Benden Weyr History

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A History of Benden Weyr from 2996 to 3020
Originally written and compiled by Requiem. Last years added and reformatted by Rei

2996- 3003 The Dragon Wars Begin, Impression of Baith, C’leon

There was a time when Benden and Fort Weyr were not so very different, when one dragonrider of the north was much the same as any other. T’less directed Benden Weyr adequately. He was not the most exceptional Weyrleader, no, but he had a good sense for business, and with the Long Interval as it was, that was a necessity. T’less’s Ximateth captured gold Gilganeth frequently enough to keep him the point of contact for the northern holds that fell under Benden’s jurisdiction. And if the holds were reluctant to support Benden Weyr merely as a delivery service and as an occasional emergency rescue source, support them they did. It was lean turns for Benden…just as it was for Fort.

The natural tensions between two half-starved rivals were drawn tight before they finally broke in a wave of desperation when Fort riders - acting independently - stole one of Gilganeth’s infrequent clutches from the Sands in the hopes that it might provide the next gold queen that both Weyrs so desperately needed if they were to continue to exist. Thus began the Northern Dragon War of 2996, which raged for a bit over two decades.

Two turns into the aerial war war that most hadn’t expected to last more than a couple sevendays, Benden procured its junior queen in the form of Baith. The gold Impressed to a young, cot holder’s daughter, Arga, after which the pair was summarily forgotten for the most part; golds didn’t have much use before they came to maturity. The majority of attention from that clutch went to Demotaeth, Ja’kin’s bronze, and Baith immediately developed a strong bond with him. Events conspired to make Baith a good deal more important than any had anticipated, however, when the Senior Weyrwoman unexpectedly took ill and died. Then, less than a tenday before Baith’s maiden Flight, T’less and Ximateth were also lost in battle, killed by Fort’s D’loro. Shaken, Benden turned to Baith in the hopes that she would bring them salvation…or at least a new Weyrleader who could match wits against the reclusive genius that was D’loro.

What they got was C’leon.

The young wingleader was a fierce, ruthless young man, who had no qualms about expending life as Weyrleader to strengthen Benden and win the day. In many ways he wasn’t even close to the equal of Fort’s Weyrleader, but he had a certain charisma that whipped Benden into a frenzy Fort found hard to match. The hatching of a gold daughter, Rimeath, from Baith’s maiden Flight only served to further strengthen the sense that this man was the one meant to lead Benden in their time of need. Still, no amount of charisma can overcome a turn of defeat after defeat, and mutterings began to build against C’leon. Too young to lead, too rash, too quick to enter into a fight before looking to all angles. He should hand over the reins to an older man of more experience.

It wasn’t an older man who rescued C’leon from his fall into disgrace, however. No, it was the addition of a new wingsecond, S’rei of Salenth, to C’leon’s wing, bringing with him information on the inner workings of Fort Weyr after defecting to Benden. Add to that the Flight that ousted D’loro from Weyrleadership at Fort, and Benden Weyr quickly regained much of its lost ground while Fort Weyr struggled to adjust.

3003-3006 Benden drug experiments, Mutation culls, Gold Lyratenth, Benden Population Boom

Benden now had a small head start on Fort Weyr as far as producing dragons was concerned, but the long-anticipated advantage was not to be; Rimeath was late to Rise, laying her first clutch in 3003. That same turn, Arga bore C’leon’s daughter. Later, some would speculate this was part of some design to bind the goldrider to him, though no one could say how she’d conceived. As far as anyone could tell, Arga avoided the Weyrleader like the plague. Others thought that maybe the child wasn’t his at all, claimed merely for his own purposes.

Perhaps in response to how late Rimeath Rose, or perhaps to keep the line between senior and junior gold clearly defined, the first battery of drugs was administered to the young gold in 3004 immediately after Morsrath caught Baith for the third time in a row. If the intent was in fact to increase the clutch size in that initial batch, or that was merely a very convenient side-effect, it’s hard to say. Nevertheless, the same turn that Arga bore C’leon his son, bronze Salenth sired a clutch fully twice the usual size, gold Lyratenth amongst them. Several of the dragons, however, were found to have strange mutations. C’leon had these put down, something that a few people found distasteful…but for the most part it was an accepted decision. If a dragon could neither clutch nor fight he was merely an extra mouth to feed.

