bl_crom

Introduction
Crom Hold was founded by Chester, Ricard, Otty and Minerva, which had joined leadership of the Hold in the first Turns of its existence [RSR/9:222]. It seems reasonable to assume that the first Lord Holder will have been one of these four persons or came from the families of one of the founders.
During the Second Long (Eight) Interval Crom Hold was one of the seven Holds that were conquered by Fax, the self-styled Lord of the High Reaches. It was the second Hold Fax brought under his rule, by killing the current Lord Holder Lesselden and his two oldest children in 2483 [MHoP]. In The Dragonlover's Guide to Pern is written that Crom was "perhaps the only [Hold] he [Fax] came by legitimately, through his marriage to Gemma, Lady of Crom, daughter of the old Lord Holder" [DLG1&2/136]. The fact that Gemma was "a lady of Crom" is indisputable and mentioned often in the first Pern book, Dragonflight, and other books, but nowhere in the existing literature is stated explicitly that Fax "acquired" the Hold by way of marriage or that she was the daughter of the (or a) Lord Holder of Crom. A point in favor of this "marriage theory" is some subtly given bit of information in Dragonflight, in which Lytol tells F'lar and F'nor: "Even the Lady Gemma has learned. It’d be different if he didn’t need her family's support. Ah, it would be different indeed. So he keeps her pregnant, hoping to kill her in childbed one day. And he will. He will.", which clearly tells us Fax needs the support of Gemma's family but does not give a reason why [D1/1(s2):18]. By the time Lytol entrusts this information to the Benden Weyr riders, Crom Hold was already in Fax's possession for almost 22 Turns! This remark only makes sense if a relative of Lady Gemma accepted Fax as his overlord and acted as Warder for him, because from The Masterharper of Pern we know that Fax killed (or better: had to kill) the Lord Holder in 2483 [MHoP].
The "lady of Crom" bit makes us face other difficulties, too. Gemma can't have been a daughter of a Lord Holder of Crom (and certainly not of Lesselden) because in two other books it is clearly stated that she is of Ruathan Blood. In The Masterharper of Pern F'lon tells Robinton about Fax: "Did you know that he's espoused a Ruathan Blood?". Robinton is not aware of the fact at the moment and is also unable to place Gemma (whose name is also furnished by F'lon) in the Ruathan Bloodline, to which F'lon explains further: "She may be only a third cousin, but she’s got Ruathan blood if Fax wanted to use that as a pretext to Hold there. A comedown from being nephew or espousing a daughter" [MHoP]. This is a clear indication of Gemma's Ruathan Blood and also let's us know that it must have been another Hold that Fax married into, because "being a nephew" relates to his taking possession of High Reaches Hold and subsequently "espousing a daughter" must pertain to another of Fax's conquest (which, in that case, can only pertain to the small unnamed Hold in Tillek, Keogh Hold or Nabol Hold, since he already possessed his own Hold in the High Reaches, took over High Reaches Hold itself by killing Faroguy and Faravene, and certainly did not marry into Crom or Ruatha). The second mentioning of Lady Gemma's Ruathan Blood appears in All the Weyrs of Pern. When Lord Jaxom overhears the conversation that warns him people are plotting to kill him, one of the men remarks: "His dam was only a third cousin, once removed, of the Blood. But the second cousin's alive, known to be of the Blood, and it's her son we'd support in his place" [AtWoP/10:219]. With the first mentioned persons Jaxom and his mother, the Lady Gemma, are meant and with the next two Barla and her son Pell. So here again, Lady Gemma is mentioned to be (a third cousin, once removed) of Ruathan Blood. All this cannot mean anything else than that Lady Gemma's father or mother, being of Ruathan Blood, has married into the Crom Bloodline.

	First Pass
	Crom Hold did not exist during the first Pass but was founded near the end of the First Interval.

