what determines the type of familiar you end up with?

Whether your sacrifice pleases the random number gods or otherwise.

It's more or less random, yes, but I believe there's also a difference in what you get determined by your gender.

I believe the vixen and the black widow are female-only, but there aren't any that are male-only.

I think fox and tarantula are the male only ones.

The way honour works is this:

Certain tasks gain honour. Holding an elected seat is one of them. Offering to the family's patron is another. A third is beating a member from a more honourable family in a ranked spar.

Honour decays at a natural rate.

The honour gain for essence is a set amount, ie 1 for every x amount offered by the family.

Families/Great Houses are something I've wanted to see go under review for a long time, unfortunately we just don't have the resources - and the players keep voting for other stuff instead.

Poor Evey.

I am doing research (both in game and OOC) to study the terminology of monk katas through a sociolinguistic approach. In other words, looking at the particular word structures of the Ninjakari, Nekotai, Taht, and Sho... determining word origins, breaking each word down into affix through syllabication, and supposing the meaning of each affix (not really through a true etymological approach, since I don't really know the history of each root).

In my first scan of things, Ninjakari and Taht appear closely related to the tongues of illithoid and kephera (respectively). Neko and Sho less so.

Further review shows they both are derived from the fae language. Neko is "Bringer of Sorrow" and "Strength of Stag" (referring to Brother Hart).

Two part question. First, HOW did the Shofangi and Nekotai words originate in the Fae language? Was it that these mentors decided to steep their lessons in commune culture?

Or is there some other derivation (ex. Nekotai came from the illithoid, that came from Grandmother Scorpion, who was presented by Blooredi in the fields of Maeve, which might suggest she has some exposure to the fae. Right?).

Not sure how to account for this aspect.

Shofangi words are related to kephera, EXCEPT shofa/shofangi, which is related to fae. You'll probably be waiting a while on the reason for that last one as it's not really fleshed out yet.

No idea about the Nekotai, except to say that Grandmother Scorpion, Brother Raven and Brother Hart are all awakened (i.e fae), albeit of a slightly different type, so if nekotai words -were- fae-related it wouldn't be at all surprising.

Actually, I am not all that sure about about the Shofangi words being related to the fae... I think it is much more interwoven than that. Consider the iterations of "Nek" throughout the Nekotai kata. Also prevalent, but to a lesser degree with "Shof" in the Shofangi kata. The fae language is spread throughout.

Both katas utilize two and three syllable words, with the appearance of bull/scorpion which is compounded. Another nod to fae/nature. Look at the similarity of Skrive and Nekreve. Both derive from that r(ei/i)ve to render, with either Sh from Shof (abbreviated to simply S), or Nek from Nek (consider Nekotai/nekai).

These look very, very different from the polysyllabic wording of the Ninjakari and Tahtetso; these words appear closer to the illithoid and kepheran tongue. Compare Cthoglogg with Ughathalogg, or well... not as familiar with kepheran names of royalty.

Anyway, here's a copy of how I started to break apart affixes:



I still think Nekotai/Shofangi appear to have similar word construction, and are more closely related to the fae.

On a side note, Scorpion is a Great Scorpion created by one of the 7th Circle. Different than being awakened from one of the 6th circle.

1. Huh? Scorpion was formed from scorpions, which Blooredi made. Blooredi also made the crocodiles and so on.
2. You can take my word for it on the Shofangi part. That much has already been established. The reasons for the limited difference are as yet unclear.

Saying awakened spirits, ie Moon, Sun, Night, as opposed to created animal spirits, Hart, Raven, Scorpion.

Yeah, but I already knew that, I even put "albeit of a slightly different type" in my post, so presumably she meant something else.

For the sake of interjection, I do not believe there is a 'kephera' language nor a 'illithoid' language (else players would be able to speak them). They communicate psionically instead (who needs words when you can communicate feelings, ideas, etc). Also, illithoid are newly born (relatively) and probably haven't had time to develop a language.

Shofa is a fae word, as is Nekai. The former represents the strength and majesty of the White Hart, I believe it is, and the latter meaning 'Bringer of Sorrow', as I think Shiri said.

The rest, as they say, is magic.

There have always been objections to that effect but between the amount of nonsense words they put out, the fact they have unique names (complete with verbal pronunciations - and note that they are names and not conveniences, because they find traditional kephera names easier than surfacer names, you know what specific instance I'm talking about), and the fact they initially had difficulty speaking common, we're forced to conclude that they do have a language of some kind.
Thinking about it logically it would be pretty much impossible for them NOT to have language, because they communicate at the same level as everyone else with reference to abstract concepts, identities and so on. The nonsense words consequently might be assumed to be A) some fugly attempt to reduce important concepts we're missing words for to words surfacers can communicate in (still unique language use, and also notice how structured it is as Janalon lists above) or deliberate vocalisations of various important things in the event of enemy psychicblocking or similar. The latter or something like it seems more probable given our history of communication with them.

Nubby! I'd almost forgotten about that.

*strangle*

I didn't. I made an alt named Nubby once to see if anyone would notice, but no one did.

What's this?

Probably an ambiance message from the area, that's not an affliction that I can tell.