- See Rat Among Falcons for this told in narrative
- About 80 years ago. There are a few people alive that saw this happen, but not many.
- Disaster on Neptune Gas Harvesting Rig ended up with a whole lot of people who were going to die.
- Trying to harvest gasses from Neptune or Saturn. Built a huge gas collection rig that sat in low atmosphere. Lots of science folks lots of engineering folks. But something happened. Gases exploded, the rig was destroyed. Not enough money or resources to rebuild for a while. So they tried to come home.
- Earth governments said sorry, you’re on your own.
- Volunteer fleet from earth rescued them
- Got turned away from Earth b/c bringing in a group would end up depleting resources, mess up balance of power, start a war. So they weren’t overtly rejected, but it was made really clear that them coming back would inevitably start a world war
- The rescuers took ships w/out permission, broke the law to do it, one of the conditions of being taken back into Earth was that the pilots/organizers were turned over as criminals
- Refugees rejected this because they saved their damn lives.
- Belt offered space, but didn’t have anywhere big enough to take them all, would have had to break up into smaller groups. They were already so close-knit (from the place they were before disaster) that this wasn’t acceptable.
- Lots of ship re-fitting
- River Rook, Remy Rook, Old Rook, Rook the Crook, or just Rook
- a mythical trickster figure among Peregrination folklore. They command or represent the interest of the knockers, who are said to inhabit the unused parts of Peregrination ships.
- "Never make a deal with Rook." is a saying among Peregrinationals, describing that deals made with bad actors result in unexpected and unwanted consequences.
- The Family uses a familial name system not unlike the modern Icelandic Patro/Matronymic system, but with a broader, more generalized application. What this means is that any member of the Peregrination will have their Given Name (aka first name) which is static and, in lieu of a surname, will use a relative's given name with some suffix to delineate the relationship.
- Usually you put an ‘s’ in between to denote the possessive, but can be left out for stylistic reasons.
- -son, -dottir, -child : Used by children with a parent’s name.
- -kin : Used with a sibling, cousin, nibling, aunt/uncle’s name.
- For members of the family, ALL of these names are true, and they just tend to use one or another depending on context or as a form of communication. Example: a child growing up on a ship will be commonly referred to as [Mother’s name]son in their youth, but if being introduced to their sister’s friends would be referred to as [Sister’s name]skin.
- So what family name you're using can decently frequently, but each individual does have a default they use most of the time. Captain Yuri Arturoskin, as an example, uses his uncle Arturo's name, because Arturo is the previous captain of the ship, and Yuri is highlighting his legacy as both a way to pay respect, and to say "look, my family has been doing this forever".
- There are two mechanisms for changing one’s given/first name in the Family.
- An informal “living” change wherein one just starts using a new name, but acknowledges and will still answer to a connection to the old name. This doesn’t require any paperwork or outside consent. One just starts using another name.
- A formal “separated” change wherein one announces the change and breaks all ties to their former name.Originally created for adoptees, it has in the last few decades been used by native born family members as well. Causes the old name to be stricken from family records. Notably this breaks current family relationships, although people can readopt each other under the new name if they choose. Requires the agreement of one’s captain most of the time, but can be self-declared at Things and All-Things.
- Ships names are sentences and phrases. Wary but hopeful at their core (try to never re-use the first word):
- Names used in canon:
- Forge Sorrow Into Joy
- Do It Yourself (previous name)
- The Light You Carry In Your Heart (older)
- Huddle Close for Warmth and Safety
- Brave the Darkness To Conquer It
- Look To The Stars And Find Hope
- Endure Above All
- Fly High And Far
- Grow Something Beautiful
- Hold Tight To Those You Love (from Will There be any Freighters in Heaven)
- Call and Answer
- Carry a Light That Casts No Shadow
- Pass Unnoticed In Unsafe Space
- Unused Ship Names
- Forgive but Never Forget
- Spin Yarns into Myths
- Hallow The Ground For Those Who Follow
- Find Your Place, Your Name, Your Family
- Warmth Of a Good Meal (older)
- Stand Tall and Be Proud
- Beware The Wolves In The Dark
- Keep Your Hatches Battened
- Watch the Dark
- Grieve For Those Who Fell Before
- Reach for the Lost to Bring them Home
- Shoulder Your Burdens Together
- Hearthships
- Hearthships are where the largest number of Peregrination family members live. They avoid ports and spend long stretches in deep space, mining asteroids, salvaging, manufacturing, and acting as farms. They tend to have much larger crews than free traders and carry far more people than ulko ships would. (1,000 people aboard is a large hearthship but would be unheard of outside of the peregrination). Most of the native born members of the family come from hearthships and they tend to be more isolationist and paranoid than Free Traders.
- Free Traders
- The outward facing members of the Peregrination. They openly follow trade routes and docker regularly in ulko ports, making their way by hauling bulk freight. They dock with Hearthships to trade materials and goods, allowing resources to flow in and out of the Peregrination as a whole. Their crews are larger than ulko ships, with numbers as many as 200 per ship. Ludicrous by belter standards. Free Traders represent a smaller portion of the total population, but a large number of ships (notable in political representation, see All-Thing Council of Captains)
- Commonalities.
- All Peregrination ships are repurposed vessels, originally intended for another purpose. They are heavily refitted and modified, usually in far from ideal circumstances and their systems have become very complex and interconnected over time. This allows for an extraordinary amount of redundancy and resiliency, but also a lot of person-hours to maintain at peak efficiency.