3006 - 3010 Thread Returns, C’leon’s dynasty, Kleopath impresses, Assassination of Fort Leaders D’loro and Kamerai

By the time Threadfall began in 3006, C’leon had been embraced as the unopposed ruler of Benden Weyr. Those who had misgivings about Baith’s Hatchings only being open to handpicked members of C’leon’s inner circle, or the Flight for the Senior Queen being forbidden to all but Morsrath in this ‘time of great distress’ where Benden Weyr need not ‘struggle to cope with change,’ remained silent. The very walls spied for C’leon, and Benden Weyr looked upon the bloody executions of those ‘disloyal to the progress of Benden’ with morbid delight.

As within, so without. Though the holds under Benden Weyr had been treated relatively well, they were growing very tired of supplying this Weyr with extra tithes that went more toward fueling the war effort than protecting them from Thread, as Benden was sworn to do. Riders began to - demonstrate - just why the holds should reconsider in increasingly brutal ways. They also began harvesting the sons and daughters of the holds to supply the candidates they needed for the larger clutches of the two junior golds. Something that promised to become even more of a problem with the Hatching of Lyratenth’s first golden daughter in 3008: Millieth.

It was in 3009 that 21-turn-old Pariah Impressed to Baith’s heir, Kleopath, the gold set aside to remain pure from the drug treatments of the junior golds. Baith wasn’t entirely oblivious to the fact that, with another pure gold Rising and Clutching, her position was not assured within a C’leon-controlled Benden.

Rimeath died a gruesome death not long thereafter, her insides partially disintegrating mid-Flight. Whether or not this was what spurred 17-turn-old Kaegan to flee with Millieth to Selenitas while they were still weyrlings or not is anyone’s guess, but it turned Benden’s attention inevitably toward the southern Weyr. They continued to fight Fort Weyr, while making several attempts on the Selenitas goldriders’ lives, though the only one they managed to kill was the fledgling gold weyrling produced from Fath’s last clutch. Nevertheless, their efforts weren’t entirely fruitless on the northern front; D’loro and Kamerai, Fort’s current Weyrleaders, met their deaths in 3010, as well as the man who led the group of Fort defects to the long-abandoned High Reaches.

3011- 3014 Seige of Selenitas, Fort’s J’lorin takes over, Picking up Pieces

3012 marked the end of the C’leon dynasty, the tyrant meeting his end by the hands of Arga and Kaegan amidst the Siege of Selenitas. Meanwhile, his trusted steward Ja’kin of Bronze Demotaeth, left in charge in the absence of Weyrleader, Weyrsecond and all the fighting wings, openly welcomed Fort Wingleader J’lorin into Benden Weyr. There proceeded a culling of all the closest of C’leon’s supporters, and anyone else known for extreme, unnecessary cruelty, as deemed by Baith. Benden Weyr was turned on its side, nursing a terrible wound, and J’lorin stepped into that gap to reshape the weyr. As best he could. Demotaeth won Kleopath, and J’lorin’s Illumiath won Baith within a sevenday of each other at the start of 3013. Some of the more superstitious claimed this was a sign of the joining of a new era. Other, more practical people worried that the Queens’ next Flights wouldn’t be so fortunate, and the Queens might destroy each other. J’lorin ignored any and all rumors, forming an alliance with Selenitas Weyr as one of his first acts as Weyrleader. He sent several of his riders to teach the Southerners the way of war, as well as promised aid in the future, in exchange for goods that they could not procure themselves.

Yet, when Fort attacked Selenitas in 3014 and the Benden riders on loan attempted to call for help, Benden Weyr did not respond… The reason was never made one hundred percent apparent to Selenitas but it was because J’lorin had his own up and coming problems….a whole slew of them. Least of which was the disappearance of Junior Weyrleader Ja’kin of Bronze Demotaeth with a group of Benden bronzes and riders. Why they defected J’lorin wasn’t entirely sure and he didn’t have the resources or time to try and hunt them down right away, being too busy fending off the surge in attacks from Fort.

