Editing LeviathanTempest:ArchivedSocialLife (section)

=== Taxa ===
"Taxa: Many Leviathans have two Taxa, a (or group of) member(s) of their phyla and a (or group) member(s) of their Class. Think support group. These are informal grouping. If someone calls together an emergency meeting of all the Leviathan in a certain city, those who show up are a Taxa. If you could get all the Oceanids on the East Coast or all of the Tehom in NYC into a room, that would be a Taxa too. No formal structure, but the big fish (often called a Headman or some variation therefore of, a situational ranking/title if there ever was one) sits at the head of the table, if you know what I mean." 

The largest relevant social unit of the Tribe, a taxon is a meeting of Leviathans drawn together for a given reason or for sharing a given trait. If every member of the Tribe meets, that's a taxon. Most taxa are composed of members of a given School from a certain region, generally meeting to discuss a particular find or event that concerns them. As Schools are primarily informal, these meetings aren't built with a guest list in mind - everyone who shows is showing because the thing under discussion is relevant to them. 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 between individuals who are part of a taxon. 

Regional taxa might also have an informal leadership - generally the most dangerous or developed Leviathan that bothered to show. When a Tribe member in a region goes rogue, or an enemy is about, this is the figure that gets turned to for advice - generally right before or right after every Leviathan in the city does what he or she wants about the problem anyway, however. A regional taxon is often a place where Tribe members who will later form a Cohort meet, and it also informs members of various Schools about locals that share their interests - it lets the members of Kingu's Camp know where they might be able to get information or aid on a problem from, for instace.

This informal leader is traditionally called a Headman, as he wields influence without any formal authority. Some Headmen remain so for years on end and manage to bring a certain regularity to taxa meetings, but this is rare. More often, a given region will have several Headmen who will call meetings on different areas of interest.