Wher Guide

History and Origins
Watch-whers were originally an attempt to create more dragons after the first batch (engineered by the late Kitti Ping) hatched. The hatchlings that came from Wind Blossom's attempts were referred to as 'ugly' and 'malformed dragons'. However the creatures were healthy, so the colonists decided to utilize them; they named them "whers."
It was later found that they were made "ugly" and "Malformed" by design, and were made to fight thread at night, when dragons do not fly.

The whers were found to be Impressible by humans. The bond between a wher and a human is stronger than a bond with a firelizard, but not as strong as the bond between a dragon and rider. However, whers generally adore their human companions, and are willing to defend them if need requires. Whers also tend to be selective about the people they enjoy for company; many whers are only friendly to a handful of humans while being vicious towards all others. This tendency varies from wher to wher.

It soon became apparent that the whers could serve several different purposes. The three most common jobs that whers are used for are: night guards for holds, aids to miners, and breeders. Because of the nature of the first two jobs, Whers became known as watch-whers.

Watch-whers that serve as night guardians for Holds (both major and minor, though major holds tend to be more able to afford watch-whers) are generally treated like watch dogs. Trained from their hatching, watch-whers are taught to attack any humans except for a certain few. Depending on the trainers, this training could consist of prodding and teasing to make the watch-wher hate most people. Generally watch-whers that serve this purpose are kept on a chain leash at night, and inside a 'lair' during the day. Watch-whers that serve as hold guardians are the most aggressive types of watch-whers.

Another common job for watch-whers is serving as aids to miners. Because of their ability to see so well in the dark mine shafts, their heightened sense of hearing and smell, and their intelligence, watch-whers are ideal companions for miners. Watch-whers are able to spot small changes in the air and can warn miners of gases that could possibly be flammable or toxic. Also, because of their great strength, watch-whers are excellent diggers and can rescue miners from cave-ins. Watch-whers that aid miners are often the most docile because they are trained to care for and watch over the humans they work with.

The last (but definitely not least) most common job for watch-whers is breeder. Gold watch-whers tend not to be used as night guards for holds, nor as aids to the minercraft. Golds are bonded to trained humans who have considerable knowledge of watch-whers and they are used to lay clutches.

In our 13th Interval Pern, the true purpose of Whers are known, and they are much less cruel to them. Watch-whers are trained to spot and warn rather than attack, and are no longer kept on chains. During a pass, wings of Whers will fly low in threadfall, eating the cold dying threads.

Wher Physical Traits and Personality
Whers are similar to dragons in many ways, but drastically different in others. A full grown wher can weigh anywhere from 600 to 800 pounds, and will generally be as tall as a pony or small horse. Their skin is colored like dragons (green, blue, brown, bronze and gold), however the hide is thick, strong, and does not flake. Therefore watch-whers do not have to be oiled like dragons, just scrubbed. However, their hide is sensitive immediately after hatching and it takes a few months before they develop a tougher second coat. Whers also have the same green ichor that dragons and firelizards have for blood.

Whers are more muscular than dragons, and do not have the prominent ridges down their spines that their draconic cousins have. Their bodies appear to be badly designed, with feet that only sport two claws and a single pad for balance. However, this actually allows watch-whers to move with surprising speed and agility. Their senses of smell and hearing are keen, and they are able to effectively see in the dark. Their sight is not night-vision, but rather infrared. Because of this, the heat of the sun hurts their sensitive eyes and drives them to hide during the day. Other light sources that are dimmer and that do not generate as much heat, such as glows, tend not to bother whers as much. Whers' eyes also change color depending on their mood like dragons and firelizards.

They wings are much shorter than dragons and can only suport them in the thicker night air, and the largerest Golds and Bronzes can even suport their Handler in flight. However, traditionaly most Whers' wings are clipped early on so as to prevent flight, though this is only practiced now if there is no blood bond at impression. There have also been cases in which whers have gone between like dragons and firelizards. Watch-whers can go between on their own, or with directions from a human.

