Marriage:
Marriage is a promise of support and fidelity between two people. It is contract between two people to better both of their families by entering in a union. This is true for both the Seeded nobles and the Seedless commoners of Cloria. In practice this means that nobles are expected to marry someone who will bring a needed skillset, money, prestige, or some other benefit to their family. Marriage between two nobles is one part business contract and one part political alliance. Commoner marriages are much the same save without the political alliances (unless one is a member of a merchant family or a gang or some other powerful commoner family). A commoner will find pressure on themselves to marry someone who can help their family get ahead in the world, however, they will face less social backlash if they marry for love. A noble marrying for love will be seen as a foolish child who cannot do their own duty— especially since they could simply take a Companion.
Companionship:
Marriage is not for love, every noble knows this. Companionship is where you find love. Entering into a Companionship relationship with someone is almost as formal as getting married. Your Companion is the person that you love, that takes care of your emotional needs. You are expected not to have children with them, and you are expected to place them slightly below your spouse and your family, but you will not be ostracized by the public for being seen with them. You will not be spoken about and looked down upon for displaying affection and love upon this person. So long as you are clearly doing your duty to your family, you are permitted the happiness of a Companion. Entering into a Companion relationship is also a contract like marriage— a person declares to love and be faithful to their Companion (outside of their spouse). They are, after all, the person that loves them and takes care of their emotional needs.
Fidelity - Nobles:
When one is married one is expected to be faithful to their spouse. When you get married you are signing a legal document saying that you will not have children with someone else, you will not pass on your powers to another. While Clorians do have contraceptives and prophylactics they are not 100% successful and accidents happen (Clorians are humans and some are forgetful). Being with someone outside of your spouse or your Companion risks spreading your powers outside of your marriage and is seen as you being disloyal and unable to keep your promises, and should a bastard result from it— it is seen as you breaking an oath to your spouse (and potentially your Companion!). You are expected to be with your spouse and your Companion only, to do otherwise risks great consquences.
Fidelity - Commoners:
Commoners take fidelity just as seriously as nobles, but for different reasons. A Seeded bastard would tear a family a part. For the Seeded child and their parent would be uplifted in society but not the spouse in cases where there is absolute proof of who the true parentage is. Fidelity is also expected because two families come together to try and uplift themselves, being unfaithful suggests that when one “makes good” they will abandon their spouse. Such is unacceptable in the eyes of the Seedless populous. They must stick together and be good to each other.
Side Pieces & Adultery - Nobles:
It happens. There’s always someone who thinks they can get away with it, or someone who just doesn’t care. It is incredibly shameful and adultery is a serious issue. It is technically a crime in Clorian, as an adulterer is breaking the legal oath they swore to their spouse (and perhaps their Companion). The consequences of being caught are not absolute, of course, nor are they equal from person to person. The consequences of being caught being unfaithful to your spouse and/or your companion range from the dissolution of your binding oaths (marriage, companionship) to being cast out of your family to being denobled and banished from {The Grove} depending upon how much political power the injured party and their family possesses and how much they wish to press the issue.
Side Pieces & Adultery - Commoners:
Commoners by virtue of their station have less power to deal with adulterers. So it usually comes down to social consequences. It is considered shameful to be unfaithful to your spouse or your companion to the point that a commoner who is caught will find themselves clipped. They may find themselves divorced and then spurned by the people in their community; shopkeepers will not sell to them (or will grossly over charge them), their birth family may turn their back on them, people will turn away from them in public, they may find their wages being cut, the guard may even be disinclined to help them unless they are being outright murdered. The community decides just how far too take this clipping, and just how long it will last. A beloved fop who is caught may only face the consequences for as long as it takes for the community to be charmed by them again. A disliked merchant who is seen as overcharging may have to move to another domain completely to overcome the consequences of being caught being disloyal.
