Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Aslan Family Structure

In one of the best Dungeons & Dragons games I ever played in, each player character was a junior member of an extended noble household, similar to the Starks of Winterfell from Game of Thrones. There were brothers, illegitimate half-brothers, cousins, children of retainers and allies, and hostages. The genius of this setup was that each character began the game with an inherent relationship with all of the other characters as well as the major NPCs in the household. And since almost everybody has a family and can relate to familial issues, the players could easily identify with and engage in this rich, complicated, and occasionally messy situation. I think any kind of Aslan game would greatly benefit from adopting such a setup, since the family is so central to Aslan identity. So understanding the composition of a typical Aslan family becomes very helpful.

CT Aslan (1984) provides some useful insights into the structure of Aslan families (ekho). We know that the average family includes 2 to 12 individuals under a patriarchal leader (3). We know that the average male has 0–5 wives, or 2.5 on average (5). Finally, we know that approximately three females are born to every male born (9).

CT Aslan doesn’t detail how many children each wife is expected to produce, but if we assume each wife produces 0–4 children (1D - 2), or an average of 1.67 children, the average family will have 4.17 children in a total household of 7.67 individuals, which falls within the range described in CT Aslan. With 4.17 children, most Aslan families would have at least one male child, which is vital for the continuance of the family. If we adjust that average number of children per wife up or down even slightly, we can end up with so few males that most Aslan families would not have heirs, or else the average family is larger than the upper range given in CT Aslan.

The number of wives (ekhiy) is generally related to the Social Standing of the patriarch (ekaw, or tao’): higher status males would be expected to have more wives than lower status males. The following table could be used in lieu of 1D - 1 for generating the number of wives:

Number of Aslan Wives
Patriarch SOC	1D
Patriarch SOC	1	2	3	4	5	6
0	0	0	0	1	1	1
1–2	0	1	1	2	2	3
3–5	0	1	2	2	3	4
6–8	0	1	2	3	4	5
9–11	1	2	3	3	4	5
12–14	2	3	3	4	4	5
15+	3	4	4	5	5	6

The number of children in a family is, obviously, related to the number of wives.

Average Number of Aslan Children
Children	Wives
	0	1	2	3	4	5
	0.00	1.67	3.33	5.00	6.67	8.33

The following table lists the number of D6 combinations that result in X wives producing Y number of Aslan children. For example, a single wife has a 2 in 6 chance (33.33%) of producing no children, while two wives reduces the odds of no children to 4 in 36 (11.11%), three wives to 8 in 216 (3.7%), and so on. The aggregate probability of an Aslan family producing no children is roughly 25%, while the probability of 20 children is 0.002%.

Distribution of Aslan Children
Number of Children						Aggregate Probability
Number of Children	1	2	3	4	5	Aggregate Probability
0	2	4	8	16	32	24.97%
1	1	4	12	32	80	6.14%
2	1	5	18	56	160	7.54%
3	1	6	25	88	280	9.22%
4	1	7	33	129	450	11.19%
5	0	4	30	148	601	7.36%
6	0	3	28	162	745	7.23%
7	0	2	24	164	855	6.72%
8	0	1	18	151	905	5.73%
9	0	0	10	120	865	4.17%
10	0	0	6	92	781	3.32%
11	0	0	3	64	655	2.46%
12	0	0	1	39	505	1.66%
13	0	0	0	20	355	1.02%
14	0	0	0	10	235	0.63%
15	0	0	0	4	141	0.35%
16	0	0	0	1	75	0.17%
17	0	0	0	0	35	0.075%
18	0	0	0	0	15	0.032%
19	0	0	0	0	5	0.011%
20	0	0	0	0	1	0.002%
Total	6	36	216	1,296	7,776	100%

Households with no wives might represent a young, newly installed patriarch who has not yet taken a wife; a poor, luckless male who has not found a suitable mate; or perhaps an older patriarch whose wife or wives have died or left the household. Although the table assumes that households without wives have no children, that may not always be true.

