Culture
The social structures presented in the following discussion are not common to all ronite subraces. The social structures can vary considerably, between the subraces and even between organisations within a subrace.
Prides
The pride is a social structure peculiar to smalleons and xorg, and goes back to paleolithic days when these two species co-operated in a hunt-group. The lack of a pride structure in grey society has often been a point of contention. Greys have, at times, been jealous and suspicious of it, rather than regarding in the light that it probably should have been: simply necessary. Both xorg and smalleons are argumentative, bad tempered, and occasionally callous. Both species spend considerable time controlling their impulses for murder and mayhem, and the pride structure is instrumental in this. It galvanises the group around common pursuits, which is often research, craftsmanship, construction, and trade.
Adventuring groups that have either xorg or smalleon members should take the time to understand how prides work, because this is how xorg and smalleons will see the rest of their party.
The pride is generally at the root of all guids, trade houses, corporations, even departments within government. When greys join these sorts of entites, they are really joining a pride.
The Clans
The clan is the largest political unit within ronite culture. It has the most similarity with the idea of a tribe in human society. However, the size of the tribe in human society is limited by the ability for any member to remain familiar with all other members, whereas in ronite society it is not.
The removal of the associative limitation, means that clans often behave like nations in human society. However they differ in one very important respect: a ronite cannot choose their clan, in the same way that they cannot choose their family.
Clans have their own culture, traditions, and usually, their own language.
The Eukhalia
The following headings refer to the three major emergences of a peculiar structure in ronite civilisation. A popular misconception is the idea of a eukhalion being an agreement between clans, but this misses the most important element, which is an enabling spiritual alignment. It is also true that some eukhalia can consist of just one clan.
Moreover, a Eukhalion shares a collective unconsciousness, which is felt within each individual. This can be a powerful civilising force, but it can also be one of subjugation as the First Eukhalia demonstrated. When ronites say that no one really dies, they are referring to the part of themselves that is the eukhalion to which they belong. Unlike humans, who see themselves looking out through their eyes in a skull, ronites see their bodies as avatars, and themselves within a collective.
Eukhalia can be small, such as consisting of a single tribe and their ancestors, but Eukhalions have a tendancy to merge (up to a point), such that the Xanniac Eukhalion, the largest that has ever existed, consists of 80 trillion living individuals and a similar number of dead ones.
The three punctuations in ronite history, being the First, Second and Third Eukhalia, are periods where vast eukhalion-based civilisations evolved. The names of the eras don’t suggest that these were the only eukhalions. They were, however periods of stability where a few, very large Eukhalia dominated the culture.
The Guffs
Eukhalia never end, however, when there cease to have any living members, they become a well of souls or a guff. Psions of all sophontia can detect these guffs, and non-ronite psions can mistake them for gods, but ronites are particularly sensitive to them.
Guffs do not inhabit the corporeal, rather they lie mostly in the ethereal. They can impinge, in certain ways, in all realities. As they lie mostly in the ethereal, they’re influence in the corporeal can be surprisingly widespread and be attached to certain people, places and things.
Although there are billions of guffs, the five that dominate are the two First Eukhalia guffs of Xi’nsu and Thys’s, and the three Second Eukhalia guffs of Xoth, Kiramaxoon, and Enarkhiratahn.
These guffs have a practical use in interstellar travel as certain psions can contact navigators from them, who seem willing to inhabit the psion for the process.
The guffs can also attract modern living adherents. Although none have attracted sufficient living followers to become a eukhalion again, it is theoretically possible. For now, it is mostly the province of ronite cults. There are certain grey ronites that follow one of the early guffs (either Xi’nsu and Thys’s) or another more obscure, for nostalgic reasons, reliving the glory days of grey supremacy. Most grey societies ban this practice and leave these guffs well alone.