Among Terragens, only Homo sapiens exhibits pronounced Oedipal processes, and then only among certain ethnic groups. Fens and Chims are spared this father-son conflict by virtue of the fact that patriarchal harem and monogamous nuclear household formations are relatively rare, thus limiting direct competition between son and father for the attention of wife/mother. In this essay the author argues that female Soro have developmental experiences that are strongly analogous to those experienced by Human males in the Oedipal complex.
Of course, there are also large --and very significant --differences between the female Soro and male
Human experiences. Perhaps most obviously, the young Soro girl can hardly
compete for father's attention, since he was quite deceased long before she hatched. (However, with
modern techniques for artificial reproduction, exceptions to this rule have become rather common.) This
is not, however, as crucial as it might seem, because Mother's dominance of the family group literally forces
the adolescent and adult Daughter to compete with, and eventually ritually battle Mother to the death for
attention from male Soro. More systematically important is the extraordinarily intense need to nurture
experienced by female Soro of any age --a true "mothering instinct," if you will. This
mothering instinct is combined with a widespread desire for control and order that would be nearly
pathological among Chims, Fen, or Humans.
A high need for authority is also more widespread among Soro than among any
Terragens. (Incidentally, this need for authority no doubt
accounts for much of the Soro devotion to tradition that Terrans so often interpret as akin to religion, and
that seems so incongruous in the context of Soro resourcefulness and pragmatism.)
Though the Soro hatch their infants in broods, mating and laying eggs is (generally) the prerogative of a pack's alpha female --or queen --among both the proto-Soro and the Soro. This effectively means that Soro have been relatively k-adapted even before the start of their uplift. Soro infants almost always hatch with their queen-mother immediately present. Unlike reptiles and certain dinosaurs that Soro resemble, the Soro do not rely on solar or compost heat to keep their eggs warm. Instead, the proto-Soro queen sat on her own eggs, turning them from time to time. Occasionally, one of her daughters, sisters, or even a brother might take over sitting for a short time. Contemporary Soro queens and their close kin still find pleasure and comfort in egg sitting, but since their uplift, Soro have also enjoyed the convenience of automated incubators and frequently of servants from client races --not least the Forski, who by all accounts make responsible and devoted nannies for both eggs and hatchlings. Bearing eggs is an empowering and pleasurable experience for the adult Soro, and they seldom resort to the sort of artificial gestation machines popular among Humans and some Tymbrimi.
After the arduous and traumatic work of hatching, the young Soro finds itself amidst her brood mates. She is gently cleaned by her queen-mother, who will regurgitate her first meal. As she is passed among her aunts and sisters, they are likely to do the same while holding and playing with the new hatchling. Very soon the hatchling starts to nod off. She is returned to sleep with her brood when the queen notices and threatens some adoring sister with grievous harm if the baby is not returned to its nest with all due haste. During the first week or two after a hatching, the Forski attendants will have a most difficult time doing their jobs at the nest as the pack sisters dote on their new relatives. Little work gets done in a Soro pack in the days after a hatching, and leadership challenges --at least from inside the pack --are almost unheard of during this time.
Very little will be demanded of the hatchling during the first two (Soro) years of its life. The average infant can do no wrong during its earliest years. Any misdeeds on the child's part tend to result in the (harsh) punishment of whoever was supposed to be supervising the children. The infant Soro spends almost all of her time with her brood mates, and plays with the children from the next elder brood --that are probably about two years older than she and her brood mates. Aside from occasional infanticides that result when an unrelated female becomes queen, the largest danger to the young Soro is the fatigue that frequently results when older girls or adolescents get hold of the child and refuse to stop fussing over her like some animated doll. Soro infants are exceedingly curious and active, but a highly efficient staff of Soro creche managers and Forski aids insures that the Soro child has only the rarest opportunity to endanger itself or others. ANY risky activity is quickly identified, intercepted, and stopped. It is not known what effect this has on the normal Soro's creativity, but it certainly does nothing to promote it.
The other limit that the Soro child will encounter is the rigid, almost ritualistic, schedule and arrangement of the creche environment imposed by the creche mistress and meticulously maintained by her staff. Though those girls who resist are almost invariably the secret favorites of all the Soro staff, their deviance --when manifested --also produces genuine consternation among their elders. As they grow older, any boat-rocking will be corrected with increasing rigor and severity.
