Honorary Names Policy

Families

Originally drafted by the Special Committee for the Definition and Regulation of Families.

1. Families are to exist only for role-playing purposes and as an external sign of a bond between friends.
2. Members are only permitted to be in one family at a time and must be at least the rank of Guardian to join, or Battlelord/Exarch/Epis to create.
3. Families are required to have at least three members in addition to the patriarch at the time of registry – and must have a Fiction Tribune-approved fictional history at least four to five pages in length.
4. Families must have an official family representative who may or may not be the family leader. This individual is responsible for ensuring the Master At Arms has an updated roster of the family
5. "Family hopping" will not be allowed. After leaving one family, a member will be required to wait 4 months before they are permitted to join another.
6. Families are limited to 10 members only to prevent any one family from becoming too large

Clan Names

1. The awarding of a Clan name shall only be granted to members who have made extremely large contributions to their Clan over a very long period of time. It should not be given to many, but rather should remain an achievable yet distant and difficult goal for all Clan members. There are no *specific* guidelines outlining when this award can and should be given, this is left up to the discretion of the awarding leaders, who are to use their best judgment.
2. Clan names are awarded based on the system that the clan has established. Generally this is done by the Consul and Proconsul with the approval of whomever they deem necessary. The Grand Master nor the Master at Arms need to be consulted prior to the awarding of this honor, it is a clan specific institution and as such the clans have the oversight.
3. After accepting the award of a Clan name, a member is required to remain in that Clan for the rest of his/her time in the Dark Brotherhood. The taking of a Clan name as his/her own is the ultimate symbol of loyalty to ones clan, and therefore they are required to stay with this clan no matter what the situation may be. Changing to another clan or choosing to go rogue will result in an automatic forfeiture of the clan name. This does not, however, prevent the members from being appointed to the Dark Council, they can serve on the council while retaining their Clan name.
4. Consideration for the awarding of a Clan name should be retroactive, that is, contributions and loyalty to a Clan before the implementation of this award should be taken into account. Any members who already meet the standard for receiving a Clan name award should not have to prove themselves all over again; they may receive the award for activity and loyalty previously shown.
5. The awarding of a Clan name to a Consul should meet the same standards as regular members. Consuls shall not receive this award automatically upon being appointed Consul, but rather have to spend time in their position making contributions to their Clan over a long period of time. Of course, work done as a Consul is more beneficial for the entire Clan than work a regular member does, and a Consul has probably served time in his/her Clan as a regular member and in other leadership positions. Therefore the time it takes a Consul to earn this award will probably be less than the time it would take a regular member to earn.
6. The awarding of a Clan name should be a unique event, and therefore should be accompanied by more than a simple email informing the member that he/she has received this award. Clans have the right to use a fictional email ceremony based on whatever situations they chose or if a clan does not want to use such a system they do not have to.
7. Any current members who are already using the Clan name as part of their character’s name shall be politely asked to remove it or change it. This only applies to a select few and hopefully they will understand the situation.
8. Any current Dark Council members who have had a long-standing relationship with a particular Clan, in which they contributed a lot of work over a long period of time, can be awarded the Clan name. They have the option of accepting the award as recognition from their old clan, or refusing it because as Dark Council members they are above individual Clans. The exception to this rule is the current Grand Master, who in his position in command of all the Clans cannot show individual loyalty to any specific clan or family. The retired Grand Master is permitted to belong to a family and be awarded a clan title name, but while he is on the Iron Throne it is not permitted to have such affiliations on his dossier.