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Familiar

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A Familiar is an Other that has been joined to a Practitioner in a lifelong, exclusive bond. This Famulus ritual<ref name=":0">As an established relationship, to be covered more in the next chapter, each will bleed into the other by way of the connection that connects one to the other, ceasing to be a closed circle and instead becoming an open figure eight, one open circle threading into the other.

This facet of the relationship is perhaps the primary reason that we do not see all practitioners undertake the Famulus ritual as a matter of course.  To both ends, the bond does diminish the Self and open it up to influences, granting a sum total greater than its individual parts, each entrusting the other with new, open vulnerabilities.

The connection also serves to make the practitioner more Other, and the Other more mortal, often represented by the animal form.  Many turn away from the bond to preserve their self and humanity, keeping these things as a grounded foundation from which to practice, as opposed to plunging into the deeper metaphorical waters and trusting an Other to help them to breathe. - excerpt from Famulus, quoted in Bonus Material: Famulus Text </ref> is one of the three Defining Rituals of Western Practitioners, alongside the Demesne and Implement rituals.

Ritual

The most commonly used form of the ritual gives the familiar the option to guard its secrets or share fully with it's new partner.<ref>“I give you this with no expectation of secret knowledge or revelations,” I said.

“I- I-”  Evan stuttered.

I glanced over.  There were two options, common answers for the Familiar.
[...]
“Then, um.  By the compact, I share what I have, regard- regardless,” Evan said, behind me.

I nodded, smiling as I turned around.  He wasn’t an Other with knowledge he had to safeguard.  It made sense. - Excerpt from Conviction 5.4</ref>

Effects

Practitioner and familiar both can draw on each other's power, either deliberately, automatically if there is an imbalance (slowly)<ref name=":1"/> or if the familiar's mortal form is killed (quickly).

Their selves will intermingle somewhat, which may cause traits to bleed over.<ref name=":0" />

Binary Others, essentially those that are part of a 'set' though distinct individuals, will get pulled into the ritual.<ref>Others of a Specific Line
[...] An example of this may be the Komainu, or the ‘stone lion’, a mass-manufactured guardian Other who protects and karmically benefits households.  Most are similar, though they may vary in size and shape, and a male Komainu will have a similar personality to another male Komainu.

[...]

Anti-Establishment Others
[...]
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. - Excerpt from Famulus, quoted in Bonus Material: Famulus Text</ref><ref>“Some familiars pair up naturally.  If you get a tweedle dee and a tweedle dum, you’ll get the set, because they’re linked.  Same for a Black Jack and Lily White.” - Excerpt from Gone Ahead 7.7</ref>

On the Practitioner

The Practitioner may gain some skills and abilities from the familiar.<ref name=":2"/> They often find they age more easily, if not necessarily more slowly, and may pick up other Other traits depending on the familiar.<ref name=":1"/>

As a lifelong choice, they can never choose another Familiar,<ref name=":2"/> and some variant Familiars (see below) may close off other options as well.

On the Other

Most Others will gain an animal form they can transform into, although this is not universal.<ref name=":1">“A bond to an Other. Lifelong, inviolable. A connection is drawn between practitioner and familiar. This can be a controlling connection, picking a weak familiar and dominating it. For a long time, this was the only way things were done. It can be another kind of domineering relationship. Picking a familiar with no true mind of its own. Often, the familiar will be raised up, rounded out, until it is on a roughly even keel. An echo or ghost could develop a full personality, instead of being a stuttering replay of events. A vestige, or a broken shadow of an existence? It could patch itself up. What it pulls in is often consciously or unconsciously influenced by the practitioner, who has the power in the relationship.”
[...]
“Here we have what looks like a balanced relationship. Now, every type of familiar relationship has its benefits. A domineering one can turn the familiar into a target. The familiar can be made to absorb the hurt, harm, or part of a curse that the practitioner has to endure. They are, when beneficial, one and the same, for purposes of the power they have at their disposal, but the domineering practitioner retains control.”
[...]
“With the more equal bond, the pairing can exchange power. Talia could give Effy a bit of her humanity as a boost, or personal power, to help her heal, or dig up that bit of extra strength. That flow can work the other way. Effy could give Talia some of her power as a doll, with that emphasis on blood, guts, and dollness. If Effy gave Talia a lot of her personal power, let’s say half… what happens over the next day, or week?”

Some people raised hands.

“Jarvis.”

“It balances out?”

“The power finds its balance. Talia would naturally give Effy some of her power over time, until they were even. Then they would recover together. Eating well, sleeping well, and taking care of needs as human or Other help that recovery. Can Effy become an animal?”

Talia shook her head.

“The partnership of master and familiar is often a reprieve for the Other. Temporary freedom from needs, demands, work, or anything else. If Effy required a regular supply of blood and oil, as some dolls do-”

“I don’t.”

“But if you did, Effy, then you wouldn’t require it while you’re a familiar. You get your sustenance from your master or partner. If you had a lifespan, it would be put on pause. Of course, needier others have a heavier drain on their master.”

Effy nodded.

