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West coast desert Family which produces drugs and dyes, loves powergrabs, and has a long and bloody history of treachery. Their “enclave” area used to be home to another, smaller desert Family; F'Heing annexed it for the fertile land and even more importantly, the sea access. F'Heing used their new port to send ships north, building the “independent” (read: F'Heing controlled) city of Kismo before the Northern Church had time to explore that far.
: mountain lion, signifying decisiveness and dominance
Succession:
Hereditary; patrilineal
Leadership:
Strongly male-dominated, women are seen as weak and unfit to rule.
Political:
Ongoing feud with Darden Family; almost as xenophobic as the teyanain.
Current Family leader:
Lord Rimmel F'Heing
This line traditionally served as the premier diplomats of the desert, able to achieve a truce where others failed. But nearly the entire Family was mysteriously wiped out some years ago, leaving only Cafad Scratha to rebuild from the disaster; and Scratha has not inherited his family skill at charming combatants into peaceful negotiations.
:
Groundhogs
, signifying community and shared resources.
Ginger plants, a secondary Family motif, signify matters of the heart and spirit.
Succession:
hereditary, matriarchal
Leadership:
technically matriarchal, but in practice a team effort between the female Head of Family and a male desert lord bound to the Fortress; they are generally either related or married.
Political:
Traditionally neutral; keeps alliances evenly balanced. The slaughter of the residents of Scratha Fortress, and Cafad's own actions, have thrown that entire equation into chaos.
Lord Cafad Scratha
Secrets of the Sands
:
Lord Cafad Scratha:
Last survivor of Scratha Family; a brooding man with a quick temper and the obsession that Sessin Family was involved in the death of his entire Family.
A desert family whose specialty is glasscraft of all sorts. They are the only ones who know the secret of casting clear, unflawed glass in large sheets.
Family symbol:
Lizard, signifying sharp perception and a subtle, quick wit.
Hereditary; usually patrilineal
patriarchal but not averse to allowing smart, strong women to take positions of command—just not the very highest spots.
Political
: Strong ties to the northern kingdom, strong influence in two major east coast port cities; tend to think of themselves as people to ally with, not people who need to seek allies.
Lord Antouin Sessin
Secrets of the Sands
:
Current leader of Sessin Family; a much more open-minded man than his predecessor, Lord Arit Sessin.
Lord Arit Sessin:
The leader of Sessin Family during Cafad Scratha's youth; a hard and intolerant man who thought only of advancing his own Family's power.
Lord Eredion Sessin
: A desert lord of Sessin Family; Sessin Family's ambassador to the northern kingdom. Great-grandson of Lord Arit Sessin; uncle (see also:
s'e-ketan
) of Pieas Sessin and Nissa Sessin.
Nissa Sessin
: A daughter of Sessin Family, and sister to Pieas Sessin; when King Oruen calls her “Lady” he is making a common northerner's mistake on ranking. Nissa Sessin has no rank title beyond her last name.
: A hotheaded, wastrel son of Sessin Family; brother of Nissa Sessin.
Pieas and Nissa Sessin are the children of Lord Antouin Sessin by his second wife, Tashaye Sessin. Tashaye Sessin is Lord Eredion Sessin's sister. Lord Antouin's first wife died giving birth to a son, Dorsil Sessin, who is currently Heir to Sessin. Eredion Sessin's father, Chidor Sessin, was the only male offspring of Sashea Sessin, Lord Arit Sessin's daughter. Lord Arit Sessin had three children: Jonnui, the original Heir, Sashea, and Forus. Jonnui died during the Purge, turning Forus's line primary; and Forus fathered Antouin Sessin. Thus, Eredion is Pieas and Nissa's uncle, and at some remove, cousin as well; but he is not in line to lead Sessin unless Antouin’s children fail to produce any legitimate heirs.
A subfamily of Sessin; they do a large amount of the work for Sessin and have almost no real independence; essentially slaves to the larger Family.
Succession:
Decided by Sessin
Leadership:
Largely patriarchal, but wholly dictated by Sessin
Political:
Follow Sessin's lead on all matters.
Current Family leader:
Lord Hail Tereph
Family no longer exists; the head of Tehay got himself so far into debt with his gambling addictions that he had to give his lands and everything on them to F'Heing Family; residents had the choice of converting to F'Heing Family or going with their lord out into the deep sands to die in shame. The acquisition turned F'Heing into a formidable name and erased Tehay Family from existence, as well as sparking a number of stillunresolved questions on whether F'Heing had 'loaded the dice' to put Tehay in that situation.
A very old, small tribe which retreated to the mountains of the Horn after the Split. Originally the judges and law determiners of the desert, they're now considered the guardians of the Horn.
Owls, especially the great horned owl, signifying ferocity and adaptability.
Normally hereditary, but exceptional circumstances and individuals have occurred in the past.
teyanain leaders are called “Calcen”, which literally translates to “Master”; they have absolute authority over all teyanain.
Political:
Keep to themselves and ally with nobody, although some Families are under the mistaken impression that they have formed an alliance of convenience with the teyanain. Extremely xenophobic.
Lord Evkit
Secrets of the Sands
:
Lord Evkit (leader of the teyanain)
There are no publicly accessible records dealing with the genealogy of the teyanain at this time.
A subfamily of Darden, with the most independence of any subfamily. Given complete latitude in their actions and alliances; generally turn matters around to benefit Darden in the end. Almost completely self-supporting; train “diplomatic and research services” (i.e., spies and secret alliance negotiators).
