Brother Tyal
“There was a mass extinction. We’re not exactly sure what caused it but it was almost certainly a solar event, or maybe a gamma ray burst or something. You’d need to ask the Loremaster when you get the chance. Anyway, our world went from a rich garden to the planet-wide chilly savannah it is today. Good so far?”
“They did cover that a little in our early history class. There’s evidence…”
“There is, but like I said we have oral stories from that time period, too. There’s…well, a bunch of them. But my favorite has gotta be the Keeda tale.”
“Ooh, tell me!”
Fiin sat up, distracted from the pain. “Keeda tales” were a staple of old (and new) Gaoian culture, wherein a morally ambiguous hero with otherwise admirable qualities finds his schemes for mates, revenge, or advancement thwarted by the black comedy of existence or the well-deserved fruits of his actions, or the schemings of other Keedas. They were meant for cubs and could be considered to be moral fables or simple entertainment. Every story had its own unique character and that character’s name was always Keeda.
Nobody really knew why.
“Okay! So. Keeda, well, he’s not findin’ a female and he’s got a powerful itch, y’know? Like you ain’t been laid in a month?”
“My very first mating contract was only a few days ago, so…” Fiin couldn’t keep the annoyed growl out of his voice.
“Ha, first of many I bet!” Fiin preened and chittered happily. “Anyway, there’s something really important you gotta know first. Back then, when this tale got made up? Birthrates for cubs were equally male and female.”
“Wait, what!?”
“Oh yeah. We’ve got genetic evidence for that, too, and it’s not in doubt. I actually have source material if you want. Anyway, the extinction event happened. The hardier animal life persevered but all of it was changed. Us? We suffered a bottleneck down to the hundreds of breeding pairs. The number of defects and sicknesses in the survivors was huge, and that meant our tribal elders had to enforce matings by as many partners as possible.
“One male in particular had a very serious mutation in his sex chromosomes and he had the good luck to breed with a female with an equally serious—but lucky for us—compatible set of mutations. Their cubs bred true and the mutation spread like wildfire…but they noticed that the pairings from their line resulted in almost all males. By the time everyone noticed it was too late.”
Tyal paused for a moment. “Kinda blows your mind, huh?”
“Why…” Fiin struggled for a thought, “Why, uh, wasn’t this taught?”
“I’ll get to that. Anyway, back to Keeda. Nothin’ he’s got is impressing the females no matter what he tries. This was an old Keeda, back when the tales were mighty, so he had some serious males to compete with! Keeda, though, he’s a clever tail and he decides, ‘If I can’t have a female, nobody can!’”
“Wow, Keeda. You’re a jerk!”
“Haha! So Keeda, he looks around. I guess we hadn’t figured out fire yet so he decides he’ll grab the sun and burn everyone’s balls off!”
“Well obviously!” Fiin chittered and reached for his water, “Grab sun, run around and shove it into everyone’s crotch. What could possibly go wrong?”
“Wait, it gets better!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! So Keeda goes around and burns everyone’s balls off, right? I mean, you’d think that kinda feat would impress the fuck outta even the pickiest female, but I guess back then they were harder to please.”
“Great Fathers, the smell!”
“Oh yeah. Especially since nobody back then knew how to clean themselves. Can you imagine? They didn’t even have the Comb”.
They both shuddered.
“Anyway, somehow Keeda manages it. He’s the only male with working nuts left! So, victory, right? Nope. The females still won’t mate with him, and now they’re extra mad ‘cuz Keeda ruined all the cute guys. So they catch him and decide to burn his balls off!”
“I think I see a flaw in their plan.”
“Well, females, when they’re triggered and in heat…”
“Yeah yeah. So I presume there was an intervention?”
“Yeah. Apparently Keeda had the biggest Father-damned orbs ever ‘cuz somehow, the Wise Mother stopped them before they’d completely burned ‘em both off. I mean…those gotta be pretty big, right? When the sun takes its sweet time to do the job?”
“Haha! So this Keeda was like Daar, then.”
“Ha! Imma tell him that and make sure he knows it was you!”
Fiin whined quietly, “…Please don’t.”
