soooooo… smiles)) who are the horrible familiars…
hehgheeheh well you know em . the scrutiniser the attorney the intervener… AAAAAAAAAND (im also going to put in a lot of familiar lore dumping here too) . actually this is huge
THESE TWO!!!!!! the scrutinisers friends… but all their friends (except attorney who is FUCKING WEIRD) sorta distance themselves because thats usually what familiars do. THE CATECHISM (employed to oversee familiar exams, like the primex middex postex and finex…) AND THE SUBDUER (employed to wrangle around any animals that get in the way of their newer recruits) . theyre in the same batch as ouroboros relatively speaking of age.
now the catechism is naturally dismissive and stubborn about the way things are handled because in their eyes they dont really see a need for change, and therefore they are unaccommodating. the system worked for THEM… if it didnt work for you, maybe its a YOU problem . they actually do have a child and its SHERIFF WHISKERTON though i am yet to draw my design of that animal … needless to say sheriff is incredibly neglected on account of just BARELY passing their exams (failing your primex, middex or postex makes you a fimil, often fimilae are young children which makes them easy to kill and exploit, if they’ve become a young adult then its likely that theyre weakened from a constant life of malnutrition and threats of death also) because in the catechism’s eyes, they really “dont need to bother,” to them its only a matter of time before sheriff ends up dead or sweeped up in a low-value job . refuses to give sheriff any time of day . and yet theyre surprised when sheriff ends up joining the witch of despair!!!
as catechism is Light-Sanctioned (job that is used more widely than helping a specific witch) (and one that is recognised as Important at that) they are said to work closer with the witch of light (though you could argue that its only limited to brief announcements… hm) and this is the one time where they are OUTRAGED to have such a threat towards their position.
enough people are questioning their role if their own apprentice has betrayed the order for this new and threatening display! this is exactly what sheriff whiskerton would have wanted . (familiars cant reproduce, the magic which gives them their sophont-status basically stores all their organs in a weird magic film sac until their graduation, which when put in the cauldron it both dissolves the sac and activates the magic which turns their organs and bodies Weird) (a young familiar as a baby MAY be ‘gifted’ to a familiar specially instead of being collectively raised by the majority of familiars, making them an ‘apprentice’ legally: but socially they are recognised almost as the children of the familiar in question) (this is meant to be seen as a gift, a lot of familiars actually resent this but would never dare admit it)
the scrutiniser when they were young found them frustrating and shallow. while obviously they never drew the right conclusions, the scrutiniser DID recognise that something was wrong. however the conclusion they drew from this was not “the treatment of the people around me is cruel and unjust, just for the crime of being under the social ladder” but rather “why the hell am i not up on the social ladder, why is life so unfair to me, why are THESE PEOPLE so unfair to me”
MEANWHILE THE SUBDUER. in fact they have shitty grades also and you could argue that theyre somewhat of an example (though there will always be others who suffer more than them, mainly the fimils) of what it’s like to be fucked over by the system that upholds them, barely also passing their exams. theyre often treated as subhuman (subfamiliar?) and useless . they end up being brash and violent and takes it out on the vulnerable (like i said, the fimils) . but passing it off as non serious because they never caused enough harm in their eyes to warrant being called a “bully.” when they graduate they are employed to take down the animals struggling with their children and bring back the new “recruits.” ultimately they grow more and more bitter but they easily pass it off as being excitable and intense. technically with their venom they can just take them out easy, but often the subduer likes to make them struggle a little, put up a bit more of a fight, thrash them around too. maybe even if theyre dead the subduer can have their “fun” still and throw around the corpse like a ragdoll. its always been categorised as the “subduer thing”. they are reminded to tone it down a bit when travelling with a young witch to capture a new recruit. they are also equally as violent with any fimil that strikes the wrong nerve that day.
now with the scrutiniser themselves being so highly praised and with their high grades… their relationship is almost pitiful . they keep the subduer around to have a constant reminder of what could “happen to them,” almost, to subtly parade them around as the “worst” contrasted with the “best,” to make sure that they themselves dont fall victim by giving a reason. see, im still not like them! but the subduer also equally feeds into their more violent impulses especially later on, to a point where both of them have a point of targeting random fimils to berate and bully (until the scrutiniser accidentally kills one of them first .)
…it turns out that the punishment they receive is just a little bit of cleaning bottle work (which was a lot easier than what the subduer naturally had to endure, actually). though while they were relieved, the scrutiniser themself was absolutely FROTHING by the mouth. with how easily they killed that fimil… the witches could easily do just the same. they weren’t at the TOP of the hierarchy, after all… and so they marinate in their dread for a bit until they come out worse (ouroboros) (THEY WANT A BETTER JOB, SOMETHING WITH POWER, PLEASE THEYRE DESPERATE !)
here are the Shitstain Googoobooboos hanging out (around high school age here, give or take). they are a friend group that constantly fights. they hate each other. the most petty nothingburger drama is happening between all of them . they HAVE gotten with each other and broken up multiple times (im going to let you sit with the implications of ouroboros there. theyre not going to answer any question you have theyre going to deny all of it.) ouroboros as you can see is quite popular in general but never pleasant once you really get to know them . still these 5 are the popular kids who get a say in a lot of what the other trainees have to deal with . ESPECIALLY the scrutiniser who has the highest grades (though also the highest expectations, do with that what you will) and can very easily put people down as well as keep them up in their ranks (as we can see from the subduer)
oh ? what are those numbers ? well those are serial numbers, which are what the trainees are referred to before theyre employed (got inspired off of @karcinogen for this, i get that serial numbers show up in other places but i was thinking of epsilion while i made this…) of course they each have their own little personalized nicknames for each other. as for what they mean ? WELL im going to make you guess because ive already said so much . BUT i will give you a prize for every right answer (ESPECIALLY for the last number it reveals More Worldbuilding)