An Aslan household may include additional members beyond the patriarch, his wives, and their children. GURPS Traveller: Alien Races 2 (1999) has an evocative description of a typical Aslan household:

The ekho includes the patriarch, his wife (or wives), the patriarch’s unmarried siblings, aged parents, orphans of blood relatives adopted into the family, and perhaps members of allied or conquered clans exchanged for one’s own relatives. This last allows future comrades-in-arms to train together while young, and provides hostages for the good behavior of new vassals (10).

Let’s assume a typical Aslan household contains 1D - 3 additional members. The number of additional members is probably correlated to the number of wives. A patriarch without a wife likely needs significant assistance from female blood relatives to keep the household running, while adding extra members to a household with many wives might only add headaches. The following table can be used to determine the number of additional family members based on the number of additional wives:

Number of Additional Family Members
Wives	1D
Wives	1	2	3	4	5	6
0	2	2	3	4	5	6
1	0	1	1	2	3	4
2	0	0	1	2	3	4
3	0	0	1	1	2	3
4	0	0	0	1	2	3
5	0	0	0	0	1	2
6	0	0	0	0	0	1

The following table can be used to determine the nature of each additional household member.

Additional Household Members
2D	Relationship
2	Patriarch’s father
3–4	Patriarch’s unmarried brother
5	Exchanged child from allied clans
6	Patriarch’s mother
7–8	Patriarch’s unmarried sister
9	Patriarch’s aunt
10	Adopted orphan of blood relatives
11	Patriarch’s uncle
12	Hostage from conquered clans

So let’s consider a hypothetical pool of one million Aslan families. The following table details how many children of each sex this pool of families would be expected to produce:

Population Distribution per 1 Million Aslan Families
Children per Family	Number of Families	Patriarchs	Wives	Female Children	Male Children	Other Members
0	249,657	249,657	122,771	0	0	249,657
1	61,385	61,385	117,627	46,039	15,346	61,385
2	75,446	75,446	161,694	113,169	37,723	75,446
3	92,164	92,164	216,478	207,369	69,123	92,164
4	111,883	111,883	283,565	335,649	111,883	111,883
5	73,581	73,581	247,021	275,929	91,976	73,581
6	72,295	72,295	255,766	325,328	108,443	72,295
7	67,194	67,194	250,064	352,769	117,590	67,194
8	57,335	57,335	225,587	344,010	114,670	57,335
9	41,688	41,688	177,576	281,394	93,798	41,688
10	33,200	33,200	144,912	249,000	83,000	33,200
11	24,584	24,584	110,061	202,818	67,606	24,584
12	16,611	16,611	76,496	149,499	49,833	16,611
13	10,181	10,181	48,332	99,265	33,088	10,181
14	6,323	6,323	30,328	66,392	22,131	6,323
15	3,537	3,537	17,168	39,791	13,264	3,537
16	1,736	1,736	8,552	20,832	6,944	1,736
17	750	750	3,751	9,563	3,188	750
18	322	322	1,608	4,347	1,449	322
19	107	107	536	1,525	508	107
20	21	21	107	315	105	21
	1,000,000	1,000,000	2,500,000	3,125,003	1,041,668	1,000,000

Our theoretical pool of 1 million families has a total population of 8,666,671, including additional household members.

Within Aslan society, the entire family landhold is passed from the father to the eldest son, or htatei. Younger sons, ihatei, inherit nothing. As detailed in the following table, the more children in a family reduces the possibility that no male heir is produced, but also increases the chance for ihatei.

