Re-posting... (two empty digests have just been passing, so something must have been wrong last time)
I've an Orlanthi guest to introduce to an Orlanthi clan. The guy is from Aggar (i suppose he's an Alakoring of sorts) and the clan is your typical Sartarite clan. The guest has no kin, no voice, no political rights, but he is free.
For the Orlanthi, every stranger is a potential enemy, but the guest is inviolable. That's Hospitality. Shame on he who harms a guest, and shame on his clan. OTOH, the guest is bound by the same obligations to his host than the host to his guest.
The guest may stay overnight, or maybe a day or two, after which he is asked to leave. But he may ask permanent protection, and if one man in the clan accepts to take him as an "oathguest", then the whole clan is bound. The oathguest and his host swear an oath by Orlanth in presence of the clan chieftain. In some clans, only the chieftain may take a man as an oathguest.
The oathguest still has no kin, no political rights, but he is free (and must work for the clan). As DLoD says, a thrall without the name.
I'm not sure what responsibilities are involved by becoming the host of an oathguest. I think the oathguest owes his safety only to his host clan's honor. If your Uroxi psychopath wants to kill him, no law will protect him. The guest has no kin to defend him. The Uroxi usually keeps quiet when the host is the chieftain, though.
If the oathguest does some wrong to a clan member, the victim's kin will have no problem beating him and kicking him out of the tula, or just killing him.
Sometimes the oathguest tries to be adopted by the clan, but when he still has kin elsewhere, he might not wish to do so. I even think that if the guest is an Alakoring and all his kin is dead, he still has kinship ties with the Alakorings as a bunch, and won't change to Heortling so easily.
Unrelated to my stuff, 'oathguestship' could take unusual forms. If many people from various clans group themselves around a market place or other meeting place ruled by a peculiar clan, they may all become oathguests of the ruling clan, giving rise to a peculiar form a government in the city-to-become.
Jerome
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