Sociality in the Ealdremen system is defined by the level of typical social behavior in a given species. Social behavior is traditionally defined as to what degree individuals in a species will interact with one another and under what circumstances, with "higher" forms of sociality trending towards the creation of often complicated societies and civilizations.
Types of sociality
Sociality is generally considered a spectrum with three meta-classes — presocial, eusocial, and prosocial. Broadly speaking, presocial species range from no to little beneficial social contact among individuals of that species, eusocial species have biologically determined hierarchies that determine beneficial social behavior among different classes or castes of individuals, and prosocial species display a broad range of mutually beneficial social behavior with no strictly defined biological hierarchies or castes (though hierarchies may arise from sociological or cultural influences).
Presocial
A presocial species has little to no demonstrable grouping behavior and little in the way of positive social interactions with one another; individuals may be inclined towards aggression and viewing one another as competition outside of reproductive contexts. The most presocial species have no social behavior between adults and no interaction with their offspring, such as a species that lays eggs and does not care for the nest or resulting offspring, though "less" presocial species that still do not qualify as eusocial or prosocial may have limited contact between adults and their offspring.
Subsocial
A subsocial species does not engage in social behavior between adults outside of brief courtship and reproduction, if even that. However, they care for their offspring in some capacity. The degree to which a subsocial species cares for its young can vary; some subsocial species will actively raise their young until the offspring reaches physical maturation while others cease parental contact once the young hatches from eggs or reaches some other point of self-sufficiency before adulthood. However, universal among subsocial species is that adults do not engage with one another in positive social contexts outside of reproduction; even related adult individuals tend to see one another as competition and will more often than not react with indifference or hostility.
Solitary-but-social
Solitary-but-social species do not have individuals cooperating or assisting one another in any meaningful way; however, they may live near or with one another in loosely-defined groups or overlapping areas and benefit from this close proximity. Solitary-but-social species will raise their young in some capacity but do not treat adult offspring or other relatives (such as siblings) any differently from unrelated adults of the same species. A traditional example of a solitary-but-social species is the tiaquìn, Kin native to the waters of Estvoled. Tiaquìn most often have overlapping regions where they will forage for supplies, hunt, or build infrastructure for themselves, but they do not tend to "socialize" with one another in ways that other Kin might amongst themselves.
Parasocial
Parasociality is considered the "most" social subtype of presocial species. Parasocial species will associate with one another and have more contact between parents and their offspring in addition to cooperatively living in the same area. Unlike solitary-but-social species, which will only loosely benefit from one another's presence, parasocial species will, to different degrees depending on the species, actively seek to live near or with one another. Parasocial species can be further classified by communal, quasisocial, and semisocial behavior.
Communal parasociality
Communal parasocial species associate in groups of sometimes unrelated adults (or related adults of the same generation), but they do not display much, if any, truly cooperative behavior in the raising of offspring. They remain "affiliated" by virtue of occupying the same location or region, and, unlike solitary-but-social species, will generally seek each other out. Communal groups may consist of mostly one biological sex while adults of other sexes do not associate in groups and do not display any social interactions outside of reproductive contexts. In species such as this, the species is still classified as parasocial in accordance with the "most social" consistent behavior displayed by the species.
Quasisocial parasociality
Similar to communal parasociality, quasisocial groups of parasocial species will associate with one another and live in close proximity. However, unlike communal parasocial groups, quasisocial groups tend to display cooperative behavior in the context of raising young, especially among related adults. For example, some adults will remain behind at the home site or nesting site with the young while other adults forage or hunt for food, which is then brought back for all the offspring and nesting adults, not just the hunting individual's own offspring. While it is most common for quasisocial groups to mostly consist of related adults, they tend to have only one adult generation within that space, and the offspring will typically "move on" by the time a new generation of young is born.
Semisocial parasociality
Like quasisocial groups, semisocial groups consist of cohabitating adults that cooperate in raising offspring. For a species to be defined as semisocial, the species must have biologically defined classes or castes of individuals that are incapable of reproducing which assist in the raising of young; the most common example of such a class are "workers" in insects, which tend to perform tasks unrelated to reproduction but that assist the reproducing individuals in some way, such as foraging for food, building nests, or directly tending to reproducing individuals or the offspring. Unlike eusocial species (see below), multiple or overlapping generations do not coexist in the same group, and semisocial offspring will splinter off from their home group once they reach maturation and form new groups.
Eusocial
A eusocial species lives in groups of different adult generations which cooperate and live in the same location or region, but their degree of sociality is determined by divisions of reproductive labor, typically through biologically-defined roles, and there is often a very limited number of individuals capable of reproducing. These reproduction-capable individuals tend to be the locus of a eusocial group in some capacity, often with most or all members of a eusocial group being related to this small population of reproducing individuals. Because eusocial groups inherently involved multiple generations, their populations tend to be more "stable" than semisocial species and can persist for generations in the same location long after the "founding members" of the group have ceased to reproduce. Eusociality is most commonly associated with insects, but some Kin societies have been argued to demonstrate eusociality more than prosociality, and some species entirely tend to fall into eusociality, such as the Estvoldian ariruer species.
Prosocial
Prosocial species have controversially been regarded as the most "advanced" forms of socialization, much to the contention of Kin whose social behavior is better classified as presocial or eusocial according to modern standards. A prosocial species will consistently demonstrate mutually beneficial behavior to other adults of the same species outside of reproductive contexts. The ability to behave altruistically, especially towards individuals with no shared biological relation, is sometimes considered a requirement for prosociality, but it is sometimes also considered merely one of many signals of a prosocial species. Traits such as empathy and learning are also typical signs of a prosocial species.
Some prosocial species are further classified as "hierarchical prosocial" — or "quasi-prosocial" in some earlier documents and classification systems — if they do not have biological castes like eusocial species do but consistently organize themselves into societies or groups with clearly defined hierarchies and power structures. Species that sometimes have hierarchies are not considered to be socially hierarchical if they do not consistently display subconscious or non-conscious awareness of power differences between one another with external sources of "power" — such as money or social capital — accounted for.