“Oh, don’t worry, he wouldn’t mind and I wouldn’t embarrass you to the Champion. That just ain’t right, y’know? Anyway. They stop, just in the nick of time! But, and this is kinda where the stupid goes full power ahead, they almost burned off his female-making jewel, but the male-making one was only a little damaged. I guess. Also now some of the cubs were ‘burnt’ or something, and they never grow up. And it just gets weirder and weirder from there.”
“Oh,” chittered Fiin desperately, “That’s amazing!”
“Mhmm. But I guess it makes sense if you don’t know how testicles work.”
“Does it have an ending?”
“Yup! Not a good one for Keeda though. The Wise Mother fixes all the males by bashing Keeda’s nuts off with the World Tree—apparently this doesn’t make things worse—and then she grinds them into a paste, and the females make little clay models, and they slide them down a rainbow into pools of…I forget, actually…and yeah. But the thing is, Keeda’s balls were already too broken to fix up so now there’s always more males than females. Thanks, Keeda.”
“…Wow.” Fiin chittered desperately as he slowly regained his breath. “But, uh, he kinda did win, y’know?”
“Oh?”
“Everyone’s shiny new pair were his.”
“…Y’know, I never thought of it that way.”
“Heh. But still, that’s one of the dumbest Keeda tales I’ve ever heard.”
“Really? Oh! I’ve gotta share a book with you later, I have the worst and they’re great fun to tell the cubs!” He cleared his throat. “Anyway…”
“Yeah, so our sex chromosomes changed. What happened next?”
“Several things. At the same time as our numbers changed, the silverfurs began to emerge. We know from other tales that it wasn’t, uh, well appreciated at the time. Most were killed in their adulthood by the elders as Abomination, but some of the silverfurs escaped persecution and grew up to be very, very clever. They seemed to, well…keep their cub-like ability to learn. They were creative and experimental and it’s around that time our civilization truly began.”
“Wait. You’re saying the silverfurs made civilization?”
“No. Yes. Well, sorta. Some of the smarter brownies took a liking to the silverfurs, right? It’s obvious the silverfurs were valuable because they saw things differently, they came up with new tools, all that sort of stuff. So these brownies decide to team up and protect the silverfurs. Help them prosper, yeah? Well. Those brownies get a reputation. Maybe it’s us praising ourselves, or whatever, but those first protectors are said to have been so tough and unwavering in their protection, their backs must have been made of stone.”
Tyal paused and attacked another tray of food while Fiin contemplated.
“So, lemme get this straight. We’re one people, male and female are balanced. A catastrophe happens and we have lots of evidence to back this up. At the same time, the genders go out of balance, the silverfurs emerge, civilization starts properly, and a group of brownies starts calling themselves the Stonebacks. Am…I missing anything?”
“Little things. We were the first named Clan but Clans didn’t exist yet. Of all the Gao we suffered the least genetic damage and are, I suppose you could say, the truest to our kind’s original spirit. We and the Females made sure of that.”
“…What?”
“Well. Here’s the thing. That shift? You know how it musta changed society, right? That wouldn’t happen overnight.”
“The Clan of Females.” Fiin knew where the story was going now.
“Yup.”
“Okay. Before you get into that, though, I gotta ask: why weren’t we taught any of this in the crèche?”
“‘Cuz the Females know something about the Gao that most of the Clans don’t even know.”
“And that is…?”
“We Gaoians ain’t so civilized at all.”
Sister Niral
“There’s big gaps in our knowledge about how it all happened, because our written history starts long after genetically modern Gaoians appeared. Females were little better than well-regarded slaves and didn’t have easy access to books or anything. We also don’t know the stories of what it was like from the Deep Before and the Clans that might aren’t telling. I personally think Stoneback and Highmountain do know.”
“Why wouldn’t they share?”
“Who knows? And, to be honest? We’re not really in a position to demand answers, given what they did for us. They’d resent it. All the Clans would, even the Females. We try not to pry in each other’s business.”
“But surely your origins are your business!”
“Our origins as a Clan, sure. But all of this is stuff that happened long before that. What I know I’ve learned talking to historians and they’re generally a pretty reclusive group. A few Females, a lot of Highmountains, and none of them like to talk to anyone except Grandfathers, Champions, and the Mother-Supreme. Us low-status Gaoians just gotta accept it, I guess.” Niral didn’t even try to hide the disgust in her tone.
“Okay…so what do you know?”
