“Building a better universe today to merchandise tomorrow!”
February 2008
Published and written by Jean Lamb (aka excessivelyperky). All contents copyrighted 2008. This issue may be distributed freely as long as it’s done in its entirety. Contact Jean Lamb at tlambs1138@charter.net for subscribing and unsubscribing—I don’t have any of those cute little bots yet. All issues archived at www.freewebs.com/excessivelyperky. (This one should be there soon).
For those of you for whom this is your first issue, this is a writing newsletter concentrating on worldbuilding. One thing: the example of worldbuilding that I give in here is my original material, and is my universe to play with. It is also an example to follow.
First of all, I apologize for not updating since January. I plead Accounting Year End, the accounting class my boss wanted me to take (winter term), and the Virus That Will Not Die, and its cousins, from which I have been either trying to come down with or recovering from for the last couple of months (my husband’s a teacher and brings home all of the school’s germs, too). I am feeling a bit better, and so here I am again.
WORLDBUILDER OF THE MONTH: Don’t faint, but if there is someone who has been able to build in an incremental fashion without too many actual contradictions that I’ve been able to spot, it’s Piers Anthony. He began (or continued) the trend of taking actual locations and beating them over the head into fantasy countries. Let’s assume right now that we all recognize
This month, we’re taking a look at family life, including sex. It’s amazing how family arrangements and sex can ruin the life of a hero(ine). Even if you make them up ahead of time, and don’t really know how they will impact your characters yet, it is a fact of human life that any arrangement is going to screw somebody over at some time in their lives, whether legally, morally, or romantically. That’s just the way things are.
Anyway, here’s the section I had for family life in Talisgran.
Family Life
Marriage
Children
Adolescents
Grownups
Elders
Voluntary Families
Variations
FAMILY LIFE
First of all, Church doctrine is fairly vague on the subject of family life, except that children should be cared for in a wholesome environment and not subjected to evil. The Prophet was rather strong on that subject. In Talisgran, the hand of the Church is fairly light, possibly due to the presence of mages and dragons, which tend to complicate doctrine somewhat. Also, it's difficult to enforce anything too strictly when perpetrators can easily cross provincial lines and find a society more to their liking, or where their names aren't known (see more on this on crime and criminals). Peyer, Goslan, and Drulm are exceptions to Church rule. There is also a much stronger dichotomy between the sexes than in Fiallyn Mor as to family roles. The Church does step in when there are situations of abuse, though they have to be pretty awful to get attention. There are some provinces where the Church plays almost no role at all (Alkentin, Geven), while in Lemgol the Church is more concerned with resolving the constant conflict than interfering with private lives. The Church is reasonably pragmatic in Argnon, almost fanatical in Horbdin (unless criticism of the king is involved), and fairly strong in Prien, Buren, and Peintal.
However, a certain amount of doctrine concerning family life has accreted itself to the Prophet's words that families should be devoted to lovingkindness between two or more people, and that the offspring should be cared for not with blows, but with gentleness. Pregnant women have a favored position and theoretically have first call on any available resources. In practice, they are surrounded with privileges and taboos (occasionally ignored in farm country when the work still has to be done, but usually some help is brought in if at all possible). Unmarried women who bear children are under the protection of the Church, but are strongly encouraged to marry. Both men and women who are called to celibacy often seek the Church as a career, but receive no special privileges because of it. The helpless are to be cared for as much as possible.
Marriage: Marriage is primarily seen for the raising of children and the protection of family property. To that end, there are three kinds of marriage: 1) for children and land (the primary form), 2) for business (closer than a business partnership--involves mutuality of inheritance and creates a near-blood relationship when no offspring are possible), and 3) for pleasure. All possible permutations are legal, though it's to a woman's honor to tell her property-husband which children are his. Adoption is common, as is slipping one in on the side. Some men who know they are sterile simply look the other way and count their blessings, while some women who are sterile adopt their husband's pleasure-children, but this is not required--sometimes children are adopted from the wife's side of the family, especially if land is involved. Some couples do pledge the triple marriage all at once, but it's a booger to get divorced if you do. The marriage rite involves the couple pledging themselves before witnesses, and taking one, two, or three rings to put on the middle finger of the left hand. It is possible to 'marry' three different people this way, but I'd love to be the lawyer for whoever it was. Only one person can be married in each form at a time. Divorcing the children/land partner is nearly impossible--the usual grounds are desertion for more than two years without any forwarding address or support being sent, or near-fatal abuse (a ritual formula is spoken to the member of the Church or the healer who helps patch things up, and the paperwork starts rolling), or abuse of the children (either sexual or severe physical). Divorcing a business marriage partner is usually rather expensive, while divorcing a pleasure-only partner can be done at will (though with due regard for proximity of the rejected partner to sharp instruments). A triple marriage makes each bond as strong as all the rest, which means people should be really careful. Bonds are sometimes added during the course of a long-term marriage (the pleasure-bond often goes on the morning after on a children/property marriage), and sometimes removed, with all due bureaucracy, record-keeping, and fancy seals on the paper. The whole process is unwieldy enough that it's rarely done frivolously. Children of pleasure-marriage partners are supported, though. Let's just say the lawyers stay busy!
