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Clan Chatterweb / Giftake sibkos expected to excel?
« Last post by Alan Grant on Today at 05:52:40 »I have several stories from the BattleCorps site and I was rereading one of them, "Seeds of Loyalty" by Philip Lee.
Without giving too much away, it is about a Clan Cloud Cobra Star Colonel and his Coyote bondsman circa 2954. The story got incorporated into the fluff on the Pella ASF in TRO: Golden Century.
Right after the former Coyote pilot was captured, he is presented to the Star Colonel Samson Izumi, Samson is clearly sizing up the bondsman Tomas Masino and says:
"Your codex says you were bred from a giftake sample from Star Colonel Alejandra Masino, killed in action during a minor territorial dispute here on Homer in 2926," Samson said, letting the idea hang in the air. Giftake sibkos were always expected to excel, even if they came from lesser bloodlines.
The statement is sort of a jab at the new bondsman intended to get a defensive response and reveal more of the bondsman's personality. He's already thinking about how best to integrate the bondsman into the Cobras.
What interests me is this idea of giftake sibkos being expected to excel. I can't recall ever seeing that anywhere else before. I'm wondering if that has been presented before, in novels or sourcebooks.
It's an interesting thought to me, because honestly, I've never understood the giftake thing. The Clan has the genetic profile, and presumably genetic samples, of their trueborn warriors. The giftake never seemed to have a point. I long ago assumed that collecting a giftake and taking it to a genetic repository or blood chapel was more like a funeral/memorial ritual and tradition with little to no practical value.
This seems to differ from that. This portrayal of that concept would suggest to the Clans it does have a practical value.
Yet it still also has an air of superstition. After all, a genetic sample is just a genetic sample. I feel like what is being implied here is that the DNA collected just after a successful warrior died is somehow superior to that older sample of DNA.
Thoughts on this? Has it ever been presented this way anywhere else when the topic of giftakes has come up?
Without giving too much away, it is about a Clan Cloud Cobra Star Colonel and his Coyote bondsman circa 2954. The story got incorporated into the fluff on the Pella ASF in TRO: Golden Century.
Right after the former Coyote pilot was captured, he is presented to the Star Colonel Samson Izumi, Samson is clearly sizing up the bondsman Tomas Masino and says:
"Your codex says you were bred from a giftake sample from Star Colonel Alejandra Masino, killed in action during a minor territorial dispute here on Homer in 2926," Samson said, letting the idea hang in the air. Giftake sibkos were always expected to excel, even if they came from lesser bloodlines.
The statement is sort of a jab at the new bondsman intended to get a defensive response and reveal more of the bondsman's personality. He's already thinking about how best to integrate the bondsman into the Cobras.
What interests me is this idea of giftake sibkos being expected to excel. I can't recall ever seeing that anywhere else before. I'm wondering if that has been presented before, in novels or sourcebooks.
It's an interesting thought to me, because honestly, I've never understood the giftake thing. The Clan has the genetic profile, and presumably genetic samples, of their trueborn warriors. The giftake never seemed to have a point. I long ago assumed that collecting a giftake and taking it to a genetic repository or blood chapel was more like a funeral/memorial ritual and tradition with little to no practical value.
This seems to differ from that. This portrayal of that concept would suggest to the Clans it does have a practical value.
Yet it still also has an air of superstition. After all, a genetic sample is just a genetic sample. I feel like what is being implied here is that the DNA collected just after a successful warrior died is somehow superior to that older sample of DNA.
Thoughts on this? Has it ever been presented this way anywhere else when the topic of giftakes has come up?
