Piemur

Piemur was a journeyman Harper during the Ninth Pass. He appeared as a major character in Dragondrums (1979) and The White Dragon (1978). Later on, he was part of the group that helped with AIVAS projects.

Biography[]

Piemur, the son of a farmer and cattle trader, was taken to Harper Hall as an apprentice due to the excellent singing voice he possessed, though he had very little aptitude concerning other Harper skills. Piemur was apprenticed to Master Shonagar, the Master of Voice at that time. Due to Piemur's small stature, he was forced to develop other talents in order to enjoy his residence at Harper Hall and became known as a person of constant mischief and disregard for Hall regulations.

Harper Hall[]

When, during Dragonsinger, Menolly arrived at Harper Hall (though both this and Dragonsong are viewed primarily through the eyes of Menolly), Piemur was one of the first to get to know her. At first, this interest was merely a curiosity regarding Menolly's possession of nine fire lizards, though it grew to a closer mutual friendship throughout Dragonsinger, the second book in the Harper Hall trilogy. Piemur had doubts about his future in the Harper Hall, unsure of what would become of him when his voice broke, and shared these doubts with Menolly, who convinced him to concentrate more on the present.

Piemur's voice started breaking at a most inconvenient time for many of the Harper Hall residents, including Piemur himself, as he was to play a major role in a musical performance at the spring gather, which required the fine voice Piemur no longer possessed, and another was forced to take his role. The moment was not, however, inconvenient for Masterharper Robinton, who had plans for Piemur after the inevitable failure of his voice. During Piemur's adaptation to life in the Hall — and being one of the smallest apprentices — he learned that information was one way of keeping himself in one piece, and it turned out that he had a natural affinity for piecing all the information about various people together. This talent was brought to the attention of the Masterharper by Menolly, his personal journeyman, and Piemur changed apprenticeships to Master Robinton himself. This was unknown to the rest of the Hall, other than to Robinton, his two journeymen (Menolly and Sebell) and the Drummaster, Olodkey, to whom Piemur was officially apprenticed to learn the complicated drum measures used to communicate across Pern. He was warned that he would need to be discreet about to whom he was in truth apprenticed, and saw this as a test of his ability to remain discreet.

The Drumheights[]

The other apprentice and journeyman harpers at the Drumheights knew enough of Piemur's long history of devilish achievements, and fully expected these to continue at his new posting with them and the Master of Drums. They did not, of course, know that Piemur was secretly apprenticed to Masterharper Robinton, nor of the warning delivered regarding Piemur's silence, and bullied him according to the mischief they expected in return. Piemur, having taken the warning to be discreet altogether too seriously, did absolutely nothing in return for the treatment he was given. He mentioned nothing to anyone else concerning his sleeping affairs being sewn shut, soiled, his laundry hung in the gutters, etc. Instead, Piemur redoubled his efforts in learning the assigned drum measures, and could perform them more correctly even than those who had been there for several turns. This only gained him the further disapproval of his fellow apprentices.

During Piemur's stay at the Drumheights, Menolly recruited him several times for missions set by Masterharper Robinton, including a visit to a nearby mine, which produced the sapphires given to newly raised Masters. Piemur discovered that the mine was being raided by the notorious Oldtimers, banished to the Southern Continent of Pern, who took precious stones without payment, threatening the mine's economy. It was also found out from this visit that Lord Meron of Nabol Hold, a dying Lord Holder, had close association with the Oldtimers of the southern continent. Also during this time, Piemur learned of the relationship between Menolly and Sebell, and was probably one of the few people aware of it.

After several of these absences from the Drumheights, Piemur's fellow apprentices' attitudes worsened further. After several unpleasant incidents, they lowered themselves to greasing the steps and handrail of the stairway Piemur was bound to ascend shortly, causing a fall that could have ended his life. Piemur escaped with a severe concussion, and was removed from apprenticeship at the Drumheights.