Probability of Sons
Total Children	Number of Sons
Total Children	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
1	75%	25%
2	56%	38%	6.25%
3	42%	42%	14.1%	1.6%
4	32%	42%	21.1%	4.7%	0.39%
5	24%	40%	26.4%	8.8%	1.46%	0.10%
6	18%	36%	29.7%	13.2%	3.30%	0.44%	0.02%
7	13%	31%	31.1%	17.3%	5.77%	1.15%	0.13%	0.01%
8	10%	27%	31.1%	20.8%	8.65%	2.31%	0.38%	0.04%	0.00%
9	8%	23%	30.0%	23.4%	11.68%	3.89%	0.87%	0.12%	0.01%	0.00%
10	6%	19%	28.2%	25.0%	14.60%	5.84%	1.62%	0.31%	0.04%	0.00%	0.00%
11	4%	15%	25.8%	25.8%	17.21%	8.03%	2.68%	0.64%	0.11%	0.01%	0.00%	0.00%
12	3%	13%	23.2%	25.8%	19.36%	10.32%	4.01%	1.15%	0.24%	0.04%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%
13	2%	10%	20.6%	25.2%	20.97%	12.58%	5.59%	1.86%	0.47%	0.09%	0.01%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%
14	2%	8%	18.0%	24.0%	22.02%	14.68%	7.34%	2.80%	0.82%	0.18%	0.03%	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%
15	1%	7%	15.6%	22.5%	22.52%	16.51%	9.17%	3.93%	1.31%	0.34%	0.07%	0.01%	0.00%	0.00%
16	1%	5%	13.4%	20.8%	22.52%	18.02%	11.01%	5.24%	1.97%	0.58%	0.14%	0.02%	0.00%	0.00%
17	1%	4%	11.4%	18.9%	22.09%	19.14%	12.76%	6.68%	2.79%	0.93%	0.25%	0.05%	0.01%	0.00%
18	1%	3%	9.6%	17.0%	21.30%	19.88%	14.36%	8.20%	3.76%	1.39%	0.42%	0.10%	0.02%	0.00%
19	0%	3%	8.0%	15.2%	20.23%	20.23%	15.74%	9.74%	4.87%	1.98%	0.66%	0.18%	0.04%	0.01%
20	0%	2%	6.7%	13.4%	18.97%	20.23%	16.86%	11.24%	6.09%	2.71%	0.99%	0.30%	0.08%	0.02%

We can then apply these numbers to our million families to estimate the number of htatei and ihatei, as well as the number of families without any male heirs:

Male Children
Children per Family	Families	Htatei	Ihatei	Families without Male Heirs
0	249,657	0	0	249,657
1	61,385	15,346	0	46,039
2	75,446	33,008	4,715	42,438
3	92,164	53,282	15,841	38,882
4	111,883	76,483	35,400	35,400
5	73,581	56,120	35,856	17,461
6	72,295	59,429	49,014	12,867
7	67,194	58,225	59,365	8,969
8	57,335	51,595	63,075	5,740
9	41,688	38,558	55,240	3,130
10	33,200	31,330	51,670	1,870
11	24,584	23,546	44,060	1,038
12	16,611	16,085	33,748	526
13	10,181	9,939	23,149	242
14	6,323	6,211	15,920	113
15	3,537	3,490	9,774	47
16	1,736	1,719	5,225	17
17	750	745	2,443	6
18	322	320	1,129	2
19	107	106	402	0
20	21	21	84	0
Total	1,000,000	535,558	506,110	464,444

In a pool of 1 million families, 535,558 male children (roughly 51.41% of males) are first-born htatei, and 506,110 (48.59%) are ihatei. If we assume that each htatei will take 2.5 females for wives, that translates into 1,338,895 marriageable females and 1,786,108 unmarried females. In this same pool of 1 million, 464,444 families (46%), have no male heirs.

In my next post, I’ll consider the interesting social and cultural implications of these numbers.

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Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Aslan Clan Populations

Aslan society is organized into three distinct tiers. The atomic unit of Aslan society is the ekho, or family, which consists of a single patriarch plus 2 to 12 individuals. Several families combine into an ahriy, or pride, with one family dominant. And several prides combine into a huiha, or clan, the largest unit of organization in the Hierate.

Estimating Aslan Clan Size

So how big are clans? We have previously assumed that the Aslan Hierate constituted approximately 6,300 to 7,000 worlds and a total population of 10.7 to 11.97 trillion, based on an average world population of 1.71 billion.

We know that not all inhabitants of the Hierate belong to a clan: some might be biological non-Aslan sophonts who are unwilling or unable to assimilate to Aslan culture, while others might be biological Aslan outlaws or outcasts, and depending upon the source, ihatei might be technically considered clanless. For simplicity, let’s assume about 20% of the Hierate population are not members of a clan, leaving 9.1 trillion clan members in the Hierate. With 4,000 clans that works out to an average clan population of 2.27 billion.

