To Hold The Burden of Strength
Also known as Chivalry, is along with Equality one of the foundational precepts of Gith culture and internalized mindset.
In the tablelands, Gith exist in a mobile, high pressure and deeply competitive culture with an emphasis on scarcity during their entire upbringing, Gith culture lifts up qualities like opportunism and exploitation and resourcefulness as virtues, as gith raiding tribes often exist in an eternal state of feast or famine. As such Gith often look at a situation as to how maximum gain can be reaped from any course of action no matter how mundane.
From their birth during The Dredge onward each Gith child is in constant competition with it's siblings and peers. This extends to position, attention from parents, to food and secure sleeping spaces nearer to the center of the tribe's fire. Gith parents see this as a way to promote strength, independence and ensuring the long term good of the tribe. As a Gith female over her lifetime could potentially produce over 100 or more hatchlings to term, Gith also place less individual importance on relationships with individual children and focus more on the whole and those offspring who show potential as "Earners" for the family unit and tribe.
This "friendly" competitive spirit translates into facets of adult life from roles and positions and rank, to choice of mates-if the gith is female, to being pursued by higher status mates-if the gith is male. Thus Gith are always aware of their individual status and are seeking to advance it until "equality" creates a leveling effect.
As lineage is passed via the female line and not the male, Gith females seek the most powerful and famed Gith as mates, while male Gith seek signs and trappings of wealth, prowess and prestige in order to attract and advance the pool of potential female mates he has access to attempt to seduce.
Among the gith there is a saying that goes "Males command but females decide" So, while male Gith compete for glory and position, real or perceived, their ultimate genetic fates lay in the hands of high ranked females whose bloodlines have been in the tribe since ancient times.
As a result the Gith have evolved multiple cultural pressure releases and cultural norms to navigate a community built on Respect centered rivalry for the overall good of the tribe. Conflicts are either slow building processes with many off ramps to submit or make amends, or are very quick, highly violent and fatal affairs. This,somewhat,helps reduce conflict within the larger tribe to a series of complex transactions where one seeks to gain all they can, while balancing that will with awareness of the consequences and potential retributions that action will bring from others.
This is often verbally expressed by Gith as the principle of "Cost vs Value" a mindset where gith are constantly sizing up any and all situations for maximum exploitation. All actions, ventures and pursuits are gauged by what is to be gained vs the "cost" be that currency, barter or usually blood.
So, a gith who seeks to rob a caravan with his companions will first consider the direct risk of the caravan itself vs the loyalty of their fellows. If the value is worth the cost the raid proceeds, all the while the Gith will seek any chance to cheat his companions out of their fair share of spoils and will view the situation and act on it between the axis of Equality vs Chivalry.
They would assess the potential level of slight and take actions to be prepared for the revenge of their companions if they are weak and If the companions are strong or vigilant then the gith would likely reconsider and assume the risk was too high and deal fairly. If the gith's companions were exceptionally powerful or of much higher rank then out of "Respect" the gith may be generous with their share with the others, in order to gain advantage of some sort at a later time. To a gith all things are transactional, not that they would see anything wrong with that.
A group of gith who found that their fellow held out on them or cheated them, is not casually killed but in their deliberations an appropriate punishment is quickly inacted. Usually, a beating after the surrendering of his spoils, equal to "plus one" of what was held back. If the beating and punishment is accepted then generally all is forgiven, by Gith standards at least.
Chivalry would govern the short term of a gith's actions, while Equality would be considered for long term consequences.
Given the scarcity and instability of their daily existence Tableland tribes, which are more in the mode of nomadic raiders, cling more to equality while Gith mountain tribes with a non-mobile, more consistent source of resources and a more stable population focuses more on Chivalry.
