Prides and Prejudice: Aslan Families and Society

In my last post, we developed estimates of an average Aslan family, and then constructed a theoretical population of one million Aslan families:

One Million Aslan Families

Category	Numbers
Patriarchs	1,000,000
Wives	2,500,000
Female Children	3,125,003
Male Children
Htatei	535,558
Ihatei	506,110
Other Household Members	1,000,000
Total Population	8,666,671

Wiykhearl (DARK 0335 E100646-7), the gas giant moon homeworld of the Wioarlil clan, which coincidentally comprises approximately 1 million Aslan families.

These numbers contain critical implications for Aslan society. Although our theoretical pool of one million families produces more than one male child for each family, because they are distributed unevenly nearly half of all families have no heirs, and the pool has nearly as many ihatei as htatei. A common proverb among Aslan females can be translated as Males: always too many and never enough.

Many of these ihatei are destined for lives on the margins of Aslan society, becoming mercenaries, travellers, outcasts, or even outlaws. But other options are available.

Because births are based on the number of wives, which is related to social class, lower class Aslan families would be expected to produce fewer children, and thus be more at risk of not having a male son to inherit any family holdings. Higher class families, in contrast, are much more likely to have both ihatei sons and larger holdings that require vassals to administer. For such families, many ihatei may elect to “stay behind” and serve as vassals to their htatei brother.

A significant number of ihatei could find careers in the clan military forces. A million Aslan families is the equivalent of a Population 6, and nearly Population 7, world. The ground defenses forces of such a world at TL10, the Aslan average, would be the equivalent of 15 to 150 battalions, or 7,500 to 75,000 troops. If we assume that the clan space forces have similar staffing needs, then perhaps as much as a quarter of these ihatei could be gainfully employed by the clan.

Another option is for a second son to join a clan migration fleet, also called an ihatei fleet. The MT Rebellion Sourcebook (1988) explains that “Migration fleets carry excess population in search of new worlds to settle and exploit. These are the instrument by which the Aslan clans expand their territory. lhatei fleets are raised by the clan, with their ships and equipment paid for by the families of those who will travel with it” (29).

Although the Sourcebook holds that “Every Aslan clan periodically organizes an ihatel fleet” (58), such an expedition represents an enormous undertaking. Even for clans of population 8+, TL 9+, and access to the shipyards of a class A starport, an ihatei fleet is probably a once-in-a-generation event. CT Aslan describes how the Loakhtarl clan established an ihatei fleet that consisted of “ten armed 50,000 ton ships, each capable of jump-3 and 3-G. Each ship carried 10,000 tons of cargo (primarily colonial supplies), a crew of 300, and a colonial force of 1,700 and represented some of the best shipbuilding the clan could obtain” (38). Smaller, less technologically advanced clans might require multiple generations to set aside enough resources to sponsor a modest fleet of their own.

The large number of “surplus” sons and the large number of sonless families does create an interesting social opportunity for addressing this “market inefficiency”: adoption. CT Aslan describes families adopting orphaned children of blood relatives, and GT Alien Races 2 notes that “Some clans will admit clanless outsiders, even non-Aslan, who have done them a great service. Whether they are ‘associate members’ with limited rights or full clan members depends on local custom” (11).

A family adopting an ihetai to continue the family line is probably fairly rare, despite its inherent rationality. A family would be very reluctant to name a male of lower status as its heir, though an ihatei of higher status might gladly “adopt down” to a lower status family. Having any landhold of one’s own would probably be better than having nothing. An ideal candidate for adoption might be a distantly related male of higher status, from within the same clan or even the same pride.

The 1:3 sex ratio of males to females creates additional tensions within Aslan society. Because of the extreme division of labor between the sexes in Aslan culture, females are every bit as important to the success of a family as males. A son is needed to inherit the family’s holdings, but spinster aunts, unmarried daughters, and daughter-in-laws are all required to actually run the place. If a male Aslan can’t even handle money, someone needs to keep the books, manage the household, and direct any business interests.