Though the Soro child continues to spend most of her time among her own pack-mates, she also begins to participate in wider age graded groups for education and play. At this point, life for the Soro child --especially the girl --becomes intensely competitive and will remain so ever after. However, most Soro take readily to competition, and those few who do not quickly learn that privileges and approval must be earned. Contact with their queen-mother, and other senior pack-mates becomes very rare, except for the occasional little hyper-achiever. However, being one of the queen's favorites has its costs. While the precocious daughter will find herself given every educationally enriching experience the pack can afford, her studies will also be carefully monitored, and should the little darling disappoint her tutors or her mother, their wrath will be explosive and the resulting punishment frequently severe. Furthermore, should she permanently fall from grace, her peers will bully her to no end. Lethal bullying and suicides of fallen princesses and selected deviants are hardly unknown.
In addition, education and play are --by almost any Terragen standards --highly regimented and controlled. Unstructured playground time is virtually unknown. However, the typical Soro child hardly notices much of the adult control in her environment. This is largely because so much of her attention is kept tightly focused on moving up to newer privileges and rewards --or defending those she already has --that to the child, her world looks like a child-centered hierarchy.
However, childhood is not altogether a competitive nightmare for the Soro child. For one thing, her elders sooner or later will contrive some excuse to reward her with her first pet. By adolescence most girls have one or two pets of their own and a substantial doll collection, while favored daughters may have acquired a small menagerie. A normal pre-adolescent Soro girl spends (and to a degree is encouraged to spend) a large amount of her time attending to, and playing with, her beloved pets and dolls. In addition, many Soro children of both sexes love playing with the Soro equivalents of blocks, clay, tinker-toys, erector sets, and science kits. Computerized strategic simulation games are also popular. Many Soro sports seem to resemble American Football or Rugby; that is, they are highly stylized war-games. However, many Soro team sports also contain a large element of intra-team competition in addition to any inter-team competition, that makes athletic strategy quite byzantine by Human standards. One relatively gentle sport, quite popular throughout Clan Soro space --called nine ball --has been described as "a form of coalitional soccer."
Adolescence and young adult-hood will be the most dangerous and emotionally difficult period in the life of any Soro. For the majority who will never become queens, it will be the most intense period of loss and grief they will ever experience. The female Soro finds herself caught between her mother (or more precisely, elder females in authority) and her sisters and other age mates. With the onset of sexual maturity, hormonal changes intensify Soro passions, and relationships with her peers becomes quite violent. To make matters worse, the mating claws of adolescent girls develop and begin to produce mating hormones and enzymes that will be released when the female Soro is aroused. In addition, adult Soro control the environment of the adolescent Soro in such a way that it becomes hyper-competitive. Despite the fact that supervising adults also strictly regiment the training of adolescents, and force them to wear claw-sheaths almost continuously --fights occur constantly, and all too frequently result in the deaths of combatants. Thennanin and A4P experts all estimate that between one-quarter and one-third of all female Soro die between the onset of adolescence and the start of responsible young adult-hood. Already traumatized by the climate of harsh adult supervision, and peer inflicted violence and death, the youthful female Soro must also cope with the expectations and pressures for academic and social success from her pack-mates, especially the queen.
Personal danger couples with the loss of many of her brood-sisters, and both stressors are exacerbated by the more palpable loss of brothers. Proto-Soro adolescent males typically joined bachelor packs. Today, male Soro still largely reside in bachelor packs. Not surprisingly, adolescent male Soro are sent off to boarding school. While this is hardly as violent as girl's school, brothers and sisters will not see much of each other after this time for at least ten Soro-years or so. Meanwhile, the nature of Soro sexuality will mean that the most physically and socially desirable of her brothers will have been killed --albeit probably leaving her with numerous nieces --while she was away at school.
In addition, the adolescent Soro girl begins to feel her first pangs of resentimient against the iron will of her pack matriarch. Increasing personal aspirations begin to clash directly with her queen's control fetish. If the queen is her own mother or a reasonably close relative (a sister or aunt) then the adolescent or young adult female Soro will have a stormy relationship with her elders, but they will take some account of her own talents and aspirations. However, if the girl should have the ill luck to have had the pack leadership pass to an outsider, then the new matriarch might well actively frustrate prestigious --or expensive --desires of the adolescent children of her predecessor(s) in favor of the new queen's own current or future close kin. Also, despite the fact that many of her older aunts will still be in influential positions within the pack, youth subject to a "foreign" queen typically face very harsh --sometimes even lethal --discipline.
There is, however, one bright spot in the life of almost every adolescent Soro girl. Unless obviously unsafe around children, she will be given the great privilege and pleasure of caring for her younger siblings. Creche and tutoring duties become the center of daily life for many Soro youth. Teachers of adolescent girls constantly complain about their students loosing their concentration in classes taught later in the school day --not so much because the students are tired, or anxious to get away from their lessons per se --but because most girls only resist obsessive day-dreaming about after-school child-care chores with the greatest difficulty. Older, trusted youth may even be allowed to sleep in the barracks of the younger of the pack's children as the night attendant.