Marriage relationships are complex. A children/property partner has the most status in law (though perhaps not in the heart), a business partner is next, and last comes the pleasure-partner (though perhaps not in the heart). Children/property partners are often chosen by the family (though if one marriage ends, either through divorce, death, or desertion, the person remaining gets absolute choice the next time around). Business partners have to feel close emotionally as well as financially, or at least they should (gives a whole new twist to the term 'getting in bed with someone' when used in a business context). Pleasure partners are often beloved people that the family would never allow you to get involved with, but that you care for anyway--and may be taken by either men or women. A children/property marriage must be between a male and a female, while business and pleasure marriages may be between any gender (note on inheritance--if both business partners die, the accumulated children of both partners inherit in equal shares, no matter how they were gotten, though any children of both partners together, though rare, inherits a double share). Children of pleasure partners inherit full equal shares from the mother, and a half share from the father. Both men and women may own property.
Normal age of marriage is younger for women than for men. Women are allotted a dowry when they marry that only they may administer and passes down to their female children at their death (unless willed elsewhere). Girls usually marry in children/property marriages by the time they are twenty, though not usually before the age of 16 (except for rare cases where they become the pleasure-partners of rich merchants or nobles, but that usually increases their dowy for a child/property marriage). Boys/men usually don't marry before the age of 20, depending on wealth and/or ambition, however, some have been known to become pleasure-partners of merchants and nobles as well. All children must be registered with the Church or with the Institute in Horbdin or at the
Virginity is prized in women (in some provinces) but not made a major issue of. The Church prefers sexuality to be confined to wedlock of whatever kind and disapproves of informal couplings without even the red earring. Prostitution exists, though, especially where there are lots of soldiers. It is officially frowned on, though unofficially tolerated to save the virtue of young maidens (and some boys) and that of respectable women. More on this in Variations.
Child/property marriage is supposed to be lifelong except for death or divorce (not easily gotten), though it can be dissolved upon mutual consent once the youngest child is grown. Widows and widowers often remarry while the children are young, but generally stick with pleasure-partners once the children are grown. Women who have spent much time at home while raising children have been known to take to the road and become travelling traders once the children are grown, while older men stay home to administer whatever estate is left after all the dowries are paid out. If one has a business partner marriage with someone different than the child/property marriage (silver ring), then the blue ring goes on the thumb (left hand) and if the pleasure-partner is different, the red ring goes on the index finger (left hand). One good way of getting someone talking is to have them explain all their rings (especially if they're in a triple).
Marriages are for children, for real property, for business, and for love. Talisgran laws reflect this (with exceptions noted elsewhere). More people are attempting triples as the influence of Ramius increase (with the usual success rate and number of people who wished they'd thought about things first). Very few children are born to single mothers (usually because the mothers are strongly encouraged to at least wear the red band as soon as the stork begins to announce itself. If the father-to-be has run off or is totally unacceptable even for the red band--i.e., rape or incest--they go to a Church sanctuary where they help work for their keep, that of the infant, and are encouraged to save up for a dowry. The Church runs farms where they can settle, help out, and advertise for husbands--some men want to be sure their wives-to-be are fertile). Most families arrange things to suit themselves without the Church getting involved except for conducting the ceremonies. Admittedly, the Church takes the injunction that a happy marriage is good quite seriously in Talisgran (at least most of it). It's not as influenced by the doctrine of Perfection as in Ramius, or by the political machinations of the royal family as in Grand Marq. Those in Allante and Cuda adore all the lovely ceremonies, and do as they please.
