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The Drifters Commonwealth
The Drifters are a nomadic people based on peripateticism. They move from place to place based on their industrialism, abilities and needs (depletion of resources, need for new trade partners, acquisition of new knowledge and/or technology, etc.)
Society is structured as a three-level hierarchy. The Confederacy of clans is known as the "Drifters Commonwealth" — with the clans themselves as a self-governed community, and the family as the nuclear societal device where most of the activity is developed. The Confederacy itself functions mainly as a defensive pact or alliance, and does not establish the policy of day to day life.
The Drifter Clans are huge groups of nomads with perceived kinship. Kinship is formed in terms of philosophical views (the communitarian objectives/vision of that clan) and in terms of a common skillset (most times clans function almost like a guild of a paticular skill or trade). Clan politics revolve around a female ruling class. The matriarchs of chieftains settle for longer periods of time and most of the administrative structure of the clan revolves around them. Most of these positions are occupied by females pertaining to the matriarch family. Clans act and drift on their own but, as long as the Commonwealth existed, clans have had a tendency to stay close to one another. As such, the Drifters as a species tends to move as a whole, little by little as the clans move to expand and contract the frontiers of their zones of action.
Finally, the families are groups of true genetic kinship among a clan. Families tend to function as a specialised corp inside a clan (e.g. biochemists, mercenaries, rocket scientists, etc.) Families apply their own form of governance enforced by the matriarchs. The matriarchs organise education, work, marriage and important aspects of individuals' life inside a family. In truth, families tend to function as a corporation that tries to maximise resources in terms of knowledge, technology and income. In order to maximise those resources, the males of the family pollinate other families and clans in a pilgrimage for knowledge.
This pilgrimage tends to include the bonding and engagement to multiple females of multiple families and clans. These bonds serve as de facto alliances that enact trade and science agreements among families and clans. Managing these unions is a huge logistics endeavor, as males attain certain obligations with their wives. This is the main reason the middle-aged male population is even more mobile and nomadic than the whole of the Drifters.
The Drifters are a peaceful people. Their main goal in life is that of "fluidity." Fluidity is understood as the inherent desire for knowledge and self-actualization. The fluid way of life is the main precept of the Drifters set of beliefs. They do not have a religion per se. But they believe in an afterlife that takes advantage of all acquired knowledge and all the connections a Drifter has generated during their lifespan. In their belief, an individuals' afterlife can only be as complete and as rich as they "know" it can be. Their main belief can be summarized as "moving is knowing and knowing is living."
Last modified 10mo ago