What do you suppose happened to the Wher "crafthall" after Todd's books?

[Violetlight]

Hi! I'm new here, and I'm happy to find a message board dealing with one of my favourite book series!

Anyway, I've been thinking about Whers and had a few questions. Please forgive me if this has been covered in another thread.

For relatives of dragons, (watch) whers have been quite under-utilized in the Pern books as a whole, especially in the older Anne books. Todd McCaffrey started to expand upon the species in "Dragon's Kin", but apparently lost interest, as they feature very little in his subsequent books. It's been a while since I read "Dragon's Kin", but I remember a rather informal "crafthall" being mentioned in his books (just the home of the singular Wher queen and her handler), but never any further details.

Obviously by the later passes Watch-whers still exist (as Lessa is certainly grateful for), but there is no mention as to canon wher handlers other than Lessa at Ruatha during Fax's reign, where whers are bred or by whom.

So what happened? How could the breeding and use of useful, but potentially dangerous dragon-cousins be so unregulated as to not have a formal craft attached to it? The Weyrs certainly don't seem interested in Whers at all.

I'm not overly familiar with Todd's books -- "Dragon's Kin" and "Sky Dragons" were the only ones I read in full -- but are there any other hints in canon as to what happened to the Wher handlers? I was thinking they might be informally based out of Crom Hold later on, due to Whers' affiliation with the Mining Craft, but that's just my own speculation. What do other fans think happened?

[Cheryl]

Welcome Violetlight! I just found your posts and released them from moderation.

In real life, obviously, Todd created the notion of a watchwher crafthall long after Anne's books were written, so that's why there's no hint of their existence.

Trying to backfill a canon explanation for the lack... If it was only ever informal, and given how watchwhers are looked down upon by the 9th Pass, I'd guess it remains an informal offshoot/sub-specialty of the general Breedercrafthall. It doesn't get brought up because it carries no prestige.