Candidates

• Candidates are individuals that stand for Impression when dragon eggs hatch.

Search

• Search is when a dragon determines if an individual has the potential to be a Candidate to Impress to a dragonet. Candidates who live at the Weyr may be allowed to stand by asking the Weyrwoman for Candidate status. Non-weyrbred Candidates need to be Searched by a Searchrider. Writers are encouraged to post about this process, but it is not required. Searchriders give suitable Candidates a token that is then presented to the Headwoman when the new Candidate is brought to the Weyr to live.

Ages

• A candidate must be between the ages of 12-21. In-character, Candidates ages 16-20 are given preference for Impression if there are more Candidates than available eggs. In the case of a gold egg on the Sands, all candidates who want to be considered for it must be at least 15 turns old.

Chain of Command

• Candidates report to the Headwoman, who is responsible for their care and discipline until they Impress, particularly for non-crafter candidates. They are assigned appropriate chores to do their part in keeping the Weyr running until they meet their lifemate on the sands.

• Ultimately, however, they are the responsibility of the Weyrlingmaster who is charged with creating their class schedule and deciding if they are fit to Stand as Candidates come Hatching time. He should be notified in case of major infractions, changes in status, health, and housing issues.

Craft Duties

• All candidates are encouraged to either apprentice to a craft or take on some sort of other work (herder, cook, working with children for potential fostering, etc).

• In-Character, not everyone Impresses and there are disappointed candidates who were either weyrbred or don't want to leave the Weyr. They need to have skills to contribute to the Weyr after their candidate days are over if no dragon chooses them.

• Non-weyrbred candidates who have a craft apprentice rank prior to Search will automatically continue training under whatever local weyrcrafter covers the same craft. If there is no PC journeyman or master, an NPC can be used to refer to as being under their tutelage.

• A journeyman ranked crafter/candidate would work similar to any journeyman posted away from a Hall, on contract to the Weyr, with provision for the Candidacy.

• Continuing one's craft requires no permission from Weyrleaders or Headwoman. It's just a matter of reporting to the proper crafter in charge. The Headwoman needs to know of craft obligations. Journey-rank candidates are not required to do candidate chores, only attend classes. Apprentice-rank candidates have slightly limited chores, depending on the Weyr's Headwoman's policy.

Impression

• When it is near time for the Hatching, the writer of the gold dragon's clutch will send out a form asking for writer's preferences for what their Candidate Impresses. Typically, there is a limited number of bronze dragonets (2-3 per Hatching). To guarantee that your persona impresses a bronze dragonet, you would need to pay member marks, otherwise, it is up to the discretion of the Hatching writer. Writers with a brown, blue, or green first preference will likely always receive this as there tend to be more of these colors available.

Gold Eggs - While no Candidate would refer to themselves as a "Queen Candidate," writers will have the option to choose Gold, Green, or No Impression when entering a Gold Egg contest.

Living Quarters

• Most candidates live in the Candidate Barracks, separated in sleeping quarters by gender. The exceptions to this would be Candidates who are Journeyman crafters upon Search or who have families/weyrmates by the time they are Searched. See each Weyr's Location Guide for the exact setup for barracks and journeyman candidates.

• If your candidate is a Journeyman, in a committed relationship, or has other family obligations, please petition the Weyrlingmaster for their permission. They may be refused if there are Eggs on the Sands as that is a critical time in candidate training, but it is up to the individual Weyrlingmaster.

Provisions

• The Weyr provides all food, clothing, and other needs a candidate might have. Few candidates will have any marks to spend, barring those who are craft-trained before being Searched.

Physical Impairments

• Personas with a disability that would prevent them from fighting Thread will usually not be allowed to become a Candidate, and any such Impression must be approved by the Council (if you are not sure, please ask). Injuries which happen after Impression are allowed (with approval from the L1 if they happen in a post and are serious) and are much more likely as we are in a Pass. Please see our FAQ on the Healer Craft for information about the state of medical care on Pern.

Pregnancy

• Pregnant candidates would be allowed to Stand, if they wanted to do so, and were in months 1-4 of their pregnancy. This isn't a departure from book-canon: Sorka was pregnant in Dragonsdawn when she Impressed Faranth.
• With both pregnancy and weyrlinghood timewarped to 6 months for RP purposes (1 real life calendar year), a woman who was 4 months pregnant at Impression would have a 2 month old dragonet (equivalent to "real" Pernese dragon at 6 months old, without timewarp). Since dragons and firelizards are very attuned to "happy events" such as births, the dragonet is unlikely to find it disturbing. A woman not that advanced in pregnancy would have an even older weyrling dragon by the time of birth.
• A woman who gives birth during weyrlinghood would *not* graduate with the rest of her class, but instead take probably a full turn instead of 6 months to complete training.

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