So Aslan are the topic of the moment thanks to a pretty interesting new release. But there is a lot that isn't really covered in any Aslan book that I am aware of.
Obviously, territory is fairly important to Aslan. We know that a sufficient Territory to be considered a noble (Territory 1+) is tens of square kilometers. And we know that there are lots of landless Aslan. But there's almost no discussion of how landless Aslan relate to the larger society. Seems unlikely that they would rent property given the alien-ness of that concept to the Aslan culture in general and the males in particular. So, do they live in clan apartments that are provided as part of their "wages"? Is there a small holder class of Aslan, such that there is a distinction between "Territory 0" and "Territory: None", where the former is homesteads and such that are too small to be an aristocratic landholding?
It begs the question of whether land can be the territory of more than one Aslan. There is a lot of discussion of vassals when talking about Aslan. For instance, the CT Aslan book mentions that large landholders can't manage all their lands personally, so they have vassals managing it. Is that land the Territory of said vassal alone? The territory of both vassal and liege? Or is that vassal basically a property manager, not any kind of owner? I really doubt the grant is an allod, so it's likely the equivalent of an appanage or perhaps a life fief. (Of course, humans tended to work really hard to turn appanages and life fiefs into hereditary land grants. Aslan likely would be the same).
A second issue with Aslan demographics is the different role of women in their society. Trad humanity has the women doing labor that can be done from the household so they can manage the child rearing. Meanwhile, the men are off being the breadwinners and having awful work/life imbalance. That's clearly not how the Aslan function. The vast majority of the population are female and large chunks of the economy are exclusively women. No doubt some Aslan women are "housewives", but the husbands aren't working for wages per se. Most likely they are working for room and board type arrangements, either a personal home as "territory" or some kind of apartment tenancy. The people bringing in wealth are the women.
It is easy to think Aslan women would have the same kind of feelings as human women about their social status. But that status isn't remotely the same. Aslan women own the economy. The Elon Musks, Albert Einsteins, and Jeff Bezoses of the Aslan are women. Lower class mens' room and board earnings don't support multiple wives and even wealthy Aslan males seem to have 3 or so wives rather than vast harems. So that means a lot of single Aslan women doing the full career thing and probably not a lot of the human cultural pressure to produce spawn. Do Aslan women feel an individual need for progeny? Or do they have more of a communal sense of family continuity?
So when you consider the 'ihatei', the idea that these are footloose males going off on their own seems a bit specious. Given that Aslan have to rely on ranching for food rather than the far more space efficient farming, they are not going to be as population dense as humans. They will need more land even without considering territorial urges. Ihatei expeditions will need women along to manage logistics, technical matters, and complex matters like astrogation and engineering. And, in this modern era, ihatei are space faring. So they will have to be provided with ships. Which are expensive clan assets. I just find the idea that the ihatei are these uncontrolled surges of landless males unconvincing. They really are clan backed migrations. Which means the ideal targets would be close to existing clan territory, so the loss of resources (family, ships, etc) doesn't hurt the clan. Only when a clan is totally hemmed in and unable to expand through exploration or wars with neighbors will you likely see the standard trope of ihatei fired off into the far wilds. IMHO.
And, unless the Aslan birth rates are just massive, I don't see any way to explain the massive ihatei hordes that some Traveller events suggest.
Obviously, territory is fairly important to Aslan. We know that a sufficient Territory to be considered a noble (Territory 1+) is tens of square kilometers. And we know that there are lots of landless Aslan. But there's almost no discussion of how landless Aslan relate to the larger society. Seems unlikely that they would rent property given the alien-ness of that concept to the Aslan culture in general and the males in particular. So, do they live in clan apartments that are provided as part of their "wages"? Is there a small holder class of Aslan, such that there is a distinction between "Territory 0" and "Territory: None", where the former is homesteads and such that are too small to be an aristocratic landholding?
It begs the question of whether land can be the territory of more than one Aslan. There is a lot of discussion of vassals when talking about Aslan. For instance, the CT Aslan book mentions that large landholders can't manage all their lands personally, so they have vassals managing it. Is that land the Territory of said vassal alone? The territory of both vassal and liege? Or is that vassal basically a property manager, not any kind of owner? I really doubt the grant is an allod, so it's likely the equivalent of an appanage or perhaps a life fief. (Of course, humans tended to work really hard to turn appanages and life fiefs into hereditary land grants. Aslan likely would be the same).
A second issue with Aslan demographics is the different role of women in their society. Trad humanity has the women doing labor that can be done from the household so they can manage the child rearing. Meanwhile, the men are off being the breadwinners and having awful work/life imbalance. That's clearly not how the Aslan function. The vast majority of the population are female and large chunks of the economy are exclusively women. No doubt some Aslan women are "housewives", but the husbands aren't working for wages per se. Most likely they are working for room and board type arrangements, either a personal home as "territory" or some kind of apartment tenancy. The people bringing in wealth are the women.
It is easy to think Aslan women would have the same kind of feelings as human women about their social status. But that status isn't remotely the same. Aslan women own the economy. The Elon Musks, Albert Einsteins, and Jeff Bezoses of the Aslan are women. Lower class mens' room and board earnings don't support multiple wives and even wealthy Aslan males seem to have 3 or so wives rather than vast harems. So that means a lot of single Aslan women doing the full career thing and probably not a lot of the human cultural pressure to produce spawn. Do Aslan women feel an individual need for progeny? Or do they have more of a communal sense of family continuity?
So when you consider the 'ihatei', the idea that these are footloose males going off on their own seems a bit specious. Given that Aslan have to rely on ranching for food rather than the far more space efficient farming, they are not going to be as population dense as humans. They will need more land even without considering territorial urges. Ihatei expeditions will need women along to manage logistics, technical matters, and complex matters like astrogation and engineering. And, in this modern era, ihatei are space faring. So they will have to be provided with ships. Which are expensive clan assets. I just find the idea that the ihatei are these uncontrolled surges of landless males unconvincing. They really are clan backed migrations. Which means the ideal targets would be close to existing clan territory, so the loss of resources (family, ships, etc) doesn't hurt the clan. Only when a clan is totally hemmed in and unable to expand through exploration or wars with neighbors will you likely see the standard trope of ihatei fired off into the far wilds. IMHO.
And, unless the Aslan birth rates are just massive, I don't see any way to explain the massive ihatei hordes that some Traveller events suggest.
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