Married partners usually live in one set of parents' house for the first year (if they can survive that, they can survive anything). Whenever possible, are given a bed of their own and even their own room, however small, if there's room. Are set up in a household of their own (even if it's an outhouse-sized cottage out back) as soon as the first child arrives. Quarters expand as the number of children increase. The bigger the house, the more status. (This is for child/property marriages.) Depending on who else is in the main house, rooms are added onto it or the family takes over the main quarters as the family gets bigger and older. The oldest get the warmest room(s), while the couple with the most children get the biggest. If a couple has been together for 20 years, they get a gold band to wear with the silver one (same for red and blue bands, just on different fingers). A triple that lasts 20 years is recognized in a special Church ceremony (followed shortly after by the kegger at the couple's home). Adultery is frowned upon, save with a business or pleasure partner.
Business partners may or may not live together, depending on circumstances, and it may not even be consummated physically, though it is certainly allowed by mutual consent. The financial papers are more important. Pleasure partners may or may not live together, depending on circumstances, while no dowry is required. (Of course, there are the usual scandals about those who pledge themselves to more than one red band type marriage at a time, but word gets around real fast even in the cities about that kind of thing.)
Children: Children are usually a good sign that marriage is prospering. They are generally loved and cared for devotedly. For the first year, the baby sleeps in the same bed as the parents or in a cradle right next to it. Usually weaned when two years old, unless another child is born before then. There's a ceremony for whenever the child is weaned. Wetnurses are hired for the sick or the wealthy (the Church supports a number who work for nothing but their keep--sometimes the unwed mothers who go to the shelters lose their babies at birth, and are placed in homes where their milk is needed).
Newly weaned children often have a high mortality rate from various fluxes and fevers. Once past the age of five, the death rate lowers to match the norm. Children help out a little as they can from the age of three or so onwards. When children reach the age of six, the Church (or the local school of some sort) offers a year of education, though this is sometimes spread over several years to be fit in between work. Children take more responsibilities (caring for younger ones, helping out in the house, tending looms where they are powered, smaller seams in the coal mines near Varel, smaller seams in the iron mines of Sticmed, helping with shipping in the seacoast and river provinces) as they get older. Puberty usually arrives near the ages of 14/15, though it's lower in the south than in the north, or where work conditions are extreme. Marriage occurs absolutely no sooner than a year after first menarche in girls, or whenever the male is financially and physically ready. Sometimes contracts are made up for children from the appropriate households, but not consummated till physically ready. It is taken for granted that younger men will visit prostitutes, be celibate, or find an older woman to take the red band with (though it is said in some cases that the red band is made of paper or some other extremely flimsy material...).
Fertility is fairly high in the south and west, but not as much in the far east. Lots of children are encouraged due to the mortality rate, especially in agricultural provinces. Children help earn, though not much, in the cities where factory-type industries exist, so they are encouraged there, too, though the mortality rate for children is higher in the cities (sanitation, nutrition, etc.). Children born of the river folk learn how to swim as infants, and a good thing, too. When children are not wanted (which is rarely but happens) there are a few dangerous abortifacients. The Church frowns on infanticide, but realizes it happens anyway, especially during famines. Infant deaths are not investigated very thoroughly, unless the circumstances blatantly indicate foul play. Mages are sometimes asked to investigate those, along with a priest. There are very few ways to prevent conception (save by a magic spell, rarely used), so those women who are in danger from pregnancy or aren't able to raise those they give birth to have few options (Tameron's seeding of the childbane he brought with him causes mass changes on the continent. When stuff like this grows wild, and is fairly safe to use, it will revolutionize even Ramius. But this takes place over a period of many, many years).
Children are taught gender roles from the very beginning. Women are for the house and men are for outside of it in those families that are prosperous enough to afford it (is a mark of status when women need not work in the fields or outside the home). However, home businesses are encouraged that often become outside ones once the children are grown, and children are often trained in them, especially girls (so they can start their own businesses once they are wed). These businesses include home weaving, brewing, soap-making, story-telling, simple schooling, copying, sewing, spinning, and child-tending for those women who must work outside of the home. Boys usually work with their fathers or grandfathers in the family farm or business. Children are occasionally raised in voluntary families, which have as much legal validity if the forms are obeyed as blood tie families. Adoption is extremely common, as there is a high mortality rate when war or plague hits one of the towns. Both kinds of families are often devastated by such illnesses (as well as by war), and so it is common for an older person without living kin to adopt younger people who have lost their parents. Other adoptive relationships are also possible than parent/child--for instance, it is possible to adopt a childless old lady or man as an official aunt or uncle. This creates a slightly different set of obligations on both sides, not as strict as parent/child, and may be done even if one's own parents are living. There are occasionally special conditions (taking the older one's name, or administrating property in a certain manner once it's inherited, and so on), but usually not too onerous. Adoption usually does not involve renunciation of original blood ties, either, because sometimes parents are missing and presumed dead, and then later turn up (though usually one would have only one adoptive set of parents, and the rest would be aunts or uncles).
