Families in Aloutia and Ophidia

Aloutia:

Aloutia consists of a wide variety of species and cultures, so I can’t possibly touch upon every single permutation of what a traditional family looks like, but I’ll go over a few norms.

The Last-Scrim-Den family from Merchants of Light and Bone is a very normal, traditional family for many parts of Aloutia. Polyamory is normal. Official weddings/marriage is unheard of. People just shack up with who they love. Due to the prevalence of sex education, the availability of contraception, and the ease by which women can lay an egg, families can be pretty much any size, though culturally, they are encouraged to keep the numbers low so parents can give ample attention to each kid.

It’s rare for parents to give their kids up for adoption because it’s rare for kids to be unwanted or for the parents to be in a position where they can’t provide for them. There’s no poverty or starvation. As such, most of the children in Wind churches (orphanages) got there because the government decided the parent was unfit to raise the child and there was no one else to take care of them. Since homosexuality is quite common as well, same-sex couples may work with a Wind church to adopt a child when the opportunity arises.

In the western Slevango region, polyamory is actually the norm whereas a couple choosing to be monogamous would be seen as ‘snobby.’ This is the case of Giorvi and Beatrice being in love with each other. Both were the children of polyamorous groupings and grew up being told it would be good to have multiple partners when they became adults, but simply never fell in love with anyone else.

Starting at age 15, people in Aloutia are required to report their yearly ‘family registry’ along with their taxes. This is a statement of who is living with you, how many are working adults, and how many are children. This is used to calculate taxes for the next year and determine if any other social services are needed by the family.

It’s also fairly normal to families to include non-sexually active adults who just… want a family. This will be shown in Merchants of Dance and Hedonism with the Pavomusen family consisting of two sexually active Godbloods, their five children, the woman’s asexual sister, and another Godblood who’s not related to any of them, but may seek a romantic partner later.

Family names are typically made by taking the surnames of the adults and combining them somehow. It’s an art, not a science, so however they want to merge it, they can do it. Women don’t change their surnames when they get a partner because they realize how weird and sexist that is. I mean, if they have a really bad relationship with their mother and want to change it, they can. But to change it because they got married? No way. Girls take the surname of the mother, boys take the surname of the father, and you can change it for any reason you want after you turn 15. In the case of kids like Calinthe who is intersex, there is an option to merge the parents’ surname, make a new surname, or just assign the kid one or the other for now and let them choose later. In Calinthe’s case, they gave her her mother’s surname, Erytrichos, and figured she could change it later if she didn’t like it.

Cohaku thinks it’s sexist that both her family and her aunt and uncle put the ‘Den’ last in their name, and she insists that when she is older and has a family, she will put her ‘Den’ first. In reality, both Liesle and Orienna didn’t care one bit that their name came last, and they just felt that it made their family names sound better. Su tries to explain to her that Last-Scrim-Den just flows better than, say, Den-Scrim-Last or Den-Last-Scrim, but Cohaku will not listen to reason.

Also, you don’t have to put your surname in the family name if you don’t want to lol. The Pavomusen family that I listed above? The random ‘other’ Godblood isn’t a Pavo or Rathmusen, but he doesn’t give a damn about his name being part of theirs so he doesn’t press the issue.

Olivians are a species who form a powerful emotional bond to their partner the first time they have sex. They are highly likely to be monogamous. The vassal nations in the Olivian Desert are among the few to have marriages. They are usually performed by a Death volkhv, regardless of the couple’s element, because the God of Death and his wife (both Olivians) are seen as the ideal married couple. Olivians are unique with their surnames in that they will take a piece of the husband’s name, a piece of the wife’s name, and combine it into a new name for both of them and their children. It’s similar to how other societies make their family names, but in this case it actually becomes both partners and the children’s name. Example, Sawyer was born Rathburn and Laynie was born Carlmusen. They became Rathmusen when they married, and all their children are Rathmusens.

Ruo and Carinians are two asexually-reproducing species prevalent in Aloutia. They often live with their close friends and siblings. Because there’s only one parent, surnames pass parent-to-child.