In general, youthful maturity is less traumatic than adolescence, and middle age is even more stable for the female Soro. As she enters maturity, the female Soro settles into a routine. She is largely free from the random violence of adolescence and --unless she chooses to challenge a queen for dominance --can look forward to a long and productive life as a member of the most elite species in one of the Galaxies' most elite clans.
Loss of sisters, aunts, and nieces to war or dominance challenges is one kind of psychological stressor that the young, mature, female Soro will face throughout her life, but the trials of adolescence will have hardened her to the loss of all but her closest companions. Of these losses, the most psychologically important is the loss of the (male) sweet-heart. Soro do fall in love, and for the Soro romantic love is always tragic love because the male is doomed from the start. In fact, the young female Soro is unlikely to kill and mate with her beloved. She will have selected a particularly fine specimen of Soro masculinity as her love object, and the odds are that he will be taken by her own queen. This is one of the most common triggering events for dominance challenges.
The reader will recall that reproductive privileges are the exclusive monopoly of alpha females among the Soro. One might thus conclude that sub-dominant females never mate with the object of their affections, but this is not quite the truth. Sub-dominant pregnancies are rare but hardly unknown, and they are not dealt with consistently. At one end of the continuum, when the Soro have perceived themselves to be in a state of under-population, sub-dominant females may even be encouraged to lay clutches. Also, in conditions of demographic need or freedom, the queen may accept the accomplished deed of a beta-female's brood. However, egg destruction or infanticide is much more common than either of the previous options. The queen may also impose sanctions on the offending sub-dominant pack-mate as serious as exile or death. (Incidentally, clutches laid by non-queens tend to be much smaller than those laid by queens. In the rare event that a queen dies and is not succeeded by her challenger, the successor --lacking the quickening hormones gained through victory in a ritual challenge --will take three or four years to reach full fecundity.)
By the time the adult female Soro reaches early middle age, she will either be dead, a matricide, or --most commonly --a spinster. When it becomes clear to all that an older Soro female will never challenge a queen for dominance, she looses esteem in her own eyes and in those of her "sisters." This loss of prestige rarely results in any demotion for the "new" spinster, but it is almost always associated with a period of bullying and pushing, especially by those somewhat younger than her or those having equal occupational and hierarchical status. As a rule, the spinster --being a veteran survivor, if not a first rate competitor --breaks out of this abusive cycle using interpersonal alliance, tactically using the perks of her position in the organizational hierarchy, and through simple seniority. In fact, Soro spinsters are relatively safe and secure. Other than disease and accident, the spinster only need fear usurpation of pack leadership by a foreign victor (or the rarer, long inter-pack feud). A queen from the outside often stalls the careers of the old cadre of sisters in favor of her own close relatives. In extreme cases, her majesty may even exile or connive to assassinate or execute certain old-guard spinster aunties. However, even the risk of foreign rule fades over time as the elder spinster Soro becomes an indispensable (and relatively rare, given Soro mortality rates) repository of institutional history and all maner of wisdom.
The author suggests that these very senior aunties be called "witches." The reader will note that while the queen is theoretically the most powerful member of any Soro pack, in reality she rules her domain with a council of witches (a coven) that will almost certainly survive her, and who provide the pack's institutional continuity and historical memory. Queen and coven dynamics vary from highly productive to hopelessly snarled. Indeed, Queens (that is to say those who rule by right of victory in ritual single combat) exist in ramified hierarchies throughout the macro-structure of Soro society. However, for every queen Soro acting as an admiral, or C.E.O., or Department Minister, there is usually some witch acting in a capacity similar to that of an Executive Naval Officer, Board Chairwoman, or Permanent Secretary. It is the foolish negotiator who lets him or herself believe that just because such a Soro has never tried to gain reproductive privileges, and has no official capacity --that she is therefore untalented politically.
The mature female Soro may also become a queen. It should be noted that among Soro the will to power, the desire for sex, and the desire for emotional intimacy are in no way distinct. In order to maximize satisfaction of all three psycho-biological motivations the female Soro must become a queen, putting achievement above another strong Soro motivation --self-preservation. While one might assume that the first task of a queen is to provide her pack with progeny, the reader would in fact be wrong. Producing viable offspring for the pack is only part of a queen's broader mandate to secure the current and future prosperity of her pack. Ultimate responsibility for the pack and its members rests upon the queen.
