Paksworld

Young people in Tsaian and Lyonyan society may be fostered with another family at several stages–for noble families, typically as pages (ages 7-10 or 12) or squires (ages 14-18ish.)   In addition to fosterage, there’s formal schooling in a boarding situation (like the young students in Fin Panir, including Aris Marrakai).   Nobles are more or less expected to take in a few of one another’s offspring .   This forms bonds between families (they hope), relieves some sibling rivalry (a forlorn hope, usually), and provides the “shared” young person with experiences most find valuable.

In Tsaia, girls are more rarely sent from home, and girls of the nobility with a penchant for arms have fewer opportunities to learn from anyone but fathers, brothers, and the family armsmaster.   That’s partly because male peers (and their wives) are less willing to be responsible for someone else’s daughter.    This is particularly true for large households that include many male squires.

Families who choose to send their sons out as squires sign a binding contract with the person to whom they’re sent, making explicit the squire’s duty to obey and the supervising lord’s duty to feed, clothe, house, and train the squire.   Since Kieri Phelan took squires with him to Aarenis, where they were exposed to warfare, parental permission for this was added to those contracts.   But Tsaian men other than Kieri went to Aarenis as mercenaries, and the training Kieri gave was considered valuable enough that he had a waiting list of potential squires, despite the mortality rate.

In Lyonya, Falk’s Hall is the standard training facility for young people of noble birth, so fosterage is mostly confined to the younger set, or to those who will not aspire to knighthood.   Falk’s Hall accepts both girls and boys,  and has a sort of “prep school” for those who are too young for the full rigor of knightly training but for some reason cannot live elsewhere.

Kieri himself was named a squire by Aliam Halveric, and served him in Aarenis, before Aliam sponsored him to Falk’s Hall as a knight-candidate.  Aliam’s was the only Lyonyan-based mercenary force, and thus the only place a Lyonyan youth could get actual combat experience (if that’s what the family wanted for some reason.)

In a good household, a squire learns all aspects of both warfare and estate management, being tasked by his/her master with responsibilities in one area after another, as well as being guided to each culture’s conception of good character.   The squire is readied for knighthood (or in some cases fails and will never be a knight) and the squire’s sponsor (or co-sponsor) is often the person under whom the squire served.

King’s Squires in Lyonya are a different thing altogether.  They are all Knights of Falk, and they form the monarch’s personal bodyguard and perform any other service the monarch wishes.  As they are all knights, they are all at least in their early 20s.  Many are former Rangers; some are part-elven.  Both men and women serve.   They have already the skills squires seek to gain.