King's Ransom

The bronze dragon is always male. He is the second-largest and second-rarest color, but by a wide margin. Golds are noticeably larger than their mates - the very largest bronzes are slightly bigger than the very smallest golds, but barring such size extremes, a gold is always bigger than her bronze mate. And while any given Weyr has room for no more than five golden queens at a time, at best, a Weyr with fewer than five adult bronzes is in serious trouble. Even so, compared to the dozens of browns and hundreds of blues and greens which make up the bulk of a Weyr's dragons, the bronzes are few indeed. They are the most prized of the so-called fighting colors - not just for their rarity, but because, most of the time, the bronzes are the only males with even a slight hope of keeping up with the larger, stronger, faster queens when they rise to mate. The very largest browns are sometimes close to the size of a small bronze, and these unusual specimens may occasionally rise to a queen, but blues have no chance whatsoever, and greens are female. So when the golds come into season, it is only the bronzes who rise to her challenge, with only a handful of exceptions. In fact, in canon, there was exactly one exception - brown Canth of F'nor, who was the biggest brown ever to live. But even he was only big enough because most of the bronzes of his time had come forward from 400 Turns in the past, when dragons were smaller than those of his own day. Even Canth was not able to compete against modern bronzes of his own time. Although the term is not used in canon, bronzes are often referred to as 'kings' in fandom due to being the closest thing existing to a male counterpart to the gold. Unlike a gold, however, a bronze's authority is socially assigned. It is Weyr policy that the Weyrleaders are the dragon and rider who are the current mate of that Weyr's most senior queen and her rider. Their authority is ancient and usually respected, especially during Threadfall, when a strong chain of command is important for everybody's survival. Yet the bronze's authority comes solely from the backing of his queen - he cannot compel lesser dragons to obey him through sheer telepathic force the way a gold can. Still, bronzes are big, strong dragons. Not all are born to lead, but all are born to at least attempt it, and even those not suited for command are bright and bold, always ready for action and valiant in battle against Thread. Some bronzes, influenced by their riders, are very conservative and even contentious, but the best are good-natured and adventurous - ever ready to sacrifice themselves in an instant to save a life, yet equally ready to play, mate, and enjoy life thoroughly. Noteworthy bronzes include Mnemneth of F'lar, devoted and exclusive mate of the time-traveling queen Ramoth, and Nabeth of B'lerion, who with his rider helped Moreta with her storied task of saving Pern from a deadly viral disease.

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