The first task of the queen is thus to assure order in the pack. It is a task to which most Soro are eminently suited, characterologically. As previously noted, Soro are very particular about their environment --and usually seem to be very compulsive by Terragen standards. The queen is also the ultimate authority responsible for enforcing order in her pack, and disciplining "junior" members who violate the queen's rule is the primary cause of dominance displays. Indeed, when leadership challenges occur, it is often because a subordinate pack member feels she can no longer tolerate some aspect of the reigning queen's rule. More specifically, the challenger finds some aspect of the rule grossly contradicts her own rigid sense of order. Though in extreme circumstances a leadership challenge may occur over a rational objection to some policy of the queen, more typically challenges are triggered by a deeply offended personal sense of order.
While it must not be forgotten that queen Soros are capable of rational thought of the highest order --queens in charge of engineering teams are as productive as ever, for example --a queen's life is full of affective linkages to other Soro (and non-Soro). Within the pack these are almost always "positive" emotional ties; and while a competent queen is quite capable of the most Machiavellian elimination of her own rival daughter, doing so will still usually plunge the queen into deep grief.
To a large extent a queen's life involves relationships within the pack. She relates to her own young daughters as cute, beloved infants. Older children and adolescents are sources of agitation --for they are invariably unruly youth who disturb the proper order of the pack. However, they are no less loved than their younger siblings, and to a degree adolescent antics are seen as endearing in themselves. Incidentally, a queen is seldom able to relate to the sons of the pack any differently than the way she does to its youth, no matter the age of the male pack member.
A queen's relationships with mature female pack members is much more problematic. These "sisters" are the productive backbone of the pack community whose support is essential to the queen's rule. However, all are potential rivals. Nevertheless, at any given time, the queen can usually consider a number of her "sisters" as allies rather than probable challengers. Furthermore, the witches of the pack, knowing that frequent changes of administration are deleterious to pack well-being usually support the incumbent queen.
Still, the queen knows that in time she must be slain and replaced. Most queens have no greater desire than to be succeeded by one of their own mature daughters. Yet when actually challenged, it is the rare Soro queen who surrenders her life to a chosen successor. Either the queen feels the time is not right, or she earnestly believes that her challenger will impose an invidious rule, or she decides the challenger is not a gifted leader, or fearing death, the old queen simply looses her resolve to go easily. At any rate, most queens kill many of their most beloved and talented daughters and sisters in the course of their careers, and live in a permanent state of battle-hormone induced confidence mixed with almost permanent mourning.
This semi-permanent experience of mutually productive joy and grief is only compounded by the constant loss of lovers --all doomed, of course. For some reason, Soro frequently chose to mate with males (from other packs) who they have come to know quite well, and who have endeared themselves to the receptive female. Oddly enough, this has selective advantages, causing queens to mate with the most talented males. However, when the mating occurs the queen's pleasure will be mixed with the deepest sense of loss she may ever experience. The fact that she and her lover probably tried to keep passion --and its lethal consequence --at bay only furthers her sense of loss with that of personal failure. What is more, such remarkable male Soro have usually attracted the attentions of promising younger females, who not infrequently challenge the queen to revenge the death of their beloved.
In addition, the modern queen must deal with queens of peer-level packs, her superiors in the larger Soro hierarchy, and possibly queens of packs sub-dominant to her own. In short, she is also ultimately responsible for inter-pack politics. In general, queens dislike dealing with superior queens, and feel nervous when interacting directly with inferior queens --combat is all too common during inter-queen interactions. Queens of roughly equal status usually only choose to engage in lengthy meetings when in the company of a mutually acknowledged superior. When dealing with each other successfully, queens are ritualistically polite and sensitive to each others egos.
If the interpersonal relationship between two queens is failing, however, one will observe (the usually
rapid) degradation of politeness protocols. Those who do not want to be caught in the middle of a Soro
ritual combat for dominance (that might well occur as the exchange deteriorates, and that
will begin suddenly) should seek a protected corner of the room. Soro interior design
usually provides "safe holes" for youth and non-Soro. Soro usually take no offence when
outsiders (or even non-combatant, adult Soro) retreat to the corners at times of general emotional
stress. However, leaving the room is generally impolite, unless suggested by a senior Soro.
Given the Soro propensity for hierarchy and order, the good daughter is above all obedient and loyal to her queen and pack. She never talks back to elders or superiors, and performs her assigned tasks with sober diligence. She follows orders diligently. She demands the same from anyone subordinate to her. Though in active competition with her peers, she does not allow this competition to interfere with efficient completion of designated team missions. All Soro child-rearing practices are theoretically devoted to producing exactly this kind of good citizen. Most Soro females do, in fact, conform to some variation on this "good pack member and daughter" theme. Yet this is hardly the ideal, heroic, Soro personality --the self-assured, wilful, visionary conqueror. The good daughter obeys her "mother" and queen, but the successful daughter kills her mother and takes her place. The typical Soro queen's highest hope (and great fear) is that one of her real daughters will have the ability to wrest the queen's position from her. However, the good daughter has been raised to revere her queen --she is above the temptation of matricide.
