The Genlith Orphanages

The tradition of providing support for orphaned children in the land of Genlith is an ancient one, having its roots in the extended-family nature of the clans that eventually made up House Genlith . In the early days of the migration northward and the establishment of the land, any child unfortunate enough to find itself without parents would be taken in by another family who would almost certainly be blood-relations

The aggressive nature and traditional lifestyle of the people of Genlith meant that perhaps there was more need than usual for such support to be in place and as the population grew the responsibility became a more general one, where orphaned children would not be taken in directly by the extended family but adopted into one of the communal halls or homes set up for that purpose. Under Camlan, Chieftain of Genlith this custom became part of common law and one settlement in each region of the land was required to maintain a home for "Lost Cubs". The funding for this came from local donations, a survival of the "Sand Lord's Wages" custom in which a man slain on any raid would still receive his share of the proceeds, but these would be passed to his surviving family.

By the year 550 the tradition had expanded beyond catering only for the children of slain raiders and warriors as the halls began to take in children orphaned in the harsh winters of the previous few years, and then were opened to any child in need.

In addition to the funds provided by locals, the orphanages supported themselves partly on work done by the children. This led to a semi-formal arrangement instituted in the early 600s, when Celrod, Count of Genlith began a trend of taking in older orphans as servants, and other nobles of House Genlith followed his lead. This proved to be of great value as it reduced the burden on the orphanages themselves (meaning more resources were available for the children too young or infirm to be of service) as well as giving a working start in life to those orphans taken into noble service.


This practice fell into disuse after being heavily abused by mad Count Craden. It was reinstated only recently, by Countess Aiminia shortly after her marriage to Count Phoitios of Genlith. The Countess held that it had been long enough since Count Craden's misdeeds now that a good tradition should no longer suffer from one man's wrongdoings.

Inyë came into service at the The Low Keep in this manner, after living the first seven years of his life at the orphanage in Whiteforge.