Aivas's grand plan for Thread's End proved to be a failure, knocking the Red Star into a new orbit, yes, but only one that provided longer intervals between longer passes, not the true ending of the thread.

Dragon population had already decreased so greatly, for all were so certain the Thread were finally gone for ever.

When it returned, thirty turns beyond the length of a normal interval, the destruction was catastrophic, but the dwindling Weyrs protected all those they could. Perhaps, it may have been alright.

But then, only three turns later...

Unaware of the true nature of the Dawn Sisters, the first indication of trouble was their sudden shift from their usual positions. Sailors around the Southern Continent were the first to notice the change. Over the course of a few fortnights, the trio grew larger. Soon they were visible day and night, though distinctly faded during the day. Then, one night, not long before dawn, the "stars" burst into flame and moved rapidly from their new, lower and nearer positions. The phenomenon lasted for about half an hour, the objects growing larger and smoke billowing behind them. The three objects crashed, almost simultaneously, into the sea, though the inhabitants of Pern did not know that until later. . .

Unbeknownst to the Pernese, the orbits of the three space ships had deteriorated over the course of the last several hundred years since they'd been abandoned for the surface of the planet. Finally, the gravitational pull of Pern drew them into a downward fall, and they entered the atmosphere, crashing into the sea and the ocean floor beneath; their descent through the atmosphere was the burning phenomenon the people had observed.

Flash-boiling several thousand gallons of sea water, the three massive objects slammed into the ocean bedrock and started a vicious chain reaction of natural disasters. The first thing that was noticed was the ocean water level rose several feet over the course of a few hours, then rapidly dropped several feet below normal sea level in the same amount of time, leaving several feet of beach high and dry.

Next came the earthquakes, first noticed on the western coast of both Northern and Southern Continents and rolling eastward; soon after they were first noticed on the western shore, new tremors were felt on the eastern shore, rolling westward. The two waves of tremors collided near Southern Hold and Weyr and Ista Weyr. Along this line of collision, massive damage occurred: Telgar Weyr and Hold were flattened; Ista Island sank halfway into the sea; Southern crumbled into the sea. Igen and Lemos were fairly heavily damaged, though not wiped out by any means. Those nearer the eastern and western edges of the Continents seemed to have received the least amount of damage, and counted themselves lucky.

Their luck didn't last long, however. About an hour after the quakes came the tidal wave. Though this wave started as a mere couple of feet, it had built up to several feet on its first pass (the initial high tide experienced before the earthquakes), and had continued to grow as it drained backwards, and now had grown to monstrous proportions on its return. This massive wave washed inland, swamping holds and Weyrs alike--the closer to the ocean or rivers, the more damage that was done: what little was left of Telgar Hold and Weyr was drenched; the rest of Ista and Southern were washed away and drowned; Southern Boll, High Reaches Hold, Keroon, Half-Circle Seahold, Nerat, and Tillek were gone; Igen, Lemos, Nabol, High Reaches Weyr, Crom, Ruatha, Fort Hold and Weyr, and even Benden Hold and Weyr were flooded.

Benden, Fort and High Reaches Weyrs, though devastated by the emotional loss of half of Pern's dragons, fought to pull themselves together to protect the few people who were still alive. They started searching around Ista, Southern, and other Weyrs and Holds near water's edge, rescuing people who had been dragged out to sea by the retreat of the tidal wave. Thankfully, most were in the air, not in their Weyrs, when the next wave of destruction hit--a second wave of earthquakes which triggered many of the active and dormant volcanoes around the planet; it was followed by another, lesser tidal wave. The third round brought still less damage, except for triggering most of the remaining volcanoes. Tremors continued for several sevendays afterward, growing continually weaker. Tidal wave intensity decreased relatively rapidly, and the flooding ceased altogether after a couple of days.

In the strain of keeping themselves alive, many except the seacrafters and dragonriders failed to notice the change of the land around them. The earthquakes followed fault lines and created new ones, splitting off much of the river-riddled portions of the Northern and Southern Continents. Over the next few fortnights, no one slept well. The earthquakes seemed never-ending; it was during this time that the average citizens of Pern realized they were being separated from each other as the broken pieces of the Continents were pushed and pulled away from their former positions by the buckling and creation of the tectonic plates. Things seemed to settle down after about three fortnights, and the remaining people began to rebuild.

As near as anyone could tell, no one who had been living on the Southern Continent had survived, except for a handful of dragonriders who had escaped or had not been at the Weyr when it was destroyed. Same for Ista and Igen. Telgar had no survivors. Many of Benden, Fort, and High Reaches dragonriders fell ill from the volcanic smoke or exposure and died, severely decimating the world's already limited dragonrider population. Some seaholders and most of the seacrafters who had been at sea during the devastation survived remarkably well. Oddly enough, the Hold to suffer the fewest casualties was Bitra.

Their original Weyrs destroyed--whether by earthquake, flood, or volcanic eruption--the dragonriders had to find a new home. Volcanoes would not be safe for some time. What remained of the much-reduced Northern Continent seemed to be the best choice for a new Weyr. The surviving riders retreated there--there were plenty of caves in the cliffs that remained from the breaks across the Continent. More riders were lost as some of these caves collapsed.

As though to add insult to injury, Thread fell just when the riders were settling into their new home. Despite injuries mental, emotional, and physical, former Benden's Weyrleader, a bronzerider named D'van, led the diminished wings into battle against their ancient enemy. After the Fall, they finished rebuilding the new Weyr, dragons working alongside their riders to dig farther into the vast networks of caves they had found. Several more outer caves collapsed, eventually creating a beach beneath the Weyr. The day before the Weyr was "finished," Thread fell again (the fifth Fall after the Cataclysm, as it came to be called), and D'van and his dragon were killed. It was unanimously voted to name the Weyr after the brave bronzerider who had kept the Weyrs functioning after the Cataclysm.

Many returning sailors sought their families and, if they could find them, took them to what had once been Benden and Bitra Holds. Much to the Bitrans disgust, they were fairly ousted from their homes by the more desperate refugees, who renamed their new home New Tillek; most of the Bitrans moved across the Benden Sea to the mainland and sought refuge at the Weyr--they were accepted on the condition that they work to help support the Weyr, something that was foreign to them, but which they did because it was the cost of the Weyr's protection and their homes. Most of the other survivors found homes in Ruatha. Within a turn, most of the volcanoes had died back, and people began to resettle Igen Island.

Two turns after the Cataclysm, sea routes were firmly established and Ruatha, New Igen, and New Tillek Holds began tithing to Dovan Weyr.