Two factors frequently tip the balance. First, while the ideal queen is also truly mother, and
while any queen of the pack should be a mother-figure given the same consideration as ones own genitrix, the
truth of the matter is that most mature Soro females are not under the rule of their real mother. (This
is a demographic side-effect of Soro socio-biology. Queens reign for a median term of about 17
Earth years.) It follows that emotional attachments are
frequently lessened and personality clashes heightened, despite ideology to the contrary. Second, Soro
females have a strong drive to dominance AND to nest, and both require that the female Soro gain the rank of
queen. The resentimient that builds from what the Soro (roughly) call nurturing-frustration can
frequently be ignited by some otherwise trivial stress-event, resulting in an extemporaneous dominance
challenge.
By now the reader will have realized that ritual combats play a crucial role in the psychological and social life of the Soro. Also, these ritual combats are potentiated, and even required, by Soro socio-biology. The rush of anger and the swirl of personal combat fills Soro narrative. It also is never far from the conscious thought of every Soro. The passion of lust or anger --emotions that after a certain level of auto-stimulus, literally drive Soro behavior beyond fully conscious control --could (in theory) produce a fight at any time, anywhere. As we have seen, much Soro social organization and culture is devoted to either containing or channelling socially disruptive, violent emotional outbursts.
(The reader should not assume that because emotions may drive a Soro to single combat, that she enters a fully non-sapient state. Within her emotional storm, the amorous or enraged Soro can still speak, use weapons if available, and reason about the fight at hand. For example, Soro frequently make creative use of objects in the immediate surroundings to gain an advantage during ritual combat).
Of the various kinds of Soro ritual combat (as grouped by "motivation"), that for pack leadership --that is, the rank of queen --is the most psychologically salient for the majority of female Soro. It is a commonplace in the life of any reigning queen. For any young adult Soro the question of whether she should, or should not, challenge her queen is a central question. Meanwhile, for the older, spinster females challenges to the queen (and their encouragement or suppression) are a central question for their own well-being and that of their pack. Indeed, the dominance challenge and disemboweling of mate are two of the most powerful psychological forces among the Soro.
Closely related to dominance challenges per se, are ritual combats that occur between queens (and other members of different packs) over mates and other scarce resources. Such conflicts do not always restrict themselves to single combat, and the single combats that can emerge from inter-pack rivalries or personality conflicts between queens sometimes escalate into bloody feuds. Furthermore, inter-pack combat --especially between queens --often leads to a pack being re-queened by an outsider, or at least to the stronger of the hostile parties essentially controlling internal succession in the weaker party. It is thus understandable why inter-pack relations (especially between those in direct hierarchical competition) are usually highly formalized and conducted at a distance whenever possible. In addition, queens of higher ranking packs actively discourage inter-pack combats among their subordinates.
Curiously, except for challenges to the dominance of the queen, conflicts among adult pack members very seldom come to blows. (Actually, most "challenges" to the queen herself are resolved with set-behavior threat displays.) Threat displays generally suffice in the short term. When conflicts between two Soro in the same pack become commonplace, close supervision usually insures that the queen and her witches intervene before the two actually come to blows. Even then, few intra-pack fights between "sisters" are to the death. It is thus perhaps not surprising that for the Soro --even more than for Humans and other Terragens --the platonic or archetypal forms of "outsider" and "enemy" tend to cognitively fuse (as do the inverse categories of "friend" and "insider").
The reader will note that among Terran mammals psychological arousal is, to a degree, a general phenomenon --the physiology of arousal for flight, fight, or sexual activity are in many ways remarkably similar. Furthermore, for many species sex, combat, dominance, and territorialism are psychologically very closely related --so much so that dominant males (and females) of many species express dominance by mounting subdominant members of both sexes. Also, many male primates get erections during aggressive territorial displays.
For the Soro, the inherent socio-biological linkage between sex and "ritual" violence is much closer. Indeed --as we have mentioned previously --beyond a certain point of psycho-biological arousal, Soro no longer have the option of not engaging in combat for dominance or mating. As among Terragens, female Soro do experience mating --and the courtship ritual associated with mating --as very pleasurable. Also as among Terragens, especially Humans and Neo-Dolphins, courtship typically involves building intellectual and affective connections with the potential mate. In short, the female Soro usually mates with her love-object --and in doing so inevitably kills him. Needless to say, for the Soro mating is a source of much psychological conflict, and the ritual combat that precedes and accompanies mating is psychologically (and artistically) very important for the Soro. It is also worth noting that it is quite evident that the widespread mis-androny in Soro culture is in large measure generated as a psychological defense by female Soro --a defense effective to the degree that it denies the Soroness (or "humanity") of potential mates.