Whers are very vocal creatures and can make a wide range of noises. While they can speak to dragons through telepathy, they are not quite as empathic as dragons. More intelligent than firelizards, watch-whers communicate telepathically through images, feelings and simple words with their bonded humans, but tend to vocalize more often. Whers can communicate with a wide range of clicks, chirps, grunts, and many other noises. Whers are intelligent enough to understand human speech and often make up their own noises that translate into human words. (Example: Ewerll = "stale"; such as stale air that can be dangerous in a mine.) A wher and its bonded human often develop a set of code noises in which they communicate. (This is most common with watch-whers that serve in mines.) When Whers do speek Englich in telepathy, they only have the vocabulary and knoledge of grammar of a 6 turn old, and will often have tantrums using speech in telepathy if annoyed or not getting what they want.

It is common for persons of certain bloodlines to be more likely to bond with a wher than others. If an individual's mother or father was able to bond successfully with a wher, then that person is usually a suitable candidate to bond with a wher as well. Also, whers that guard major Holds will always bond with members of the Lord/Lady Holder's bloodline. The colors do not seem to be as restricted to certain genders of humans as dragons, though Golds will only impress to females and bronze will most commonly inpress to males.

Sometimes a watch-wher will out-live its human companion and can actually re-bond with another human. Therefore some watch-whers can actually go through several different handlers in their lifetimes.

Un-bonded whers can be given any name. However, whers who are properly bonded to a human have names that always end in the letters 'sk'. These names are always a variation of their human partner's name, and the more similarity between the two names, the stronger the bond. (Example: Kindan and Kisk; or Nuella and Nuelsk.) Watch-whers that guard major Holds will always take the name of the Hold they protect. (Example: Lemos/Lemosk.) Whers do not announce their names upon Impression like dragons; instead the wher's bonded human will simply 'know' the wher's name a short time after hatching.

There are some whers that live in the wilderness, and if a wher hatches away from humans it will return to the wild. Wild whers are solitary and anti-social, and will kill at night if provoked. Generally wild whers will avoid encounters during the day because of their heat-sensitive eyes.

Care and Feeding of Whers
Wher handlers are not searched like candidates for dragon Impression. Any person who has good whey handler bloodlines or wants to impress one will be asked to be a candidate.

There are two diffrent methods of hatchings and impression.
The most common is to seperate the eggs from the mother hours from hatching and place them in a circle. Any Gold eggs are placed in the center. The candidates then stand around the eggs and wait for them to hatch. When the first egg hatches, the candidates are aksed to cut their hands to attract the wher to them. If they impress, they allow their wher to drink their blood. The Golds are always the last to hatch. they are the most violent, offten killing or maiming candidates who they do not impress, before finding their bonded. When they do, they will offten attack her too, until they drink her blood.
The seccond is privet impression, most common with Green clutches. The candidate will bow to the mother and make vocal noises, and if she likes them, she allows them to take an egg. The egg is then kept warm till it hatches and the Wher impressed. This is always overseen by a senior Wher handler.

Wher eggs are roughly half the size of dragon eggs and have wrinkled, rumpled skin. Like dragon and firelizard eggs, watch-wher eggs must be kept warm until they hatch. However, it is generally the warmth of the queen wher's body and wings that keep the eggs warm, rather than hot sands.

Upon hatching, baby whers must be fed, although they are not as voracious as dragonets. Hatchling whers have no teeth, and therefore can easily choke on chunks of meat. The best meal to feed a newly-hatched wher is a porridge of oats, water, and blood. Upon hatching, it is safe to feed a wher as much of the porridge as it asks for, for they do not allow themselves to be over-fed. After hatching, about half a pail of the blood-porridge a day is sufficient food for the first three months. After three months a wher will have enough back teeth to chew meat chunks, and can graduate to a diet of raw meat. However the porridge feedings should continue every morning until the wher develops the second coat on its hide.