- Peregrination ships, as of the last ten years or so, have become well armed by civilian standards, as a response to a history of being the target of pirates. With access to unlocked fabbers and a skill in refitting ships on the fly, the Peregrination have managed to outfit their whole fleet to a level that would threaten the belters, if they knew about it. The Inner Militaries are still much better armed though.
- Government
- Each ship is technically sovereign to themselves with the Captain as their leader. Internal command structures of ships can vary widely. There is no permanent overarching governing body.
- All Family members are subject to Family Law, aka “The Law We Carry With Us”. These are a set of edicts decided by the Family captains and updated and ratified at each All-Thing.
- The Council of Captains - A dozen or so of attending Captains review and proposed law changes and decide whether to take it to the Family at large. If they do, all attending captains (some holding proxies for those who are not there) vote Yes or No on the change.
- Currently known edicts:
- Until the events of The Real Thing, no Peregrination ships were allowed into any Inner worlds, anything Mars or sunward.
- Anyone engaging in piracy can be executed without trial.
- Edicts that haven’t been said but we can expect:
- All the usual “no murder” and “no robbery” stuff most law systems have.
- There is a mechanism to remove a Captain from command of their ship at the behest of the crew. Details unknown.
- Transferring between ships at Things and All-Things is a right.
Calendar
- Divorced from a planetary body, the Peregrination “year” is 500 days, called a “quint”. Although a lot of Free Traders (especially adoptees) will still use Terran months and years. At the turnover of quint, an All-Thing is held.
- Things and All-Things
- Periodically, two or more Peregrination ships gather in a small group for a few days. They transfer material and socialize. This is a rather informa event, but they are planned ahead of time. Ships with lots of familial connections between their crews will arrange to meet often for Things.
- Every 500 days. As many Peregrination ships as can gather in one location to hold an All-Thing. Usually at a smaller to mid-sized station, moon, or asteroid, this can be like a mid sized city springing up overnight. Several important things happen at All-Things
- Paanch Sau Parties - All weddings, births, and adoptions on a ship for the last 500 days are celebrated in a single all day event. Sometimes ships will hold their parties in concert, but at any All-Thing there are dozens going on all at the same time. Exact celebrations differ from ship to ship, but food, music, and dancing are common.
- The Reading of the Dead - A multiday funerary event. The names of all the Family dead are read out in order, starting with those lost in the Neptune Mining Disaster up to the present day. One ship each year hosts, and the readers take shifts to keep the reading going non stop until all have been read.
- Council of Captains - See Above
- Life events.
- Peregrination children stay with their parents as part of their home ship’s family until their mid-late teens.
- Sometime in their teens, they are transferred to another Family ship (usually one with close ties to their home ship) to learn the ropes of being a crew. Some ships even specialize in this sort of training.
- After some time on their second ship, they are expected to Wander for a while. Wandering is a bit like Peregrination rumspringa. Young adults are expected to move from ship to ship for a while, and even to travel out among the ulko. It’s thought that one must get some life experience and to acquire knowledge and skills they can bring back to the family fleet.
- Returning to the fleet, they are expected to choose a home ship, where they will spend a large part of their life as crew, until they are too old to work. Captains tend to retire to another ship to prevent undermining their replacement.
- Marriages and Adoptions
- Marriages and adoptions do not require any paperwork or the consent of anyone except the two people involved. Although they will be recorded and usually celebrated at the next All-Thing. For anyone not legally of adult age, marriages are not recognized. Formal adoption of a minor requires consent of the minor’s guardian or the ship’s captain
- Adoption is not always parent-child. People can be adopted as siblings, aunts/uncles, grandparents, cousins. (Press a Family member and they’ll admit that a marriage is sorta the same as you adopting each other as your spouses).
- Ulko minors can be adopted without anyone’s approval. This has caused a lot of problems for the Peregrination with the population at large, as they will be seen to have “stolen” children from settlements.
Exceptions
- The Settle For No Bitter Compromise is an isolationist cult ship, separated from the rest of the Peregrination about 20 years ago (as of s3). The hull, a refurbished prototype vessel that was intended to orbit Sol and use the sun's light to produce crops, resembles a hearthship in crew size, production, and time between dockings. Instead of meeting up with other Family ships, it trades at outer system ulko ports (by shuttle) as a free trader would. The few supplies that cannot be grown or produced by fabricators on the Settle are traded for, with fresh produce and bio-printed fertilizer.
- Recruiting/adoption: the Settle, on the small side for a hearthship at roughly 600 ablebodies, brings on crew sparingly. New crew are told they must remain aboard for 6 months before they can "decide to leave." If they choose to stay, they get a work assignment and a place in the community. Those who do not willingly stay get "sent on" (mulched.) This has happened a handful of times in the 20 years since the Settle's founding. Only the captain and a handful of senior crew know what really happens to those who get "sent on."
- Education: The young on the Settle all go through a generalized education before being assigned to a specialization based on aptitude data gathered throughout their previous years of schooling.
- Family tradition: The Settle does not attend Things or All-Things because the ship is technically stolen Family property, but they do use the quint in their calendar. The young people on the Settle do not Wander; they live their whole lives on the ship. No one aboard the Settle is permitted to contact those they left behind when the Settle was founded.
- Names: Those who joined the Settle at its launch use the surname "Settles___" in order to divest themselves of the family ties they left behind. The Settle's captain has the authority to bestow and revoke the surnames of her crew. When a new crew member joins, they are assigned the name of whoever brought them aboard.
- Recycling: As the Settle's ultimate goal is complete closed-system self-sustainability, all waste is meticulously repurposed and recycled, including human corpses (and live humans, on occasion.) The Settle has an industrial bioreprocessor big enough to break down large waste (people).