| CHILD-REARING IN ALL ELFIN |
| Bonded couples will sometimes undertake to raise a child themselves, particularly if they are reaching the age where fertility is becoming questionable and it is likely to be the last child that couple will have. While Lords and Ladies are the only fertile Elfin, most of their offspring are infertile. As those children cannot aspire to Lord or Ladyhood, it is better that they be raised by others. Although when they mature, children often seek a closer relationship with one or both parents, no one thinks anything against an infertile Elfin who remains unknowing of his/her heritage or genealogy. Fertility of the child is ascertainable at birth and the subsequent rearing of that child takes this knowledge into account. Future Lords and Ladies must have an extensive knowledge of All Elfin, its history, its topography, its makeup both physical and cultural, their own genealogies. Such children are raised with somewhat less freedom than an infertile Elfin. They must wait until maturity before exploring their personal gifts and talents. The infertile children are shown all the wonders of All Elfin, how to care for it and all its inhabitants. As they grow, special care is taken to ascertain each child's particular gifts and talents and these are encouraged. Elfin come to the Isle to teach their expertise and the children who share their interest flock to learn. As the Elfin equivalent of puberty approaches, the changes wrought by it in the infertile are merely the acceleration of physical growth, mature height being reached within a decade of its onset. Because these Elfin will never bear young, their sexuality, while present, never approaches the passionate intensity of the Lords and ladies. As they have never known it, they do not miss it. Indeed, we do not know if they are even aware that such desires can exist outside of the female's Season. Certainly it is not something discussed where the impressionable young may overhear. But the Future Lords and Ladies have a very different path commencing at this time. They are immediately removed from the Isle of Infants and brought to the City of Youth, Arrann Athol. There they are taught the requisite customs and rituals which bind the fertile Elfin. Ours is the responsibility not only of insuring the future of our people, but also of securing the present. Lords and Ladies have duties far beyond that of fertility. These must be taught. And so they are. When the young Elfin is deemed sufficiently mature in his/her cognizance, all strictures are removed and he/she may seek out a place in All Elfin to establish there a home and life of their own. |
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