Me, then Donald, on Ernalda taking husband-protectors:
> >Ah, but how will that happen? What makes this one a husband-protector?
> >Is it just a term that's applied after the fact to the gods who hung
> >around for a while and actually did some work around the place?
>
> As far as I can tell it imposes an obligation on the husband to
> respond if she calls on him for aid. In Sartar she calls on
> Orlanth, in Sun County Yelmalio while in Esrolia she calls on any
> and all.
And again: how do the parties concerned know that this is the sort of relationship they're in? Is there some rite or action that marks the formation of such a relationship?
> Yes, resheathing does return Humatki to a clan. IMG it's rare and a
> bit of a wimpish option (Are you dedicated to Humakt or not?). So
> Humatki who chose the Hoods philosphy tend to have informal
> relationships rather than marriages.
Who is/are the mother(s) of Mad-Blood Malan's children? Lismelder and Erland must have come from somewhere. Were they the offspring of casual liaisons with women from non-Isolting clans of the Malani?
[Actually, thinking about the dates, how old were Erland and Lismelder when Erland killed Lismelder's husband in the mid-1350s? And are their mothers known?]
Do the numbers of Grey Dogs dwindle because their Humakti men have no children to claim for the clan? (They might have children, but without a marriage the children belong to the mother's clan.) Or is their reputation enhanced by tales of inbreeding? <grin>
In general, I agree with your conclusion that informal relationships are more likely than marriages. In particular, however, I seem to keep running across Humakti who are very definitely political players in the clan world, which sometime involves dynastic stuff.
> I'm not sure a Humatki woman *can* bear a child, doesn't seem right
> to me although I don't think there's anything which definitely says
> so.
I'd expect them to be less fecund than their non-Humakti sisters, but, as others have written, pregnancy does seem to be a possibility.
[Humakti, pregnant women, hearths:]
> Given Heortling living arrangements a prohibition against sharing
> a hearth effectively means not living in the same building and in most
> steads there will probably be at least one woman pregnant at any time.
> So I think in general Humatki will live on their own or share barracks
> with the clan warband.
We don't have a formal clan warband. We're pioneers, and can't yet afford that level of specialisation. Whether we can afford not to have that level of specialisation is going to be a matter of interest in the coming year.
Our clan champion is a Humakti: he has the death lodge (a fancy name for an austere hut) pretty much to himself, and is fed and clothed from the chief's hall. Our stead has the only other Humakti left in our clan. Olaf recently became a devotee, and we built him a hut near the ford so he could keep watch over it.
Cheers,
Jennifer
-- Jennifer Geard
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