The Regicide
is an epic Dragonriders of Pern fanfiction by astrokath.
Set at High Reaches in the Fifth Pass, it explores the political and social fabric of Pern in gripping detail via its primary protagonists bronze rider F'ren and weyrwoman Rahnis, and its primary antagonist, the terrifying and Machiavellian Weyrleader Sh'vek.
The fic is full novel length, and can be found at Archive Of Our Own.
This Fic Provides Examples Of:
- Anyone Can Die: And they frequently do.
- Brainless Beauty: Junior weyrwoman Delene is very pretty and has the empathic talent to hear all dragons, but that's about all her mind is good for.
- Can't Live Without You: Several dragon characters suicide on the death of their rider, and the reverse is equally applicable.
- Completed Fic: Something close to 300,000 words, and finished.
- Darker and Edgier: It's not afraid to tackle the darker implications of some canonical Pernese conventions.
- Death by Childbirth: A common threat in this setting, for human and dragon alike. At least two women die during the story, but Carth pulls through.
- Dragon Rider: Being a Pern fic it can't help but embody this trope.
- Encyclopedia Exposita: Each and every chapter starts with an original Pernese song, thematically linked to the chapter content
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: With a title like 'The Regicide', you really don't want to be a queen dragon in this story.
- Fate Worse than Death: For a dragonrider, losing one's dragon is the ultimate fate worse than death, and is a key plot point in the latter stages of the story
- Lampshade Hanging: At one point in the story, Rahnis is particularly disparaging of F'ren's circular logic. The quality of the epigraph songs is also called into question from time to time.
- Mercy Kill: What Rahnis tries to do to Maenida and Kiath. But it's F'ren who succeeds.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Inevitable with so many schemes going on, sometimes attempts to fix things make things worse. Particularly when it comes to timing it.
- Out-Gambitted: Rahnis' scheme to seize control of the Weyr worked perfectly. Except for the fact that Sh'vek knew exactly what was going on the whole time.
- Precision F-Strike: 'Shells', 'shards' and the like are all very well, but sometimes they're just not enough. F'ren hits this point in conversation with C'nir towards the end of the story.
- Psychic Powers: Delene can hear all dragons.
- Shown Their Work: Loads and loads of well-researched and reasoned background detail.
- Switching P.O.V.: The point of view is handed off between a good half-dozen characters occupying points all along the spectrum of morality.
- Taking You with Me: Sh'vek does his best to take the people he blames most along with him, and doesn't care if a few more get caught up in the process.
- Time Travel: The dragons' ability to go between times is integral to the plot at several points.
- You Already Changed the Past: Standard for Pern, the effects of time travel can be seen well before the characters involved come up with the idea to make the trip.