Also, like many mammals, such as Lions, and quite a few
primates including Rhesus
Monkeys, Gorillas, and
Humans, Soro sometime engage in mass infanticide when replacing the leadership of
a social grouping. As among mammals, this mass infanticide is related to reproductive success and
therefore becomes more probable as the genetic difference between the late queen and her successor grows
larger. Among the Soro mass infanticides usually occur in the context of individual packs. Thus,
they are more frequent, but far less extensive than the historical pattern among H. sapiens, where mass infanticide has
generally occurred in the context of conquest or ethnic cleansing, where it is also usually associated with
androcide and the enslavement and rape of women and economically viable children.(2) Also, among the Soro pack-level infanticides are almost
always conducted by the new queen herself, who enters a fugue state after the
first few murders and proceeds to finish the job in a ritualized psychological
state. The reader should also note, that while mass infanticide
plays a crucial role in much Soro art and literature, it is much less important in the psychology of most
individual Soro than the other three kinds of ritual combat that we have just reviewed.
It is thus apparent that --in the main --female Soro live in a relatively violent society. Furthermore, each Soro must stand up for her own prerogatives or have them taken by others. It follows that reticence about threatening or engaging in violence on an interpersonal level is quite rare among the Soro. Every Soro is involved in scuffles from time to time. However, it is equally true that most female Soro are also loathe to risk their personal safety in war. Relative to other senior patrons, such as the Jophur or Thennanin, Soro (at least female Soro) are remarkably under-represented in the military forces of their own clan. Indeed, almost no female Soro serve as ground infantry. Those who do usually hold at least the rank of "captain." Even in the interstellar navy there are relatively few female Soro, though one will find them represented at all ranks. Again, unlike most of their peers, Clan Soro operates no exclusively Soro crewed war vessels. Furthermore, the Soro --especially the females --have a widespread reputation among members of the Galactic militaries as "cowards."
The reason for this paradox between the enraged, and fearless Soro in single combat and the Soro loathe to risk life or limb in mass combat, is that the Soro make a clear distinction between "fertile" and "sterile" battle. Fertile battle has the potential to advance the individual's reproductive success (or that of ones close kin). Closely related is what the Soro call "similar-to-fertile-battle." These battles further ones social standing or material well-being without necessarily directly improving the individual's odds of reproductive success. Sterile battle, of course, in no way furthers the interests of the (individual) combatant. For the female Soro this distinction between fertile and sterile battle is not just an intellectual abstraction, but actually represents the pre-existing attitudes of almost all female Soro to violent conflict. Naturally, participation in war is quite a sterile proposition for the individual Soro --neither she nor her pack stand to gain advantages commensurate with the discomfort and risk incurred. Thus, few Soro willingly participate in warfare. However, interpersonal combat and inter-pack feuding are entirely different matters.
Yet the Soro Clan's military machine is among the most effective in O-2 space, and the Soro species itself regularly produces strategic and tactical geniuses. In addition, there are packs that for generations have largely made their living and reputation as professional warriors. Furthermore, at any time, four of the Nine Crimson Queens must come from military careers. Here is a paradox inside an apparent paradox. To a degree the answer lies in the natural variability of any species. Some Soro simply do not viscerally experience the fertile/sterile combat distinction --or at least not so strongly as most.
The other reason is that warfare is not an entirely sterile activity for all Soro. First, the
Soro who jeopardizes her sisters or her command through rank cowardice is assured a sterile death.
Furthermore, in particularly infamous cases her entire pack may also be exterminated, and taken from the gene
pool. This is much worse than merely dying a sterile death. Second, for those who serve with
distinction (especially those of high rank) there can indeed be very large rewards. Pack status can be
dramatically increased. In noteworthy cases permission is even granted for a pack to found a daughter
pack --a very fertile reward indeed.
Thus, we see that as in many Human cultures, there exists an essential conflict between children of one sex with the "law giving" parent of the same sex. However, among Humans this conflict is between father and son, while among Soro the conflict is between mother and daughter. Of course, among the Soro the parent who is the object of conflict is also the primary nurturer, which is not the usual case among Humans --at least historically. Thus, the female Soro --unlike the male Human --never changes her point of gender reference, nor does she suffer from a process analogous to "castration anxiety." However, from an early age she chafes against the hierarch's law --as do many young male Humans. But in the Soro case this conflict is considerably more pronounced due to Soro "compulsiveness" that puts a premium on conformity and obedience to the "law;" yet at the same time insures that parts of the same "law" will challenge the compulsive ordering desires of any Soro individual. Thus, the primary loci of oedipaloid conflict for the female Soro are the inherent contradictions between a compulsion to social conformity deeply ingrained in the "super-ego" during childhood, a personal drive to power and the role of "law giver" that puts the "daughter" in direct conflict with "mother" and the maternal order, and an innate desire to please that frequently demands both obedient conformity and inspired non-conformity --or even outright rebellion. Indeed, in the most extreme case, pleasing "mother" may ultimately mean the murder-sacrifice of "mother," in direct contradiction to the rule of "law" that demands the good "daughter" obey and protect her "mother."
