#chains of command

What is considered a normal family unit? How extended is an extended family? How important are family connections and responsibilities?

Vincam "families", after leaving the Hatchery, are focused around work and function. A cohort would be the larger group that a Vincam is part of, such as the Shipwrights. A Vincam's cohort is considered a large part of their identity, and it informs the way that they interact with others both inside and outside of the cohort. Cohorts rise and fall in prominence depending upon how much output they are able to provide proportional to the input that they receive, their value and ranking determined by Elder Dorf, Chief Economist. As for size, it very much depends on what department they work in and how specialized their task is. There are also cohorts within cohorts. For example, all Soldiers might consider themselves to be part of the same cohort, but they are still split into squads headed up by a leader. Or within the Gandist cohort, there are those who work on external media versus those who work on internal works. The highest ranked among the Vincam will also belong to a warren -- the equivalent of a household. A warren generally consists of a superior, an Assistant, a Janitor, a Cook, and around one to three Juniors, who serve as backups for the Superior's position. Warren size tends to expand with power, with Assistants getting their own staff or an addition of a personal Shipwright, etc, etc as the superior can afford and has the clout to request. Those who do not live within a warren live within a barrack instead, where cohorts share a communal sleeping and living space during their off-hours.

What are the rites of passage in this culture?

The main right of passage within the Vincam colony is graduation from the Hatchery into a cohort. This occurs at a hatchling's final instar, which is around 13 years of age though it varies by gender. Upon finalization of their molt, the superior that ordered their hatching will be contacted and the hatchling will be presented to them. The superior will then test them by asking them to provide a variety of tasks, the nature and difficulty of which depends upon the cohort they are meant to enter as well as the demands of the superior themself. Due to the Hatchery's vigorous and thorough training, informed by the requests of those who order the hatchlings, it is very rare for a hatchling to fail this test. Rare, however, does not mean unheard of. Hatchlings who fail may be given another chance or possibly sent back into the Hatchery for further training, but the most likely outcome is that they will simply be discarded in favor of a newer hatch. Another rite of passage comes when a Vincam manages to reach 100 years of age, after which they are given a seat on the Elder's Council, along with the ranks and privileges associated with that position. This puts them above all others within their cohort, regardless of their previous rank, and elevates their cohort in the general hierarchy as well. Due to the rather violent nature of the Vincam lifestyle and general jostling for rank and resources, it is very rare that anyone manages to reach this age. Those who do are either well liked, genuinely very good at their job, or simply too terrifying to consider assassinating for their position. The Elder's Council advises the colony Mother, and are responsible for the general management and governance of all those beneath them within their specialty.

What customs surround a hatching?

In order for a crelean clutch to hatch, the eggs must first be brought into the light. While this task can be performed with a UV lamp, within the Vincam colony it is considered an almost sacred tradition to take them above ground to the meadow just outside their ancestral tunnels, so that the hatchling's first glimpses of the world will be the same as the thousands of years of Vincam. Unfortunately, the world above the tunnels has never been a particularly safe place for a hatchling to be, a situation only made worse by the general destruction and pollution of Crelea IV's surface following the Great Colony Wars. While the air and soil are beginning to heal, hatchlings who are not strong enough may still succumb to the toxins, unable to make the journey into the Hatchery tunnels where they will live the first thirteen years of their lives. This, too, is considered right and necessary to weed out those that even genetic engineering could not fix. Caretakers also take note of the method in which hatchlings emerge from their egg casing, as a common superstition amongst the Vincam assigns personality traits to the event. You can learn more about crelean hatch augury here.

Who is normally present for a hatching?

As a general rule, the only creleans present to witness a hatch are the Caretakers. In the past, Mothers and Daughters would sometimes take an interest in the event, especially if the clutch contained potal or Daughter eggs, but amongst the Vincam it has only been the Caretakers since the colony's move to the flotilla. Traditionally, the Caretaker cohort was made up almost entirely of potals, as they were considered uniquely qualified to care for the eggs. While it is true that potals often experience a strong nesting urge following a Flight, Vincam culture has shifted to accept nobles amongst the Caretakers, and even to prefer them due to their perceived emotional stability. It is difficult to say whether this shift comes from any kind of cultural enlightenment or if it is only the result of the lack of potal eggs within the colony, but regardless of the origin, the current Caretaker cohort is now almost entirely noble.

Who raises the children? At what age do they begin to be educated or trained? By whom? Are they considered mini-adults? Do they dress differently from adults? If so, when do they change to adult dress?

Hatchlings are raised in large groups known collectively as a “hatch” and looked after by the cohort known as the Caretakers. The lead Caretaker, the Hatchmaster, is in charge of determining which and how many eggs go into each hatch, a figure that is dependent upon the needs of the colony. As hatchlings take 13 years to reach maturity, there is a fair amount of guesswork involved in selecting the number of hatchlings, and an incorrect guess can lead to the discardment of perfectly good hatchlings at the end of their Hatchery days.

