Dragon Colors

The following information is meant to give candidates some ideas about just what sort of dragon they would like to impress. In the past, we've focused on discussing what position opportunities are open to riders of different colors, but what it comes down to is that just about anyone can do just about anything if they are willing to put in the time and effort. Obviously, only goldriders are weyrwoman and only bronzeriders are weyrleaders, but wingseconds, wingleaders, weyrlingmaster and their asistants, search dragons and sweepriders, weyrseconds and acting weyrleaders can be riders of any color but gold and so the position opportunities are wide open.

What we've chosen to focus on here are the opportunities that come with each color, the individual dragons personality and way those factors react together and with the rider's personality. Whether it compliments or clashes, drives every impulse or doesn't matter at all, it is this interact that feeds and fuels character development and making impressing a dragon really worthwhile.

Gold

The Facts:

• Female, fertile
• Largest dragons (38-42 feet), enduring stamina and strength
• Impress to females only, goldriders are weyrwomen
• May rise every two turns to mate with bronzes and browns

The Opportunities:

No matter what kind of gold she is, the warm maternal sort, the fierce lioness, the artisan muse, the girlish innocent or the tomboyish adventurer, a gold always comes with an inherent power. Perhaps her personality takes full advantage of this, she might swing her weight around or press her influence at whim and her rider may be forced to contend with those impulses, determining what is right and what is abuse. Or perhaps her rider doesn't care and is just along for the ride, or just as eager to exhert her will. On the flipside, her personality may shrink from being such a force, or be oblivious to her own importance, which creates other challenges for a rider who must deal with grave responsibilities and a lifemate who needs support and direction. Will that make a weyrwoman stronger or will her impulse be to ignore her own importance as well? A queen is a queen, after all, whether she wants to be or not.

Bronze

The Facts:

• Male
• Largest male dragons (35-38 feet), with enduring stamina and strength
• Impress to males only, bronzeriders may be Weyrleader
• May mate with golds or greens to sire all five colors

The Opportunities:

While bronzes are usually thought of as arrogant and powerful, they don't have to be, and it doesn't have to play out the way you might think. An arrogant personality can be a handful, a constant challenge that pushes his rider to all sorts of mistakes, or he can be a supporting influence on a rider less confident than himself. But bronzes can also be foolish and silly, clowns that force their rider to deal with all the ways that they fail to meet those loftier expectations. A bronze can be a coward, one that needs his rider's constant encouragement and either brings a bit of caution to a forward personality or forces an equally reluctant rider to find his own confidence while encouraging his yellow-bellied lifemate. A bronze can be a prissy girly-boy, a big dumb meathead, a professor, a ladies-man, a cavalier or a klutz and one unique feature of this color is that, whatever the personality, there is also that expectation of the leaderly bronze to compare or contrast with, to play up to or play against and explore the different ways those opportunities can affect a character's development and roleplay.

Brown

The Facts:

• Male
• Mid-sized dragons (30-35 feet) with enduring stamina and strength
• Impress to males or females
• May mate with greens, or with golds to sire all colors but gold

The Opportunities:

Being one of the guys is what browns are all about. Or is it? Whether your brown is a stalwart soldier, the class clown, the flashy valentino or introverted geek, one thing he'll always have to contend with is that the bronzes always do seem to be stealing thier spotlight. Do they notice? Does their rider? Does it make them want to strive harder to shine or are they content to sit back and enjoy their lot in life. As with the bronzes, browns can have any sort of personality imaginable, but there is less expectation for them to be any certain way. In addition to this, when a brown impresses to a girl or woman, a new dichotomy is introduced, the female mind and male mind pairing. Perhaps the rider is influenced by a masculine perspective or maybe it just accentuates her own femininity. And in all things, the stereotypes are there to play with or play against, giving new zest to the tried and true personality types or changing things up to take a new and unexpected route.

Blue

The Facts:

• Male
• Smallest male dragons (24-30 feet), quickest and most agile males
• Impress to males or females
• May mate with greens

The Opportunities:

The little guy, the underdog. Is he the fiesty terrier who doesn't know that he's not a great dane? Is he the nimble daredevil who takes every advantage he has and makes the most of it? Or maybe he's a poet or an artist who knows that it's not what is outside, but inside that counts. Similar to browns, blues have less to contend with in terms of personlity stereotypes, and without much information about them in the books they are generally known to span the whole spectrum of personalities. They're also more separated from their brothers, often thought of as less masculine and being paired with a blue can make for interesting interactions for either a male or a female character. He can soften or strengthen, be tough and rough or a gentler type, a good fit for a tomboy or a girlie girl, a macho man or a sensitive one. Eccentric, creative, flirty, analytical, or adventurous, with blues there isn't even a box to think outside of. The sky is the limit with this versatile color.

Green

The Facts:

• Female, infertile
• Smallest dragons (20-25 feet), quickest and most agile
• Impress to males or females
• May rise approximately 2-3 times a turn to mate with bronzes, browns and blues

The Opportunities:

Greens probably have the widest range of stereotypes; indeed it sometimes seems like any personality and any combination of dragon and rider might be a stereotype. What does that mean? It means that the opportunities on green are widely varied. There is only one real expectation for greens and that is that, no matter their usual personality, they will rise and have thus have a large number of sexual partners throughout their lifetime. But even that is not engraved in stone! A flirtatious girl might act as if she's eager to mate with any lovely bronze, brown or blue, but perhaps she's the sort who picks a mate and returns to him again and again with every flight. Meanwhile, a prim girl who doesn't dare to bat a lash at anyone might rise with surprising frequency and be caught by a different male every time. Furthermore, the myriad personalities may react in equally diverse ways to the hormones before a flight. The rough and tumble tomboy green might suddenly think of herself as a delicate lady. The cold-as-ice, hard-as-nails green might... be even nastier than usual. Facets of a personality can be exaggerated or mutated and it might be different every time! In addition, the affects on the greenrider are every bit as unqiue: the flirtatious rider becomes standoffish, the shy girl starts talking. And, as with all the other colors, there is no limit to the combination of dragon personality and rider personality and the interplay between them.