For those not familiar with the story a character ends up manifesting a mark and a member of the relevant house chases the character to capture him/her to present him/her before the lords of the house. There is also a story told by one of the characters about a person that manifested a powerful Siberys mark, but that the power was not without a price; supposedly the bearer was a slave to the house.
So I'm curious... regarding foundlings specifically, what sort of legal authority does a House hold over its foundlings? And similarly, does a foundling have obligations to its House once discovered?
I imagine that the story told about the bearer of the Siberys mark is being colorful, and the character was not actually a slave to the House. However, the way the foundling is handled upon being discovered suggests to me that they have little to no choice.
It's possible that this has much to do with the nature of the person that discovered the mark bearer (he's a douche). But the protagonists felt that the mark should be hidden even before being discovered, afraid that if members of the House saw the mark they would "claim" the bearer.
Any insight? Thanks in advance
.PS. Geth is awesome! So is Ashi!
That said, the houses are pretty ruthless when it comes to ensuring their foundlings are brought into the fold for a variety of different reasons (fear of aberrant markings, fear of sullied reputation should the foundling do something stupid, wanting to maintain their monopoly, etc).
A foundling who develops a Dragonmark would, in fact, be quite wise in hiding it if he/she didn't want to be "recruited" into the house. Given all the institutions that the houses can influence, if they so wished, life could be pretty hard on a foundling who refuses to join the house.
That isn't to say a house could choose to allow a Foundling to remain independant, they might. But the house would certainly have certain criteria that the foundling would have to adhere with to ensure his freedom (no economic competition, no marrying other marked individuals, etc).
However, Siberys marks are a whole different matter, IMO. I'm 100% certain a foundling who develops a Siberys mark would be targeted with every bit of influence the House could gather to ensure they were brought into the fold.
This is more or less what happens with Ashi. In Dragon Below she has absolutely no backup. Who cares about a savage from the Shadow Marches? At the same time, being a savage poses a PR risk to House Deneith, strengthened by the fact that their big rivals come from the Shadow Marches. Add the ambitious individual who is looking forward to a big reward for finding her and who is willing to play dirty to get that reward, and you suddenly have a situation like in the novels. Later on, she becomes very close personal friends with the ruler of Darguun, and in the process prevents the Houses from making themselves look like big fools. Now, she can walk away, because for one thing, she proved to be more than a savage, and to keep House Deneith's interest in mind (better than the local official for that matter) and angering her would jeapordize Deneith's contracts with Darguun.
Thanks again guys!
Thanks for the responses guys. That clears things up a bit for me. I was referring to Ashi in the Dragon Below but did not want to spoil anything for those that haven't read it yet. I haven't read the second trilogy featuring Geth and Ashi yet (I'm waiting for the first book to arrive by mail) but it will be interesting to see the interaction between Ashi and the House.
Neither series is primarily about the Dragonmarked Houses. It is a minor plotpoint, although it gets a bit more attention in the Daargun trilogy... So it are not really spoilers ;)