Lessa

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Lessa is a fictional character in Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. She is the Benden Weyrwoman (leader) during the Ninth Pass of the Red Star, and rider of the gold dragon Ramoth. Prior to her ascension to the Weyrwoman position, Lessa disguised as a drudge in Ruatha Hold after Fax murdered the former Lord of Ruatha, Lessa's father. Lessa spent years plotting her revenge on Fax, so that when the Benden riders came in search of a woman with the telepathic talents to "impress" the new queen dragonet, she used her abilities to embroil the dragonrider F'lar in a fight to the death with Fax, which F'lar won.

Instead of inheriting her family hold of Ruatha, Lessa gave up her right as heir to Jaxom, a distant cousin, and traveled to Benden Weyr to become the only Weyrwoman on Pern, and joined forces with Weyrleader F'lar to fight the resurgence of the voracious alien life-forms known as "Thread". Lessa's most notable accomplishment was the (re)discovery that dragons could travel between times as well as places. She dared to use this skill to travel 400 years in the past, persuading the "Oldtimer" dragonriders of the end of the Eighth Pass to travel to the future and resume fighting the menace of Thread that once again threatened the life of all on Pern.

[edit] Relations

  • Parents: Lord Kale and Lady Adessa
  • Siblings: several brothers, (names unknown) died in Fax's invasion of Ruatha
  • Weyrmate: F'lar
  • Son: F'lessan
  • Cousins:
    • Gemma, mother of Jaxom (father of Jarrol and Shawan)
    • Barla, mother of Pell, Aramina (mother of Readis, Aranya, Janara, Anskono, Almie), Nexa
  • Notable Ancestors:
    • Landing/First Pass: Peter (Red) Hanrahan, Brian Hanrahan, Mi'hall Hanrahan, Torene Ostrovsky
    • Sixth Pass: Lord Alessan, Lady Nerilka (formerly of Fort Hold)

[edit] Trivia

Lessa is a petite woman described as being childlike in figure with extremely long, thick black hair. Her queen Ramoth is the largest dragon on the planet at 45 feet long, nose to tip of tail.

F'lessan was her only child. It was considered very dangerous for her to have more; having F'lessan nearly killed her. In the earlier books, she expressed bitterness that she was not like Kylara, another Weyrwoman known for her promiscuity, who bore many children despite not wanting any.

At a young age, she was already very stubborn and independent. Her father mentions her as "stubborn at only four [years old]", and the Harper Robinton was amused when she fell asleep during a marching song.

Her father Kale was an amiable man, in ordinary times considered the ideal Holder. However, the brutal greed of High Reaches' Lord Holder Fax, underestimated by Kale, eventually caused the genocide of all the residents of Ruatha except Lessa, who hid in the watch-wher's den. According to the books, Lessa was 11 turns (years) old at the time of the attack.

In The Skies of Pern, she admits that she left the care of F'lessan to his fostermother and that she'd never really paid much attention to him. Manora replied that it was expected, since she was Weyrwoman and had other duties.

At first, Lessa is portrayed as an extremely unsociable and cynical personality, having known nothing but revenge in her time at Ruatha. In the course of the books, however, she grows more personable and develops a genuinely loving relationship with F'lar. Nevertheless, she is always notably short-tempered and occasionally uses her considerable psychic ability to influence the thoughts of others and even to affect their perceptions of things.

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