Marriageable daughters help build or solidify alliances with other families, and competition between females and their families for a small number of potential husbands is likely intense. If we assume that the 535,558 htatei in our pool of 1 million families each take 2.5 wives, that still leaves 1,786,108 unmarried females, or nearly 23% of the population. Such a large number of unmarried females would create a significant workforce and again, competition between these females within an Aslan corporation must be every bit as intense as the competition between males for territory.

If a highly skewed sex ratio was a beneficial biological adaption for early Aslan, it might be much less adaptive for a society with stellar technology and correspondingly lower mortality rates. All of the competition between males, between females, between families, prides, and clans can easily become unproductive if not outright destructive with nuclear technology. The extreme social conservatism of Aslan culture, with an emphasis on tradition and ritual, might be an important way to channel these potentially destructive tensions into safer and more regulated outlets.

Aslan history has shown that when competition gets out of hand, Aslan societies can career right up to and beyond the point of mutual destruction, as seen in their three world wars from the pre-spaceflight era. While the infamous Aslan touchiness might seem designed as an excuse for conflict, the elaborate codes of honor and conduct are intended to regulate conflict into predictable, non-lethal rituals like the duel. Similarly, primogeniture is a way for Aslan culture to regulate natural conflicts over inheritance.

Although not explicitly described in canon, Aslan culture likely regulates marriage and reproduction into fairly rigid channels of tradition. But just like violence, sometimes passions spill over the banks of these channels. The adventure “First Son, Last Son” from the CT module Alien Realms (1986) hinges on an unfaithful Aslan wife. An emotional, sometimes impulsive species caught within a very rigid culture of tradition makes for inherent tension—and great potential for drama. Aslan literature is probably filled with stories of unhappy marriages, star-crossed lovers, ruined daughters and wastrel sons, tragic rivalries between families, and profound anxieties over property, social status, and inheritance.

Sounds familiar, right? Although the Aslan have been long described as a “Proud Warrior Race,” as I was looking at the demographic numbers I did not find myself thinking about samurai movies or Klingon episodes of Star Trek. Instead, I was thinking about 19th century novels. In particular, I was struck by how well Jane Austen’s novel of manners Pride and Prejudice would work as an Aslan scenario. Consider this summary from Wikipedia:

Mr. Bennet, owner of the Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire, has five daughters, but his property is entailed and can only be passed to a male heir. His wife also lacks an inheritance, so his family faces becoming very poor upon his death. Thus, it is imperative that at least one of the girls marry well to support the others, which is a motivation that drives the plot.

Mr. Bennet’s plight is an all-too-common one in the Hierate. Elizabeth is in many ways a model female Aslan: intelligent, discerning, and resolute, just as Mr. Darcy is a model male: proud, moody, and artistocratic. Of course, an Aslan Mr. Darcy would not be forced to chose between Elizabeth and Anne, the daughter of Lady Catherine de Bourgh, as both would make excellent wives.

I also found myself thinking of Anna Karenina or The Age of Innocence (published 1920, but set in the 1870s), where different characters are torn between their personal desires and the constraints of their social obligations. Through these lenses, the equivalent of an Aslan drawing room is far more perilous than any battlefield. While not every group of players may be interested in a social maneuvering, role-play heavy “adventure of manners,” understanding this vital aspect of Aslan society can add considerable texture to any Aslan scenario, and help make an alien race considerably more relatable to humans.

Copyright Information

The Traveller game in all forms is owned by Far Future Enterprises. Copyright © 1977 – 2022 Far Future Enterprises. Traveller is a registered trademark of Far Future Enterprises. Far Future permits web sites and fanzines for this game, provided it contains this notice, that Far Future is notified, and subject to a withdrawal of permission on 90 days notice. The contents of this site are for personal, non-commercial use only. Any use of Far Future Enterprises’s copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks. In addition, any program/articles/file on this site cannot be republished or distributed without the consent of the author who contributed it.

Materials produced by Digest Group Publications (DGP) are copyright © Roger Sanger. Any use of Digest Group Publications’ copyrighted material or trademarks anywhere on this Web site and its files should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights. Usage is intended to follow the guidelines announced by Roger Sanger on the Traveller Mailing List for preserving the overall Traveller milieu.