Friday Lore Post: Companions

The companion system in Kyaine is an entrenched, important part of their culture. Almost all noble children have a companion starting at the age of seven or eight, someone who will stay with them at least until adulthood if not longer. Companions are drawn from non-noble classes and families, which moves them up in society to a far greater degree than they could have on their own—being a companion is a form of nobility in itself.

For all its near-central importance in Kyainese noble life, the companion system dates back only about seven hundred years, to just after the unification of the south under Kyainese rule. The relevant king here is Hubert DiCauro III, the son of King Heinrich, who presided over the invasion of Hechan in the east. Hubert did not invent the companion system out of the air, however. He was modifying a much older tradition that had existed not only in the south but in most of Menechit for centuries longer: that of the whipping boy.

Whipping boys (or girls) had existed across Menechit for as far back as anyone could remember, but were a particularly persistent tradition in the south. As the name implies, these were children who would be put together with noble children to be their friends and companions, but who would be whipped or otherwise punished in the noble child’s place for misbehaviour, to encourage good behaviour and hopefully a sense of compassion. Whether or not this was effective is in question, but either way the practice no longer exists.

The tradition of whipping boys and girls had been steadily fading in the rest of Menechit since the Flame Wars, as it was a practice that the settlers from the north found distasteful, and was used as an excuse for conflict against native Menechite nobility. The final nail in the coffin of the whipping boy in the north was the absorption of Porean and the ongoing rhetoric about slavery, during which it was decided that the practice must be abolished, because otherwise the rest of Dolovai’s resistance to slavery was considered hypocritical. And so the practice was abolished in the north.

In the south, however, the practice continued, and continued to remain controversial for the three hundred or so years. Finally, King Hubert III, having grown up close to his whipping boy and having taken very poorly to him being sent away, as was the custom, decided he wasn’t going to put his own children through that, and made whipping boys illegal across the nation. He did, however, want his children to have a close friend such as he’d had growing up, so he still found for them friends, and the other nobility followed suit. Companions aren’t a legally-mandated class of people in Kyaine at this historical period of any other, but steadily become commonplace for nobility over the course of the next three generations.

To this day, nobility across Kyaine acquire companions for their children, generally around the age of seven, sometimes younger in the east. Ech’kent never adopted the tradition, seeing it as the extension of slavery, a practice also never performed there. In the far south, where a form of slavery does remain legal, it is illegal for enslaved children or the children of enslaved adults to be made companions to nobility. Generally speaking, however, across the nation, companions are chosen from the children of reasonably affluent people, such as merchants or scribes or priests. The children of people who would be the most likely to be in contact with nobility tend to be selected, and in many cases the two children are already friends.

Companions are close in all capacities growing up, learning everything together, with the idea being that the noble child will have a friend and confidant, and the companion will be educated and be able to enter into higher-class society upon adulthood. Because Kyainese culture generally expects adolescents to experiment with same-sex sex between friends, companions are generally expected to be sex partners as well. This is not required, of course, but it’s considered the natural state of events when it does happen. Companions rarely marry each other, especially because nobility are usually in arranged marriages, so even though they might often want to, it’s not generally permitted, generally to great angst.

Many companions remain together upon reaching adulthood, but the sexual component falls away for most of them as they marry and become romantically and sexually involved with other people. It is not uncommon, however, for companions to separate as adults, or perhaps remain friends but not live together. The benefits of companionship are generally as advertised and most of the time a companion to a noble does end up in a high-ranking position.

On rare occasions when the relationship doesn’t work out, it isn’t a legal agreement so the two people in question can simply ask to be separated, as usually they are still children when they’re together. This is a serious decision, but it is made sometimes when companions simply find they can’t live together. There is, however, a legal protection that companions’ parents can’t forcibly separate the two without their consent.

There is some criticism of the companion system in Kyaine today, with various people calling for it to be abolished as it is unethical to separate a child from his or her parents, regardless of what the benefit is to them. This has not yet gone very far, and most people don’t expect it to. This is especially notable in border regions, and part of the reason why this isn’t likely to go anywhere is because the companion system is a cultural marker that separates Kyaine from Dolovai, and is therefore treated as an integral part of Kyainese culture.

Unlikely to go anywhere in the near future, the companion system in Kyaine is unlike anything else in the world. Though whipping boys do still exist in some places in the east and nobility everywhere might be close with servants or have friends, nowhere else is there a formalized system similar to the companion system. It is a unique part of Kyainese culture, and when they say that it’s something integral to their identity, they are, if perhaps in exaggeration, telling the truth.

Excerpts from “The Social Institutions of Our Time, Modern Edition,” by Moira Marksadder, published at the Academy for Magecraft in Three Hills, DN 1954.