By merit
Leadership:
Semi-hereditary; a wide range of bloodlines are considered valid for leadership, regardless of gender, and the Toscin Council selects a new leader as they see fit. Members of the Toscin Council are selected by a majority vote of the other members of the Toscin Council.
Political:
Bias towards keeping Darden happy, but ostensibly neutral.
Current Family leader:
Lord Quill Toscin
The Bead Language of the Southlands
Bead codes in the south range from incredibly complex to very simple. A few general guidelines apply:
The material, color, shape, size, and surrounding colors, and even the string material for the beadwork, can influence the conveyed message. Therefore, the simpler the arrangement, the simpler the message.
Aquamarine/blue-green:
(lightest shades) Family ties, travel toward the sea, the sea (darkest shades).
Absence and endings.
Blue:
Depending on hue, this color can indicate: male or night (indigo); foretelling/prescience or eyewitness (medium hues); the direction north, the direction up, or the sky (lighter hues).
One of the colors of Comos; also signifies winter or an ending.
Gold
(color)
:
Used in decorations to signify endings or money changing hands (not necessarily wealth—could mean the bearer is a merchant or accountant, for example).
Can signify, depending on hue: new beginnings or safety (lighter green); sanctuary or political shift (darker green); wealth or travel out of dry lands to more fertile areas (emerald green); family ties or travel towards an ocean/large body of water (blue-green).
Red:
Blood, violence, or death.
One of the colors of Comos; can also indicate female, daytime, or 'a day' (as a measure of time).
Depending on the hue and placement: death, the sun, extremes, the Sun-Lord, or deceit.
Red combined with yellow – violent death or transition
Red combined with white – death of a female or (paradoxically) a birth Red combined with indigo – death of a male or change of ruler
Pieas Sessin's bracelet
(during the audience of Alyea Peysimun, Eredion Sessin, and Pieas Sessin with King Oruen): “a thin bracelet of gold and green beads on his left arm, arranged asymmetrically on fine silver wire”. This signifies that Pieas, while a member of an important southern Family and thus under its protection, is actually little more than a child in official terms, and holds no rank a king need recognize. It's a humiliating piece of jewelry, and one Eredion almost certainly forced Pieas to wear, as the proud young man never would have sported such an admission willingly.
Eredion Sessin's arm-band
(during Eredion's audience in open court with King Oruen): “A wide, beaded band covered the man's right forearm from the wrist nearly to the elbow.” This very likely was in the Sessin Family colors of emerald-green and sand-tan, and composed of hundreds of small round beads. The width indicates that Eredion is claiming contextually preeminent Sessin status; he could never wear this arm band within Sessin Fortress, for example, because his relative status there is much lower. But as Sessin ambassador to the northern court, this armband indicates that he outranks any other Sessin Family member who might be present. It's a slightly audacious statement, but not one likely to be challenged. Patterns within the beadwork itself probably also indicated, to the experienced eye, items such as Eredion's parentage, marital status, and whether he has any children.
Alyea's bracelet
(which Chac gives her at the first way-stop): “small, round pieces of some dark green gemstone interspersed with squared off, unevenly sized pieces of thick white shell, threaded on a thin golden wire”. This indicates a female under political protection by a major name, but not someone important in her own right: Chac's version of “hands off, she's mine”. When Deiq sees it, he understands exactly what Chac meant, and knowing what he does of the overall situation and how he intends to manipulate events in the near future, finds it extremely funny.
The dining-hall attendant's bracelet
(at the first way-stop dinner): “A bracelet on his right wrist ran through a gamut of grey hues, in three rows of precisely-matched beads.” This indicates a servant of rank or status sufficient to wait on those of noble blood. In the south, even the servants have an internal ranking system, and this particular waystop is very sensitive to those nuances. Most likely, there were actually only three shades of grey, one for each row; the beads were of flawed glass or clay, and they were at least the size of a cherry pit. Alyea can perhaps be forgiven for not noticing such small details in a moment of stress.
Note about the use of silver/gold 'wire'
: Metal wire, at a thread-thin width, breaks far too easily to be used for heavy beads; what Alyea sees is either at least a rigid frame of at least an eighth-inch diameter, or braided strands of a stiffened fiber dipped in a thin coating of silver or gold.
Not all of these are used, directly, within this novel, but may help flesh out understanding of the Families and customs involved.
Feathers
are the Aerthraim Family symbol, signifying freedom and the ability to soar above others.
Owls
are the symbol of the teyanain, especially the great horned owl, signifying ferocity and adaptability.
Lizards
, the symbol of Sessin Family, signify sharp perception and a subtle, quick wit.
Groundhogs
, the symbol of Scratha Family, signify community and shared resources.
Ginger plants
, also often seen on Scratha tapestries, signify matters of the heart and spirit.
Badgers
, often used by loremasters, signify keepers of stories and deep secrets.
Brickroot plants
represent tenacity and strength, but also imply a strong resistance to change.
An Examination by Loremaster Council no. 1576 of Gerau Sa'adenit's
A History of Places
This book, which was only recently made available to the Council of Loremasters, is a detailed and mostly accurate, if unauthorized, examination of the kingdom and its relation to the southlands. It must be stressed that King Oruen commissioned this study without the knowledge or approval of this Council, and thus this History must be examined with great care and appropriate corrections submitted to the King with the greatest possible speed. . . .