Aristocratic Families. (extract taken from Understanding the past, a school textbook by Prof. Mufudazi Flowers) "Chapter 5 The Fighammer family maintained their solo status for just over a decade. The next Goolooian to declare herself an aristocrat was Mary 'Gloves' Mbuku, a botanist who specialised in growing enormous marrows. She originally established herself near the Fighammers, but after several generations of Mbukus had come and gone, border conflicts forced the family to move north. Others joined the exodus into the countryside. Among them were: Lord Septimus Glare Duchess Leah the Charming (later to become O'Charmien) Baron Olav Mirror. Duke Shankardevananda Frostbitten Lady Siobhan Small Duchess Hsing-Feng Regurgitator Lady Cordelia Art Duke Luis Quake Archduke Martin J. Faraway They spread out through the North-West and the Falling Hills. At first there was more than enough room for everybody and the families greeted each new arrival with pleasure, regarding them as fellow renegades, but once all the choice pieces of land were taken then rivalries and bickering began to break out. The Regurgitator and Mirror families were the first to engage in all-out war. Duchess Hsing-Feng called on Lady Siobhan Small for assistance (they had been fellow apprentice clockwork artists back in Gum Gooloo) only to be rejected with the words "Start trouble somewhere else, Hsing." The Smalls and Regurgitators became enemies at that moment. They are enemies to this day. While a normal Goolooian does not tend to hold a grudge, the aristocrats had discovered something new out there in their foreign states and territories. They had discovered pride. It was pride that made them hold onto hatreds rather than say "Sorry" and risk looking weak. Pride divided the families and prevented them from uniting when the Exians came, years later, and destroyed their homes. Today the aristocrats reminisce fondly and bitterly about the past, but life on the estates was never perfect. In the rush for land, many families ended up with poorly watered, infertile scraps of property. Trapped in this situation were the unhappy Baronesses Raw who died of starvation after their supply lines were cut off by a petty squabble between the Regurgitators, Shins and Glares. Nor was misfortune confined to the families. Ambitious Goolooians who failed in their bid for a title found themselves forced to work for their more successful peers as emissionaries, farmers, cooks and servants, and not all of the Dukes and Viscountesses treated their citizens well, as we shall see in our next chapter, The development of Jail." Go ahead to the next chapter, The Development of Jail or back to the Timeline.