Jotuns

A Jotun woman in engineer's garb (credit below)

## Physiology

Jotuns are a large race with an appearance somewhere between a frog and a minotaur. Their skin is rubbery, like a toad's, and their eyes bulge outwards from their heads. Male Jotuns ("Bulls") often have horns, while female Jotuns ("Cows") usually do not. Jotuns of both genders are larger than most humans and are often described as "stout" and "hardy."

Jotuns naturally have a gender imbalance, with biological females only making up 25% of the population. They usually have one calf per birth. This gender imbalance has had a massive impact on the way Jotun societies have traditionally operated. There are a number of Jotuns who do not fall into traditional conceptions of gender, but such individuals are often discouraged by the conservative culture championed by House Helgema.

## Culture

### The Coterie Model

In the majority of Jotun cultures, including House Helgema's, society has been matriarchal. A single Jotun woman will be courted by several men, who then form her 'coterie' - protecting her and helping her advance through the social hierarchy. Often, only a few of these men will actually have biological children with her, but often they will be raised by other men in the coterie, or by the group as a whole. Generally, a Jotun woman's parenting will be focused primarily on her daughters. These daughters will one day lead their own coteries.

The most prestigious groups of coteries would eventually form into a noble House, holding large amounts of property and acting as a business entity or clan. Often, a coterie for a noblewoman will include not just genuine romantic prospects, but act as a "cabinet" of advisors and experts for a Jotun woman to cement her power. These men often gain significant power and privilege in their own right, competing with eachother to gain the favor of the coterie-mother.

### Adoptive Fatherhood/Mentorhood

For Jotun men, biological fatherhood isn't particularly important. Often, a young bull will be raised by another man within his coterie. These mentor-apprentice/father-son relationships can eventually turn into respected lineages, as a line of wisdom and specialization is passed down over generations. Many Jotun men will take the name of their mentor or their lineage (see Naming Conventions section) to emphasize this, and such courtiers have exerted serious control over the female leaders of their coterie.

### Male and Female Spheres

Most Jotun societies have been heavily divided based on gender. Men have historically served as laborers or soldiers, while women have served far more as political and business leaders. In the past, the language itself was even divided into "Womanspeak" and "Manspeak." Even today, they remain as different 'registers' based on formality and context (talking in a business meeting, one will use more historically Womanspeak words, while casual talk among men will often use metaphors derived from military language.)

Feminine virtues are heavily associated with good leadership, with emphasis placed on elegance, emotional intelligence, and intellect. Masculine virtues are associated much more with loyalty, strong work ethic, and love in service to another (their coterie, their mentor/apprentice, their comrades and lovers, etc.)

### The Military

For lower-class Jotun men unable to join a coterie, the military has always been seen as an alternative to female-dominated institutions. With very few women in the army, its culture actively venerates masculine virtues of brotherly love, mentorship, and tireless service.

The greatest symbol of the "ideal warrior-poet" is the legendary hero Eskeir, who, like Achilles, tragically lost his male lover in war. Homosexual relationships are, therefore, accepted and even venerated among soldiers.

Horns are heavily symbolic of Jotun masculinity. Each House's army was traditionally known as a Horn, with individual squadrons referred to as "Bands" (referring to the ancient practice of identifying one's squad by tying a colored ribbon to one's horns.) The removal of a horn was a way to humiliate captured soldiers or deserters.

Some of the high-ranking officers of the military are handpicked by prominent coteries in order to keep the military in line, but these men are usually derided as outsiders by the rank-and-file.

### Challenges To The Traditional Model

While matriarchy and variations on the 'coterie' model have been dominant throughout much of Jotun history, the most (in)famous exception was the potential for a Masculinist revolt.

Throughout history, particularly aggrieved armies have turned on their noble coteries, rebelling under the flag of a charismatic general, and instituting a military junta in its place. Some have argued that this system had the potential to be far more meritocratic and egalitarian than the aristocratic-coterie system, but far more tend to emphasize the atrocities committed under many of its most infamous examples. Often, the gender relationship would be swiftly and brutally reversed, with women becoming little more than slave-wives, valuable commodities hoarded by warlords and doled out to their cronies. The success of these regimes varied, but today they are universally painted by House Helgema's historians as ruthless, violent dictatorships.

As the Jotun economy developed and the power of mercantilist Houses began to erode, men and women became more and more interchangeable, for better or worse. Lower class women lost much of their social status, even as enterprising men were able to find success outside the coterie system, amassing great wealth and power for themselves. The rise of interstellar travel allowed for the creation of at least two "utopian colonies" predicated on attempting to create a perfect 50-50 gender balance between men and women, while other movements advocated for a complete transition to artificial birthing.