This seems rather large to me, but what if clan populations exhibit a range of populations so extreme as to skew the median result—just like world populations. Consider the average Imperial, Solomani, or Hierate world: all three generate world populations using 2D-2, creating a range of 0 to 10. The mathematical mean and the median result are the same: 5. However, the population rating is exponential in scale: each increase in rating represents an increased population by a factor of 10. A population code of 0 is 10⁰, or 1. A population rating of 10 (A) is 10¹⁰, or 10 billion. This base population is then multiplied against a population multiplier ranging from 1 to 9, with an average of 5.

The following table shows the mean world population associated with each population rating as well as the percentage of worlds that would be expected to have that rating. The prorated population is simply the percent expected multiplied against the mean population.

Distribution of World Pop Codes
Pop Code	% Worlds	Mean Population	Prorated Popuation
0	2.77	5	0
1	5.55	50	3
2	8.33	500	42
3	11.11	5,000	556
4	13.88	50,000	6,940
5	16.66	500,000	83,300
6	13.88	5,000,000	694,000
7	11.11	50,000,000	5,555,000
8	8.33	500,000,000	41,650,000
9	5.55	5,000,000,000	277,500,000
10	2.77	50,000,000,000	1,385,000,000
Total	99.96	–	1,710,489,840

Add these prorated populations together and you get the mean population of a Traveller world: 1.71 billion, in contrast to the median population, which is 500,000. Although most worlds in a Traveller sector will have populations well below level A, because of the exponential progression just a handful of high population worlds skew the average result. As is often noted, in Traveller over 97% of a typical subsector population lives on less than 10% of the worlds.

For discussion purposes, let’s assume we can apply the world population ratings to Aslan clans. Note that an average clan population of 2.27 billion is the same order-of-magnitude as the average world population. What if Aslan clans follow a similar population distribution as Aslan worlds? This would suggest that the largest clans would have populations in the tens of billions, the equivalent of a world population rating of A. A very small number of Tlaukhu clans might reach populations in the low hundreds of billions. As this would be fairly rare¹, there’s probably no need to establish a population code of B—we can just assume that the Pop A code covers all populations of 10 billion or higher.

Here we need to consider how small the smallest possible clan could be. In theory, if the smallest Aslan family is 3 individuals, and we assume “several” means three or more, then three families of three individuals could constitute an entire pride, and three prides of three families could form a clan of 27 individuals, which seems a little ridiculous.

As there is no central government in the Hierate, a clan has to be large enough to provide basic services, to maintain a landholding, and to defend that holding against all comers. The smallest countries on 21st century Terra number in tens of thousands, excluding the Vatican City. I am inclined to think the smallest viable clan size would be the same, or Pop 4, though I could be persuaded by 3 or 5 ². But let’s work with Pop 4. By modifying our world population table to proportionally redistribute the Pop 0, 1, 2, and 3 results, we can get the following clan population table that lines up with our other estimates:

Distribution of Clan Pop Codes
Pop Code	% of Clans	Number of Clans	Mean Population	Prorated Population
4	19.23	773	50,000	9,615
5	23.08	928	500,000	115,406
6	19.23	773	5,000,000	961,485
7	15.39	619	50,000,000	7,696,038
8	11.54	464	500,000,000	57,702,965
9	7.69	309	5,000,000,000	384,455,528
A	3.84	154	50,000,000,000	1,918,814,076
Total	100.00	4,020	–	2,369,755,113

As we can see, with this distribution the median clan population is 50 million, but the mean population is 2.37 billion. By tweaking the average population multiplier slightly downward from 5 to 4.71 we could get this mean population to 2.27 billion.

It is certainly possible to create tables to randomly generate clan Population codes based on clan type—and I did so to test whether my overall math was working. And although I could make the numbers fit, the distribution of Population codes across different clan types felt rather arbitrary. A better way, I think, is to generate clan Population codes using the clan Holdings rating.

This is based on a couple of observations: first, because Population codes follow an exponential progression, a clan Population code is likely the same as the Population code of the highest population world directly controlled by that clan. Assume X is the highest world Population code controlled by a clan: that clan's Population code is also likely to be X, and can’t be less than X. Even if that clan controlled more than one world of population X, the total clan Population code might reach X+1, but would not be expected to reach X+2 or higher. So rather than attempting to count up the populations of all the worlds controlled by the clan, we need to instead focus on just identifying X, the Population code of the highest population world likely controlled by that clan.

