Ancestors' Descendants

Not every kid's lucky enough to keep their parents around. Good thing there's folk for that, hey?

— one of the Descendants

The Ancestors' Descendants, commonly known as the Ancestors, the Descendants, or even the 'Dancestors' by those seeking to make the name a little more standout, are a charitable organisation that first sprung up in Gildómar and now has a few branches scattered across Iskaldhal's chilly reach. Their goal is to ensure that every child can be given a happy upbringing in some way, shape, or form, even if that doesn't quite resemble the standard familial upbringing their societies expect.

New Mother, New Daughter by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

Finding, obtaining, and educating waifs and strays is less easy than one would think, and there needs to be funding coming from somewhere. The Descendants started out as a volunteer effort when a bunch of pissed-off older siblings united with grieving parents to ensure Gildómar's orphans could have homes and families of their own, but as the scope grew from 'a few' to 'a few hundred' and beyond, jumble sales and hats passed around local churches didn't exactly provide enough.
So the Descendants looked into what work needed doing, and made deals: children raised in the Descendants would be taught a trade, and so long as they worked for a few years in that trade as an adult, the guilds would sponsor them.
This approach, combined with the older kids and adult volunteers taking on tasks and the eventual provision of funding from some of Gildómar's wealthiest military families, sees the Descendants well-funded, the children well-trained, and the corruption mostly out of public view.

There's always corruption when the guilds are involved. Don't look so surprised.

Structure

We're more a family than you'd think, blood be damned.

— cheery granddwarf

Rather confusingly, the Ancestors denote their positions in the organisation by familial connection at all levels, adding more titles to the front or back of their appointed titles as necessary. The August Granddwarf is typically the 'head of the family', so to speak.

But as in any family, their every decision is bickered over by the Whine Aunts and Drunkles (whose role is to question anything that may threaten the organisation's stability, to secure trade positions for the kids, and to wine and dine potential sponsors), the Thrice-Great Granddwarfs (who are former leaders or influential elders in the community, with many opinions and words of advice), the Pursed Nannies (who control finances)...
...not to mention the rest of a veritable family tree full of other well-intended folk seeking to help the organisation in whatever bumbling way they can.
Despite the seeming chaos of so many different folk involved, it's only larger decisions that tend to cause problems, and the Descendants have a number of ways of breaking ties (from trusting the smartest person in the room to sending for expert opinion, depending on severity). Day-to-day operations run like a well-oiled machine at this point, especially when the kids choose to behave (which is, naturally, rare).

'Family' Dinner by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

History

We're a proud people, aye. Sworn tae stand up to any insult, tae defend our people, and tae create beauty reflectin' the beauty the gods gave us. Pity we spend all that time killing eachother instead of doin' summat good.

— dwarf

Gildómar's history is one of blood and war. When not fighting their neighbours, like Hvalgora and Myrkalla, Gildómar is often fighting its historic rivals in Fjolkandr, battling hordes of undead, handling rebellions (or outright civil war), and otherwise getting into conflicts with just about every living creature that wanders into the country's vicinity.

Orphans of War by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

War is a machine that cannot run without blood. Dwarven lives feed the machine each day of its operation.
Dwarven families have always tended to be larger; of those who reach adulthood in the often-challenging northern climate with its habit of throwing famine and natural disasters at the living, most will settle down and start families as quickly as possible in the gaps between fights, and regularly aim for multiple children.
When tragedy strikes, family support networks kick in... which is all well and good until they become overwhelmed by the sheer scale of death that war demands.
Too many children ended up on the streets, or suffering poor childhoods in families that could barely feed one mouth, let alone twelve. Too many children ended up in the military at too-young an age, finding ways to join juvenile squadrons to have some way out of their abysmal circumstances.
Too many children died before they could truly live.

The Ancestors' Descendants were not the first organisation of their kind. Their predecessors, often individual orphanages or wealthy families sponsoring efforts to help children, collapsed over time: lack of funds, lack of housing, lack of organisation, lack of reach, or simply war's own devastation consuming everything in its path. Gildómar has not won every war, after all.

They began decades after the last large-scale attempt to manage the issue of war orphans, in a time when the Gildón government and its faith-linked ally organisations were the only ones helping the lost children.
Too many children chafed hard against the restrictions on them or suffered neglectful homes - and the King's courts were too busy to help. And as these children grew up, they helped the younger generation where they could.
As war continued to rage, their peers were killed, leaving behind grieving parents and new orphans to face their same fate. Angered, these elder children sought to find a better way.
With the assistance of the older generation, they steadily found a path - first helping in a few small Gildón villages by pairing children and caretakers, and then through steadily figuring out how they would have done things differently if they'd lived their lives again.

Going Home by Hanhula (via Midjourney)

In time, the organisation came to exist in its current joyous, messy state, offering chances at family and life to those it can find. It strictly maintains its separation from both the monarchy and from direct religious organisations (unless a child specifically wishes to be involved in religious matters) due to its past, and hopes to remain this way.
It has since expanded beyond Gildómar's borders, though remains only on Iskaldhal for the moment. Its greater reach comes with greater awareness; even the likes of the Witch-Tribes now keep an eye on the actions of the Ancestors, now.

Let Kids Be Kids

Founding Date

5314

Type

Activist, Charity

Demonym

the Ancestors, the Descendants

Leader Title

August Granddwarf

Location

Iskaldhal

Related Ranks & Titles

• August Granddwarf

Deciding a Trade

Young children are not forced into any specific career path in the current age. Up to the age of 26 (for dwarven children; 13 for humans), the child is raised with general skills, and are covered by general sponsorships.
When they reach these adolescent years, they begin to discuss pathways with potential sponsors, and usually lock in a specific trade or form of career within a year or two.
When the Descendants were still young as an organisation, the children did not have as much flexibility; children were promised at young ages, usually depending on skills they had already shown. This wasn't always successful long-term, but the contracts on their service were never too long: they were children, not slaves.
Non-dwarven children often find it much more challenging to find sponsors within traditional dwarven trades. Many end up finding paths out of Gildómar entirely.
Part of the reason the Ancestors have expanded their network so far was to allow these children a chance to find new, more varied lifestyles.
While they now need to care about more children than ever before, they now have a network of contacts spanning the breadth of a continent, and gradually, their efforts prove effective even in increasing diplomatic talks.

Don't be too hard on the kids for ditchin' a job they don't like. Who the hell's ever had their life planned out in their teens?

— Ancestor mother

Ancestors? Descendants?

The name of the Ancestors' Descendants often gets odd looks; it doesn't entirely make sense, not even when read in its proper Dwarven.
It's intended to be that way.
Just as one loses track of the relation between one's brother's sister's aunt's nephew's cousin's daughter's dog's step-father's uncle's niece's twin and oneself, so too should the Descendants feel like a mess of familial relations that one can't quite untangle.
By offering children adults and peers who they can comfortably call by familial titles, such as the Descendant's entire leadership, they are immediately offered an 'out' from awkward conversations on family - and an 'in' to a feeling of belonging.

Some folk get worried about how some've the kids disappear. Look: not every guild's one that hangs out in the light. Trust us - any kid that's going into the shadier guilds knows what they're doing, and we make damn well sure they're given outs.

— great-uncle of the Ancestors