Is the U-Tribe at the Forgotten Springs an outlier with Nunh Leadership?

[Lurial]

In the miqo'te naming convention thread, it's states that "Nunh status does not equate to leadership within a tribe, and in fact, very few nunh ever become leaders."

However, the one miqo'te tribe we ever really get to run into in the game is the U-Tribe from the Forgotten Springs which is very obviously run by a nunh leader. In addition to that, most of the quests surrounding the U-Tribe make it sound like it's just a normal thing for Nunh to be leaders. For example the quest given by U'khuba Tia's quests discuss the future of the tribe as though the nunh has significant impact on the direction it will go in. U'odh Nunh's quest "What's it to U" straight up says that the word of the nunh is law.

This is a pretty big contradiction. Is he just an outlier because he defeated Titan and thus was seen as being so badass that they let him become leader?

[AskaRay]

This is a pretty big contradiction. Is he just an outlier because he defeated Titan and thus was seen as being so badass that they let him become leader?

That probably has something to do with it.

[Fenral]

Seeker Miqo'te and lore consistency are oil and water. You learn to get used to it.

[Anonymoose]

I noticed this spreading from Balmung to Tumblr to Twitter, so I pulled my notes just in case it came here next (lol).

Indeed - U'odh is both the nunh of the U and the leader of the U. He explicitly says that his word is law, and the two who seek to unseat him both say they intend to lead. This is about more than the status of breeding males to them, obviously. The U also don't seem to have multiple nunhs at the moment since they keep referring to the nunh, not a nunh. I can't answer whether or not the U are outliers, but based on the "few nunhs ever become leaders" quote in the naming conventions, I'm guessing it's more likely than not. But back to U'odh.

I think this might be about the culture of the Drake tribe in general - the U respect strength above all else. You can see, I'm sure, where this overlaps with the tradition of how one becomes a nunh - defeating their predecessor. And this guy beat Titan.

Who can lead without respect? How do you compete for respect with the nunh when respect is decided by strength?

For the U, this is not so odd, imho.

Imagine a tribe where the highest virtue was intelligence or compassion or experience or age.
The nunh of that tribe would not be as likely to end up leading as he would be with the U, I would think.

[Lurial]

Good point- Thanks Anonymoose! (And yeah, I slapped this question up here because of the raging Tumblr debate. :V)

[Velox]

And this guy beat Titan.

And Leviathan.

And was able to put up with Brayflox's shenanigans the entire time on both fights. Hell, if that alone doesn't get you "leader" status, nothing will. :P

[Rocl]

wow, are you hating on Brayflox? that's unthinkable

[JeniLinsky]

Imagine a tribe where the highest virtue was intelligence or compassion or experience or age.

I'm not sure experience or age is a possible value for determining a Nunh. It seems clear that there's a weakness in the Y chromosome of seekers, which is why ten females are born for every male. The purpose of the entire Nunh / Tia arrangement is to make sure that the best genes possible are passed on. By the time one accumulates a significant amount of experience / age, chromosomal damage has begun to accumulate... the would-be nunh is past the age at which his genetic material is optimal. Yes, it's possible for older males to sire children, but the incidence of birth defects among children with older fathers is higher. If you're looking for the best genetic combinations, you choose young adults for breeding.

[Anonymoose]

I'm not sure experience or age is a possible value for determining a Nunh.

To clarify - in that hypothetical, the values in question were for determining who might be more likely to become the tribe's leader, not its nunh. The naming conventions imply that they are rarely the same person. Specifically in the case of the U, their valued traits and the deciding factors for who is likely to become nunh overlap, and their leader and nunh ended up the same person. Some saw this as a possible contradiction, so to show how this might be normal for the U while still not being necessarily normal across the board for all tribes (as the naming conventions imply), I was giving examples of possible cultural values for a leader whereby they and the deciding factors of a nunh would not overlap. In such a case, the nunh would still be decided by strength and power and skill and all that jazz, but that wouldn't immediately make him leader based on the tribe not valuing those traits as highly as the aforemented hypotheticals.

Hells, to take it to an extreme, we only have concrete information that the Seekers' family trees are patriarchal.
It might be possible that, under the right circumstances, a Seeker tribe's leader could be a woman (definitely not a nunh candidate).

[Morningstar1337]

wow, are you hating on Brayflox? that's unthinkable

Well when one of the most imfamour dungeons on the game's history had your name on it...