A Consolidated Explanation of Events

Note When HT executed its reboot TP, it shifted from 4:1 time to 3:1 time. There aren't any hard IC dates because the system wasn't fully in place yet until all the jumping forward was completed. What follows is a more concise list of information for newcomers. :)

  • Five turns before threadfall: Contact is made by Rhaeyn with Nowtime Pern.
    • Nowtimers jump back with Rhaeyn 400 turns.
  • Everyone jumps forward about two turns before threadfall officially begins. This kicks off HT's current timeline on the 3:1 time.

For more area detailed information:

Southern History


HT 2.0 begins its story at the tail end of the 11th Interval, a scant few turns before the predicted arrival of the Red Star and the 12th Pass. It is some four centuries since the 10th Interval - and the Comet that brought the Pernese renaissance of the 9th and 10th Passes to a crashing halt.

A Note On Thread

Generally speaking, neither group ("oldtimer"/"nowtimer") has ever faced Thread in their lives. It was about thirty turns into the interval when HT did the massive jump forward into the future. To have faced Thread as a dragonrider, your character would need to be of fairly significant age (as of 9/30/2013 that'd be ~45 turns at the minimum, greater than that to have fought thread more than one turn).

Nowtimers would have never seen Thread at all given that this is the start of the interval.

A Note On Terminology

The HT 2.0 Reboot comes with a massive Timing TP! To distinguish between the people (and attitudes) of the two different eras, we use:

Oldtimer: The people, dragons, beliefs and technologies of the early 10th Interval. Products of the long period of progress that began in the early 9th Pass, this group are the 'liberals': they are accustomed to little to no gender restrictions, loosened color hierarchy in Weyrs, a loosened feudal structure, and steady social and technological progress. Their era ended in Turn 29 of the 10th Interval, with the arrival of the Great Comet - but a combination of chance, courage, and opportunism will bring some hundreds forward into a new age…

Nowtimer: The people, dragons, beliefs and technologies of the late 11th Interval. The end result of a long downward slide following the Great Comet in Turn 29 of the 10th Interval, this group are the 'conservatives': they are accustomed to rigid gender norms, strict color hierarchy in Weyrs, a firmly entrenched feudal structure, and conservative, limited technological progress.

Tradition Rears Its Hoary Head

In the aftermath of the Comet, Pern took a hard turn towards the safety of certain ancient traditions. It is once again a true feudal society, conservative and cautious.

In weyrs that are keeping with the traditional ways, dragon color matters. Brown, bronze and gold are all seen as top tier and have a certain 'prestige'. Women on fighting dragons are actively discouraged if not barred from standing at all in certain weyrs. Igen and Southern do search females for their clutches and as the Pass wears on, it's not as uncommon to see a woman on a green, blue or brown as it might have been earlier on in the other weyrs as well.

That said, there have been very few instances of female Weyrseconds in nowtime and depending on your location only a smattering of Wingleaders, Wingseconds.

Women in the Nowtime experience a similar prejudice in the crafts. They're less likely to apprentice and less likely to move past Journeyman. Some of this depends on the hall and its own political leanings, so please check NPC Areas for more information on your particular craft!

In the holds, women and men are expected to follow gender normative roles with anything reaching beyond them frowned upon. A similar stance is held within the crafts (again, depending on the particular craft and other circumstances). Weyrs are more relaxed in their viewpoints, one of the few things that hasn't suffered over time.

What Your Character Would Know

  • As a Nowtimer:

Igen Weyr is often considered the "least" weyr on Pern, due to bad management, low dragon numbers, and having the dubious reputation of taking in the strays from all the other weyrs. Filled with nomads, no-goods, and nowhere-else-to-go, the… colorful population of Igen continues to be one of the highest varieties to be found west of Bitra.

In Turn 195, Aevryscienth - a timelost, massive gold - infiltrated Igen's airspace, bringing with her a scandalous rider and tidings of change. As the 12th Pass looms and Igen was woefully ill-prepared, the weeks following brought about a crazy turn of events: a handful of brown and bronzeriders followed the 10th Interval gold back to her time to recruit souls to (relative) safety in the 11th Interval.

These "oldtimers" that they recruited did not come out of the kindness of their hearts; everyone knows of the Comet that destroyed Crom Hold and resurfaced Pern in many ways. The 10th Interval riders fled the burning apocalypse that destroyed and defaced their homes to brave Thread in the upcoming 12th Pass. Among these oldtimers are some four-hundred dragonriders, four of them goldriders.

The oldtimers did not just come with dragons: they came with records, and non-riders, and traders and crafters and their lives, in essence.

Vergora, Igen's weyrwoman, was quite crazy, and had been for some time. The previous weyrleader, Ri'enn, was possibly the prettiest man on Pern, but Br'er - a lowly greenrider! - had often been rumored to have his ear more than the weyrwoman.

Vergora's gold Kohleth and oldtimer Sadaiya's gold Jivayath both went up at the same time, causing Kohleth some considerable injury in the resulting flight battle. The rumors about Kohleth's infertility turned out to be just rumors, as they both clutched as a result — though the senior gold's was woefully tiny, including a terribly warped dud that gleamed unfortunately gold.

As of the the 8th turn of the 12th Pass, Igen currently sees itself led by Mayte and gold Rhiscorath with V'ard and bronze Abraxath.

  • As an Oldtimer:

  • Generally:

The precise details of what happened during the Comet were lost in the four centuries between the early 10th Interval and the late 11th, but the fact that it HAPPENED is absolutely known.

Oldtimer dragons are roughly 10% larger than nowtimer dragons, and oldtimer riders tend to be… quite a bit more liberal in viewpoint and dress than nowtimers.

A tremendous amount of knowledge has been lost between the 10th Interval and 11th. There are rumors that the 11th Interval riders may have contributed to that lack of knowledge, inadvertently, by bringing with them a volume of written crafter knowledge.

11th Interval Pern is incredibly conservative. That means that women are to be seen but not heard — and that what should be seen generally needs to be covered. Riders are respected to an absurd degree, and it is extremely rare for holders or crafters to have anti-rider paradigms. Rank is also more titchy in nowtimer-Pern than oldtimer, with a significant amount of social clout based upon the color of your lifemate.

The crafthalls of current Pern don't particularly trust these new-fangled oldtimer crafters and their crazy ideas.

Crafts & Other HT Links