piratekitten has declared February world-building month.

Every day in February, I will answer one question about any one of my settings.

The question post is here

The second question comes from lilfluff and is for The Aunt Family

How unique is the family? Are there other such families out there?

In the universe the Aunt Family exists in, there are other people who can manipulate power; it tends to run in lines and so there are definitely other bloodlines that exhibit power.

If you look at Estate, one of the founding stories of this ‘verse, Ruan is dealing with her Aunt Tansy:

Her Aunt Tansy hadn’t been, as they say, The Aunt – she was a paternal aunt, for one thing, totally not the right sort, and Ruan’s Aunt Elenora was still alive and well – but the family tradition seemed to hold anyway.

In addition, the family tree that includes Evangaline and Ruan goes back many, many generations, and it has not been uncommon for the family to split, especially if there are two young women with a great deal of power and both the inclination and ability to become an Aunt.

Is there another bloodline that carries the power through a single unmarried, childless woman in each generation? I find it unlikely, but possible. The reasons this particular family chose to carry the power that way are murky, lost in the annals of history and the books in the back of Evangaline’s attic, but it was a choice. There are likely lines who have chosen to carry it through, say *cough* Uncles.

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