Keroon Hold

Keroon Hold
Hold Information
Continent:	Northern
Protected by:	Igen Weyr Ista Weyr
Coat of arms:	Per Fess golden yellow, white, and peridot-green
Known Holders:	Ospenar, Corman, Kashman
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Keroon Hold is one of the Major Holds in the Northern Continent. It bordered on the west Igen Hold, on the northwest Lemos Hold, on the north Bitra Hold and on the northeast Benden Hold. Igen Weyr fights Threadfall over Keroon Hold, while Ista Weyr flies Thread over the southern portion of the Hold.

Description

A detailed description of the Hold, established, the surrounding countryside, the economy and the other (on the basis of the The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern)

Named for Captain Ezra Keroon, master of the colony ship Buenos Aires, this is also the home hold of Moreta, heroine of "The Ballad of Moreta's Ride", a saga taught to all children as a part of their traditional education. The miners uncovered quantities of iron, vanadium, copper, tin, and lead here — plenty for their colony's needs but not enough to have made the planet viable as a mining venture.

Most of the hold is plains lands, and enormous herds of runnerbeasts and herdbeasts graze on the triangular-stemmed grassoids. This is a major marketing center for all of the breeds of herdbeast. Traders and breeders can take their purchases home on big, flat shore-huggers from the Sea Hold. Runners have been adapted to the long, sloping plains, and riders keep the numbers of little holds in Keroon in close touch. The Lord Holder, at present Corman, is the central authority in what is one of the five largest Holds in the north and one of the three most productive.

The land is grassy and nearly treeless, descending from hills to the warm, sandy beaches of Keroon Bay to the southwest and Nerat Bay to the southeast.

Keroon Hold itself lies in a mountainous outcropping just northeast of the tip of land that points south toward Igen's Toe. Moreta came from a small runnerbeast hold halfway down the river that flows into the Igen River from the Keroon Heights. In her day the hold was more populous than it is now, and some of the cotholds have disappeared. The plague all but destroyed the economy of Keroon, as it did that of Ruatha.

The chief geographic feature of interest in this hold is the Red Butte, an igneous, ridged lacolithic dome a hundred dragon-lengths (seventy-five-hundred feet) across at its widest point. This distinctive granite mound is an important landmark in Pernese history. It was the site of the historic meeting of the six Weyrleaders to decide how to combat the plague described in "The Ballad of Moreta's Ride".

The Red Butte does serve a purpose, which is possibly why it was used as a meeting place by the Weyrs. It has been a flight-training point for Weyrlings throughout the ages. One of the very first visualization points a young rider and dragon learn is the Red Butte. Once the pair can get here from between, they can get almost anywhere else.

Even the smaller holds in Keroon have enough livestock herds to be considered medium-sized beastholds. Keroon specializes in bovines and porcines, important trade commodities. The terrain is excellent for bovines and the bigger grazers, as well as for the runnerbeasts. The compact, long-haired ovines are found right up into the lower ranges of the mountains that resemble those in Switzerland on Earth. Most northern Holds raise ovines for their all-around utility.

Minor Holds and Crafthalls

• Bayhead Hold
• Curved Hill Hold
• High Ground Hold
• High Plateau Hold
• Keroon River Hold
• Kimmage Hold
• Nuella's Wherhold
• Plains Hold — beholden to Keroon Hold in Second Interval; beholden to Lemos Hold by Ninth Pass.
• Red Cliff Hold
• Waterhole Hold (often erroneously listed as Last or Lost Hold)
• Wide Bay Hold

Keroon Hold is also home to the Beastcrafthall and at least seven minor holds, one of which was the home of Fort Queenrider Moreta.

History

First Pass / First Interval

• Dynast:
• Other holders:

First Interval / Second Pass

• Dynast:
• Other holders: Domaize.

Second Interval / Third Pass

• Dynast: Lord Ospenar.
• Other holders:

Sixth Pass

• Dynast:
• Other holders: Healers Mibbut, Gorby and Mendir; Moreta, Talpan, Thaniel.

Eighth Interval / Ninth Pass

• Dynast: Lord Corman, Lord Kashman.
• Other holders: Kailey, Sograny, Tagetarl, Rosheen, Colman, Arminet, Rosheen, Venabil, Tai.