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This is a brief extract from “The Book of Member Species”, by Strullian Anthropologist* Hurgfilia Marchfawl, translated to English for human readers.
Note this is not a full anthropological* study, but a mere brief summary of how marriage within preeacsil kinship works.
Preeacsil have several marriages throughout their lifetime. They marry for breeding, using genetic guidelines to guarantee exceptional offspring.
They spend many years in each coupling, until such time as the offspring, usually born over a five to ten year period, are ready to move into society unaided.
At that time, they separate amicably and move to their next coupling at the first opportunity. The breed cycle repeats like this several times, until the Preeacsil are granted senior citizenry, which simply indicates they have made their genetic contribution, and has no implication of old age.
Once they achieve this senior citizenship, they are permitted to marry one last time, this time for love. They often will have shared a home with this love match for decades, resulting in massive extended families living on sprawling estates, as one Preeacsil male may be sharing his bed with his current breeding wife, and the home with their children, as well as with his love match and her breeding husband, along with their children. Frequently the adult offspring of previous couplings may also be living in the home, along with their own breeding spouses, and even in some circumstances that first male’s past breeding wives with their current families.
It has been recorded for as many as fifty such couples to reside in one family estate, which as you can imagine gets confusing for this observer. The Preeacsil are a peculiarly social species, perhaps due to the cold winters they endured prior to technological advancement, their fur generating remarkable warmth when those primitive members of the species crowded together at times of rest.
When breeding, Preeacsil assign a new surname to each generation, comprised of the starting sound of the father’s surname, the starting sound of the mother’s surname, and the number of the mating on the father’s side. As an example, with a father named Furlo, and a mother named Eroth, you get F followed by er. if it was the fifth mating for Mr Furlo, then you add the preeacsil number five, Zi. So all offspring of that union take the surname Ferzi. In addressing a Preeacsil, you must at all times refer to them by their full name. It is an effrontery to do otherwise, as it implies lack of breeding. A single name is always assumed a first name, thus lacking a surname. This implies a lack of proper breeding, which is taboo. So if our hypothetical Ferzi child was called Groo, you must never refer to him or her as anything other than Groo Ferzi.
*For the purpose of translation, this editor allows Anthropology as a reference in absence of any similar English language word that does not reference humanity directly in its root meaning.
*Editors note, Haark Junli, therefore, takes the J from his father, one Frol Jargo, the un from his mother, one Hest Unca, and the li from the fact his birth was a product of Frol Jargo’s third mating.