Pledgeless

Zamarca, what does it mean to be pledgeless?

— August to Zamarca

The pledgeless are people who, for one reason or another, haven’t pledged their life and honor to a House or an Order during their Maturity Ceremony. Those who have pledged their life and honor view the pledgeless as selfish and/or childish.
But snide and patronizing words aren’t all that the pledgeless have to deal with. They do not have an organization behind their back. People can be cruel to a pledgeless with no one coming to their aid.
So why might somebody decide to become pledgeless?
Well, there are as many reasons as there are pledgeless, and those reasons are personal. They might appear trivial to other people. One reason might be that they detest the House that they have grown up in and that there is no other House or Order close to their village. Another reason might be that they do not want to be tied down to anything or anyone.