Valdemar campanon question

[mawra]

I am writting a fan fict. and was wondering since companon's are reincarnaions of heralds and companon & their names often reflect what their old name was are they born knowing their names?

[semantre]

This is addressed in at least one of the short-story compliations, I think, and on Misty's website. Companions are fully aware of their past, including their name as a human. They will either pick a name for themselves as a Companion or have their Herald select one - it is entirely up to the individual Companion, though those who Choose humans with minimal telepathic ability are more likely to go the 'pick a name for me' route because they have a harder time communicating words. Some of the names are similar to their human names (Sayvil/Savil, for example), but not all by any stretch.

[mawra]

Do you think they need training it fighting or do older companons train younger ones?

[semantre]

There aren't many examples of a Companion fighting prior to Choosing a Herald, so that would be harder to guess at. Given that all Companions except for the Grove Born are reincarnated Heralds, they probably do not need much training - maybe some 'refresher courses', as it were, when they are young, but for the most part their combat-style training would probably be covered in the horsemanship classes after they Choose - because their job focuses more around fighting in concert with their Herald and not independently.

[mawra]

What I have the young companons doing is pratice running, jumping & kicking. The kicking is at targets. Mostly to get their bodies in shape. I figure that even if they remember how to fight their baby bodies would need to be built up.

The one I am writing about I have the young ones slowly remembering what they were before. Even if they remember they still have baby minds, I would think.

[D. M. Domini]

That seems reasonable.

One of my pet theories (in just about any fiction I do, fanfic or original) is that you can't just put a mind in a new body and have them able to 'drive' that body right away.

I would think even if a Companion has the experience of being a Herald once, they still have to learn their horse bodies.

[mawra]

I don't think they would know everything when they are born. Their minds would not be mature at first. When they choose they mostly have the skills they need.

In a couple of books it was mentioned that elder companons could punish younger ones.
Punish might be a little harsh. There is some discipline.

[semantre]

Discipline is a form of punishment when you are speaking of taking corrective action: "she was disciplined" means that she was punished but is specific to the nature of the punishment (correction and training), whereas "she was punished" is more ambiguous and may cover a number of results. If the punishment was not enacted as correction and training, then using "discipline" would not be appropriate. Forms of punishment that are not discipline include loss of priviledges (which is displayed very well in Arrows of the Queen - Talia punishes Elspeth with the loss of her toys, her maid, and many other things throughout the book), the assessment of penalties (in physical goods, such as fines, or in hours of labor - which is where community service and the like fits in), and many different forms of humiliation, public and private (again, you see this in Arrows of the Queen).

I'd suggest reading Exile's Honor and Exile's Valor to see how Companions handle punishment and discipline - both forms appear in these books, and I personally feel it has the most in-depth look at relations between Companions among any of the novels.