Journey and Residence at Southern[]

When Piemur recovered from his fall, Master Robinton assigned him a mission with Journeyman Sebell. They were to join the Gather at Lord Meron's Hold (disguised as cattle traders, ironically enough), to report the commoners' mood concerning Lord Meron's association with the banned Oldtimers as well as the Lord Holder himself, who was slowly dying of a wasting disease. One of the first things they noticed was the excessively high number of fire lizards in the Hold, and they deduced that this was the payment Lord Meron had been receiving from the Oldtimers. After a series of events, Piemur found himself being chased around Nabol Hold, unable to escape, and with a fire lizard egg, stolen from Lord Meron, that he believed would hatch a queen. He hid in a sack in a small storage room and promptly fell fast asleep, presumably due to his recent head injury.

While Piemur slept, with the egg tucked warmly in his shirt, the sacks were transported between to Southern Weyr, where the Oldtimers were in residence, and Piermur escaped without notice. He fled the area until the fire-lizard, which he turned out a queen, had hatched. He named the fire-lizard Farli. Along the way, he found a young runnerbeast whose mother had been killed by Thread. Piemur chose to keep it and named him Stupid.

On his way to Southern Hold (not inhabited by the Oldtimers), Piemur met Sharra, a girl from the very place he was going to, and helped her in the research she was conducting on the native plants of the Southern Continent. They eventually made their way back the Hold, on the same day that Menolly and Sebell, who, until now had been searching the Northern Continent for him, arrived at Southern Hold. As there was no reason for Piemur to return to the Northern Continent — his good voice was gone, and Masterharper Robinton was interested in exploring the Southern Continent regardless of where Piemur was — he was instructed, or rather permitted, to stay and map the coast of Southern.

Having been promoted to Journeyman, Piemur was able to teach drum code and set up Drum Towers at different Holds. When that became regular, he talked Hamian into taking him along on his exploring of Island River to map an overland route to the mines near the old stake site.

Exploring, Cove Hold and Landing[]

While exploring along the Southern Continent he met the 'shipwreck couple' at Paradise River Hold, and later informed Robinton of their existence. Continuing on, he came to a cove where Jaxom was recovering from Fire-head Fever. Piemur took part in the exploration of the surrounding area, and became overjoyed when Robinton arrived, as the newly constructed Cove Hold was to be the retired MasterHarper's new home. Piemur was later reassigned to become Robinton's journeyman at Cove Hold by the newly created Masterharper Sebell. After the discovery of Landing, he told Jancis about his observations about fire lizards and earthshakes. He later fell in love with Jancis and married her, with the couple having one son, Pierjan.

Piemur played an important role in AIVAS's project to end Thread. Piemur was among a small group who took advanced classes. He also took part in the first trips to the Yokohama, and assisted in returning the remains of Sallah Telgar to Pern for interment.

Some years later, the discovery of a planned attack on the Printercrafthall led Piemur to search AIVAS's files. He discovered a file and a flame retardant which ultimately helped to prevent damage to the Hall.

Personality and Traits[]

As a herder's son, Piemur had some skill working with runnerbeasts. He was known to be a light sleeper, handy for being a watcher of the herds at night, and so the others didn't play tricks on him at Harper Hall. His excellent singing voice as a child led him to Harper Hall, though he had little affinity for other aspects of the Hall. Piemur developed a reputation for pranks, as well as a talent for discovering and piecing together information. Despite his lack of affinity for Harper traits, Piemur was a quick study when he applied himself, learning drum codes at a far faster rate than the other apprentices.

During his time in the Southern Continent, Piemur became more independent and self-sufficient.

Appearances[]

Notes[]

In the novel Dragondrums, Piemur was born to a herdsman in Keroon which explains his familiarity with runnerbeasts. In a break from the previous canon, Gigi McCaffrey mentions in her novel Dragon's Code that the young man was born in Crom. Another interesting difference in this novel, in contradiction to the novels written by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey, the author of Dragon's Code claims that Stupid, Piemur's runnerbeast he'd rescued on the Southern Continent during the events of Dragondrums, has six legs instead of the established four legs. The reason for the statement and addition of limbs to a Terran animal imported by the original colonists is unknown.