Second, as a clan controls more and more worlds, X would be expected to increase in a predictable way, as Aslan world Populations codes are distributed across the familiar 2D curve. This allows us to calculate the odds of the highest population world based on the total number of worlds controlled. Only 2.77% of worlds have a Population code of A (tens of billions), so a clan that only controlled one world has only a 2.77% chance having a clan Population of A (tens of billions). A clan that controlled ten worlds, however, has a roughly 25% chance of having at least one Pop A world. A clan that controlled 20 worlds has a roughly 43% chance of having at least one Pop A world.

All Tlaukhu clans should be assumed to have Population A. A Single World clan would be normally have a Population code equal to the Population code of its homeworld. However, many worlds with the On-World Clan Control allegiance (AsWc) have Population codes of less than 4 (tens of thousands), which we had previously set as the likely minimum clan size. In such cases, the bulk of the clan's population must be found somewhere else: perhaps scattered on other On-World Clan worlds or Split Control worlds. In any case, there must be a good story why most of the clan doesn't actually live on the homeworld.

The following table can be used to randomly determine a clan Population code based on the clan’s Holdings code:

Random Clan Population Code by Holdings
2D	Holdings
2D	0–4	5	6	7	8	9	A
2	4	4	4	4	6	7	8
3	4	4	4	5	6	8	8
4	4	4	4	5	7	8	9
5	4	4	5	6	7	8	9
6	4	4	6	7	8	9	9
7	5	5	7	8	8	9	A
8	5	6	7	8	9	A	A
9	6	7	8	9	9	A	A
10	6	8	9	9	A	A	A
11	7	9	A	A	A	A	A
12	7	A	A	A	A	A	A

If more details about the clan’s population are desired, the following table can be used to randomly determine a clan’s population multiplier:

Random Clan Pop Multiplier
2D	Multiplier
2	1
3	9
4	3
5	5
6	8
7	7
8	8
9	6
10	4
11	9
12	2

For example, let’s say we wanted to determine the population of a clan with Holdings 7. Rolling 2D we get 8 for a Pop Code of 8, or hundreds of millions. Rolling 2D we get 9 for a population multiplier of 6, for a clan population of 600,000 million.

The following table summarizes typical populations for different Aslan clan types.

Summary of Aslan Clan Size
Sovereignty	Clan Type	Number	Pop Codes			Mean Population
Sovereignty	Clan Type	Number	Min	Max	Median	Mean Population
Sovereign	Tlaukhu (AsTX)	29	A	A	A	62.5 billion
	Multiworld (AsMw)	76	4	A	8	21 billion
	Single World (AsWc)	930	4	A	6	2.2 billion
	Small	1,200	4	7	5	6.7 million
Vassal	Tlaukhu, Direct (AsTv)	102	4	A	7	5.6 billion
	Tlaukhu, Indirect (AsTv)	254	4	A	7	4.5 billion
	Vassal, Direct (AsVc)	190	4	A	7	3.4 billion
	Vassal, Indirect (AsVc)	380	4	A	7	3.4 billion
	Small Vassal	861	4	7	5	6.7 million

Footnotes

¹ The average Tlaukhu clan would be expected to directly control 36 worlds across the entire Hierate. Population A worlds occur at a rate of approximately 2.77%, so each Tlaukhu member would be expected to only have one such world. Given the vagaries of random worldgen, a Tlaukhu member might have more than one world, or—more likely—some Tlaukhu members might directly control no Pop A worlds.

² If one wished to have a Hierate with larger numbers of smaller clans, clans of smaller than size 4 could easily be added back in—they are just too small to be counted in the “more than 4,000 clans” estimate from CT Aslan. A million Pop 3 clans only amount to a population of 5 billion, barely a rounding error in the total population of Hierate.

Copyright Information

The illustration at the top of the blog is by William H. Keith from Travellers’ Digest 17 (1989).

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Aslan Clan Holdings

A deep-seated territorial instinct causes male Aslan to have an inordinate… concern for the acquisition and control of land. The ownership of land is a major goal in the lives of most Aslan males. An Aslan’s stature is determined by the amount of land he (or her husband) controls, and the amount of land controlled by his family, pride, or clan (CT Aslan 4).

