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Most issues are handled between individuals, wherever possible, but in cases where the affected parties cannot come to an understanding there is some intervention from a higher authority. We're still working on the details of how/when/why this authority gets involved, unfortunately, and once those details are released there will be new specialist tasks made available.

The elites, for the most part, only step in to a physical dispute. Other disagreements are handled by the law system of the Sentinels (which is what we're currently developing). So the elites are the police and the army, basically, and we'll be making the Sentinel equivalent of lawyers and judges soon.

Punishment ranges from societal ostracism to death, or even exile. Exile is typically considered to be this highest form of punishment possible, since it is a death sentence AND it disgraces your entire family. More minor punishments would include demotion, being forced to become a Ranger, loss of your territory, trimming of flight feathers to prevent flight, and other thing we have yet to detail.

Combatants are expected to report to the Corporal responsible for their area on a biweekly basis. If they notice anything unusual that cannot wait for a week or two, then they will usually flag down a Scout who is heading in towards the Deep Woods (if they are at a distance) or will go to the Deep Woods themselves to report.

There is a central location within the 'core' areas of Noctua where the Sergeants and some Corporals are found. This is where they give out assignments to those combatants on active duty, so it is always possible to bring a report there. A report that has been delivered outside of the typical report had best be extremely important, however.

Here is an excerpt from the Extended RP FAQ that the RP staff are hard at work on:

How do Sentinels deal with grief and death?
Sentinels tend to have very simple burial ceremonies - the body is cleaned up, lowered to the ground using combined Will or a pulley device, and left for the scavengers. The body itself isn't anything to be attached to, but it's also not something that should be removed from the natural cycle of the forest.

Could they take a feather or something from the body as a memento or would that be weird?
Not at all, it's common for close family members or a mate to take the flight feathers as a memento, and some very old-fashioned sentinels would even use them to replace their own broken feathers as a sign of respect and mourning. An extremely uncommon/ancient/extreme show of grief would be to take the flight feathers of the deceased, cut your own, and imp your wings with their entire set. That would be something that isn't really done much at all these days, but during the wars it was a sign of respect for a fallen comrade.

Changing tasks would be about as common as a human changing career paths - it happens, and it's not a horrible thing to do by society's standards. But a drastic change will be commented on, and the individual's family may think they are crazy. Going from Hunter to Artisan would be a bit... odd. In general you can't just choose a task willy-nilly, unless it is a non-combatant task (anyone is allowed to be a Crafter if they can support themselves) or the non-combatant Watcher (as in, the default task rather than the societally-important one). To become a Hunter or a Medic you must show aptitude and you must be trained - a bad Medic is worse than no Medic at all.

Changing companion specialization isn't that bad, but it's also not terribly common. Most Keepers spend a lot of time perfecting their lines, after all. A typical reason to change would be to 'upgrade', and become qualified enough to raise uncommon or even rare companions. In that case the old companions are distributed among other Keepers who work with that type (or given to a lucky new graduate). Most rare/uncommon companion lines are passed down through families or trusted associates, mind you.

It's about the same as a human business-person who makes those weird kitchy crafts to decorate their house, or who does part-time hair-cuts in their basement. The dabbler will never be as good as the professional, but there's no rule against doing it. The only tasks that one can dabble in are the non-combatant tasks, though, since it's not like you can do Medic work on the side. And, of course, an Artisan will be able to barter for a better deal with an Apothecary to get her inks and a Crafter to get her brushes than the dabbler will. Dabblers don't tend to do that for the 'value-savings', though, so much as they do it because they want to.

And, in the case of the dabbler-Keeper, they wouldn't have access to the best bloodlines. Imagine trying to breed fancy show rats if all you could buy are pet store rats. It's just not going to happen! You might get the odd rare gem, but even those are all cast-offs from the breeders. So dabble-bred companions won't be as good as Keeper-bred, but they're still tasty.*

*Please note that Fletcher is a bit of an exception to that rule, but that's because she cheats - she's an Ageless and has been breeding her mus for countless generations, so her lines are unusually advanced.

Hm, that was probably worded in an awkward way now that I think on it. Let me try to clarify and expand upon it.

First off, the idea of being more loyal to the clan as a whole isn't meant to suggest that a parent-raised Sentinel is somehow less loyal to the clan. It's more like.. if you are an Elite, and you are ordered to bring someone in for justice, you do it without question. But if that someone is your parent, you might be inclined to disobey. Same goes if that someone is the one Minder who raised you (as in Thorn and Liam, for example)

If you were raised by a large group of Minders, and as a result you didn't form a strong attachment to any one of them, then your loyalty to the clan is higher than your loyalty to an individual. The first (and strongest) attachment formed by a group-raised Sentinel is to the clan. Only the bond between that Sentinel and his/her mate (and eventual offspring) would be stronger. So a group-raised Elite shouldn't hesitate to bring a Minder in for justice, even if it was one of the many who raised him/her.

As for the comparison to humans.. that's a bit trickier. Obviously, it's a lot easier if we place things into our own frame of reference. It's hard to imagine a bond between parent and offspring that is not fundamentally similar to the bonds we have with our own parents, after all. So all I can suggest when considering the difference is this:

A human child is fully dependent upon its parents for at least a dozen years, often as many as twenty years in modern society. A Sentinel child is fully dependent upon its parents for about three to four months, on average. And almost a third of that is mindless egg/fluff time.

So as far as searching for parents goes.. perhaps. It depends on the individual. Dodger is curious about her parents, but isn't terribly bothered by their absence. And remember, there are a LOT of Minder-raised chicks in each generation. So it's not strange to have no parents, like it is in human society. That lack of strangeness removes the societal pressure to have parents, which would remove a lot of the desire to find them.

In general, fluffing is done for two reasons. 1 - to trap warm air between feathers and help an individual warm up in cool conditions. 2 - to appear larger.

The desire to appear larger would be as a result of a few different stimuli, which would vary between individuals. Good general reasons to want to fluff up would be things like... aggressive displays, boasting, scaring away predators/competitors, etc. Think about situations where humans tend to stand more erect and thrust out their chest, put hands on waist, etc.

Sleeking is done for two reasons as well. 1 - to cool down. 2 - to appear smaller.

As before, the exact reasons for sleeking will vary between individuals. But a few good examples would be... fear, embarrassment, appearing meek or submissive, etc. Situations where humans will tend to hunch, roll shoulders in, or cross their arms before their body will generally correspond to sleeking in Sentinels.

'Rousing' is different than fluffing, as a side note. Rousing is a way to get the feathers to lie in place - raise them all slowly, and shake. Kinda like shaking your hair out, but full-body instead. That's only done when a Sentinel is feeling calm and content, for the most part.

Sentinels can carry up to three times their own weight, in-flight. That would be enough to carry a fawn, for example, or any other object they can hold close enough to their own body that it shares their centre of gravity.

Larger objects that dangle below are another story altogether, as they have their own centre of gravity and will swing and move and generally be extremely awkward to fly with. In that case a Sentinel would be hard-pressed to even carry their own body weight - that's why Gatherer's use packs.

This weight restriction, incidentally, is about the same for the average Will-user - Will strength is not inherently stronger than physical strength. It's just a bit more flexible at times.