It is considered a shame to the community if any child ends up completely homeless. The Church will take them in, but offer them for adoption. If no other family offers, the mayor's or village headperson's family will often take them in. (This often perpetuates the power of said mayor or headperson, since a really large family will usually become quite influential and perpetuate solidarity, so if the mayor's family starts getting too large because of this, other families will step in just so their family will have a chance). Since the economy is still agricultural and very early industrial, children are still considered assets.
Adolescents: Adolescence is fairly short in most Talisgran provinces, though it is slightly longer for males than for females. Girls are married off fairly young, save in some noble families where they're still shopping for the most advantageous match, and are usually not idle. Some young women are students at the
Young men get a wander-year when they are 17, even in the hardest-pressed farms, and occasionally don't come back, though they are expected to. Young men have been known to wander to other provinces entirely and be adopted by another stead (and end up married to the farmer's daughter), so it works out fairly evenly, though some of the poorer provinces are beginning to feel the drain and wonder if this is such a good idea. Women stay closer to home while young. Some of the poorer provinces, in fact, encourage the young men that stay to marry all three different ways to different women, in order to extend the family lines of all three (Sitat and Buren, especially), and the property requirements are considerably relaxed. Women get a wander year when they are 45 (should they survive child-birth and live that long), and a fair amount of the time they don't come back, either. Some of this use this wander-year as scouting time to figure out how best to set up trade, and some just wander. Some travel from Church-farm to Church-farm, since they feel these are the safest places to stay and they can work for their keep. Some return and begin either building up their home business to trade levels, or move in as equal partner to their husband's. Some adopt more children and raise them as well as their own. And some just become the village granny and meddle with their children and grandchildren. (Some have been known to train up a favored daughter as apprentice in the home business, and leave it to the girl when she looks ready to take over).
Actual adolescence is extremely short for girls and fairly short for boys, since boys are expected to take on adult roles at a fairly early age as well (Tameron is no exception here, except he received more education along with his sword-training. Hauk suspects Tameron comes of a noble line because of it). Guild-switching is rare, but occasionally happens--in that case, the new master is taken as an adopted uncle and there is usually a trade involved (a boy wants to enter the Weavers' Guild, but his family is in the metalworkers, usually must wait till a weaver kid wants to become a metal worker. But then, the kid who has training in both metalworking and weaving often ends up in Prien where they're experimenting with factory system spinneys and looms, though run by magic instead of by steam). Nobles often have a longer adolescence than other classes, due to the amount of training thought to be required (though not in some provinces), and the importance of marrying well, at least for the silver ring. Julian is the despair of his family--he's over 20 and still hasn't settled down yet (though not as anxious as some--there is mage blood in the Nevoir family, which lengthens life spans). It's usually spent with increasing responsbility and generally ends with the first silver-ring marriage for both women and men.
Grownups: Marriage is early, and so are adult responsibilities. The time between the ages of 17-20 to 40 something are usually spent raising children, caring for one's aged parents, and trying to make the family prosper. With luck it will be uninterrupted by plague, fire, war, famine, and crime--but it is extremely rare to avoid them all. A quarter to one-half of all children die before the age of ten, so grief is a normal companion in nearly every family. Most families try hard to care for their children, though the heart sometimes become calloused when there's too much tragedy. Winter provides a resting space for people as well as for the land, though early spring often brings hunger. The domestic business often takes priority over the husband's (especially on the farm) during deep winter after the harvest is all in, and everyone works on it during the long, dark hours if there's enough light and material available. The rhythm of the year is still very much tied to the land and the seasons, even in the largest cities (for instance, students are expected to help bring the harvest in and with planting in Horbdin and Argnon. This occasionally has really interesting results, but it usually works out well).
Elders: At age 40-45, responsibilities begin to be handed over to the next generation. Among agricultural folk, 40 is old (and many women die in childbirth and don't make it that far). City folk tend to look younger, except among the very poorest (who look old at 35), but die slightly earlier because of sanitation problems and more plagues. At 45, surviving women get their wander-year (and the Church enforces their right to take it). Those who survive till 60 are definitely old and generally rule their families from the chimney corner. There are few still vigorous at that age, but are considered wonders.