A landscape from Iywaiwofu (DARK 0337 A654349-C), the starkly beautiful, low-population homeworld of the ancient Erleihku clan.

In order to develop an Aslan clan profile that summarizes a clan’s capabilities and resources, it makes sense to begin by developing a new characteristic that defines the extent of landholds controlled by the entire clan.

The Classic Traveller government codes for Aslan worlds demonstrate a distinct clan hierarchy based on the clan’s sovereighty and the number of worlds controlled:

Tlaukhu
Multiworld
Single World
Small clan
Tlaukhu Vassal
Independent Vassal
Small Vassal

These categories undoubtedly overlap. A Tlaukhu Vassal, for example, might be much more powerful than a Multiworld clan, and a Multiworld clan might have less esteem than an ancient Single World clan.

A Holdings characteristic for an entire clan has some precedent in individual character generation. In the CT Alien module, Aslan characters can acquire landholds as a mustering out benefit during character generation; the amount of land is based on the Aslan’s SOC score. Aslan of higher social levels gain larger and larger landholds. (MgT uses a different mechanic.)

Although Traveller⁵ does not have Aslan-specific character generation details, a character can win a Land Grant as a mustering out benefit, which is similar in concept. Each grant conveys economic control over 1 Land Hex, which is 10 km across, or 8,700 sq km in area. (Although the text says 6,500 sq km, I don’t think that’s correct.) Economic control is the ability to collect taxes, fees, rents, and so on. The Grant also provides outright ownership of one Local Hex, which is 100 km across, or approximately 87 sq km in area. (again, the text says 65 sq km.) This is more akin to the Aslan benefit and we can translate the CT Land Benefit into Traveller⁵ Local Hexes:

Aslan Land Benefit
SOC	Local Hexes
9	1
A	2
B	12
C	120
D	1,200
E	12,000
F	120,000

Traveller⁵ details even larger units of area than the Land Hex: the World Hex, which is 1,000 km from the center of one hex to the center of an adjacent hex, or approximately 870,000 sq km in area. And World Hexes seem like an appropriate basic unit of measurement for Clan landholdings. The following table assigns clan holdings on a familiar scale of 0 to 10 (A):

Clan Holdings
Code	Description	Notes
0	up to 11 world hexes	–
1	12–41 world hexes	–
2	42–91 world hexes	–
3	92–161 world hexes	–
4	162+ world hexes	Maximum for Small clan
5	1 mainworld	Single World clan
6	2–3 mainworlds	Minimum for Multiworld clan
7	4–7 mainworlds	Maximum for Independent Vassal clan
8	8–15 mainworlds	–
9	16–31 mainworlds	–
A	32+ mainworlds	Tlaukhu clan

This table describes only those holdings directly controlled by the clan, and does not include those holdings held in fief by vassal clans. A clan typically possesses additional holdings on non-mainworlds comparable to their mainworld holdings. A Multiworld clan, for example, that controlled 3 mainworlds would also control 3 secondary worlds, such as a gas giant moon or a small mining world.

Clans with holdings of 5 or more typically have landholds on a number of split control worlds equal to the number of mainworlds they wholly control, and perhaps many more. A clan that controlled 5 worlds outright, for example, would also have landholds on 5 or more split control worlds.

A clan’s holdings can be randomly determined by rolling 1D and consulting the following table:

Random Clan Holdings
Sovereignty	Clan Type	Allegiance	1D
Sovereignty	Clan Type	Allegiance	1	2	3	4	5	6
Sovereign	Tlaukhu	AsTX	A	A	A	A	A	A
	Multiworld	AsMw	7*	8	8	9	9	A
	Single World	AsWc	5	5	5	5	5	5
	Small	–	0	0	1	2	3	4
Vassal	Tlaukhu, Direct	AsTv	5	6	6	7	7	7
	Tlaukhu, Secondary	AsTv	4	5	6	6	7	7
	Independent, Direct	AsVc	3	4	5	6	6	7
	Independent, Secondary	AsVc	3	4	5	6	6	7
	Small vassal	–	0	0	0	1	2	3

* Roll 1D; on 1–2, Holdings = 6, on 3+, Holdings = 7.

