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