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Impression refers to the mental bonding that occurred between a dragon, fire lizard or watch-wher and a human. When a fire lizard or watch-wher Impressed, it could give its trainer or owner impressions about what it was feeling, and it had the ability to project its thoughts to a limited extent. Dragons, however, were capable of full-fledged mental communication with their riders.

Description[]

Fire lizards, the genetic predecessors of dragons, had the ability to form a mental bond with the first person who fed it after hatching. This bond was almost a reflexive, instinctive thing, and allowed the fire lizard limited communication with its owner, generally appearing as emotions or images. Fire lizards were not particular as to whom they Impressed, and a human could Impress more than one fire lizard. Watch-whers were also capable of impressing, but were capable of changing to whom they were bonded.

For Pernese dragons, however, Impression was not a choice but a necessity. Impression being necessary for dragons was the deliberate work of geneticist Kitti Ping Yung, who recognized that introducing large, flying carnivores that could think for themselves into the planet's ecosystem, without a definitive control, would be disastrous for both humans and all other species on Pern. A dragon growing up without human guidance, or outliving their rider, could potentially become extremely dangerous. Thus, hatchling dragons retained a strong instinctive desire to Impress to a human. Dragons who did not find a suitable candidate with whom to Impress were known to go between. Thus, it was traditional for Weyrs to offer large numbers of candidates, to ensure that the hatchlings had sufficient choice. However, a hatchling would occasionally choose a human who was not a candidate, choosing instead someone in the audience. Fiona, late in the Second Interval, and both Jaxom and Mirrim, in the Ninth Pass, were chosen by their respective dragons while they were in the audience of a Hatching.

Hatchling dragons were born knowing their name, and made their choice known by communicating their name to their desired candidate. Successful Impressions often brought intense feelings of joy to the chosen human. For a dragon and a human, Impression was more than the mere melding of two minds together. They literally became one being with two bodies, their souls intertwined to the extent that there was no way for them to tell where dragon began and human ended. Thus, it surpassed the familiar concept of telepathy. The emotions, thoughts, desires, wants and needs of both dragon and human partners were known to each other. Though a human could live, although shattered and incomplete, after the loss of his or her dragon, if the human partner died, the dragon would instantly go between, as the dragon could not comprehend or fathom life without its human counterpart. In the case of gold dragons with unhatched eggs, the maternal instinct could prevent the dragon from committing suicide until her eggs had safely hatched and the hatchlings themselves had impressed. After Moreta's death, her dragon Orlith remained until her eggs hatched, then went between. Similarly, Jora's Nemorth also waited until her eggs hatched before going between.

While it appears that there were no limitations as to who could impress a fire lizard, only certain humans were capable of impressing dragons. Potential candidates had latent mental talents that could be sensed by other dragons. Different colors of dragons would impress different groups of people. While dragons only Impressed one person, it had been theorized that a human could potentially reimpress following their dragon's death, given that humans could Impress multiple fire lizards. However, in the only tested case, Brekke, who was presented as a candidate following the death of her queen, refused to go through with Impression, leading the hatchling to choose another candidate.

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