Holds of Pern

Holds, in Anne McCaffrey's science fiction series Dragonriders of Pern, are the residences of the bulk of the planet Pern's population.

Members of specialized professions on Pern live in Crafthalls and dragonriders live in Weyrs, but for most people, the Hold is both the residence and primary social authority.

Throughout most of Pern, Holds are made up of either stone buildings or networks of caverns both natural and man-made. By shuttering any windows and barring the door, this makes the Holds ideal shelter in times of Threadfall. Holds are under tight strictures to keep Thread-susceptible greenery away from the entrances.

There are three types of Hold. Major Holds are the largest and most politically powerful. These Major Holds are analogous to Greek city-states, with a large (for Pern) quasi-urban center of perhaps one thousand residents (the Hold itself) surrounded by a vast, mostly rural territory under the Hold's jurisdiction of 10,000 or more additional residents. When referring to a Major Hold, a speaker might mean either this entire region or only the urban center.

The Major Holds are ruled by a Lord Holder, whose power is largely unchecked in his domain so long as he fulfills his responsibility to the Hold's residents; namely, he provides residents protection from Thread, an appropriate education, and food and shelter in return for labor. The Lord provides protection from Thread by tithing a percentage of the Hold's agriculture and other materiel to the Weyr to which his Hold looks.

As the series opens in the novel Dragonflight, there are fifteen such Major Holds, occupying the entire Northern Continent (other than the uninhabitable Arctic). These holds are listed below.

Under the jurisdiction of the Major Holds are Minor Holds. These can range widely in size, but operate not unlike a Major Hold on a smaller scale. Despite the name, some of the larger Minor Holds may approach the population of a Major Hold's urban center. Nonetheless, they are subject to the Major Hold of which they are a part and to which they tithe. Minor Holds are managed by a Holder, not a Lord. In many cases, however, a Lord Holder will install his son as Holder at a Minor Hold; the son retains the hereditary title of Lord.

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