Editing Familiar (section)

== Variations ==
As with anything in practice variations exist, however depending on where they are will not have the backing of [[Establishment]] as the examples here show.<ref>Other things as simple as what a color means to a culture can skew a parallel arrangement or upset a sensitive balance between master and familiar.  Travel with care.<br><br>Variations on the Familiar ritual are numerous, and complicating factors abundant, but few boast the degree of establishment the Famulus ritual offers.  When new arrangements are seen, we know we must wait to see the long term outcomes, as there may be traps evident in even happy arrangements such as Nadiesta’s.<br><br>Further variations are expected to arise as attitudes toward Other change across the world. - Excerpt from [[Famulus]], quoted in Bonus Material: [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/29 Famulus Text]</ref><ref><u>'''Anti-Establishment Others'''</u><br>Some Others may inherently violate the Established expectations of the Famulus ritual due to their inherent natures.  This can include those parasitic Others touched on in chapter two, but also includes those who take object form by default, or Others who take no mortal form at all.  Others that exist as writing on a page may translate to become tattoos when not in their Other form, for example.<br><br>The aforementioned Komainu are often created in matched pairs, and one could pick such a pair as their familiar.  In the same way, any set of linked Others that exists as an established trio could be included as three.  Such Others have a tendency to be very ordered, and the more chaotic, matched Others may be too dangerous to bind, taking over the connection to the practitioner easily.<br><br>In short, nearly every expectation and rule within this text has its exceptions, as Others are varied and subversive. - Excerpt from [[Famulus]], quoted in Bonus Material: [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/29 Famulus Text]</ref>

It is possible, though uncommon, for an Other to be used as both Familiar and Implement or Demesne.<ref> - Excerpt from [[Famulus]], quoted in Bonus Material: [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/29 Famulus Text]</ref> 

Notably, you can only have one familiar in western culture, but eastern culture allows for many, although the relationship is different - closer to that of a lord over vassals and not built on cooperation.<ref>In Japan, relationships range from the Casual to a standardized variant on the familiar, where the practitioner opens up several spaces and binds two or three familiars at once.  This dynamic is tyrannical on the part of the practitioner, who assumes shrewd control, but among the Others it is often parallel or complementary, with Others balancing one another out and absorbing the brunt of effects for one another.  The process is somewhat fragile, and the nature of the practitioner’s relationship to the familiars resembles a chess player with his pieces; if he topples, all tied to him suffer.  Even a single blow can be telling in the outcome of contests. - Excerpt from [[Famulus]], quoted in Bonus Material: [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/29 Famulus Text]</ref>

Boon companions are similar to familiars, but do not take up the familiar "slot" and they can often coexist - although some familiars may be too metaphysically aggressive for a companion to survive being tied to them.<ref name=":3" /><ref>"That’s not to say I wouldn’t have loved to experiment with something like a soul companion, but you only get one, don’t you?"<br>[...]<br>“Does having a soul companion block having a familiar?” Verona asked.<br><br>“No, my dear,” Mrs. Durocher asked. “But some familiars are ''takers'', or tyrants.  Even little, long-term connections can get ruined, without care.  It wouldn’t be kind to any soul companions I gathered.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/08/29 Excerpt] from [[Leaving a Mark 4.4]]</ref>

Marriage between humans and Others can sometimes demonstrate similar power-sharing effects.<ref name=":6">The human-Other relationship extends further back than those early traditions, of course.  At the same time, such relationships were informal, often driven by times of necessity, and, according to old texts, often ended in the demise or subjugation of the practitioner or the practitioner’s wily escape from Other clutches.<br><br>''The Calhoun Motte'' texts are the unfortunately poorly translated -in language and narrative both- diaries of '''Locke''', believed to be a nickname of the Lady Calhoun.  She is, at the opening of the texts, married to a loutish monster of a knight who was given the titular motte for his deeds in battle, a castle on a hill at the edge of deep woods.<br><br>[...]What we do believe is that she, after weeks of daily beatings by her son, fled out to the woods, and struck a deal with the Forest King, marrying him. [...] At the story’s end, the Forest King states that as he spared her life, he must now take it, and she argues valiantly against the end.  But, as Others of old often did, he refuses.<br><br>[...]<br><br>Locke’s story does include one of the old forms of human-Other relationship, established through another type of bonding we are very familiar with; marriage.  The effects that are described in the texts and various versions of the story lend something to this.  From the time of the marriage, Locke demonstrates some of the Forest King’s native abilities, turning wood aside and going untouched by animal.  Her existing capabilities as a practitioner are stronger, as she uses taught practices with ease, such as the ability to walk among hunting hounds who would otherwise tear her to pieces, cowing them.  Finally, the Forest King gains the ability to enter the Motte through the gates, paving the way for his followers to charge in after.<br><br>Some speculation has been directed at the link between the death of Locke and the summary decline of the Forest King, an Other of unknown type.  In virtually all versions of the tale that have been seen in circulation, he dwindles after killing or eating Locke, and finds himself unable to stand up to the knight’s old wartime companions and the armies they lead.  Though they were not strictly master and familiar, some of the same factors may stand:<br><br>When one suffers, so does the other.<br><br>The mechanism of this suffering varies, and can be temporary or great, depending on a multitude of factors, including the type of Other and the balance of power.  For Locke and her Forest King, however, it seems to hold true, and may well be the intended ‘moral’ of the tale, reflected in Locke’s diary entries, for those who know of Others and practitioners. - Excerpt from [[Famulus]], quoted in Bonus Material: [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/10/29 Famulus Text]</ref>