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Craft ranking system
There are three degrees of rank:apprentice, journeyman (or journeywoman), and master. Apprentices begin their education as early as eight or nine years of age and are instructed by one or more master craftsmen on a regular basis. Journeymen (or women) continue to receive instruction, but may go without instruction for indefinite periods of time to practice their craft in outlying settlements. The majority of a craft's members will be journeymen and journeywomen; many will never advance beyond this point. The highest regular rank is master which denotes the ability, right, and responsibility to pass the ways of the Craft on to apprentices and journeymen. There are two types of Master in a crafthall, A Craftsmaster, who is higher ranking than apprentices and journeymen/journey women, and a Master Craftsman, who is in charge of all things relating to that particular craft.

Organizational structure
Crafts are divided into separate halls. These Halls are both places of work and a social structure. A Crafthall may range from a humble Fisher's shack on a rocky coast to the great craft complexes like Smithhall at Telgar or the Harper-Healer Hall at Fort. Generally, one or more crafthalls are recognized as being the center of learning for their craft are generally identified as Major Crafthalls, the rest being considered Minor Crafthalls. Each crafthall selects a leader from among their masters, and the convocation of all Craftsmasters of a craft elect their head, their Craft's Mastercraftsman. The Mastercraftsman has the right to speak for all members of his Craft, planet-wide.


The difference between Hall-Crafts and Hold-crafts
A distinction should be drawn between the Hold-crafts and the Hall-crafts. Several Crafts, while having their own Halls and places of learning, are basic skills that no Hold can do without. Examples include the Farmercraft, Cookingcraft, and Beastcraft (or Herdcraft). These Hold-crafts are therefore found everywhere, and their life does not primarily revolve around their home Halls. In contrast, crafts such as the Minercraft, Smithcraft, or Healercraft require specific locations, specialized halls, and years of learning to master. Unlike the Hold-crafts, these Crafts stand somewhat aloof from the regular day-to-day life of the Holds of Pern.

List of major Crafthalls
These are the major centers for the various Crafts. There are Journeymen and Masters at most Holds and cotholds (small holds/farms) that perform their duties and live with that hold community.

Apprentices can learn basic skills from these Journeymen and Masters then be sent to a hall for more training or go directly to the crafthall. Baking, Weaving, Farming, Fishing, and Beastcraft tend to be general crafts that can be learned anywhere. To be recognized as an official rank, however, an individual must walk the tables as with all the other crafts.

* Harper Hall, at Fort
* Healer Hall, at Fort
* Smithcrafthall, at Telgar
* Minecrafthall, at Crom
* Beastcrafthall, at Keroon
* Farmer Hall, at Nerat
* Vintner Hall, at Benden
* Glass-smith Hall, at Ista
* Fishercrafthall, at Tillek
* Weavercrafthall, at Southern Boll
* Tannercraft hall, at Igen
* Dolphin Hall, at Kahrain
* Ancientcraft Hall, at

The Smithcraft is one of the most respected and most varied crafts on Pern with a large number of offshoots and subspecialties. It works closely together with the Minecraft, which supplies the raw materials like iron ore and blackstone (also called Cromcoal since most of it is coming out of Crom's coal mines). Out of these raw materials, the Smithcraft manufactures the tools that the other crafts need to do their work.

Smithcrafters use a combination of working with mind and hands to design and craft things that make life on Pern easier. They want to know how things work and they constantly strive to make them work more efficiently. It is their curiosity and never-ending search for efficiency that makes the Smithcraft one of the most inventive of the crafts on Pern, constantly improving old and developing new techniques to make the best use of the precious raw materials.

Subcrafts
Metal Smiths
Although all metalsmiths work with metal, there are many different subspecialties in this field. Aside from tools, machinery, household items and jewelry, the metalsmiths also provide the metal sheets that are used as a Thread-proof cover on roofs, wagons and ships and build the flamethrowers used in the battle against Thread. All smiths are expected to learn how to make these things; while Smiths can specialize, in most holds there is less need for specialists.

Stone Smiths
This branch of the Smithcraft works closely together with the masons from the Minecraft in constructing the buildings on Pern. They are the architects of Pern and need an excellent understanding of physics and materials to do the stress analyses of the stone and foundations and provide plans that guarantee that the finished building will stand solidly and not crumble in on itself. Some stonesmiths specialize on creating decorative stonework.

Glass Smiths
The Glasscraft is an offshoot of the Smithcraft, producing not only glass and lead crystal but also ceramics and porcelain. Apprentices interested in this branch of the craft start out by grinding limestone, sifting sand and working the bellows at the forges used by the Journeymen doing the glassblowing. Most Masters have their special recipes for mixing the raw materials for glass melting which they guard jealously like the vintners guard their wine recipes. The glass products made by the Glasscraft range from flasks and bottles to windowpanes to more sophisticated items like lenses for distance-viewers (telescopes) and small-seers (microscopes), which are made by Masters specializing in optics.

