Meluwen/Quentilar - the "gal pact" - hey, it beats eating the competition!

Male fairies, although not entirely rare, are seriously outnumbered by females, starting from birth.

The birth rate is at least six females to one male for both Silurhean carnivores and all groups of exo-symbiotes - meaning, Siluvarans and their blue-aura kin in the uncivilized wild.

Among Silurheans, fairies compete violently for males. Some civilized groups allow the males to decide who they want, and the rest simply go with it. But there is always the potential for fights to the death over males even in those situations, and every once in a while, two Silurheans will get into a magic duel and the loser will be devoured.

This is how Silurhean females resolve the male shortage.


Wild exo-symbiote females rarely fight over males, but still, if it happens, it can be to the death. Most of the time, exo-symbiotes will come to an agreement to form a "gal pact". It goes by many names, but the civilized Siluvarans call it Meluwen, or Quentilar. Quentilar is typically the word used to describe the tradition, while Meluwen is the word used to describe the actual group of women that form the "gal pact": as in, a Meluwen, or Meluwen group.

Quentilar is the tradition by which two or three or more (almost always three or more) fairy women form an intimate and even romantic relationship with each other, and work together to find a male for a mate. If a male takes interest in one of the women in the group, he is quickly introduced to them all, so that he may know right away what he's getting into. The entire group works together to seduce and court him, and if he mates with one, he must mate with them all; essentially, they are become his mates. The group typically follows the leadership of the alpha female. The alpha female in the group - and there isn't always an alpha in the pact - is, of course, the leader of the pact, but she cedes veto power to her female mates. She has an equal voice with her girlfriends in a disagreement with the male mate, though. The alpha female traditionally has the right to be the first to have a child by the male, and to decide who's next.

(A side note: official marriage is a human tradition, as is divorce. Fairies don't have a real ceremony for their pairings, much less a piece of paper to make it official, but symbiotes and carnivorous groups alike mate for life. Practically speaking it's not hard to tell whom is with whom. Good luck getting a fairy to stray from their mats...)

Fairy males are fairly reluctant to share themselves with even one mate because of the fear of surrendering his thoughts and memories and enriching her status in the world while receiving none of her knowledge in return. Three women? Indeed, the thought may initially make a male fairy shudder.

A typical Meluwen group will thus be confronted with the task of convincing him that he is an equal, indeed the most highly valued member of the group, and that he is entitled to all of the knowledge and inside information that the group passes around via exo-symbiosis (Gaia's Blessing). This is not a promise they make lightly; no gal pact wants to interact with another woman fairy who might (by absorbing their memories) find out that they have been shortchanging their husband. If she comes back around and does exo-symbiosis on the husband and shows him what he's missing, things can go terribly wrong, up to and including pulling him into another gal-pact. Unless, of course, he has children to look after; in this case, he may be stuck in the relationship, but his wives will be forced to make a lot of amends. In this case, male fairies become more opportunistic than angry - for instance, he may go so far as to force them to accept a new woman fairy into the group - as in, the fairy who outed them - who then may become the alpha female. This is a major, major nightmarish scenario as to serve as a perfect deterrent.

Fairy women of the Royal Guard, who are known for hiding secrets from society at large, are the only group whose women will hide things from their male mate. But then they often form pacts around male Royal Guard soldiers - sometimes large pacts of up to 5, because they have no other group to choose from - and Royal Guard soldiers are by sheer military discipline unlikely to hold anything back from sharing with their mate during exo-symbiotic absorption.



Gal-pacts tend to approach courting males one of two ways: slowly, or aggressively. The aggressive way entails overwhelming him with charm and subduing his reluctance with sheer acts of affection and magically enhanced seduction. Every now and then a male fairy will come along who loves the idea of undergoing exo-symbiosis with a fairy woman - he is aggressive pact's dream. He's not so concerned about whether they share their knowledge with him, although his attitude may change over time - a fact that all fairy women are advised of by their mothers. Most pacts, though, take things slowly. A traditionalist gal-pact will take an overeager male fairy and slow him down, get to know him, and then the alpha female will be the first to have him, via exo-symbiosis and also sexually.

Gal pacts, of course, prefer males who've never had sex before and whom haven't previously been fed to some other fairy's womb. They like to be his first, to overwhelm him and leave him star-struck. The alpha female, of course, is tasked with giving him such an incredibly good experience that all thoughts of other fairies outside the pact go flying out the window, whether he's a virgin or not.

Gal-pacts also rally to defend their male mate in a fight, although his primary wish at the time is for them to get out of harm's way. Pregnant fairies in the group are the most protected class, along with children.