(no nsfw below the cut, surprisingly, but it IS long)

I used to work at a clownfish research lab, and the way in which eliksni get definitively, physiologically Bigger and Different as they move up social ranks, not to mention the way they live(d) in physically separated habitats (i.e. ketches) with various means of social control being used to keep individuals from “moving up”, reminded me a lot of clownfish protandry!

Crash course: clownfish have a mutualistic relationship with anemones, which for them means they can live IN the anemones and be protected from all the predators in a coral reef, since anemones sting the shit out of everything else. Clownfish without an anemone are...basically dead, yeah. However, since there are limited anemones for adult clownfish to live in, there’ll be a bunch of adults in any one anemone (say, five or six), but only the two biggest/oldest will be breeding. The Biggest (and oldest) adult is laying the eggs (female) and the next biggest is fertilizing and tending them (male) - the others basically wait in line. Say the female dies, the male becomes female, and the next biggest nonbreeder becomes male - same if the male dies, the next biggest nonbreeder becomes the male. It’s actually pretty cool how all the nonbreeders will generally maintain a specific ratio of descending sizes (by voluntarily restricting food intake), so the queue order is always very clear and they don’t get seen as trying to jump the queue (which might start a dominance fight), but that’s an aside.

SO. I thought it might be interesting if the Fallen military units/structures we see in-game are actually corruptions of pre-Whirlwind family structures and corresponding gender roles, where the Kell and Archon are “females”, the Barons/Priests/Captains are “males”, and the Vandals/Dregs(/Marauders/Wretches) are “nonbreeders”, with the understanding that the word for the rank (Kell, Captain, Vandal) is actually derived from/the same as the word for a gender, at least in Eliksni. Probably due to power-grabs post-Whirlwind (or possibly a holdover of regressive noble attitudes from pre-Whirlwind), the gender roles became inextricably conflated with the military roles. Plus, of course, the artificial lowest role created by cutting some peoples’ ARMS off - which is clearly a method of social control, there is NO efficiency to using people as cannon fodder, especially if, again, you’ve CHOPPED THEIR ARMS OFF. (Bungie why did you give the eliksni space late capitalism? They didn’t deserve this.)

This would have several implications, including but not limited to:

1) The lore that all eliksni used to grow to Kell size pre-Whirlwind is actually some sort of myth/propaganda to valorize the Kell role, since with this theory, the requirements to transition would be both sufficient Ether AND the desire to transition, which presumably not ALL people would have, given free choice.

2) The arrangement in a contemporary Fallen house (at least pre-Destiny 2 merger?), assuming the Splicer=>Priest=>Archon progression is a separate “track” from the normal military promotion, is that the Kell and Archon split baby production responsibilities, [ahem] assisted by Baron(esse)s and Priests, respectively. 

Baron(esse)s are differentiated from Captains simply because they’re the ones the Kell likes best, all tangled up into the military dynamics.

3) Baby production is more demarcated from romance than it is for the average human culture (again, mostly in contemporary Fallen culture). A romantic relationship is understood to be a mutually beneficial emotional and physical support association/attraction.

With contemporary social dynamics, this typically means couples (or threesomes or foursomes or whatever), in a healthy dynamic at least, will be of the same rank(/gender), but it’s not technically required or expected. It’s just, you know. Power dynamics.

4) This is not to say that there weren’t or aren’t gender-nonconforming eliksni!

Even something as simple as a Vandal who is quite certain they want to stay a Vandal, even though what they SHOULD want is to be promoted/transitioned.

In fact, pre-Whirlwind, there were probably a greater percentage of Kells/Archons in the population, and family groups would be made of any mix of the three-ish (possibly more, if we’re adding theoretical different pre-Whirlwind cultures into the mix) genders people chose.

However, considering that the Kell and Archon’s total monopoly (duopoly?) on the production of new generations and the rigidity of roles and the promotion/transition involved are probably a big part of the power of the military roles of the contemporary Houses, this has probably been “forgotten”.

I think that would be rather demonstrative of how dysfunctional contemporary Fallen culture and norms have become, that gender roles are not only so rigid, but COMPLETELY equivalent to reproductive ability and societal rank.

I do think the Kell has more “rights of production” than the Archon, mind.

5) The thing where in-game eliksni are referred to as “he” or “she” with seemingly no pattern (which is probably actually an attempt by the devs to show that the Fallen have gender parity, never mind that none of the important eliksni characters save possibly Drevis use “she” :P) is actually a misunderstanding, mostly stemming from the Fallen side of things.

Possibly eliksni with free time and some experience with humans/Awoken/Exos will make up their own personality quizzes based on their theories of how pronouns are determined. Possibly people get into squabbles over their headcanons. Who knows?

6) Kells/Archons don’t typically personally raise the babies they, eh, put out, if only because of scale, so it’s the Baron/Captain/Priest gender that’s typically expected to parent them (also like clownfish!).

Granted, with the contemporary Houses, “parenting” often looks more like “training” or “indoctrinating” with much of the nitty-gritty care left to their subordinates, but still.

That’s not necessarily what’s healthiest or even most “natural”, so. Conclusion: CAPTAIN DAD.

Let me know thoughts, questions, concerns, whatever, I dig speculative astrobiology, ESPECIALLY thoroughly nonhuman societal structures.

im too powerful to be contained in a nursing home but we will see about your bike nonetheless

me: *shoving on my sunglasses* my city now