[ Customs ]

Just because someone is a Kindred, or even a member of the same clan, does not mean they are an acquaintance of yours, or that they owe you any favours.

Everyone in Kindred society maintains a social circle, that is the people with whom you associate. As a general rule, you cannot expect much social interaction with anyone who is not part of your social circle, and as such it is good to expand it.

Everyone in your nest is automatically part of your social circle. Beyond that, you must be introduced to people before they become part of your social circle, or - if they are below you in the Order of Precedence they must be introduced to you.

Introductions are made by mutual acquaintances, that is, someone who has both you and the other person in their social circle, and it is customary to view an introduction as a favour.

By custom, the person requesting the introduction owes a favour to the person arranging the introduction. If the person to whom you are introduced is of higher Rank than you (for example, a Neonate being introduced to an Ancilla, but not a Neonate Baron being introduced to a Neonate Earl), the person of lower rank also owes a favour to the person of higher rank for the privilege. An introduction is never made unless it was requested.

Social circles come with certain obligations and privileges. In general, it is much easier to socialize with people in your social circle.

When someone is in your social circle, you are able to send them invitations for various events, as well as receive their invitations for the same events, thereby making them more easily accessible.

You are expected to maintain the relationship, and invite people from your social circle over every once in a while, as well as making visits to them - if you neglect someone, they may eventually drop you from their circle or worse.

Moreover, while track is kept of who owes favours to whom, in general, someone in your social circle cannot refuse a reasonable request for a favour that they are able to provide. For example, if you are looking for a job for your ghoul so they an earn an income, and someone in your social circle has a factory, you can request they employ your ghoul, and they cannot refuse. Likewise, you too have the same obligation the other way around.

Because of this mutual obligation, it is important to make sure not to add anyone into your social circle who is much more influential, or to accept someone much weaker than yourself. Since the weaker individual is unable to provide equivalent favours to the more influential one, an imbalance would develop, which could quickly become problematic, and removing someone from your social circle is much harder than adding someone.