The Talenic house structure does not operate like a Sasinthēne house’s, where children are born into one of their parents’ houses. Rather, one individual, typically the person who holds the most esteemed ancestral title (for instance the Kingdom of Orod, in the case of the Sudenec dynasty), is considered the house head. Everyone more closely related than a second cousin is considered part of that house or clan, but their membership is in relation to the house head. This is literal in the naming structure. The head is named, for instance, ’the Sejdenec’, whereas their kin would be ‘of Sudenec’, typically infixing a kinship term. This example also demonstrates a strange property of some Talenic surnames where the name has a slightly different form for the clan head.
In practice, clan membership is not so hard-and-fast. Parents of members, sworn servants, and esteemed distant relations can all be claimed by the clan, and typically, once recognized by a head, it’s not lost– but new, more distant members, may not receive recognition. Succession is an internal affair. In places with substantial Sasinthēne influence, the eldest child, preferring male children, takes the lion’s share. In some areas, it’s the most prominent male relative, preferring closer ties. Clan kinship doesn’t vary by gender. Because a highborn child’s mother and father will both be members of prominent clans, and typically different ones, that child is typically considered to belong to both. Practically speaking, the one they actually belong to is determined by strength of kinship and prominence of the clan. Of course, this varies substantially depending on their parents relationships, and even their own relationships with their respective clan heads.
After having children, spouses are considered to hold roughly equivalent standing within a clan. In-laws are also extremely important. As a general result, women historically held better positions within Talenic society than women in many other societies across Ōchis, because they were considered about as important to their husbands’ clans as their husbands were themselves. A sister-in-law or aunt was, similarly, an extremely important relation. Rather predictably, the influence and predominance of the Sasinthēne dynastic system has altered how the aristocracy reckon clan relations, but the Talenic family structure remains alive in all levels of Talenic society, and persists unaltered among the commons.
One practice extremely peculiar to the Talenic clan structure is the practice of Sword-Cousins. A sword-cousin is typically, but not always, an elite champion sworn to a clan member. Traditionally, they are lesser nobility, though a lowborn sword-cousin is a popular fixture in stories, and certainly happens. The sword-cousin is considered to be a member of the clan, albeit at the farthest rung in terms of status. This status does not extend to spouses or children. Talens often practice honorary clan adoption, which operates in a similar capacity, though does not always confer on the adoptee the status of being a certain member’s child. Even in very ordinary houses, clan membership is a complex and important feature of Talenic society.