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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 3708890" data-attributes="member: 13966">There is no respectful way to refer to a Clanner as old. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />   Any reminder/inference that they are old is insulting because they hate getting old; their chances of finding an honorable death, personal glory, or any other chance to earn a Bloodname and pass on their genetic legacy diminish terribly when they get old.Gender does not matter in Clan society, at least among the Warrior Caste.  Sibkos typically have an equal number of women and men, or at least similar numbers of them.Clan Warriors are mostly TrueBorns, genetically engineered from genetic samples kept by the Scientist Caste.  TrueBorns are created and raised in vats they call iron wombs.Once they have matured to a certain degree (something like 5 or 10 years of age in equivalence, I do not know or remember the exact amount), they are decanted, taken out of the iron wombs for training.  The maturation process in the vats is accelerated, and the TrueBorns receive some kind of virtual training or knowledge-encoding I think before being decanted.  I do not remember anything more specific about it.Most cadets in the sibko die off in training or get transferred to lesser Castes, eliminated for sub-par performance or displaying emotions, attachments, or other behaviors, that are undesirable in Clan Warriors.  They receive lots of general training beforehand, and are required to understand a little bit of material that would only be important to Technicians, Scientists, Merchants, or Laborers.  This helps gauge what Caste they would be better suited to, according to their trainers, if the youths do not seem fit for completion of Warrior training.So only a few cadets usually get to attempt the Trial of Position, around the time of their middle or late teenage years I think (apparent age; they are of course a few years younger due to the iron wombs' acceleration of growth).  Warriors are considered old once they reach their thirties or fourties, and often forced to retire to a garrison unit, unless their performance is still great.The sibko training basically teaches cadets only minimal trust and teamwork, and rewards personal ambition.  They learn to treat relationships pretty casually; personal glory and ambition is generally more important.  TrueBorns look down on FreeBorns (naturally-born humans) severely, and find the very ideas of parenthood, pregnancy, and birth as disgusting.  B@st@rd is possibly the worst insult/epithet a Clansman can utter because of all its implications.  FreeBirth is only mildly less insulting a phrase.TrueBorn women receive some kind of anti-conception implants or injections every so often that render them sterile or somesuch for a while, so they cannot bear children (unless they fail in their Warrior training, or suffer a terrible dishonor later on, that gets them bumped down to a lower Caste, after which point they won't receive any further treatments from the Scientist Caste to remain infertile).  'Coupling' is the Clan term for mating, but without the connotations of 'mating', due to the infertility maintained among Warriors.  Clanners have a far more casual view on coupling than Spheroids, and just consider it similar to recreational activities.  As long as it does not actually produce offspring.Only a few FreeBorns manage to get a chance at Warrior training and a Trial of Position (and they generally get really poor odds and treatment even then; they are more likely than a TrueBorn to die in their Trial).  FreeBorns are usually limited to separate FreeBorn cadres and units, and tend to serve as garrisons or fodder, the same as old semi-retired TrueBorn Warriors who did not get a glorious death in battle (such Warriors are called Solahma).</blockquote>

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