[Arawaen]

CULTURE (Continued)

Bonding Ritual

When a house gives birth to a male it has the opportunity to strengthen ties with another house by creating a new house and expanding the Chibi species. A house with a male will be courted subtly by many houses, but can make an overt courtship of another house. Courting a house with a male is done low key so as to minimize ill feeling for those not chosen.

The house who will provide the daughter for the coming union, actually selects several potential candidates, whom their Mother feels have good qualifications to be a Mother on their own. These candidates are placed in a pool along with the unbonded male. The male will eventually select one of the females to bond with. This bonded pair will become the progenitors of a new Chibi house, a house that links the two parent houses together.

It is a great honor to be made a candidate and a joyous occasion to be chosen by the male. A daughter can refuse to be made a candidate, though it is considered unusual.

Bonding Ceremony

After the new bonded pair is formed, a ceremony and celebration are held. A number of Daughters from each parent household switch allegiance to the new house. Usually the new Mother will ask her closest Sisters (technically former Sisters) to join her house. The house that provides the male, typically asks for volunteers. If need be a Mother can assign some of her Daughters to join the new house, but again this is unusual and considered a sign of a troubled house.

Unlike other situations where Chibi join a house other than their birth house, these Daughters are not considered adopted, but are full-fledged members.

Dissolution of a House

The male Chibi lives substantially longer than is mate. When she dies, he is usually given a prominent Chibi of the household (often the Seneschal) who becomes the new Mother. Some turbulence can occur in house during such a transition and the second largest number of Daughters seeking to join other households occurs at this time.

A male is not immortal however and will eventually die. At such a time, the house dissolves and all the remaining Daughters seek membership in other households, while they seek they are known as Ronin. Those that choose not to seek or give up seeking will eventually be considered Pariah.
If their male died of old age, these Ronin will have a much easier time finding a new house to take them in. If he died from negligence or misfortune, it is harder, but not impossible.

Communal Society

Even though the various Chibi Houses interact with one another in a capitalistic fashion, the internal workings are socialistic in nature, much like any family unit is. All property within a house belongs to the house as a whole and as such the Mother decides how it will be best used and distributed. In reality she delegates much of this authority to subordinates, the chief among them is her Seneschal. Small items can be owned by individual Daughters, usually a gift from a Mother or handcrafted by a member of the household with found materials (such as a pretty rock carved into an broach clasp).