<div align="center"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 2em;"><strong>Dragons Pern - Psychology</strong><br/><br/>========================================<br/><br/></span><br/><strong>Unlike their fire-lizard ancestors, dragons are fully sapient. They communicate fluently in human language (although only telepathically), and have personalities and opinions distinct from those of their riders. However, their intelligence does seem to be somewhat lower than that of the average human. In particular, their long-term memory is severely limited.<br/><br/>As a safeguard against the possible damage that could be caused by such powerful creatures, Ping engineered dragons to be profoundly psychologically dependent on their riders. Any dragonet that fails to Impress to a human shortly after hatching will die. If a dragon's rider dies, the dragon immediately suicides by going between without a destination. The only exception in the books is a queen dragon whose rider dies while the queen is gravid; the dragon waits just long enough to lay her eggs and see them hatch before disappearing between. (Humans who lose their dragons typically commit suicide as well. However, some do survive, although the experience leaves profound psychological trauma.)<br/><br/>Ping also designed the dragons to be fairly calm in temperament. They never fight one another, unless two queens come into estrus at the same time. They are also not dangerous to humans except shortly after hatching, when it is common for confused and frightened dragonets to maul or even kill humans hoping to Impress.<br/><br/>Dragons hatch knowing their own names, and announce their names to their new riders upon Impression. Pernese dragons' names always end in -th.<br/><br/>Found at http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Dragons_Pern_-_Psychology/id/1338482 (http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Dragons_Pern_-_Psychology/id/1338482)</strong><br/></div>