“What we do know is that there was a major genetic change in our very ancient history and that the gender imbalance has always been a part of our civilization. For as far back as we can remember, Females have been ‘protected.’ Some times it wasn’t so bad. Others…”
Melissa sipped at her chocolate. “We have roughly similar examples in our own species, even today. Some of our ‘civilizations’ are anything but.”
“…Why haven’t you fixed that!?”
“Because we would need to kill so many to do it.”
“So? That didn’t stop us and it certainly didn’t stop the Stonebacks.”
“It would stop us.” Melissa skipped to the end as humans so frequently did. It was a marvelous time saver, even if it took a while to get used to. “We have…I dunno. You’re not a democracy or a republic, for a start, you don’t have to worry about public support for a war. Where I’m from if we pushed that hard then forces inside our own ranks would start pushing back harder. And I’m not sure they’d be wrong to, either.”
“Maybe. I don’t think you appreciate the scale of what Stoneback did, though. It wasn’t some little skirmish. They…”
Melissa caught the hint. “Well…how bad was it?”
“Here…there’s a good book on the subject…”
Excerpt from “A History of the Gao: Volume 9, the Clan of Females”
—by Father and Stud Kureya, 266th Loremaster of Clan Highmountain
By the end of the late Clan-States era, combat prowess was a central theme of all but the most modern and Civilized Clans, and even then it was rare for a Clan to entirely escape that essential role. The purpose of a Clan was to defend and advance their own interests first and those of other Gao second. This was achieved through selectively advocating Studs for breeding, developing skills and knowledge in their domain, providing their services to the other Clans as was befitting, allying with related Clans and providing for their collective defense against upstarts. For many of the “military” Clans, securing their own interests often required them to maintain a careful equilibrium by ensuring that no Clan-State grew too large or dominant, and that the Clans vital to their survival were not threatened.
At that time, the first, most ubiquitous, and most openly mercenary of these Clans—and therefore the most influential—was Clan Stoneback. Like all mercenary Clans they had a strong relationship with the landed brown-furred farmer factions, both for food and access to their females. It was therefore necessary to maintain an uneasy truce with allied City-Clans and to very carefully choose their contracts.
Naturally this was not a one-directional process. The City-Clans sought whatever leverage they could over the Stonebacks and soon discovered that, as Stoneback kept no females in their mountain fortresses and were utterly dependent on the farmers for recruits and cubs, a City-Clan’s most potent leverage was their ability to limit Stoneback’s access to females.
Although effective, this method caused resentment. Each such provocation generated a response, be it political re-alignment, raids, or skirmishes. While these were zero-sum actions in the short term, in the long term the conflict generated compounding instability, and Clan Stoneback began to consider how to bring about a change in the status quo.
Enter Great Mother Tiritya.
Little is known about Tiritya’s early life though much can be inferred. Like nearly all females trapped within the walls of a city at the time, she would most probably have been an illiterate breeding slave of a City-Clan and was likely of modest farmer stock. Whatever her origins, Great Father Fyu, then Grandfather of Stoneback, wrote extensive poetry about and to her. Sadly, the exact details of their relationship in private will never be known. Whatever transpired between them, however, triggered the greatest upheaval in the history of Gao: the breaking of the Clan-States and the founding of the Great Alliance of Gao.
The uprising began with the emancipation of Tiritya and her sisters over a thousand years Before First Contact. First came the surprise sacking of her city by a small Claw of peerless warriors, who slaughtered the guard and freed the females before the city could properly react. Their identity was unknown but given the known and speculated details, and the speed and brutality of the strike, the aggressors could only have been an elite Stoneback Claw.
It is believed that, after their freedom was won, Tiritya and her sisters retreated to a Stoneback fortress where a grand Conclave was called. They overwintered while word spread and tensions between Stoneback and the outside world grew. According to his poetry, Father Fyu took great pleasure in teaching Tiritya and her fellow females the secrets of writing and the combat arts of his Clan. Other loves blossomed as well, many just as important, and the essential binding between Stoneback and the Females was forever sealed. After all, Stonebacks have always had strong protective instincts and the realities of the harems must have offended them.
Over the next seven years, Tiritya and her growing army of “claw-sisters” would, at great personal risk, infiltrate hostile Clan-Cities and prepare them for liberation. They would sabotage defenses, assassinate officers, and scout covert routes past the walls for the Brothers to exploit. It was during such an operation in the city of Wi Kao that Tiritya was finally caught: She was executed, and her pelt delivered to the Stoneback fortress at High Mountain.
