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aemiliaLynn K. Hollander had a question about a passage from chapter one:
Lynn wants to know:
Is 'her favorite brother' also Loukas's father? If not, how are Eugenia's wives' children his half siblings? If so, why isn't this incest?
They're technically not his half-siblings; they're his cousins. Edessans don't have a word for cousin, because there's only one branch of the family. All the children born to a House are the archon's, whether or not the archon had a direct, er, hand in their creation. Because Loukas and Eleutherios are the only children Eugenia bore herself, they are higher status than their siblings. They also happen to have the same father -- one of Eugenia's wives -- so they have the same advantages of blood. I used the half-siblings designation, because it seemed the closest approximation of their actual relationship.
With the above bit, I was mostly trying to underline that they're only real competition to inherit the House. I didn't mean to get into all the genealogy bit. Though I do have a family tree around here somewhere. I should put it up. It took me forever to do.
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NB Edessans don't have the same incest taboos we do, though they would probably balk at brother-sister incest; more on the grounds that it's a waste of a potential alliance than any moral objection. And they don't have any idea that inbreeding is a bad thing. Mostly it's not a problem, but the upper class does have a higher rate of a few genetic diseases, including hemophilia and Klinefelter's syndrome.
Have a question? Or comment?Or complaint? You can comment anywhere on this blog or email me at rb.lurks at gmail.com. 
“Eugenia Kommene, Archon of House Kommene, had carried both of them and afterward declared herself done with childbirth. Eleutherios was Loukas's younger brother and only full sibling; ... Loukas's half-siblings had all been carried by Eugenia's wives, sired by her favorite brother ...“
Lynn wants to know:
Is 'her favorite brother' also Loukas's father? If not, how are Eugenia's wives' children his half siblings? If so, why isn't this incest?
They're technically not his half-siblings; they're his cousins. Edessans don't have a word for cousin, because there's only one branch of the family. All the children born to a House are the archon's, whether or not the archon had a direct, er, hand in their creation. Because Loukas and Eleutherios are the only children Eugenia bore herself, they are higher status than their siblings. They also happen to have the same father -- one of Eugenia's wives -- so they have the same advantages of blood. I used the half-siblings designation, because it seemed the closest approximation of their actual relationship.
With the above bit, I was mostly trying to underline that they're only real competition to inherit the House. I didn't mean to get into all the genealogy bit. Though I do have a family tree around here somewhere. I should put it up. It took me forever to do.
---
NB Edessans don't have the same incest taboos we do, though they would probably balk at brother-sister incest; more on the grounds that it's a waste of a potential alliance than any moral objection. And they don't have any idea that inbreeding is a bad thing. Mostly it's not a problem, but the upper class does have a higher rate of a few genetic diseases, including hemophilia and Klinefelter's syndrome.
Have a question? Or comment?