Editing LeviathanTempest:ChapterOne (section)

=== Family ===
It is a source of mixed feelings for most Leviathans to know that they are linked by blood not only to their immediate mortal family but to each and every member of the Tribe and, beyond even that, to all of the spawn of Tiamat. At the first level, a Leviathan can find some allies in his parents and siblings. A family that is deeply touched with the blood of the Tribe is often subtly different from its neighbors. The family ''remembers''. If a Leviathan has emerged from the family in the past, there will be traces. A Leviathan that interacts with their family - or raises one of their own - will change them. Siblings and cousins become cultists. Children are twisted hybrids, warped by the presence of a Progenitor's blood. Elements of the Leviathan's search for meaning and position will be imposed on family tradition and practices. Rituals will emerge. As time passes, the more direct influence might fade, but elements will remain as family folklore and superstition. In the most drastic cases, a whole branch of the family might be composed of Hybrids, lurking at the fringes, just awaiting the re-emergence of the blood of the Progenitors. For some Leviathans, a lot of the little quirks of their family begin to make a hell of a lot more sense after their Emergence. 

Family connections can be a blessing, but most are tainted with the same disparity of power that isolates a Leviathan from other humans. Relatives are not proof against the Wake, and the acknowledged divinity of a member of the Tribe means that the tendency towards worship will only be more pronounced in those that are "in the know." A Leviathan who returns to his family will find that his role has shifted completely. Those that once offered consolation and advice will now come asking for blessings, and former close siblings will be deferential and timid. The role of deity is incompatible with the role of a child or sibling. It is for this reason that most members of the Tribe find that their only peers are, well, their peers. Fellow Leviathans are immune to the Wake. They share many of the same concerns and are undergoing the same changes. The solution isn't perfect. Just because members of the Tribe have something in common doesn't mean that they enjoy one another's presence. Beyond the usual hurdles of incompatible personalities and annoying quirks, the instincts encoded in the blood of the Progenitors are deeply rooted in the urges of a beast. Being close to a fellow Leviathan can trigger numerous and conflicting instincts - inappropriate desires combined with a violent and territorial outrage. Members of the Tribe are simultaneously experiencing one another as human individuals and as potential rivals or mates (or both). 

When a group of Leviathans meets, whether for a given reason or because they all share a given trait, such as living in the same region, it is called a taxon. These serve as the most relevant social unit for the Tribe, but they are entirely ephemeral, and can vary widely in size. If every member of the Tribe in a city meets, that's a taxon, and it's the same deal if it's only the three Leviathans that share a county. Many taxon are composed of Leviathans who share a School, as some event relative to their shared interest comes up that they wish to consult on. These events aren't built with a guest list in mind, however, and no one with an interest is going to be denied entrance to the meeting - they're there because they're interested, not because they're part of some secret club. A taxon might involve an exchange of information, especially contact information, in order to build a support group, but many Leviathan are reluctant to be "in touch" with other members of the Tribe - there is an understood degree of emergency that is necessary before contact will be made. 

Regional taxa might meet on repeated occasions and evolve an informal leadership structure, in which the most dangerous or experienced Leviathan that bothers to show is given precedence and can make requests of those present. The position is mostly organizational, however, and Leviathans will effectively be offering aid on their own discretion. The regional "leader" will be the one that members of the Tribe look to for advice and guidance when a local cousin goes rogue (or Typhon), often right before each individual does what he or she intended to do in the first place. A regional taxon is also where Leviathans that will later form a Cohort might meet, and where members of a School can trade information and talk shop with one another. Informal taxa leaders are traditionally called Hetmen. The most influential of these might "lead" for years and impose a certain regularity to taxon meetings, but this is rare. Far more often, a given region with a significant Leviathan population will instead have several Hetmen that lead taxa on different areas of interest. A truly driven and well-respected Hetman can serve as the founder of a Legion, forging his taxon into a ritual event with far-reaching consequences. 

Many newly Emerged Leviathans have enough trouble dealing with the news that they're scions of long-lost primordial gods. Learning that you and your "cousins" are monstrous shapeshifters is quite a shock. Then there are the more distant relatives. The family tree of the Tribe is more of a thistle bush, and there are a vast number of beings that share at least some fraction of their ancestry with the Progenitors. 

Hybrids are the foremost of these, with a mixture of strong Progenitor and human blood producing a being whose form echoes the Progenitor, without many of the mystic gifts of the Tribe. Hybrids can vary from nearly-human to complete abominations, and many are cursed with animalistic minds to match their bestial bodies. The primary Strains of the Tribe are fortunate to produce relatively stable Hybrids who share roughly the same set of traits. These serve as their servants and acolytes, the defenders of the line, and are differentiated from others by the title of Lahmasu. Other lines of Hybrids are produced by accident or through exposure to the blood of Tiamat from sources other than the Tribe. These can vary wildly in appearance and mentality, and most lurk in forgotten places as predators and scavengers. Hybrids can be allies, but most that are not Lahmasu are unreliable and often have their minds warped by the hardships of their twisted existence. They combine the predatory instincts and natural weapons of a beast with the cruelty and cunning of a human predator, making them extremely dangerous. Taxa are occasionally formed simply to wipe out a band of Hybrids that has grown too brazen in its excesses, but, as Hybrids can recreate themselves reliably through reproduction, it is hard to tell if a given clan has been truly exterminated. 

More dangerous than Hybrids are those offspring which shoot from Tiamat's other spawn. While the Progenitors were apparently the most numerous, the Tribe has discovered that they were not alone. Little is certain about these distant cousins, and theories abound of a Progenitor or group of Progenitors which were spawned for sovereignty over the sky and earth as well as the seas. Some Leviathans point to the story of Echidna, another mother of monsters, as a potential offshoot of Tiamat. The Tribe refer to these disparate terrestrial cousins as the Cryptids. Some Cryptids manifest supernatural abilities, including a sort of Wake, while others do not - suggesting perhaps that the "lesser" cousins are in fact Hybrids spawned from a hidden and parallel Tribe of the land and sky, which has survived in pockets to the modern nights. When members of the Tribe meet these distant cousins, the results are usually not pretty. Thus far, there is no known record of contact and cooperation with the "other Tribe," should it truly exist.