“Humans still age, at roughly the same rate, but they often find they age easier while they have a familiar. They may also find that they are more Other, in subtle ways. The edges are rounded off in the need for sleep and food. Some Others are better at that than others.”

He hit a button. The air was filled with monstrous silhouettes and corresponding animals.

“The animal form is mortality. For many Others, it’s a strong enticement. To have a heartbeat. To have warmth, the ability to taste food, and the ability to engage with the world. An Other in animal form can, unless especially wild, go without too much remark in civilized society. A dog can be walked, a mouse or snake kept in a sleeve, and a bird can fly overhead.”

Avery watched as Jorja’s familiar, which had been the floaty guy with the backwards baseball cap, now a terrier, followed the movement of birds through the air.

“There is a third type of practitioner-familiar bond. Not the master, not the partner, but the subservient. Frankly, if you want to pick a familiar that’s much stronger than you, the Blue Heron Institute can counsel you, but we’ll be doing it with a mind to discouraging you and making sure you’re fully equipped with the necessary information. We would be dealing with the familiar as an Other, and you as its slave or servant, and we have no interest in doing that.” - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.7</ref> This experience of mortality can be very attractive.<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":2"/> If the Other is incomplete in some way, the Practitioner's Self will help shore them up and fill them out, the Other will be freed from their usual needs, not needing to feed, sleep, or even age/decay in some cases,<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":2"/> much like a Hallow (in fact the animal body of a familiar can be considered a Hallow.)

Social Role

Many Practitioner families will carefully choose and negotiate with familiars for their children.<ref name=":2">“There’s a ritual that you can enact, that ties you to an Other. It will give you some talents or skills, and in exchange, you give it a taste of mortality. As Alpeana alludes, it can be a break from their standard responsibilities or the demands they have for certain foods. A vampire, for example, would not need to drink blood. [...] The Seal of Solomon was far harsher to them than it was to most. Practitioners who want to extend their power and raise their status will often pick a Familiar. Some families will have their children take a familiar early, to establish a firm bond with one kind of Other. The Familiar grants power, awareness, and some extra innate ability, depending on what it is. Powerful or insidious familiars may overwhelm you through that connection that is formed, so be wary. Know your strength.”

“And in exchange, they become mortal? They don’t have to eat?” Lucy asked.

“Alpeana would not need to work. An Other in the process of falling apart, such as the Girl by Candlelight, who became the Edith you now know, might be shored up. An option they could not take, because the Doom Matthew now houses would have destroyed them both. Faerie might seek it out to enrich their understanding of human experience. A goblin would be free to be active for more than a few hours at a stretch, when they normally sleep for twenty or so hours every day, and they would have easy passage over places with power and running water.”

“Sounds great,” Avery said. “Aside from the risk of getting too big a familiar, why wouldn’t we do this? Why wait?”

“Because it is a lifelong commitment. The Other would be with you until you died. You would want to be sure he or she was committed to the responsibility, that he or she was compatible with you. Families that choose familiars for their children will pick suitable and safe ones, negotiating well in advance, if they don’t simply expect their child to adapt.” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.6</ref>

Variations

It is possible, though uncommon, for an Other to be used as both Familiar and Implement or Demesne.

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.

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?"
[...]
“Does having a soul companion block having a familiar?” Verona asked.

“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.” - 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.

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.

[...]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.

[...]

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.

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:

When one suffers, so does the other.

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: Famulus Text</ref>

Notable Familiars & Their Masters

Related Books

Chronology

Antecedents

Long, long ago, boon companions like those granted by the Forest Ribbon Trail preceded familiar relationships. A significant journey, rather than a ritual, creating the link.<ref name=":3">“Lovely,” Mrs. Durocher said.  “We have so many this year.  This spirit isn’t a familiar, is it?”

“A boon companion,” Avery said.  “I was under the impression they were similar.  At least based on what little I’ve heard of familiars.”

“They are.  In old, old days, they preceded familiar relationships.  Bonds forged not with a ritual, but a journey of necessity,” Mrs. Durocher said. - Excerpt from Leaving a Mark 4.4</ref> Powerful Others serving as domineering patrons, as with Wild Practitioners, also served as proto-familiar relationships; as did more aggressive long-term bonds where the Other subverted, attacked, or possessed the human trying to deal with them.<ref name=":4">Tyranny on the part of the practitioner, who holds the power and controls their other half.  The familiar may be feeble, chosen for that reason, but its power is not 

the goal.  This is the old way, but not the oldest, exactly.  Discussed
further in chapter two.


[...]

Subverted practitioner-familiar relationships are ones where the familiar controls the relationship.  The result of choosing a motivated Other with a great deal of power, the subverted relationship is, essentially, the end of the practitioner’s free life, and any freedom they are granted is at the Other’s whim.  The benefit, if it can be called that, is to have more power at one’s fingertips, but such power isn’t even necessarily at the practitioner’s disposal.  This relationship defined the pre-Famulus era.  Touched on in the next chapter.
[...]

For much of human history, the benefits that Aloysius and Walter now enjoy were not possible, and most relationships between practitioner and Other were patronage, with the Other handing out limited power at a disproportionate cost, or subverted bonds, where the Other tied themselves to the practitioner in what was ultimately a parasitic or domineering role.