The contemporary writer and chronicler Sister Mayem wrote that “From that moment on, Great Father Fyu forgot the concept of mercy.” He summoned the full strength of the Clan and razed Wi Kao to bedrock, sparing only the females and cubs. The Stonebacks have never commented on the matter. Nor has Stoneback ever discussed the later stages of the Great Change, but they were of course crucial to its endgame. But the outcome is known. The campaign went from merely tactical to utterly brutal and no city was spared their combined wrath.
It came to an end four years after Tiritya’s death when the final city surrendered to the growing alliance. Along the way their army swelled enormously, with Females fighting alongside the larger, stronger, and far more numerous males. What they lacked in physical prowess they made up with a ferocity matched only by an enraged Stoneback male in his absolute prime. Where that failed, they had Motivation: lose, and their lives would be unpleasantly short and everyone knew it. After Wi Kao there would be no quarter from anyone.
According to Sister Mayem, at the campaign’s close Father Fyu threw his armor into the mud and returned to High Mountain Fortress unarmed. There he devoted himself to a life of intellectual pursuits and eventually led a small faction of generals, strategists and Stoneback intellectuals towards other endeavors. So well-regarded was Great Father Fyu that he became the first and only Grandfather in the history of Gao to lead two Clans at once: Stoneback, and the newly-established Highmountain.
But despite all their military success, the conflict was truly won by the simple realities of biology. Females are, of course, induced ovulators and a stressed, fearful female is much less likely to bear cubs at all, let alone healthy ones. Everyone recognized the impact of a drastic decline in birthrates, and once the Females were united in sufficient numbers the battle was all but won. In quick order all but the most violently-inclined Clans either joined the Alliance and gained mating access to the newly-forged Clan of Females, or they were mercilessly torn asunder by the Stonebacks, often literally.
And so the Stonebacks—with strong Female assistance and approval—destroyed the Clan-State alliances and brutally and systematically de-fanged the City-Clans, leaving only a very small core of competency in each for their own self-defense. They executed generals, publicly castrated officers, and shaved and ritually scar-marked any wh o so much as smelled of rebellion, making his history known to any Female who might court him. And to actual plotters and insurrectionists, they got…creative.
But then they did something very clever. They sought out the males who embodied the spirit of their Clan and who would defend it, but whose worldview had an enlightened and modern bent. Those they proclaimed to the Females, who rewarded their zeal for Clan and the new direction of the Gao with the greatest gift a male could get: cubs. Lots of cubs. Those lucky males became the unofficial spiritual leaders of the reformed Clans. The rest would take years to resolve, but none denied that those males…were Champions.
Naturally, none of that was entirely without negative consequence, and by the end of the Great Change the collective defense was reduced to a theoretical and ceremonial role. At first the Stonebacks kept the more rebellious Clans in line, usually gently, sometimes with bloody and brutal suppression. Those Stonebacks performing that duty grew into the Straightshields and, over time, merged with an offshoot of the Highmountains and became the judiciary and police of the Gao.
But even that became largely unnecessary. Over time, breeding pressure tamed the fire of even the most hot-blooded of the Clan lineages, and within four generations the Great Alliance was in full effect. No longer were Clans oriented to a single city or region like the Clan-States of yore. Instead, they became much more business-like and focused on their core competency. The males discovered they had much better breeding success and personal happiness in a life spent fulfilling a purpose instead of defending territory, and that allowed for rapid Clan specialization.
And life for the Clanless greatly improved as well. The great masses now had a good chance at a legacy, previously an almost unheard of possibility. No longer were the existing Clans terrified of their crèche being raided, their females stolen away, and their cubs being murdered in the night. With the threat of raids gone, everyone got more cubs, and that made everyone happier. Life with a unified and secure Clan of Females was safer, friendlier, and more productive.
Which was a point the Females never failed to make, even if they maybe glossed over the significant male contributions to the process. And the Stonebacks? Well. They never much complained. Partly that was their nature; they could be strangely stoic about certain things, particularly anything involving their past. They would far rather brag and boast about their abilities and achievements in the present. But mostly? The Females gave them a very wide berth to be themselves in a way few other Clans could get away with, and that let them pick the absolute cream of the genetic crop from the very beginning of the modern era, which served to compound their ancient and already formidable breeding legacy. Stonebacks have never wanted for cubs.