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Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Aslan Clan Profiles

We have estimated the holdings of Tlaukhu clans, as well as the number and holdings of their vassals. And we’ve estimated the number, types, and holdings of independent clans. So let’s recap:

Estimated Number of Hierate Clans by Type
Sovereignty	Clan Type	Allegiance	Number
Sovereign	Tlaukhu	AsTX	29
	Multiworld	AsMw	76
	Single World	AsWc	930
	Small	–	1,200
Vassal	Tlaukhu, Direct	AsTv	102
	Tlaukhu, Secondary	AsTv	254
	Independent, Direct	AsVc	190
	Independent, Secondary	AsVc	380
	Small Vassal	–	861
Total			4,022

A little more than half of the clans in the Hierate hold only a part of a world or worlds, which structurally feels right to me.

Now that we’ve sketched out the potential number of various Aslan clans in the Hierate, why not develop some additional details for each clan type? Several years ago the late Hans Rancke-Madsen had an interesting piece in the Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society Online, then published by Steve Jackson Games to support the GURPS Traveller line. His scenario focused on the Loaktarl * clan and their recent setbacks:

The Loaktarl clan is a venerable old clan fallen on hard times… Around the time of the Great Conclave, the Loaktarl clan was ranked 31st and was a serious contender for membership in the Tlaukhu. It dominated almost half of Ealiyasiyw Sector and was active in parts of Reavers’ Deep, trying to prevent other clans from settling worlds the clan lords had their eyes on… Two years ago, the Loaktarl ranked 271st, with about 11 billion members and seven vassal clans totaling another 9 billion. They owned eight worlds outright and had landholds on another 19. Today they are ranked 730th, with roughly 2 billion members scattered on 16 worlds. They control no worlds outright and all—or, arguably, all but one—of their vassals have deserted them. All of their holdings are menaced by greedy neighbors (The Loaktarl and the Hkastahistoti).

Ilekhakhe (Ealiyasiyw 2828 B567552-A), the ancient homeworld of the Loaktarl clan.

I remember being struck by how useful it would be to know any clan’s population, holdings, vassals, and rank. Although many of these details were probably developed merely to illustrate the depth of the Loaktarl’s fall, knowing Hans I am sure he thought very carefully about what numbers to use here.

Within the Hierate, each clan is essentially an independent government. As such, I use a system to describe individual clans that builds on an ingenious idea from Andy Slack: Traveller’s Universal World Profile could be adapted to describe entire interstellar governments.

Utilizing UWP-style codes to define a clan provides a general sense of a clan’s characteristics and capabilities, but is also abstract enough to offer lots of wiggle room. UWP codes allow us to compare different clans on a relative basis.

While the planetary data in the UWP doesn’t make sense for describing an interstellar state, the social data—population, government type, law level, and technology level—certainly does. Since all clans embrace one variation or another of feudalism, a government code is unnecessary. But Population, Law Level, and TL all could be useful.

What other characteristics might be useful for defining an Aslan clan? As land is a critical differentiator for clans, a stat that captured the size of a clan’s holdings seems natural. This also provides an indicator of the resources a clan commands.

A characteristic that describes the clan’s relative reputation or social status could also be useful, akin to an individual’s Social Standing score. A clan Status characteristic should be correlated to clan Population and Holdings, but should probably be separate. A small clan, its holdings reduced to a string of islands, might have a relatively high status if it had a prestigious lineage and history of honorable conduct. In contrast, a large and mighty parvenu clan that gained its wealth by betraying allies might have relatively low Status.

Two other “outlook” charecteristics—let’s call them Aggression and Traditionalism—can be used like D&D alignment to help define a clan’s general perspective and attitude.

In the next few posts I’ll lay out the key characteristics that can help us define a clan.

* The Aslan clan Rancke wrote about in JTAS Online is obviously the same one at the center of the “Syareahtaorl” adventure from CT Aslan. I am not entirely sure why Hans used variant spellings for the names of the clan and its homeworld—Loaktarl instead of Loakhtarl, Ilekhakhe instead of Ilekhahke. His spellings are a little simpler, eliminating a redundant “h.” I would be very surprised if he didn’t post some very definitive opinions on Trokh orthography at some point.