Furthermore, as among Humans --where father and son "compete" for the same love object --Soro females literally compete in a zero-sum game for male love objects. However, while in most Human cultures with Oedipal processes much of the love-object competition occurs during very early childhood, among Soro this "infantile" process occurs in adolescence and early adulthood. (The reader will also note that among Soro inter-sibling competition for the attentions of the nurturing parent are much more pronounced than in even the largest Human or Neo-Chimpanzee families. Thus, sibling rivalry occurs among the Soro, and is much more acute than among Terragens.)
Thus, in addition to "affection," the female Soro feels a great deal of resentment and even rage against the law-giving parent. This is almost always accompanied by self-recrimination --even if psychological defense mechanisms keep many Soro from consciously admitting this self-recrimination. (This denial largely results from the premium Soro society puts on all forms of personal strength and the amazing Soro capacity for narcissism.) This self-recrimination is not, however, guilt. Soro are almost incapable of feeling morally culpable, or of feeling what Terragens experience as guilt, or even shame. However, Soro are motivated to loyalty --even love --and to orderliness. Thus, rebellion --even rebellion in private thoughts --frequently cause Soro to feel a sense --not so much of being polluted --as being a polluter. It follows, that when feelings of personal attachment and one set of ordering values comes into conflict with another set of ordering values (or in the case of competition for males, one personal attachment conflicts with another personal attachment and a fundamental ordering principle), that these conflicts between drives and compulsions are frequently difficult to resolve and cause psychological stress.
To this conflict of emotions is added the sense of loss, mourning, and anxiety about the future that follows the death of the mother figure, or queen. Furthermore, every Soro from time-to-time thinks about killing her queen. (The concept of murder, per se, does not exist among the Soro --only of non-traditional or disallowed methods of combat, or the socially disordering [non-utilitarian or inapt] killing.) Being sapient, Soro can --and do --speculate about the future and forecast the probable effects of hypothetical actions. Thus, most Soro who contemplate killing their "mother" soon find themselves thinking about what happens next. And in addition to imagining the pleasures of being queen, she also imagines her grief and the demands of queenship. She also realizes that while she will live with the almost constant pleasure of victory and battle hormones, almost every victory in personal combat will also be cause for mourning because it will involve killing a pack-mate.
Among Humans --and other Terragens--the will-to-power and the
will-to-intimacy frequently intertwine, and disrupt relationships. However, among the Soro it is almost
impossible to make a meaningful psychological distinction between the will-to-power and the
will-to-intimacy. For the Soro, intimacy is yet another necessary component or tool that she needs in
order to structure her immediate environment to her perfectionistic demands. That is, for the Soro
intimacy is just another form of power (or source of frustration). This does not mean that Soro
experience no conflict between the libido's quest for intimacy and the
thanatos' quest for power (and order) --quite the contrary. Soro females
experience constant psychological conflict between the will-to-power and the will-to-intimacy. The
ultimate expressions of these conflicts are the killing of ones mother or favorite daughter, and slaying your
lover in the midst of passion. It is no surprise that pathos is a major theme in great corpus of Soro
literature and art. Pathos is --after all --an almost daily emotional experience in Soro life.
From the above we can derive several hypotheses with practical applications. The first is that due to the compulsive nature of the modal Soro personality, and the Soro's strong drive to precisely order their environment, the average Soro has little choice but to address disruptions in that same carefully maintained order. This response is much like the compulsion a cat has toward personal cleanliness, and just as a cat will try to clean its fur of petroleum products or medications stuck to its fur by owners, others can use Soro compulsiveness against them. The reader should note that Soro compulsiveness not only manifests itself at the level of personal behavior, but also --and rather more predictably (in terms of the probability of a response, not necessarily the specifics of any response) --among Soro in the aggregate. In other words, for the Soro many things --such as changing the arrangement of articles on a desk, or altering mass transit timetables --that would be almost insignificant for most Terragens are like psychological itches to a Soro, and these itches must be scratched. Sufficiently intricate violations of the Soro sense of order can result in directing considerable resources to rectify the situation.
