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seanan_mcguireI recently volunteered to make five detailed blog posts on things people wanted to know about the Toby universe, and provided a dedicated thread for them to make their suggestions. While these posts will not be specifically spoiler-y for published books, they will provide background material on the universe, and can be viewed as part of my functional canon. This is the first such post.
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seawench:
"What are the rules for fostering fae children like Quentin? How long do they have to stay? Do the fae families get anything in return? If children are so precious, why would parents give them up for extended periods? Do fae families ever foster changelings, or do they only foster purebloods? Are fae parents more likely to foster children with another fae race, or within their own?"
Fosterage! I love fae fosterage. Basically, it's the system via which fae children, especially the children of fae nobles, can be shipped off to live with other households for a certain period of time. There are five basic types of fosterage: Educational, Economic, Exchange, Protective, and Control. To complicate things a bit further, there are two styles of fosterage: Open, and Blind. The types of fosterage break down as follows.
* Educational. You're shipping a kid off to learn something he or she couldn't learn at home, whether that's "how to deal with living near the ocean," "how to handle a large mortal population," or "how they do it in the Kingdom of Silences." Most fosters in the equivalent of their teens are sent out for educational reasons. The general consensus in Faerie is that the young are better at learning to adapt to extreme situations; children are expected to get the bulk of their education before they reach maturity. After that, they may apprentice to a trade, but that's learning specialized things, not general "how the world works." Many, if not most, noble children will be sent on an educational fosterage if they're expected to inherit someday, because they need to learn to deal with people outside their home fiefdom.
* Economic. You can't afford to keep your child properly, either because you literally don't have the resources, or because you do some sort of job that doesn't allow for childrearing (sailors, soldiers, some specialized diplomatic positions). It's considered lucky and important to have a child, even if they don't live with you, and some fae have used the proof of fertility represented by an economic fosterage to further their positions in life. It is extremely rare for an economic foster to be returned to his or her original parents, and some will even be adopted by the families which foster them. When changelings are fostered, it is almost always for economic reasons, and they are almost always taken by families who are already fostering one or more pureblooded children. This provides playmates for the purebloods, without the necessity of stealing babies from the mortal world (historically popular, currently frowned upon).
* Exchange. You give me one, I give you one. Exchange fosterages are rare, simply because they require two households of relatively equal social standing to have children of approximately the same age. In cases where this occurs, the children will be swapped for a pre-determined period of time, allowing for the creation of an educational fosterage with the additional benefit of strengthening ties between the households.
* Protective. There is a reasonably good chance your household is about to be wiped out for political reasons. Your fiefdom has just gone to war. There's a dragon in your backyard. For whatever reason, your kids are no longer safe, and need to be shipped off to live somewhere else until they can be sure nothing's going to eat them back home. Protective fosterages can be very short, lasting only a few weeks. They can also turn unintentionally permanent.
* Control. Nobles will sometimes insist that the children of those lesser nobles within their domain come and live with them as fosters for a certain period of time. This does a lot to keep the lesser nobility from rebelling. It's also the most miserable type of fosterage, and sometimes backfires, as some fae parents will decide to go ahead and rebel anyway, since they have nothing left to lose.
Multiple types of fosterage can be combined, with educational/exchange and educational/protective being the most common. The styles of fosterage are somewhat simpler:
* Open. "This is Carl, the son of Bob and Marsha. He'll be staying with us for a little while."
* Blind. "This is Suzy. She lives here now."
The only type of fosterage that can't be blind is control, since you tend to lose control when you don't tell anyone whose kid you've got there. Quentin is on a blind educational fosterage; he's stated several times that he's in Shadowed Hills to learn, and no one seems to know who his parents are. There can be a lot of reasons for that, ranging from "his parents are criminals" to "his parents have a lot of enemies" to "we just don't want people sucking up to him because of who his family is." Shadowed Hills is a generally ill-regarded Duchy, since it tends to be modernist, so it's most likely to be one of the former, although nobody knows for sure except, presumably, Sylvester.