For the most part, they are treated like ignorant adults. Hatchling brains develop very rapidly, a natural process that is assisted and sped up by their biotech implants. However, their language takes a bit longer to develop. Vincam language is polytonal, consisting of a fundamental that makes up the general “words” of the language, a first overtone that conveys emotion, and a second overtone that is used as a voice of authority (singable only by nobles, potals, and alates). Hatchlings are born only with the ability to sing the first overtone, with the fundamental developing during their third instar. This does limit their communication ability outside of written language, but Caretakers have developed a fairly intricate system of hand signals to communicate with younger hatchlings. This system is sometimes still used by adult Vincam when it is necessary to communicate in the vacuum of space or when song is otherwise inconvenient.

Due to the fragility of their unhardened chitin, hatchlings wear loose garments made of soft natural materials. These garments are dyed in the colors of their intended cohorts, which helps Caretakers to identify which hatchlings need to be attending which trainings. Also due to this fragility, corporal punishment is not an option for errant hatchlings. In its place, various shaming techniques are used, the most common of which forces the hatchling to take their meals in a large cage suspended above the communal mess hall, where all of the hatch can see. Amusingly enough, this cage has been around for centuries and was once used to display the prisoners of the colony, back when the entire colony still lived on Crelea IV.

Most of a hatchling’s early life consists of going to various trainings on the duties they will be expected to perform during their life within the colony, regular checkups with the Healers to determine the rate of integration with their biotech implants, eating in the communal mess hall, and occasionally attending shows and performances of Vincam current events and history.

What customs surround death and burial?

Upon death, a corpse is considered a person and treated as such until the uploading of their implant’s data. Throughout their lives, Vincam develop and increasingly close bond with their implant, which processes their thoughts, memories, and emotions. Eventually, an “echo” is formed, an AI personality that the implant uses to interface with the host and whose personality reflects the host’s inner self. The older a Vincam becomes, the greater the chance of divergence between the self and the echo, which can sometimes create problems of internal strife and other behavioral issues. This splitting effect is one of several reasons that most Vincam do not make it past their thirties, let alone grow old enough to become an Elder.

The colony has always treated body retrieval as a priority following battles, both to retrieve the valuable implants and keep them out of the hands of their enemies, as well as to ensure that a Vincam’s echo is properly escorted to the Collective, a massive database of Vincam knowledge and history, whose physical servers are located deep in the ancestral Hatchery tunnels. As a result, death is often euphemistically referred to as “going Home,” since the vast majority of Vincams will never see Crelea IV again after leaving the Hatchery. The uploading ceremony itself depends upon the cohort, though generally it involves the cohort gathering together to escort their fallen one final time towards the Healer’s wards. Once an echo has been uploaded and archived, the body is stripped of its implant and then incinerated.

The implants of fallen Vincam are then wiped clean of their former data and returned to Crelea IV to be reimplanted into a waiting egg. While this data scrub should remove all lingering memories from the previous host, there have been reports of vague bouts of déjà vu and sensory ghosting, a phenomenon that tends to get worse the longer the implant is in use. In very rare cases, full “echo ghosts” have occurred, where the host experiences a full second personality within their mind that is not a copy of their own. Depending on the severity of the divergence between host and implant, these hatchlings may find themselves discarded to avoid stability issues between the host and the implant. Most implants have an effective lifespan of 200-300 years, though they have been known to last longer with careful care and maintenance. Technological advances have also begun to push this expiration date further. Higher caste Vincam are more likely to receive fresh implants versus a recycled one.

When meeting someone, how are they greeted — wave, handshake, bow, some other gesture? How did the greeting gesture originate (example: shaking hands to prove one’s weapon hand was empty)?

Greetings vary quite a bit by age and social caste, but there are some universal gestures that are recognized. When greeting a fellow member of your cohort with whom you share a similar rank, it is customary for Vincam to press their foreheads together and gently tap the tips of their antennae. This serves the dual purpose of a greeting and of reinforcing the communal scent bond that marks a pair as members of the same cohort. This is considered to be a somewhat juvenile and overly enthusiastic greeting, similar to a human running up to their best friend and giving them a hug. It is most commonly practiced among drones.

A lover's greeting is similar in a way, though far more rare as it is traditionally only performed between a matched pair, promised for a Flight. This gesture starts with the friendly forehead press, and then shifts to the side until the two creleans are pressing the base (also known as the scape) of their antennae together. This greeting leaves a lasting scent-mark on the other, strong enough to be noticeable to the rest of the colony. In a way, this allows the pair to carry the other with them throughout the day, similar to a human wedding ring.

For a more formal greeting, a Vincam might incline their head towards the other, with the depth of the nod indicating the amount of respect and deference owed to the other. An up-nod of the head would indicate a claim of superiority, though it is considered somewhat pompous to do so, even if you are entitled to authority over that person.