans have colonized the planet Pern in the [[Alpha Sagittarii|Rukbat]] star system, but have lost much of their technology and history (including their origin on [[Earth]]) due to periodic onslaughts of Thread, a [[Mycorrhiza|mycorrhizoid]] spore that voraciously consumes all organic material, including humans and their crops, given the opportunity. Thread comes from the Red Star, actually another planet. The Red Star has a 250-Turn (Pernese year) [[elliptic orbit]] around Rukbat, and when its orbit brings it close enough, Thread rains down on Pern at predictable intervals over about 50 Turns.

The Pernese use intelligent firebreathing [[Dragons (Pern)|dragons]] to fight Thread. A human rider has a telepathic bond with their dragon, formed by [[Imprinting (psychology)|Impression]] at the dragon's hatching. The bonding instantly creates a very close, lifelong relationship – the dragon almost invariably commits suicide at the rider's death, and a rider whose dragon has died bears a deep emotional wound which can never be fully healed. Later books deal with the initial colonization of Pern and the genetic modification of small native animals into creatures capable of carrying humans in flight.

The Pernese live in a [[pre-industrial society]], with lords, holds, harpers (musicians, entertainers, and teachers), and dragons, with occasional examples of higher technology (like flamethrowers, the telegraph, [[chemical fertilizer]]s, and powerful [[microscope]]s and [[telescope]]s). There are four basic social classes: Weyrfolk (centered on Dragonriders) who live in Weyrs, Holders who rule Holds (cities, towns and farms), Crafters, and the Holdless who have no permanent home (including traders, displaced Holders, and brigands). The society resembles [[feudal]] Europe, but with some significant differences – especially, farmers are organized in their own guild, independent of the Holders – rather than being [[serf]]s as in historical feudal societies. Also, there is no formal religion and nothing like the [[Christianity in the Middle Ages|Medieval Church]], the closest equivalent being in fact the Dragonriders, who have a planet-wide organization and to whom a [[tithe]] is due – though they are in no way sworn to celibacy (rather the reverse).

The series as a whole covers over two and a half millennia.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}