And I'm leaving names out, as I gather my Lismelder clashes with David Hall's Lismelder in places, and we may as well avoid confusion. (No, this wasn't my idea. I asked for details to avoid this, I didn't get them, I went ahead and invented what I needed anyway, as I wanted to run the game this century.)
This particular clan has four main bloodlines, and a couple of subbloodlines. Three of the bloodlines look back to heroic figures who founded the clan, the other is a group who were in this area before the rest of the clan moved in.
Each bloodline is run more or less by consensus, but with certain highly respected people being recognised as being the head of each bloodline, and having places on the clan ring as a result. (Or vice versa. The clan champion is now the head of his bloodline, frex.)
Since you can mate with people outside your bloodline, but not people inside it, it's very important to know who's where. Normally children join the bloodline of their dominant parent (see the various forms of marriage for what I mean by this). But in fact to join a bloodline, what you need is to get a sponsoring adult member of that bloodline to claim you as kin. They, with the help of the head of the bloodline and maybe some priest(-ess)ly assistance, introduce you to the spirit from whom the bloodline takes its name. In most cases that's the founding ancestor (see ancestor-worship debate, though this isn't really "worship"), in the case of my one weird bloodline it's a protective spirit of the line and the area. Just to add to the confusion, she's from a long time ago and (originally) a long way away, and they no longer have a language in common with her.
Of course, the RW idea of not mating within your bloodline is to do with the problems of inbreeding. In Glorantha, I reckon Darwin has to give some ground to ritual (and Lamarck). So no matter who your actual physical parents were, you can mate with anyone outside the bloodline you've joined. It is not unknown for young men to seek adoption outside their "natural" bloodline so as to pursue a particular relationship ;)
The position of married women (or married men where they're the subordinate partner) is that they do not actually join their spouse's bloodline, since if they did their marriage would become incest. They are of course entitled to protection by that bloodline, and they may have considerable influence within it, since that's where they live. They may in time sponsor their children to join their own bloodline rather than that of the dominant partner, though this is unusual.
Women whose husbands die (we seem to have a lot of these!) often go back to their family, taking the children with them. Or they may remarry, and the new second husband will probably take responsibility for his wife's children and take them into his bloodline.
Oh, and I give each major bloodline a "special" spirit magic spell, which the new adult is given by the spirit when they join. (One of the 1D3 spells the Roolz state a new initiate gets, just dressed up a bit). Some of these are standard spells (Strength is one example), some are things I've made up (the weird Reedmeld bloodline gets a spell called, you guessed it, Reedmeld. Plus 15% to Hide, as long as you're in the local reedbeds at the time.)
I've also given each bloodline an association with a particular plant, though that's more to do with this particular clan than a general principle. (Reed, alder, willow, oak: the sequence in which marsh becomes dry land. Or even Marsh, if you work at it.)
Sub-bloodlines: as an example, one of the bloodlines controls the local cider-press, and the family that runs it (and knows the right spirits and spells) take their family name from the press. In fact the cider press may change bloodlines within the next generation, as the children choose their father's bloodline rather than their cider-making mother's.
Relationships between the bloodlines are good, or they wouldn't be a clan. Friendly rivalry, yes, but each bloodline has their own area of expertise and is appreciated for it.
Jane Williams jane_at_williams.nildram.co.uk http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~janewill/gloranth/
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