In the end the females tamed the males, both through their own guile and the eager cooperation of the Stonebacks and others. But that did weaken the Gao’s military prowess over the centuries of peace. Most of the ancient Clans slowly faded into the background, either being selectively absorbed by Stoneback (and later, other Clans as well) or fracturing and dividing into ever more specialized and esoteric Clans, until many simply disbanded, their remaining genetic legacy absorbed by the Clanless.
That was all ancient history in the Clans’ deep past but the traditions—and their value—remained, preserved and enhanced by the surviving ancient Clans.
Melissa
“That’s…a hell of a story. The Stonebacks sound like Genghis Khan and America during World War II, except both at the same time.”
Niral duck-nodded solemnly. “I won’t pretend our past was pleasant. Sometimes social progress only comes at the tip of a claw.”
Melissa looked down at her mug thoughtfully. “So is that why you don’t like Daar? That he represents something in your ancient past?”
Niral blinked non-plussed. “…No? Melissa, honey, you had it right the first time. I just think he’s a lout!” She chittered amusedly and set her ears in mischief. “Calm and poised, upright and straight-backed? Now that is sexy! Like those Whitecrest fellows…”
“Or Meereo.”
Niral affected a shrug, “He’s smart and handsome and considerate. He’d make a great sire and our cub would be impressive. And it’s not to say I hate Stonebacks. All that story I just told? We Females grow up reading it. We’re predisposed to like them—don’t tell any of the other males that—and, well. Look at them. Look at the bodies they have, especially Daar! But…I dunno.” She sighed, “Maybe you’re right. Maybe there’s more to it. But males like Daar aren’t for me. I’ve only really talked to a couple and both were only interested in one thing, and that felt…” She struggled for words.
“Objectifying?”
“Yes! That, that exact word!”
“Oh honey,” laughed Melissa, “You’re complaining that a big strong man thought you were pretty and didn’t bother to hide it? And then you have the gall to complain about objectification, despite all we’ve said about them tonight?”
“I don’t publicly tell males I’d like to claw their ears and rub their belly!”
Melissa filed that bit of mental imagery away for later.
“Well, why not? Is it uncivilized? Look—” She raised her hand to forestall further protest. “Look, girl. I’m just pointing out how silly the game is in apparently both our species. I ain’t judging ‘cuz I do exactly the same thing! All I’m saying is be honest about it and don’t write off guys until you’ve talked to them. Who knows, maybe you’ll just be friends! Maybe he’s actually a nerd. How would you know unless you talked to him?”
“…I can’t see anything wrong with your advice…”
“Or don’t. Up to you. Just know it was your decision and if you’re gonna be subjective and irrational about it, just admit that to yourself. Do that and you’ll be way ahead of the curve.”
“…I suppose so. You’re right, maybe I am being unfair.”
“And hey, maybe it widens your prospects! After all you’re a Gaoian. Once you and Meereo get it on…”
“I intend to enjoy this courtship! I mean, I even removed my implants!”
Melissa perfectly disguised her surprise. “Oh?”
“Yeah. He couldn’t tell me why but he had some worry…I guess that’s what his Clan are like. They’re worried about network security and stuff but me? I’m much more comfortable with a trade deal!”
I’ll need to inform Control.
“Anyway,” Melissa interjected to keep the conversation flowing, “Just keep your options open, that’s all I’m saying. Who knows? I bet a lot of those Stonebacks are really sweet and sensitive if you give them the time of day. I mean, they’re engineers and builders, right? They can’t be all that bad, can they?”
“No!” Niral seemed enthusiastic about the idea. “I’ll keep a more open mind. You’re right, Melissa. I’ve been unfair. Maybe…I have been missing out.”
Associate Fiin
“So we did it for the nookie?”
“Of course we did!” Tyal chittered as he finished the last of the food. Between the two of them they’d finished it all and they were both feeling lethargic. “Why else do we do anything? Everything is about the Females. It’s the basic purpose of our Clan, remember? ‘Protect and Provide.’ It’s all for them.”
“And we get cubs.” Fiin’s eyes were bright and his ears were forward.
“Damn straight. What’s not to love?”