In a place where vegetation is fairly sparse, words are written on animal skins and society is structured in an organized fashion, dragons serve as protectors over the world of Pern along with their human companions. Magnificent in their presence, dragons are bred in home camps called Weyrs, with each one having a golden queen dragon whose distinguished rider is deemed the Weyrwoman. Queens, the only type that can reproduce, beget offspring of either green, blue, brown, bronze or gold color.
Golden ones are rare, while bronze and brown dragons can mate with the queen.
Ultimately, each dragon has a place in the hierarchy as determined by their color. Clearly, these creatures and their bonded companions have been given great depth in Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series of fantasy novels. Fortunately, Lead Designer Oliver Sykes has been providing lots of cool information in the interim. Basically that is avoiding, at all costs, the player switching the game off. Firstly the mechanics of a game of this scale, secondly the plot and story and thirdly the license and our respect for it.