The length of a fosterage is set by both the parents and the foster parents, and can range from "until I can come to get him" to "until she reaches maturity." Declaring someone as your foster makes you legally responsible for them, and releases their biological parents from that responsibility, until the fosterage has been dissolved. A foster parent can't dissolve the fosterage unless the child does something so incredibly bad that they have no choice; abandoning a foster without really, really good reason is considered the height of impropriety, and the fae care a lot about such things.
Fae families can be compensated for fostering a child/allowing their children to be fostered in a variety of ways, ranging from reputation ("My child is fostered with the High King") to improved marriage prospects ("My son is being fostered by the family of the girl he's going to marry") to not being invaded ("My daughter, um, isn't here anymore..."). Some families are compensated financially; this usually happens with the parents of changelings whose children are being essentially purchased to be playmates for purebloods.
Fae parents give up their children for many of the same reasons humans do. They want them to have better lives; they want them to have good educations; they want them to be safe; they don't have a choice in the matter.
Most fosters are sent to live with families of a race that is the same as, or closely related to, their own. This is by no means universal, but it's considered "the norm." Daoine Sidhe will almost never choose foster parents who aren't also Daoine Sidhe, while Gremlins will foster to anyone who owns a forge and doesn't mind being asked a lot of questions.
Speaking of questions...are there any follow-up questions on fosterage? No spoilers, please.
Quoth
seawench:"What are the rules for fostering fae children like Quentin? How long do they have to stay? Do the fae families get anything in return? If children are so precious, why would parents give them up for extended periods? Do fae families ever foster changelings, or do they only foster purebloods? Are fae parents more likely to foster children with another fae race, or within their own?"
Fosterage! I love fae fosterage. Basically, it's the system via which fae children, especially the children of fae nobles, can be shipped off to live with other households for a certain period of time. There are five basic types of fosterage: Educational, Economic, Exchange, Protective, and Control. To complicate things a bit further, there are two styles of fosterage: Open, and Blind. The types of fosterage break down as follows.
* Educational. You're shipping a kid off to learn something he or she couldn't learn at home, whether that's "how to deal with living near the ocean," "how to handle a large mortal population," or "how they do it in the Kingdom of Silences." Most fosters in the equivalent of their teens are sent out for educational reasons. The general consensus in Faerie is that the young are better at learning to adapt to extreme situations; children are expected to get the bulk of their education before they reach maturity. After that, they may apprentice to a trade, but that's learning specialized things, not general "how the world works." Many, if not most, noble children will be sent on an educational fosterage if they're expected to inherit someday, because they need to learn to deal with people outside their home fiefdom.
* Economic. You can't afford to keep your child properly, either because you literally don't have the resources, or because you do some sort of job that doesn't allow for childrearing (sailors, soldiers, some specialized diplomatic positions). It's considered lucky and important to have a child, even if they don't live with you, and some fae have used the proof of fertility represented by an economic fosterage to further their positions in life. It is extremely rare for an economic foster to be returned to his or her original parents, and some will even be adopted by the families which foster them. When changelings are fostered, it is almost always for economic reasons, and they are almost always taken by families who are already fostering one or more pureblooded children. This provides playmates for the purebloods, without the necessity of stealing babies from the mortal world (historically popular, currently frowned upon).
* Exchange. You give me one, I give you one. Exchange fosterages are rare, simply because they require two households of relatively equal social standing to have children of approximately the same age. In cases where this occurs, the children will be swapped for a pre-determined period of time, allowing for the creation of an educational fosterage with the additional benefit of strengthening ties between the households.
* Protective. There is a reasonably good chance your household is about to be wiped out for political reasons. Your fiefdom has just gone to war. There's a dragon in your backyard. For whatever reason, your kids are no longer safe, and need to be shipped off to live somewhere else until they can be sure nothing's going to eat them back home. Protective fosterages can be very short, lasting only a few weeks. They can also turn unintentionally permanent.
* Control. Nobles will sometimes insist that the children of those lesser nobles within their domain come and live with them as fosters for a certain period of time. This does a lot to keep the lesser nobility from rebelling. It's also the most miserable type of fosterage, and sometimes backfires, as some fae parents will decide to go ahead and rebel anyway, since they have nothing left to lose.
Multiple types of fosterage can be combined, with educational/exchange and educational/protective being the most common. The styles of fosterage are somewhat simpler:
* Open. "This is Carl, the son of Bob and Marsha. He'll be staying with us for a little while."