Divorce - Nobles:
Divorce is sticky for nobles. It happens, surely, but it is rare. It is seen as something very tragic. It’s regrettable. Divorce happens only when a political alliances has fallen apart so badly it cannot be salvaged. This typically comes about when one party has a bastard, and thus cannot be trusted to fulfill the terms of their marriage agreement. Or it happens when two houses have come into a dispute that cannot be solved easily. Such as a dispute over land if the two houses are near to each other and are both expanding, or a dispute over trade rights. If two houses are on the brink of warring with each other a divorce may come into play … and is usually at the behest of the family heads rather than the spouses themselves. If the union has not produced any children yet (which especially makes a divorce because of a bastard particularly shameful on the one who produced the bastard) then the divorce is typically easy — it is just a formal dissolution of the agreement. If the union has produced children it becomes trickier. The divorce then must be approved by either the Ruler or the Second of their court, for the two families must decide what to do with the children. There is not such thing as co-parenting in Cloria. They must be considered members of one family in full, not partially members of two. Divorce when children are involved is considered incredibly tragic and to be avoided at all costs.
Divorce - Commoners:
It is slightly more common for commoners to get a divorce, for they do not have to deal with inheritance issues (save for in the case of rich merchant families or the like), and usually do not have political alliances to think of. It is still seen as regrettable and tragic, and if it comes about in the case of infidelity the adulterer will be clipped. Divorce without children is as simple as dissolving their agreement. Divorce with commoner is tragic but not nearly as bad with a noble family. They decide who the children will stay with but the children are still allowed to see their other parent.
Companionship Cont’d:
Companionship is a fully accepted part of society. Both commoners and nobles may take Companions, both men and women may take Companions. It is not shameful or forbidden. It is, also, far easier to break a Companion relationship than it is to break a marriage, at least legally. It is just a matter of dissolving the agreement. It can get messier, however, emotionally since Companionship by virtue involves the heart. A jilted Companion may make life hard for their ex-lover if they are feeling vindictive. There is a degree of danger to taking a Companion in that accidents do happen and if one conceives a child with their companion … that child is seen as a bastard and a shameful mark against the pair for being irresponsible. However, since Clorians do have contraceptives and prophylactics it is a rare occurrence, and usually avoidable with carefulness. Companionship is also one of the few ways that it is socially acceptable for a commoner and a noble, a Seedless and a Seeded, to be together. For no reason can a Seeded marry a Seedless, but they may enter into a Companionship. Though they may be looked at as immature on the Seeded’s part or as attempting to climb the social ladders via sex on the Seedless part. People might whisper about them behind their backs, but wouldn’t try to stop them (save where someone might have concerns that the Seedless is being pressured into it by the Seeded).
Marriage - Same Sex:
The people of Cloria do not care about one’s sexual preferences as long as one is doing their duty to society and are harming no one else. Same sex marriages do happen and no one particularly cares. In the case of titleholders entering in a same sex marriage they are expected to name a sibling or a cousin as their heir. Bastards are not permitted to be heirs— this means that a third party cannot enter the relationship to provide the heir. It must be a relative of the titleholder who becomes the heir of the title.
Sex:
Those not married are not expected to be celibate. In fact, most unmarried young adults are assumed to be exploring and being sexually active. No one particularly cares as long as they are being responsible and not producing children, and not sexploring with married people.
Gender Identity:
Clorians are physically male or female, usually. However, they are tolerant of those who feel as if they should be different than how they were born. They have no social mores against those who identify as a different gender or somewhere between. In fact, the current Monarch of the Mountain is gender neutral, preferring to be referred to as “they” or “she” or “he”.
Contraceptives & Prophylactics:
Generally speaking, there is male and female birth control available in the form a plant brewed into a tea. It’s called “Lover’s Shield” and is widely available, cheap, and very effective. Perhaps one in a million might find that the tea had failed them. There are also condoms made from thin but strong membranes of a plant that grows offshore. It isn’t as effective as “Lover’s Shield” but it is effective enough, when used together it is perhaps one in ten million that would find they had an unwanted children. OOCly, these methods are as close to perfect contraception that no one should have a “surprise” baby sprung on them. It must be both players’ choice for a child to be conceived, doubly so in the case of IC bastards.
Conception & Pregnancy:
Clorian conception works just the same was human conception. You know how it works! …Yes that means that Clorian women probably have periods. But staff isn’t ever going to ask you to RP that out. Same as staff absolutely does not care about pregnancy RP. As a warning: Terrible things are likely to happen if you ask staff to get involved with your pregnancy RP. Special children will be Mary Shelley’s Babies that tear their way out of the womb rather than a Chosen One type infant.