Throughout Jotun history, individuals have found themselves outside the neat gender roles ascribed by their society. Certain men, seeking to climb the social hierarchy, have shaved their horns and adopted feminine mannerisms and dress. Some women, especially those with an egalitarian or activist bent, have refused to form coteries, and act almost identically to their male colleagues. Some have explicitly stated that their gender identity doesn't conform to the one they were given at birth, or to any pre-existing set of cultural norms.

While there is evidence that such individuals had respected lifestyles on various Jotun colony worlds, the fairly conservative culture of House Helgema discourages non-conformism with regard to gender.

### Naming Conventions

Jotuns (at least, many of those living on Pulse) have very long formal names, identifying not just their mentorship, but their coterie and affiliation with a particular house. Usually a Jotun will pick only one or two of these names to be identified with, and their choice often represents which people and groups they value most.

standard naming convention for Jotuns is as follows:

**For Men:** PERSONALNAME MENTOR'SNAME(-il, -el,-al,-l) (Pro-)DYNASTYNAME COTERIENAME\*(-arra, -erra, -rra) HOUSENAME

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EX: *Svar Elgeskil Prosvar Polbarra Sorlgema*

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(Svar, mentored by Elgesk as part of the male mentor-dynasty of Svar. Part of the coterie of the lady Polba of House Sorlgema.)

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\*For a young man not attached to a coterie, he will often use his mother's name instead, but with the same -rra suffix. This creates confusion when talking about men in the coteries of women with the same names as their mothers (something which Jotun comic poets exploited to great effect.)

**For Women:** PERSONALNAME MOTHER'SNAME(-ba, -aba) (Te-, Tel-)DYNASTYNAME HOUSENAME

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EX: *Selda Molgaba Telmolga Gvenove*

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(Selda, whose mother was named Molga, of the dynasty of Molga (named either for her mother or for an ancestor with the same name), of House Gvenove.)

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## History

### Pre-Visit (BV)

The history of pre-stellar Jotun society involves a number of different forces fighting for dominance: male military forces vs female-led armies, the economic lower classes vs the wealthy, and the conflict between various mercantilist houses and noble alliances.

With the advent of interstellar colonization, old gender hierarchies began to erode in favor of new, gender-blind, economic hierarchies. Wealthy men might now have several wives in a "reverse coterie," and lower-class women didn't tend to fare much better than their male counterparts. There was greater equality between genders, but economic inequality remained high.

The solution in House Helgema's mind was obvious. Drawing upon legends of past chivalric ages, they revived and continued the gendered traditions of their ancestors. Women continued to rule their coteries, male mentor-dynasties were watched carefully, and the military was regularly requested to reaffirm its loyalty.

In 54 AV, House Helgema bought the rights to a sizable chunk of Pulse from AEKI and settling its first colonies on the planet. It was designed, in the words of Matriarch Elpa, to be "a refuge from the storms of moral degradation" and "a peaceful home for our youths to be raised with the just traditions of a polite society."

In the following years, thousands of Jotuns were encouraged to move there - not just noble coteries, but all the specialized workers to maintain their standard of living, and workers to mine resources from the planet's surface. While the approach of AEKI and the IEC were purely economic, the nature of the Helgema colony was distinctly romantic. Palaces and summer retreats were constructed for the nobility, and architects drew heavily on traditional, idyllic architecture when creating housing projects for the Jotun working class.

### Post-Visit (AV)

During the course of The Visitation, large numbers of refugees flocked to House Helgema, who were obliged to accept them. The increased population placed considerable strain on the region's resources (for its infrastructure was built much more for resort life than as a bustling population hub.) Furthermore, a large chunk of the population were not actually members of House Helgema, or had radically different perspectives on Jotun culture from the aristocracy.

Once more, the spectre of moral degradation reared its ugly head. After unsuccessful attempts to maintain social tradition and to absorb the disenfranchised masses, House Helgema readily agreed to the IEC's proposal for the creation of Pulse City and the Intercorporate Development Zones. Within months, hundreds of 'undesirable' Jotuns were given a one-time payment and sent to live in Pulse City, away from where they might threaten the social structure Helgema had worked so hard to build in their territories.

To this day, the Pulse City population tends to be less gender-conscious than their Helgeman counterparts. Stories already circulate in Helgema regions about the ability of the corporate system to create fantastic wealth for hardworking individuals, no matter their gender or class. This has been a source of growing instability, and some aristocrats have openly called for reforms to Helgeman society.

During the 58AV Clipper Riots, a few members of Pulse City's Jotun population joined the Chitan and Android protestors, while House Helgema itself sent troops to help suppress the uprising. Band 25 of the Horn of Helgema infamously dropped a bomb onto the top of a Chitan apartment complex, killing dozens.

## Credits

Head is taken from "Momaw Nadon" by BillDaSeamonster[1]

Clothing is taken from "The Hollow" by master exploder7