Lineage

Lineage has two attested senses.

  • Extramuros: a line of hereditary descent.
  • Intramuros (mathic usage, historical): a chronological sequence of avout who acquired and held property beyond the bolt, chord, and sphere, conferring those holdings upon a chosen heir at death.

First Appearance and Context

A Dictionary entry explains both senses and notes that some lineages were said to accumulate significant wealth, with references to dowments and storerooms.

Perception and Iconography

Stories of wealth attached to certain lineages—whether true or rumored—helped fuel the Baudan Iconography, a hostile caricature in which avout are portrayed as living in comfort at others’ expense.

Historical Status and Reforms

As part of the reorganization that followed the Third Sack, lineages within the maths were eliminated. Later accounts also mention that rumored hoards associated with some lineages had been discovered and emptied during that upheaval.

Examples and Notes

  • Shuf’s Lineage is a named example connected to the ruin called Shuf’s Dowment; later avout noted a warren of old cellars there and a small sub‑basement once rumored to hold treasure, but no hoard was found. See Shuf’s Lineage for details.
  • After the sacking and reforms, members of the Reformed Old Faanians quietly used the above‑ground rooms at Shuf’s Dowment as a retreat while leaving most of the old cellars alone.

Current Usage

  • Extramuros: the everyday genealogical sense remains current.
  • Intramuros: the institutional practice of hereditary property chains among avout is defunct under post‑Sack reforms.
Summary:

In extramuros usage, lineage means hereditary descent; in the mathic world it once referred to a chain of avout who inherited property beyond the standard kit, a practice later abolished after the Third Sack. Rumors of such wealth fed outsider portrayals of avout as living in undue comfort.

Known as:
LineageLineages