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.
• In discourse: some speakers use “Lineage” as shorthand for a cluster of beliefs about inherited outlooks and property; people who emphasize it have been heard to accuse the Edharian Order of a particular mentality. Speakers credit discussions by a fraa named Criscan as a source for such “Lineage” talk; claims and definitions remain imprecise in reported conversations.
• Capitalized form: some speakers say “the Lineage” to refer to a rumored, very old tradition connected with the Teglon and the Orithena heritage—see The Lineage. Others explicitly avoid such talk as conspiratorial “crazy talk,” even when the Orithena excavation is under discussion.