* Blind. "This is Suzy. She lives here now."
The only type of fosterage that can't be blind is control, since you tend to lose control when you don't tell anyone whose kid you've got there. Quentin is on a blind educational fosterage; he's stated several times that he's in Shadowed Hills to learn, and no one seems to know who his parents are. There can be a lot of reasons for that, ranging from "his parents are criminals" to "his parents have a lot of enemies" to "we just don't want people sucking up to him because of who his family is." Shadowed Hills is a generally ill-regarded Duchy, since it tends to be modernist, so it's most likely to be one of the former, although nobody knows for sure except, presumably, Sylvester.
The length of a fosterage is set by both the parents and the foster parents, and can range from "until I can come to get him" to "until she reaches maturity." Declaring someone as your foster makes you legally responsible for them, and releases their biological parents from that responsibility, until the fosterage has been dissolved. A foster parent can't dissolve the fosterage unless the child does something so incredibly bad that they have no choice; abandoning a foster without really, really good reason is considered the height of impropriety, and the fae care a lot about such things.
Fae families can be compensated for fostering a child/allowing their children to be fostered in a variety of ways, ranging from reputation ("My child is fostered with the High King") to improved marriage prospects ("My son is being fostered by the family of the girl he's going to marry") to not being invaded ("My daughter, um, isn't here anymore..."). Some families are compensated financially; this usually happens with the parents of changelings whose children are being essentially purchased to be playmates for purebloods.
Fae parents give up their children for many of the same reasons humans do. They want them to have better lives; they want them to have good educations; they want them to be safe; they don't have a choice in the matter.
Most fosters are sent to live with families of a race that is the same as, or closely related to, their own. This is by no means universal, but it's considered "the norm." Daoine Sidhe will almost never choose foster parents who aren't also Daoine Sidhe, while Gremlins will foster to anyone who owns a forge and doesn't mind being asked a lot of questions.
Speaking of questions...are there any follow-up questions on fosterage? No spoilers, please.
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no subject
Date: 2011-02-09 10:48 pm (UTC)Gremlin kids sound like fun.
Thank you for going into more details about fostering. I always love hearing more about Toby's world.
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Date: 2011-02-09 11:19 pm (UTC)Thanks for the details on fostering. The various statements exemplifying the different styles or conditions of fostering are really helpful. Also, for some reason "This is Suzy. She lives here now" had me giggling.
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Date: 2011-02-10 03:36 am (UTC)There is nothing in the Law that says you can't steal changeling children just like you'd steal human ones, once they've gone through the Choice.
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Date: 2011-02-10 01:54 am (UTC)Thanks in advance to anyone who can point me in the right direction!
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Date: 2011-02-10 03:38 am (UTC)I should probably talk to her about making some more...
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Date: 2011-02-10 03:01 am (UTC)So, thanks for working through the details and making the Toby books that much more fun!
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Date: 2011-02-10 03:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-10 03:45 am (UTC)Blind: This is Suzy. She used to be normal up until 2 years old, but then she changed. We think it's autism, but the experts say if she is autistic, it's a type of autism unlike anything they've seen before. She can change the channels on the tv without using the remote.
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Date: 2011-02-10 04:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-10 01:17 pm (UTC)Seaman, if you haven't read midnight riot,aka The rivers of London, you have a happy couple of hours ahead. Reminiscent of Felix Castor books without being a clone, it has a decent funny intelligent narrator and fine supporting characters with attitude problems. Plot's a little weird but I will read it again for the pleasure of their company. And author mentions My Little Pony, which I didn't know they had in England.
My love to Thomas and the rest of you.
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Date: 2011-02-10 03:44 pm (UTC)England not only got Ponies, they got different Ponies.
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Date: 2011-02-10 06:49 pm (UTC)As someone else said, I love the "in-world non-fiction"!
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Date: 2011-02-11 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-11 06:48 pm (UTC)This is awesome. The world-building is one of the main things I talk about when recommending your books. Even when the details aren't in the text, it's clear that you know them.
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Date: 2011-02-12 03:49 am (UTC)I'm glad you're enjoying these posts!