Second, while Terragens have great difficulty thinking in rigorous if-then logic instead of if-and-only-if logic, Galactic cannons of uplift assure that almost all Galactics --including the Soro --perform both logic operations with ease, and rigorous distinction. However, this cognitive "advantage" (it does seem to lessen the ability of Galactics to think laterally) is still no protection against unsound premises, and Galactics are no better protected against this more fundamental error than are Terragens. In particular, the Soro are inherently prone to making the questionable assumption that "ALL outsiders are enemies!" At this point uplift desiderata only exacerbate the initial "error." Soro, like most Galactics, are talented --even automatic --logicians by design. Since all outsiders are enemies, a friend who is also an outsider cannot exist. Either she is really not an outsider, and thus an insider; or she is not really a friend, and thus an outsider and an enemy. Nevertheless, the Soro, though known to be Machiavellian, are not particularly paranoid and are far from being xenophobic per se. Indeed, they can and do form deep personal attachments and loyalties among themselves, and with members of other species --usually, but not exclusively, with their own clients. Thus, the way any individual Soro (or Soro pack) will solve the enemy-outsider or insider-friend dilemma is relatively unpredictable. It is possible for anyone, especially a "friend," to use the Soro suspicion of outsiders (and "outsider" is --of course --a context specific and flexible term) to influence the behavior of any Soro individual or group. A similar weak point in Soro psychology is a pronounced --if often denied or repressed --anxiety about the enemy (or outsider) within. Well known in Human history, this anxiety is even deeper and more irrational among the Soro, and can also be used to sow dissention and to cause the wasting of huge amounts of resources on (pardon the pun) "witch hunts."
But probably the most important point that emerges from the preceding analysis is the fact that any
hierarchical relationship between Soro (especially that between a queen and the queen who is her immediate
superior) is a point of extreme political fragility. The astute politician can exploit the narcissistic
egos of the concerned parties (especially the ego of the lower ranking Soro party) to either gain political
advantages and favors, or to drive the problematic relationship into a period of wasteful and unproductive
conflict. Unfortunately, using this weak point in Soro socio-political structure to best advantage
requires accurate and detailed understanding of the relevant real (as opposed to the nominal) political
structure, and among Soro political reality is always complex. However, the experienced observer can
gain considerable insight into local Soro politics by watching the activities of the Soro's clients,
especially those of any Pila who might be present.
This article has dwelt on the psycho-social effects of traditional Soro bio-sociology. However, historical changes in Soro reproductive practices are associated with long-term secular changes in the Soro life-cycle, and consequently in Soro psychological development. These changes have been produced by the twin technologies of artificial fertilization and virtual mating. The widespread use of these sexual and reproductive technologies have also resulted in substantial genetic change in the Soro population as a whole (that is, by definition, evolution).
Curiously, the Hul --patrons of the Soro --discouraged use of these artificial techniques. For millennia after reaching their Galactic majority, the Soro followed this injunction of their patrons rather closely. However, every Galactic sapient species is encouraged to attend to its continued progress in both sapience and sentience, so no ban on artificial reproductive techniques can be absolute. The Soro have been more diligent than most in practicing "self-uplift." As time went on, the number of contingencies under which artificial fertilization could be practiced grew. Today, almost every Soro participates in virtual sex, and artificial insemination is quite common. About one in three Soros are conceived by artificial means.
As a result, males --especially those most capable of contributing to Soro society (who also tend to be most desirable as mates) --live much longer lives than their ancestors. More desirable males also have increased their relative reproductive success, fathering many children by artificial means before finally fathering an entire brood with a queen. There has thus been a secular rise in intelligence, especially male intelligence, throughout Soro history. Artificial insemination has also broken the reproductive monopoly of Soro queens. While queens still lay and hatch the majority of Soro children, a great many Soro females who live to adulthood will hatch at least one egg. Curiously, there seems to be some indication that the violence of Soro adolescence has increased as a result --in order to stay within Institute of Migration population guidelines. Male longevity and virtual mating has also resulted in long-term male-female alliances --that were virtually impossible in "classic" Soro society. These alliances, combined with the slow increase in the median intelligence of Soro males, have given many males and females an interest in promoting male participation in Soro society on both the individual and aggregate levels. While Soro society remains quite ambivalent about --or even hostile to --(Soro) males, it is clear from historical records that there has been a pronounced improvement in the status of males over time.
1. Department of Xenology, University of Texas, Austin. This paper was originally presented at the annual meeting of the Trans-Atlantic Society of Xenologists, held in Dublin, 2531 C.E.
2. The other common context for Human mass infanticide is dynastic replacement. A classic example of this kind of massacre is the story of David eliminating the family of his predecessor, Saul, in the Jewish sacred book. Another example is the murder of Richard's nephews in Shakespeare's Richard III.
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