Parallels can be drawn to possession, where there is a link, albeit a very short one, and the Other occupies the body of a practitioner, an aware, or an innocent.  This was the closest convention, and many deals with Others were seen as doomed ones.  The earliest relationships were made between strong practitioners and the weakest Others, and served to insulate the practitioner against the possibility of being strongarmed into other deals.

As civilization sprawled and the most dangerous Others were dealt with, the nature of a master-familiar relationship took comfortable hold, and other possibilities arose, such as the parallel arrangement, or the careful proportionate dynamic.  These would often happen out of necessity, knowledge was handed down, and they saw more common use. - Excerpt from Famulus, quoted in Bonus Material: Famulus Text</ref><ref name=":6" />

Origins

According to Famulus, the first examples of the Famuliar ritual post-date the Seal of Solomon, in a period where Others were viewed as lower than animals, who were below humans, who were below God.<ref name=":5">In old traditions, in the post-Solomon reformations, God was arranged above king, who was arranged above lord, above man, who ruled over animal, who were declared above Other.  We know this redefinition of the anno Domini provenance was in part an effort to redefine the realm of man and mark out borders on a cultural and linguistic front.  Put in simpler words, mankind, in order to both survive and thrive, declared a new order of things and placed Other at the lowest point.  The familiar relationship originated in an era where this was the common mindset among men both practitioner and innocent, and the traditions established then include the translation of Other to the nearest step in the chain, in what was often viewed as ‘raising them up’ to be animals, close but still subservient to man.  In this, the tradition of giving them mortality through animal forms was established early on. - Excerpt from Famulus, quoted in Bonus Material: Famulus Text</ref> Others were seen as dangerous, and the first Familiar bargains were only struck with the least of them, who could be safely controlled.<ref name=":4" /> However an alternate perspective claims that Familiar bargains were first conceived of by Others as a way to have an equitable relationship with humans, possibly pre-Solomon, and were subverted by humans as a tool of domination.<ref>“To try to formalize deals. To hitch their wagons to that of humanity, by striking deals that would establish them as Patrons. They teach their secret knowledge and ways of manipulating the world, in exchange for servitude… until mankind begins sharing that knowledge in ways few Others can stay ahead of, on paper and in tomes. Knowledge, instead of being taught from patron Other to Practitioner, becomes something kept in families. Others try to formalize a kind of equality, such as the familiar bond, and to make firm agreements about oaths, lies, and declarations, out of fear of being tricked again. But these things become their own weapon that humans wield. Humans sprawl, they work with concerted effort, and they establish and mutate patterns. [...] The Seal of Solomon, as it exists now, was essentially intended as one last concession. Or it was meant to be the last. A binding that would not be mutated further, that would be universal enough that it could be trusted by the Other, instead of having hooks and more traps attached to it. And as part of it, there was a deal that practitioners would manage the affairs of Others but select, powerful Others would have some say over the movements and dealings of Practitioners. Lords and judges. Roles above all other things.” - Excerpt from Back Away 5.d</ref>

Traditional Familiar bonds were domineering, with the Other firmly in the subordinate role to the Practitioner. However they have grown much more varied over time.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":4" />

Modern Era

Over the 19th and 20th centuries, interest soared in carefully chosen complementary Familiar bargains, with both Other and Practitioner covering for each other's weaknesses. Originally a product of desperation, these came to be seen by many as the most admirable type.<ref>Parallel relationships are somewhere between proportionate and casual, and strike their balance by having practitioner and Other as opposites or as matched roles, where each has their field of dominion.  A learned practitioner who is poor in a fight may choose an Other that is aggressive and comfortable with killing, or a practitioner comfortable with industry and the urban may choose a familiar of the natural world.  Both can grow with some confidence they will not occlude the other, both gain some familiarity with the other’s ‘world’, and they may cover one another’s weaknesses.  As a drawback, however, translations of power are rarely easy, and even drawing on one another’s power may be costly.  Careful selection of Other is critical, for reasons that should be obvious.  Originally a result of necessity, looked down on by some, the parallel relationship has seen a surge of interest since the early 1800s, redoubled in the mid 1900s, and in many circles today, the selection of an especially good match may be something of a status symbol.  Touched on in chapter four. - Excerpt from Famulus, quoted in Bonus Material: Famulus Text</ref>

Around the late 2010s it became increasingly common for young practitioners to choose Others that they were friendly with as Familiars, rather than focusing on practical considerations. Many viewed this as dangerous, however.<ref>Casual practitioner-familiar relationships are dangerous to the point of irresponsibility, but have seen some growing popularity among young practitioners as of the writing of this (2018) edition. The familiar is chosen not for power or purpose, but for affinity with the practitioner. The benefit, of course, is that one enjoys an easy friend and bond. Do not undertake such a relationship with an Other thinking it may be easier or may allow one to ignore some of the warnings and restrictions. Just the opposite. If one does not mind the dangers and pitfalls, the Other will, oft to one’s detriment. - Excerpt from Famulus, quoted in Bonus Material: Famulus Text</ref>

References

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