Post by Jay Kitten on Aug 13, 2013 20:59:41 GMT -8
Pern... The 7th Pass
Tigris Weyr is located about five miles inland from the Western Continent's western coast, and as such it is as far away as possible from the Northern Continent. Smack dab in the middle of a harsh desert, food is scarce and save for the life-giving river that runs just along it's eastern fault, life here would be quite impossible.
Thread have stripped the land mostly bare of plant life, falling on burning soils and eventually dying in the soil in their small burrows. Small holes can still be seen variously scattered around the plains, a chilling attestation to the true safety of the Weyr, nay all of Pern. Most of the plant life is near the river in small patches, seen here.
Stretching on for miles around the Weyr lies the vast and flat Fire Plains, a scorching and deadly desert that derives it's name from the fact that in the summer months, your body will literally feel like it is on fire if you are exposed to Rukbat's rays for more than a few seconds without protection. This is a double-edged sword, as it not only deters enemies, but can kill you if you aren't careful.
The shade of the main rock is most often the best place of shelter.
The weyrs of Tigris are built in to the side of two fault lines, running at an approximate 90 degree angle in straight lines from one another, diverging from the Tiger's Eye Mountain. Inside the mountain itself, there is a large central cavern that holds the Hatching Sands, above it are the Offices, and below it are the Hot Springs and Lower Caverns. During most hours of the day save when the sun is highest, dragons can usually perch atop the rocks without much suffering.
In the winter months, however, this place becomes the opposite of what you would expect, becoming instead a permafrost tundra, cold as blazes as it is exposed to less sunlight, and thus the thin atmosphere above Tigris allows space's cold to set in. No snow falls, but snow does indeed cover the ground, as moisture in the air quickly becomes ice and sinks to ground level. Needless to say, the denizens soon require cold-weather gear as opposed to that used in the blazing sun. Rukbat's rays, however, reflect off of the white surface, and still cause horrible, if not worse, sunburn. The angle of the reflected rays usually leads to the underside of chins being burned.