	First Interval/Second Pass
B-1	N.N., Lord Holder of Crom Hold. Since the founders of Crom Hold, Chester, Ricard, Otty and Minerva, had joined leadership of the Hold at the beginning of its existence, it seems reasonable to assume that there will not have been a (single) Lord Holder of Crom until well into the Second Pass or maybe even until the start of the Second Interval, that started in 308 (Unless the quartet choose one of them to act as Lord Holder).
>GAP
	Sixth Pass/Sixth Interval
	No Lord and/or Lady Holders are known and/or mentioned in the existing Sixth Pass literature.
>GAP
	Second Long Interval (Eight Interval)/Ninth Pass
J-1	Lesselden of Crom, Lord Holder of Crom Hold (?-2483), born probably Crom Hold, possibly c. 2440, died probably Crom Hold, killed when Fax took over Crom Hold in 2483 [MHoP]. Married possibly between 2465 and 2470 Relna, Lady Holder of Crom Hold, possibly born c. 2445, sought refuge at Ruatha Hold when Fax took over Crom Hold in 2483 [MHoP], died probably Ruatha Hold, she was probably killed when Fax took over Ruatha Hold in 2495. Since it is known (from information furnished in The Masterharper of Pern) that Lord Lesselden and his two oldest sons were killed by Fax when he took over Crom Hold in 2483, it is unlikely that Lesselden was the father of the later Lord Nessel. It seems highly unlikely that Fax would have the two oldest boys killed and leave a third son - who, if it was Nessel who's Turn of birth must be placed around 2450, must have been about 33 Turns of age at the time! - alive. Besides that, we get the impression from the remark in The Masterharper if Pern, that the children of Lord Lesselden and Lady Relna were young children at the time of Fax's acquisition of Crom Hold. Since Nessel is said to be "one of Fax's blood connections" one could assume that Lord Lesselden has to be closely related to Fax and thus a member of the High Reaches Bloodline. However, this depends on the definition of the term "blood connection". It could be that a "blood relation" would indicate someone who belongs to the same Bloodline and that a "blood connection" is only used in connection to someone who is "connected" with a certain bloodline through marriage (or adoption). In the last case it could even have been Lady Relna who was a blood relation of Fax, which is also not likely but would explain why Fax let her live, or that the actual blood relation lays even further back in time. It is also possible that Nessel was Lord Lesselden younger brother, a definite possibility that would also explain the correspondence in names between Lesselden en Nessel, something that can't be ignored and that definitely points to a blood relationship somewhere in the Bloodline. Since tying Nessel into the older/first Crom Bloodline would be based on heavy guesswork, I have chosen to leave the possibility open but, on the ground of the information given above (mainly the fact that Nessel must have been born around 2450), have not assigned Nessel as a son of Lord Lesselden and Lady Relna.

	Children (known):
1	N.N. (son), died probably Crom Hold, killed when Fax took over Crom Hold in 2483 [MHoP].
2	N.N. (son), died probably Crom Hold, killed when Fax took over Crom Hold in 2483 [MHoP].
3	N.N., (son), one of the two children who were with Lady Relna when she sought refuge at Ruatha Hold in 2483 [MHoP], probably killed when Fax took over Ruatha Hold in 2495.
4	N.N. (son or daughter), one of the two children who were with Lady Relna when she sought refuge at Ruatha Hold in 2483 [MHoP], probably killed when Fax took over Ruatha Hold in 2495.

	(Second Crom Bloodline) Possibly related to the older Crom Bloodline mentioned above.
K-1	Nessel of Crom, Lord Holder of Crom Hold (prior to 2507-?), born probably c. 2450. Probably married and/or had relationships one or more times between 2475 and 2490. Married c. 2490 N.N. In Dragonflight we can read that Lord Nessel "was one of Fax’s blood connections and under Meron’s influence: an older man who had learned lessons from his conquering relative’s bloody ways and had not the wit to improve on or alter the original" [D1/4(s2):223]. He "never was very bright" observed F'nor, thinking about him when recuperating at Southern Weyr from his belt knife wound, he also did not understand "how he [Nessel] got confirmed as Lord of Crom by the Conclave [of Lord Holders]" [D2/4:69-70]. If Lord Nessel is already considered to be an "older man" at the meeting of Lord Holders and Craftmasters at Benden Weyr in 2508 [D1/4(s2):223] he must have been about sixty Turns old at the time, and therefore born around 2450. This constitutes a bit of a problem because in The White Dragon Lord Jaxom of Ruatha states that he rather likes Lord Nessel's oldest son Kern, whom - we might assume - will have not been too much older than Jaxom at that time. If Kern was about ten Turns older than Jaxom he will have been born about 2495, at which time Lord Nessel was already about 45 Turns old. This might lead us to the conclusion that Lord Nessel might have married more than once but that he had no male heirs from any previous marriage(s).

	Children (known):
1	Kern of Crom, oldest son [D3/78], heir and prospective Lord of Crom. In The Dolphins of Pern Kern is called Lord Nessel's third son of, but since this book was written much later (and has notably more inconsistencies than other books) than The White Dragon I have assumed that Kern was the eldest son and another son was meant with the later remark [DoP/11:267].
2	N.N. (son).
3	N.N. (son), this son is mentioned in The Dolphins of Pern as "young Kern of Crom, Lord Nessel's third son". He was one of the young Holder sons in whose ears Toric had been planting suggestions (about settling on the Southern Continent and not being satisfied with the way the lands there were given out). However, this son can not have been Kern, which is mentioned in The White Dragon as Lord Nessel's eldest son, so I have assumed another son was meant here [DoP/11:267].

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