Plot Notes
The fire-lizard banishment probably lead to the absence of fire-lizards (once common creatures to the average human on Pern) by Moreta’s time (5th or 6th Pass) and their "re-discovery" by F'nor and Menolly several hundred years later (9th pass).
The story also brings back a time shortly after that of Dragonsdawn, introducing the use of drums as a means of communication across distances that figures prominently in the Harper Hall trilogy and other earlier stories. Fire-lizards used to be the main relayers of messages, but with their banishment, people turned to drums to spread news.
The loss of technology leads to a shift towards an oral tradition and the creation and use of Teaching Songs.
Wind Blossom was trained by her mother Kitti Ping (Dragonsdawn), an Eridani-trained geneticist. The Eridani have a tradition of passing the responsibility of watching over genetic changes to their descendants. Wind Blossom was resistant to this idea, but it still played through as her daughter Emorra marries Tieran – it is strongly implied that Lorana is their descendant.
Watch-whers are shown in a more prominent light compared to books written after the 9th pass. It is mentioned that they were purposely built to be nocturnal and fight Thread at night. This is a ret-con from books written by Anne McCaffrey alone. It is unclear if they continue to fight Thread by the 9th pass. Watch-whers that are with humans are misunderstood and have been reduced to chained up watchdogs.
Read more about this topic: Dragonsblood
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