I would say that resheathing includes a form of adoption into a bloodline. Often it's the same one they severed from but otherwise they will have to get acceptance from a bloodline who want a resheathed Humatki among their members.
>- Humakti can marry, which is one of the classic ways of forming a kinship
>bond. Some Humakti even have children, although the non-marrying "Bare
>Blades" sort of Humakti consider these children to be the equivalent of
>undead. (To Marry or Not to Marry?, ST 106)
>
>- In passing, the kin-severing theoretically means Humakti could marry
>partners who would usually be considered too closely related. Try telling
>Humakti siblings that they can't marry...
I'm sure it has happened, resulting in a tragedy of Shakespearian magnitude. It's probably legal but I bet just about everyone would be looking ways of ruling otherwise. Remember Heortling law involves a lot of politics and something like that's going to upset a lot of people.
>So:
>
>If a woman marries a high-status (champion) Humakti in the default Heortling
>husband and wife marriage (assuming that any other type of marriage would be
>an affront to his status), do their children belong to her kin, to the
>chief's household (ex officio -- whoever the chief may be), to the clan in
>general, or to a bloodline which started with their father and is a little
>short of people for support?
I would say this is the sort of situation where the man marries into his wife's family even where Esrolian marriage is not the norm. Although a clan champion has high status he is supported by the clan chief. He brings no property to the marriage, at least none which counts in Heortling eyes. So an Esrolian marriage isn't an affront, it's the practical reflection of the circumstances.
>How do you negotiate such a marriage? I normally expect the formal
>negotiations to take place between the elders of each bloodline/stead, with
>help from the clan aunties. In this case I'm guessing that the negotiations
>would either be handled directly by/with the Humakti (which is not really
>proper) or through the chief's stead as part of their extended household
>(without looking too closely at whether this is because of the Humakti's
>current role or his previous kinship ties).
It's going to be an abnormal situation because the only property the Humatki has is going to be things like armour and weapons, not the land rights and cattle which a normal carl or thane brings to his marriage. So the property side is going to be a matter of gifts from a third party or favours owed. I would expect the Humatki to have to find a woman to speak on his behalf in the negotiations - maybe the clan chief's wife does it because the chief wants to reward the Humatki and will be gifting the woman's family with what's agreed.
>What sort of career exits are there for in-brought weaponthanes -- not
>kin of the clan -- apart from dying bravely in defence of the clan? If
>you can no longer fight and you have no kin, what happens to you? A
>teaching role might be fine for a certain stage in life, but who feeds
>and clothes you? Is there an assumption that a weaponthane is able to
>build up the assets and mana to win the right of stead-founding from
>the chief and turn into a farmer?
I don't think Humatki build up assets for their retirement, after all if they are faithful Humatki they don't retire. In practice any weaponthane who has served faithfully until disabled by age or injury justifies continued support from the clan chief. A chief who doesn't do this will be seen as ungenerous and risks being embarrassed by some other thane gifting the retired weaponthane.
>Are Humakti any good as farmers? <grin> We've got one who's brilliant
>at harvest time, but we try to keep him away from the growing bits of
>rural life. (He even manages to kill the yeast in the war-band's
>homebrew. Or maybe he's selecting for really tough yeasts.)
Sounds about right.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/ ------------------------------
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