Star Smiths
The Starcraft is an offshoot from the Glasscraft. With the help of the re-invented distance-viewers, Starcrafters create charts of the skies around Pern and have made astonishing discoveries, such as the fact that the so-called Dawn Sisters visible over Southern Pern are man-made objects. The Starcraft is also involved in intense study of the Red Star, trying to dissect its role in the recurrence of Threadfall on Pern and improving the charts predicting the time and location of Threadfall. The main products of the Starcraft are accurate Threadfall charts as well as detailed maps of the skies over Pern and equipment used in charting the skies, which have practical use for the Seacraft as navigation aids. Some Starcrafters also try to predict atmospheric conditions and provide weather charts.

Minecraft
Miners liberate what the natural resources Pern has from the depths of her crust, working closely with the Smiths who make use of their product. Miners carve out and excavate mineshafts, searching for metals, gems, minerals, and coal, generally making use of tools and very few explosives. Some Miners also find and harvest liquid minerals such as rock oil and natural gas, and study both Earth Science (Geology) and Rockology (Petrography). Others make jewelry, study lapidary, spelunking and mountain climbing.


Subcrafts
Excavators
Geologists
Masons
Quarriers
Seismologists
Surveyors
Vulcanologists

Weavercraft
Weavers learn which fibers make the best cloth, how to spin thread, tapestry and rug weaving, sweater knitting, dying and printing patterns on material, construction and repair of looms. Weavers find their Craft widely sought after, since not only do they supply the most intricately-made clothing, but Holds, Halls and Weyrs constructed from bare stone are desperate to add color to their homes with tapestries, and take the chill out of stone floors with rugs. The WeaverCraft has a number of SubCrafts including: fiber production, dyeing, knitting, tailoring and weaving.


Subcrafts
Clothweaving
Crochet/Knitter
Dyer
Embroidery
Lacemaker
Loom Builder
Sisalmaker
Tailor
Tapestrymaker

Tannercraft
Tanners learn how best to remove the skin or fur of an animal, which hides are the most useful for a particular purpose, how to tan a hide, how to stretch and cut it properly, and all the steps involved in turning an animal hide into the finished product. Tanners may also learn how to press patterns into leather, and cobblers (shoemakers) are an extension of this Craft. Tanners create everything from riding straps for dragonriders to runnerbeast tack to Wherhide boots, and if a hide bears the Tanner stamp, buyers know that the leather has been properly prepared and will not rot. A tanner's hands are often cut or colored from the sharp knives and strong dye used in this Craft.

Subcrafts
Clothingmaker
Cobbler
Curist
Dyer
Harnessmaker
Saddlemaker

Bakercraft
The BakerCraft Hall gathers a multitude of recipes from around Pern to teach its Apprentices and Journeymen. Here, Apprentices learn what herbs to enhance, what spice to add and how to prepare food in a dozen different ways. The BakerCraft manages all the kitchens on Pern, and they are responsible for day-to-day needs as well as feasts for special occasions. There are a number of specialties within the BakerCraft: Pastry Chef, Bread Chef, Salad and Vegetable Chef, Hearth Chef and the discipline of nutrition.


Subcrafts
Bread
Pastries
Sweetmeats

Vintercraft
The Vintners run wineries, breweries and distilleries across the Southern Continent. They create all the alcohol in the south -- wine, beer, ale, bubbly, spirits of every kind, along with many non-alcoholic beverages. Vintners give advice, as well as construct barrels and kegs, char and smoke the containers, make wooden stoppers and vegetable lipid seals, and harvest specially grown grapes, fruits, herbs and other ingredients. Southern vintners have great pride in their work, so be warned! Hailing the virtues of any Northern ware is guaranteed to rub them the wrong way.


Subcrafts
Brewer
Ciders
Distiller
Liquors
Wines

Runnercraft
Runners are the messengers of Pern. While dragons can go Between and reach places quickly, this can be both costly and inopportune. So people rely on Runners to deliver messages. Runners themselves must be of upstanding integrity and efficiency since they can, and do, run sensitive documents so people need to trust them.

After the abandonment of the teachings of AIVAS by the general population, the new technologies were mostly lost. However, some intrepid individuals continued to tinker with what had been taught and worked to expand that knowledge base. This is the least respect craft on Pern and has only a few Halls from which its teachings are spread. It is also the smallest as it draws the fewest number of apprentices.

For the most part, those who study Ancientcraft are interested in learning how the pieces of what the Ancients left behind fit and function. Someone with training in Ancientcraft is usually regarded as eccentric and not always taken seriously - the teachings of AIVAS are more infamous then anything else in our timeline and those who actually want to tinker with such dangerous things must not be all there.

Consider their inventions and experiments on par with something of a steampunk and rudimentary nature.