**Note: We are in the process of getting the pics up, please bear with us.

Wher Colors
Like Dragons, whers come in a variety of colors and set sizes to those colors. Whers are mesured like horses; in Hands (hh) from the ground to their shoulder.


Gold
Gender: Female
Impress: Females
Size: 14hh - 16hh
Build: Like dragons, Gold Whers are large and rather imposing... for a Wher. Their large size actualy means they are rather usless for a Wher, being to large to fight Thread at night and too large for the average watchwher tower. So their main use is keeping other whers in line and breeding.



Bronze
Gender: male
Impress: males
Size: 13hh -15hh
Build: Large like their Gold Mates, they are too large for Watchtowers, but are PERFECT size for night partrols around the holds and weyr at night time. The Bronze Whers are only just small enough to sustain flight during a night fall, so are often the wingleader in such wher-wings, barking orders and keeping an eye on the thread.



Brown
Gender: male
Impress: Mostly males, some Females
Size: 11.2hh - 13.2hh
Build: Less bulky than the bronzes but more than the blues, the Browns are the type to most often be assigned to guard a Minor Hold or Wherhold. Their more gental nature (than other whers) is easyer for the holdfolk to deal with than a vicious Bronze or snappy Blue.



Blue
Gender: Male
Impress: Males and Females
Size: 11hh - 12hh
Build: Thiner and lighter than the other males, these Whers are the most commonly seen in thread fighting Wher-wings. They are light and large enough to fly longer than any other colors. They are also the most commonly assigned to a whertower, as they are small enough to be comfortable in it and strong enough to scale the wall up to it.



Green
Gender: Female
Impress: Males and Females
Size: 10 hh - 11hh
Build: The smallest of the Whers, greens are the only ones ever assigned to a Farmhold or Cothold, as they wont need too much food and are less intimadating than the other, larger colors. Only the larger ones are assigned to whertowers, as most smaller ones are too weak to scale the building to reach it. Within a Wher-wing, they take shifts among themselves, as they are not strong enough to fly the whole fall.

Clutch Guide
When Whers Run to mate, the chance of a clutch and size of this clutch is decided by the color of the parents. When a Gold runs, only the fastest, strongest and most enduring male will catch her, as Golds are fast and can run from dusk until dawn. When a Green runs, only the most Agile male will catch her, as Greens use their smaller sice and greater agility to avoid the males rather than speed, often spinning around and runing between her persuers legs, who then take much longer to turn and often end up a tangled pile of confused whers.

Who will chase who
~Gold Run
Bronzes and Browns will chase Golds

~Green Run
Bronzes, Browns and Blues will chase Greens.

Run and Clutching Frequentcy

Golds: Run once every Turn with a 10% chance of failing to run. Clutches only once every two Turns.

Greens: Run twice a Turn with a 5% chance of failing to run. Clutches only twice in their lifetime.

Clutch Mortaility
Whers have an unfortunate habit of laying dead eggs. between one ond three eggs in every clutch will be a dud, meaning that many of the smaller clutches result in few live babies. This is necessary to control wher populations. Unless the population is way to high, gold and bronze eggs wont be called "duds".

Clutch Size and Type

Gold X Bronze
Clutch Size: 5-10 eggs per Clutch
Gold: 3/100
Bronze: 7/100
Brown: 15/100
Blue: 30/100
Green: 45/100

Gold X Brown
Clutch Size: 3-6 eggs per Clutch
Brown: 20/100
Blue: 30/100
Green: 50/100

Green X Bronze
Clutch Size: 1-4 eggs per Clutch
Brown: 10/100
Blue: 30/100
Green: 60/100

Green X Brown
Clutch Size: 1-3 eggs per Clutch
Brown: 5/100
Blue: 35/100
Green: 60/100

Green X Blue
Clutch Size: 1-2 eggs per Clutch
Blue: 40/100
Green: 60/100