Hearth-sonning was an ancient tradition of the Auceni barbarian peoples, in which the first daughter of each clansman would be raised as male from birth, later gaining the legal status of a male upon reaching adulthood.
While curtailed during the centralization of the Kingdom of Valens into a singular realm, the policy was eventually revived following the Carettic War in order to provide the struggling nobility with a means to replenish their ranks and prevent collapse of the state due to lack of available levies. The subsequent explosion in landless lower nobility as a result of this policy is known as The Aînement.