What Are Clans?
01
Overview
Clans are an important societal function of Hvalla. All warg societies consist of clans. Clans are a collective of freefolk who share a common goal and include a group of close-knit and interrelated families. The earliest families and their closest friends acquired their status as 'Clans' by performing great feats in service to their people, and this is a tradition that has carried through to the present day.
Generally, clan members do live close-by to each other, but some prefer to live more secluded. When each race came to be, these starting clans were separate groups of wargs who formed with like-minded opinions. As time passed, these wargs became groups of families and friends who did not necessarily agree with the initial founding of their clan’s ideals, but still belonged all the same.
02
How Warg Clans Operate
Clans foster a sense of belonging within their members, and they are not a ‘group’ that can be changed at a moment’s notice, or because a warg does not agree with their ideals.
Generally, warg societies will only accept a warg changing clans through marriage. Even if a warg is outlawed, they will still belong to their initial clan. They will simply no longer be invited to clan events, or accepted into clan holdings. They will only carry their clan name as a shell of themselves. If a warg does change clans for any other reason, it is generally the result of an irrevocable consequence, and they are often shunned or considered traitorous and untrustworthy.
Clan Rites
Clan Rites are an important cultural rite of passage in warg society for juveniles and young adults to become accepted as fully fledged members of their clan. A young warg will often receive advice and assistance from their elders on how best to complete them.
Clan Rites are a mandatory part of warg culture and a young warg cannot simply choose to undertake the Rites of another clan that they were not brought up in. Children of parents who were from two different Clans would often be raised among one clan over the other, and this would be the Rite they would take. The need for this is often circumvented however, as many wargs nullify this by joining the clan of their partner. This is the only time changing clans faces no consequences, and the Clan Rite for these wargs would be the same as those who have been brought up among the Clan – filled with advice and assistance.
If a warg leaves their clan for another outside of a marital union, they too would need to undertake the Clan Rites for their new clan. It is an unspoken acknowledgement that the Clan Rites of these wargs are more difficult. They receive no advice or assistance from Clan members, and indeed greater obstacles are often placed in their way to make their rite of passage more difficult. These Clan Rites become an additional measure to send them back to their original Clan, or to their doom.