Also present in MoDaH are some of the ‘Holy’ countries. These are countries ruled either by Godbloods or an Hierophant. Many of these countries have arranged marriages among nobles/upper-class citizens. They’re often Wind, Life, or Lightning elemental societies where their religion is tied into ensuring good matches for their children. It’s less about ‘preserving bloodlines’ (because Aloutians don’t believe in that) and more about ‘well, we have known family for generations and we know this kid was raised properly, so we think you’ll make a happy couple.’ Still doesn’t always work, obviously.

Ophidia:

Here you see a big difference in rural vs. urban families, and then again in noble families.

Rural/village families often include a woman and all her female descendants living in one house while the few slaves she owns come from other rural houses. For instance, if two women each have a son and a daughter, they may trade sons so their daughters can have sexual relations with the boy once he’s older. Poor farmer women are less likely to sell their sons compared to urban women, since a boy’s manual labor can often offset how much it costs to keep him alive, but once they get around 3 slaves, they may sell the extras or any less-healthy ones. Rural women also consider how many boys they could potentially handle in the event of a slave revolt. Having too many men increases the risk of being overpowered, though if they have a lot of daughters to ‘help out’, they may decide to keep a higher number of their sons, too.

Urban women frequently sell boys as soon as they hatch. Poor women often don’t have any slaves and may cohabitate with other poor women. Visiting brothels is common and the go-to method for poor women to have children. Ophidia has a system in place where brothel slaves will be moved to a city every few years to hopefully prevent instances of incest.

Middle-class women usually own at least one slave who is expected to perform all the housework. Some women might have genuine affection/love for their slaves, but physical abuse is almost an expectation. If a woman told her neighbors she’s never hit her slave, she might be viewed with suspicion. They’ll think she’s “too soft” or maybe even a “male sympathizer.”

Women are not expected to be ‘motherly’ to their sons. The master-slave relationship takes precedence over mother-son, and any woman who voices a contradictory opinion is likely to be interrogated by Shinkou Sueba inspectors.

Boys are not usually taught “where babies come from.” They know women produce eggs and they know women enjoy sex. Since a boy might only know a handful of women in his life, all sexually active, he may never realize there’s a connection between sex and producing a child. It’s common for urban-dwelling boys to assume women produce eggs on their own and that “master’s favorite slave” is just her favorite toy, not the father of all her children. Savvy rural boys working with farm animals are more likely to catch on to how the process works.

Women will privately teach their daughters about sex and make sure they know not to do it with slaves they are related to. For some girls, this is the first time they learn who their father or brothers are.

At all levels of society, men are subservient to women regardless of age or relationship. A woman might be the master of her father and brothers following the death of her mother, and she has total command over them including inflicting punishments as she sees fit. Although it would be disgusting and weird to us, an Ophidian woman would see nothing wrong about whipping her own father if he disobeyed her.

Noble women have few children. If they want to have an heir, they will generally produce one and stop at that. If they have boys, it’s not uncommon for them to give them to other noble friends as a ‘gift.’ Due to the way the Ophidian nobility system works, blood doesn’t mean shit to them. A noblewoman’s heir still has to be worthy of the title to keep the title. In addition, nobody looks down on adoption. Many noblewomen choose their heirs from the girls who are admitted into the extremely prestigious St. Ancognidel Academy. In the current year, there is only one noble house who retains the same bloodline as when the house was first founded, that being House Kusanagi.

In Ophidia, women have Japanese-sounding surnames almost always. If they don't, they're probably an immigrant. There's a stereotype that the longer your name (or the more kanji in it), the more noble you are. The highest of the noble families all have long surnames that are often difficult for foreigners. Also, only the head of that noble household and her heir can take that as a surname. If she has other daughters, they have to take a shortened version of the surname (Ryuuga for House Ryuugashuyuu, Higan for House Higangaoka, etc.) Boys don’t have surnames at all. In instances where they’ve been rescued and brought to Aloutia, they will often take the surname of someone who saved them/adopted them (such as in the case of Oboro taking the surname Onoretti), or they will take a symbolic name like Free or Liberty.