Heirs and property rites.

Tazmin · Post by **Tazmin** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 1:13 pm

Looking on the nobility thread I was curious how most human socioties handle this. Is it the typical the sons get everything and the daughters get married off to old geezers like it was in the dark ages that Faerun is based off of? Perhaps it is split between all children with the oldest, male or female, getting the lions share?

Lets say a farmer has two sons and a daughter. He has a small mannor and a bit of land, say the amount of your average freehold farm. Who would get what?

Gwain · Post by **Gwain** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 10:43 pm

In most societies that are patronomial, controlled by males. The sons inherit by sucession to oldest to youngest. This means that the oldest gains the most property and the youngest the least amount, like a goat. Daughters, well they are married off to other families based on a dowry reserved for them at an earlier age. In a matronomical society it is reversed, in the sense a son is married off in alliance and the mothers control the household. This has been apparent in Iroquoi society in North America, to the point that sons and males were interchangeable, meaning if one was slain or died, he could be replaced by a captured person in the exact same role which he would follow honourably. This is real world succession but it might apply to Faerunian humanity also.

(Please note that I might be a bit fuzzy on some things so correct me if I am wrong)

Isolrem · Post by **Isolrem** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 11:26 pm

Almost all epic fantasies are based on European medieval ages. Which are feudal or imperial, and are patriarchal (I'm pretty sure there are many evidences of this in the books)

That is not to say anything can't be down with RP, though. Besides, there's always this remote village and that with their little queer customs. And the Orient styled east always open possibilities.
So far as Faerun is concerned, I'd go for mainly the module that gwain first described.

Zilvryn · Post by **Zilvryn** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:33 am

I dunno, I would say most fantasy settings are patronomial, generally, the males of the house are in charge...

Drow being the notable exception.

Gwain · Post by **Gwain** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:19 am

Agreed, in my readings the only examples of matronomical settings in a greter degree are novels on the drow in fr and The Wheel of Time books.
To the most extent traditional patronomical society is present in most other novels. Though I am no expert and my readings are limited. There are thousands of society types if one looks hard enough I'm positive that I barely struck the tip of the match head here.

Here's an interesting one...
The canabal goblins of Chult are ruled by a ruling lineage of goblins and were at one point ruled by a pretty goblin queen.

Isolrem · Post by **Isolrem** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:16 pm

Well, I'll say this.
Imperial China was pretty much exclusively patronomial (patriarchical?) and still there was one female empress at some point in its history, and her rule (though harsh at points) was during a time of the greatest prosperity.
So... yeah, things happen.

Besides, about half the lords of Waterdeep are female.

Micheal · Post by **Micheal** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 5:57 pm

She was the dowager. That means she was just holding power until a male heir stepped up. And she more than over stepped her rights as a dowager and eventually allowed China the wonders of the Opium War.

If we are going to quote historical examples, let us look up these examples on http://www.history101.com or http://www.highschoolhistory.com.

Isolrem · Post by **Isolrem** » Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:11 pm

Wrong person. No body would say anything good about her, and I did mention prosperity

The Empress Wu of the Tang Dynasty. Who actually was the rightful ruler and had renamed the Dynasty Zhou during her reigh.