Welcome to Weyrlinghood!

Our goal for weyrlinghood is to provide players with an opportunity to explore the growth of their characters during a potentially influential part of their lives. We aim to provide a place where players feel comfortable delving into whichever aspects of weyrlinghood that they are excited about, while allowing to work around or gloss-over what may not hold as much interest.

While Fort Weyr runs weyrlinghood OOCly roughly across 12-16 weeks, players are welcome to move at their own pace and what works best for their character ICly. We only ask that players refrain from jumping “ahead” in the schedule and keep the weyrlinghood rules in mind when engaging in scenes. ICly, weyrlings would be working, more or less, on the same things around the same time, even if OOCly players may be at different times within the quarter.

Lessons will remain largely off camera, unless there is desire to play one out, and none are OOCly required of weyrlings. Fort Staff is more than happy to provide lessons for those interested but weyrlings are welcome to play them amongst themselves as well.

Visitors are now largely permitted into the training grounds and even within the IC 'common area' in the barracks where social visits are permitted, with some caveats marked in the schedule.


Guidelines for Weyrling Schedule and RP

The schedule below highlights only some of the possible lessons, exercises and other potential RP ideas or hooks available! We leave it up to everyone's discretion what they choose to focus on. It should also be noted that weyrlings have additional lessons (think written work and studies relevant to their position and education) and physical training scheduled between care and training focused on their lifemates.

Characters who might struggle with part or the majority of weyrlinghood are wholeheartedly encouraged and supported! While we’ll assume that your weyrling is doing fine, any players who wish to have their weyrlings struggle, fail and even be held back, are encouraged to do so! All we ask is that you let Fort Staff know, so that any potentially unwanted ICA=ICCs are discussed.

The current weyrlingmaster and other assistants are largely NPC. We encourage weyrlings to freely reference them, when needed, in scenes. ICly, the weyrlingmasters will likely be present in some form or another — especially in the early months!

While they can definitely be strict when necessary, their primary role is to educate and encourage weyrlings, understanding that (especially in the early months!) things can be very new and different and require some adjusting. It's unlikely they would be overly critical or engage in public scolding (though pulling someone aside for a quick, private chat may happen!).

We also encourage an optional but routine part of weyrlinghood in the form of having a mentor rider for any PC or NPC weyrlings who desire one. This is to offer a variety of crossover RP to non-weyrlingmaster riders and give weyrlings the option of an IC source who can help them in their struggles with any big questions or hard things that they may not want to bring to a weyrlingmaster but could benefit from talking through it with someone with more life experience.

If ever you're unsure whether something is suitable for RP in the IC month(s) you're in, feel free to @mail or page Fort Staff for clarification.


Weyrlinghood Quarterly Schedule


Months 0 - 3 (December 29 - January 19)

- Bonding
- Dragon Care 101
- Dragon Communication

During the first three months, weyrlings are focusing on their new baby dragons. These months are all about bonding, learning how to care for your dragon, and learning how to effectively communicate.

Caring for your baby dragon includes things like:
How to feed your dragon (acceptable sized chunks, how much and how often)
How to bathe/oil your dragon (how much soap? How much oil? Did you get all the cracks and crevices? Don’t forget between those toes!)
Developing a routine that works for you. In the beginning this probably looks more like a “do I oil before or after I feed?” routine, and less like a daily routine.

Communication during this time might include things like:
How to talk to your dragon without speaking out loud (definitely easier for some than others)
How to get your baby dragon to only project to you (and not the whole world; also much easier for some than others)

Some Scene Ideas and Prompts:

  • Feeding your dragon (meat prep!)
  • Bathing and oiling
  • Daily stretches, walks and wing exercises (practice of extending, contracting and fanning wings)
  • Working on your bond (early month 1)
  • Talking to your dragon without speaking out loud (early month 1)
  • Developing a routine that works for both of you
  • Jogging laps or lifting firestone sacks for physical training (rider only)
  • Sore muscles or minor injuries to you or your dragon
  • Approved and chaperoned (by at least one AWLM) visits from anyone within the weyr