Pern was a beautiful planet earth like enough to feel like home yet un spoiled by the industrial development and interstellar wars that had ravaged the other planets of humankind and a few thousand colonists who came to Pern intended to keep it that way they stayed their claims on the land and settled down to build a low-tech agricultural paradise on the world they had loved at first sight then suddenly disaster struck deadly spores fell like silver threads from the sky, devouring everything, and everyone in their path, fire and water could destroy the thread as the stuff came to be called, but the colonists could not keep up with the relentless attacks very quickly. It became clear that the colonies resources could not support long-term fight against the menace, and the thread was predicted to fall for 50 years. Some other solution would have to be found if the colony was to survive, then some of the colonists noticed that the small dragon like lizards that inhabited their new world were joining the fight against thread, breathing fire on it and teleporting to safety. If only they thought the dragon nets were big enough for a human ride and intelligent enough to work as a team with a rider and so they said their most talented Geneticist to work to create the creatures and so desperately needed dragons !