3015-3017 Wastelander gifts, War on two fronts, Death of Gold Lyratenth, Selenitas Earthquake

Towards the beginning of turn 3015 a wing from Benden was eventually able to capture a group of the defecting rebel forces led by Ja’kin who now called themselves Wasteland. They were held for awhile in Benden before J’lorin deemed such an action to be too dangerous and the prisoners where shipped to Selenitas for holding instead. J’lorin had no idea he was playing right into the enemies hands and, not long after the prisoners were received, the rebel grouping called Wasteland managed to overtake Selenitas weyr using the prisoners there. It was bad news for Benden. They were so busy fighting off attacks from Fort that J’lorin had little hope of being able to fend off both Fort and the Wasteland controlled Selenitas should both attack Benden at once. With not much that could be done Benden battled on and kept some eyes and ears on Selenitas. It seemed that the southern pacifist weyr was not too fond of it’s new masters. If Selenitas could hold on until the battles in the North hit a lull J’lorin was hoping he could do something about Wasteland.

In 3016 tragedy again stuck Benden. Gold Lyartenth died mid-flight just as Rimeath had before her. Though J’lorin had put a stop to all the drug testing C’leon had pushed, the previous treatments had finally run their course with Lyartenth leaving Benden with two thankfully pure golds. Sr. Gold Baith and Jr. Gold Kleopath.

It wasn’t until 3017 that Wasteland seemed to have enough of a hold on Selenitas to finally make problems for Benden. However before the weyr could be anything of a large threat nature gave Benden a break. A massive earthquake rocked Selenitas and destroyed the southern weyr. Benden found out about the quake late and by the time the wings arrived to survey the carnage the Selenitas refugees had completely disappeared leaving not even a trace or clue as to where they now resided. Unfortunately nothing could be done about the disappearance and though J’lorin was careful to listen to any whispers for information about the whereabouts of Selenitas he hadn’t the man power to pour into a through search. Not if he wanted to keep Fort from overwhelming them.

3018-3020 Renewed alliance with New Selenitas, The Final Battle, Dissolving of Benden

J’lorin didn’t have to wait for more then a turn to get news about the sudden disappearance of Selenitas. At the start of the year 3018 two old Benden riders on loan, Elysia of Onyth and Iskierka of Ioth, returned to Benden weyr with a proposal to start negotiates between Benden and the hidden Selenitas. J’lorin accepted the terms and spent the next few weeks in talks with various members of Selenitas’ council spending more time with some then others as they discussed the matter of Fort. The alliance between the two weyrs was reformed and this time they had a particular purpose in mind. The destruction of Fort, more specifically the fall of Fort’s R’anatar. To that end the Selenitas’ fighting wings joined Benden’s wings in border skirmishes against Fort for the rest of 3018. The Selenitas riders donned the fighting colors of Benden and though there was tension in the wings due to the long history between the two weyrs eventually it faded to be replaced by single minded determination. If Fort was to fall then they had to be one in this, if nothing else, and any war hardened rider knew that in order for Fort to fall they needed to put up a unified front.

In 3019 the last massive battle in the Dragon wars began. It was the job of Benden’s main force to meet Fort head on and engage their attention so that Selenitas could flank them from the side. As the large scale aerial battle took place the best of Benden’s black ops forces joined with the black ops wing Legatus from Selenitas and together with the Fort defector M’gnum of Higginth they infiltrated Fort and assassinated R’anatar. They had done it. The combined might of Benden and Selenitas proved to be too much and Fort had been defeated. The battle was not without it costs for any side but it was a victory nonetheless. With Fort defeated Benden sent out it’s own wings to help with the clean up and if they were a little more through in their clean up of Fort then Selenitas was no one made much notice of it.

When the Summit was held in 3020 J’lorin and Arga joined the negotiations and Benden’s fate was decided. Though J’lorin was not happy about Benden dissolving he realized the necessity of such an action to prevent further bloodshed and reluctantly agreed to the splitting and merging of the riders as well. And so Benden was incorporated into Selenitas and the new weyr Inverness and the might that was once Benden existed no longer. Benden Weyr now lies vacant and empty. For how long however remains to be seen.