This is mostly for longer information that can't go in the dictionary - lots of OOC information on the new creatures, new colors, important NPCs, etc.
Carrier: When used in reference to a person, these days it is usually talking of a person whose children turn out to be mutants. A carrier always passes on the same mutation, or pair of mutations.
Fire-lizards: The ancestor of the dragons, they are, basically, dragons in miniature. Large wings, four limbs, a strong hide that needs oiling, and a long neck, tail, and a wedge-shaped head. They come in the same original fivecolors as dragons, though they have started producing new colors of their own thanks to Tekas. Fire-lizards have the nickname of flits. Colors
Flying: Females have mating Flights and males attempt to catch them. That's not complicated - except for what sizes can but even that could be broken with permission and an excuse. What is complicated is when you look at the humans. The thing is, bronze dragons do sometimes Fly greens attached to men. It happens - if a male dragon is near a female dragon when she is about to Fly, he will most likely attempt to Fly her if he is the proper size. Dragons don't much take their rider's sexuality into account when choosing mates. This can cause problems, as it has been demonstrated in at least one of the books that the bronzeriders don't usually like this. Different things result depending on the personality but it happens - and probably vice versa sometimes where homosexual men fly females. People should keep this in mind, especially with the new colors.
- Another thing that we should be reminded of - dragon flights send off empathic waves of lust even to those outside the Flight. Flit flights can as well but should be considered weaker and easier to ignore, and green flights probably have a shorter range and strength than queens. Queen Flights, however, are very hard to ignore for anyone with a high level of empathy - riders, weyrlings, and candidates. This is probably another reason weyrlings are separated from the rest of the Weyr and the Weyrlingmaster probably watches them sharply during queen Flights. It's hard to ignore, but not impossible as long as you're not directly involved.
- As a note, Weyrleaders dragons can fly other females, but not other queens. Weyrseconds can fly other golds after being chosen for Weyrsecond since their position is permanent as long as the Weyrleader approves.
Navarn: One of the animals that Shimari's Stones were used on are runners. And the stallion produced strange new creatures on every mare he impregnated. At first it was encouraged since the little foals looked adorable. They had feathery wings and the claws and teeth of a predator, as well as the systems of a predator. But then the foals grew up, and they couldn't be tamed and were loyal only to their Pack and a very few special humans. Navarn riders usually are bonded first by one, which is their main Navarn, but a Navarn rider is talked to and protected by all Navarn of a Pack - essentially, every rider of a Pack can ride any of that Pack, but get emotional feedback and ranking from the one that chose them. It has become a recent tradition that navarn riders lose two letters of their name (example - Osisrian=>Isrian). Navarn themselves before Impression have names based on their color - like Starlight, might be a dappled or Appaloosa horse, Ice Mirror be a white looking horse, Fireclaws be chestnut, etc. After Impression their name is more typical Pernese or fantasy like - no English or common Earth names please - make them sound like they could be from Pern.
Navarn and their riders are currently seen partly as a menance and are very rare. Most navarn go into heat, but higher ranks and very rarely the lower ranks also go into Chase - which is like Flight, but on the ground. It is unknown why they do not Fly. Foals of a Pack are found another pack at two turns old, which is also when they are sexually and physically mature. They cannot start holding a rider until they are a turn old. They are ranked by eye colors.
Race ability: Recently it has been discovered that navarn are immune to Thread- it slides off of them as if they were metal. Unfortunately, this does not extend to their Riders and a Pack goes nowhere without its humans.
Pirates: Pirates are one of the menaces of the sea and coastline. Although there are some unorganized pirate groups, the ones that cause the most trouble are by far the most organized. These pirates have a hidden headquarters near Kahrain called Roger's Cove (although it is only known about by the pirates). Some of the more famous (or infamous) pirate ships are The Jaqueline, The Shark and The Seeker. There are rumors of The Wisdom Fox also doing some pirating, but nothing has ever been proved. The pirates have on occasion taken mercenary jobs.
Scarred Wherry Eggs: The eggs of the Wherries that were scarred or descended from the scarred can have special abilities when eaten. They are frequently called Sceggs for short.The color they are matches to the power they can given and depending on the power the effect can last from just under a day to two full days. The stronger the effect, the less time it will last. They are rare, but very coveted. Most have mental abilities, but a very few give physical mutations for that amount of time. A few sceggs have rather unusual effects, a list of these sceggs and their effects can be found here.
Selines: Short for Scarred Felines, these animals have a zig-zag scar on their bellies - with their hair and the fact many cats get in fights it's hard to tell they are any different from other cats. They can heal, or cause sickness, depending on their moods, and have limited mindspeech. They do not bond and are like any other feline in their loyalty - they either like you or they don't. If raised from kittenhood they'll probably be more loyal, and while most try to stay away from the Selines, some Healers search out litters of them.
Shimari's Stones: Sometimes just called Stones for short, these are the one hundred and ten stones (though most people only know of the first hundred) that Shimari used to mutate creatures. Occasionally these stones will fall from the green planet to be found by someone.
Stone Scars: The scars left by Shimari's Stones that mark someone as a Carrier or a Mutant. If they are colored, it is a mutant.
Threadscore effects: Very rarely, there can be threadscore effects - most Threadscore, nothing will happen. However, every once in awhile (and OOCly, only the characters that it is given to are the ones it is happening to - there are no NPCs getting these effects) a dragon or a person may have something... odd happen to them.
Turnover Contest: A contest OOCly, that happens when the ingame time is around Turnover. There are two sections of it - one for threads, meaning it requires active roleplaying, and then another section that judges single posts. usually the single posts are part of a thread, but the rest of the thread is not considered in judging the posts. For threads, the prizes are either two scarred wherry eggs to any character(s) of your choice, or a secret prize which will not be revealerd for a couple of seasons in-game time since the last Turnover. For individual posts, players get a character token which allows them to either make a character with parameters usually not allowed, or to use it on an already created character and have a medium plot centered around the character, or to be given some kind of rank that is not done through Flights.
Vulpines: Foxes descended from the Stone Scarred fox are to differentiate them just called Vulpines. They can grown and shrink in size and are more intelligent. They are also highly attracted to shiny things and known thieves. They can with an effort phase through walls with their stolen objects and the cubs are sometimes hunted to be raised by holdless to help in their thieving, or just by those who want to steal certain special objects.
Watch-whers: Also engineered from fire-lizards, these were made by Wind Blossom, daughter of Kitti Ping, both of who were part a sect of elite geneticists called the Eridani. The watch-whers are uglier, more muscular, and much smaller dragons, except they can be more independent. While they can bond - and in a strong enough bond, they may even take after a dragon and go between if their bonded dies - but they can also live in the wild, without a bonded, and they can switch bonds, and be trained to obey someone they aren't bonded to. At the same time, when they are loyal to someone, they will stay loyal, and they have all the same abilities as their "cousins", but they cannot go out in the daytime - their eyes are too light and heat sensitive. Their stubby wings make it a bit harder to fly, but on night where the air is thick they do and will. They have more duds in their clutches, but still manage to flourish. They are less intelligent than dragons, but can speak to their bonded in simple sentences, and in their own "language" of growls chirps. They are less telepathic than dragons, but much more empathic. The wherhandlers in general lately have been much more of a solid mass than the separate whers.Watch-wher colors and other info