Except for mages. Mages often live as long as they do in Fiallyn Mor, depending on the strength of their power, though they usually have enough good sense to look their age (or even older) to avoid jealousy. Their adolescence is prolonged, usually due to the training they need to receive, and in adulthood may not be a partner in a silver-ring marriage (but may for blue or red), except in Drulm and Sitat, and Horbdin. In fact, families in most provinces dread having a mage-child, since that member will not really be able to pass on the family line unless one of their pleasure-children is the only one left living. Julian and Marlene form such a marriage for a short while, and have one child (till Marlene must leave so she may get training in Fiallyn Mor as well). Mages may not rule in Argnon (so when it is discovered that the Lady Marlene is a mage, Lady Elian automatically becomes the heir. And when all of Tameron's children turn out to be mages, measures must be taken to ensure a child of Elian's may inherit the Duchy that neither Tameron or Elian care for, but see as necessary).
Voluntary Families: Families may be formed within the law by declaration of a group of people otherwise not related to each other. This happens mainly in cities where there are more single men and women, and where more people of alternative lifestyles tend to congregate, though it's happened in the countryside where entire villages have been devastated by war, plague, or famine. These 'families' (usually more than two people, or they'd just get married in one form or another) can set up almost a whole tree of fictitious relationships, including at least one married pair, 'grandparents', 'aunts', 'uncles', and the like. Once these families are chartered, they must adopt at least one child per year (not necessarily an infant, just a homeless one) for the next five years. This usually shakes out the frivolous ones real fast. Hauk and Tameron slowly acquire enough 'relatives' (all of Hauk's family is dead as well, or so he believes) to form such a family before Tameron marries Elian. The marriage that cements it is of Hauk to one of the older barmaids who doesn't mind raising a few more kids, but just doesn't want to have any at her age.
Variations: There are almost as many variations as there are provinces. Most gays (both male and female) end up in red-band marriages, though some of them are of rather short duration. Some male gays just wear a red earring, signifying they'll sleep with anyone that will have them. Alas, many women of no virtue wear it, too. The Church frowns on both kinds, but tolerates them as necessary evils to protect the virtue of others and to keep the marriage-bond wholesome. Red-band marriage partners may not adopt children, but blue and silver may (there are a few exceptions made when it's clear the red-band partners have been together forever and obviously plan to stay that way). Female only red-band marriages usually take the blue as well, just for this reason. Male/male blue band marriages are usually business only, but there are a few exceptions where two men bound by red-bands take the blue as well, and some have raised children.
Some provinces discourage alternative relationships, even when the partner is otherwise silverbanded, but don't do much as long as children are being produced and cared for. These are generally the provinces most influenced by Ramius. These provinces also discourage mages from settling in them. Some provinces simply don't care (Drulm, Alkentin, Geven, Goslan, Sitat, etc.). Then there's Peyer, where the Singer and his disciples basically exercise sexual license and allow it to their followers on afternoons after the weekly sermon. Children are raised communally and initiated at sexual maturity, without much regard to blood relationship. This is causing problems requiring new women being imported, often against their will. Something Will Have to Be Done about them, but no one's volunteering--yet. Kuseltin is thinking about it, though.
Drulm and Sitat follow a form of the religion in Fiallyn Mor, which involves a lifepartner and a number of alternative consorts on particular holidays, but they keep records a lot better than in Peyer, and disallow sexual relationships within several degrees. In Drulm, those nearing their first Midsummer are given a list of people NOT to approach, or to allow themselves to be approached by. In Sitat, the villages are so small everyone knows who's related to whom anyway.
In Alkentin, no one cares about anything much but the will of the strongest. In Geven, the will of the head of the Zabechs is most important. Horbdin is fairly straitlaced, but most secular authorities look the other way as long the people involved are still producing children. At the
Almost anything goes between consenting adults who are married (or no better than they should be), except for voyeurism in the provinces influenced by Ramius (Ramius has a number of proscribed sexual practices, but people in Talisgran still do them anyway--they just don't want it talked about), and celibacy in Peyer. Pedophilia is frowned on and is legal grounds for divorce from any marriage, though it's tolerated in Peyer at the will of the Singer and in Alkentin (unprotected children only, since those who prey on those protected usually end up dead in blood-feuds) and Geven (but only if the Zabech allows it). Apprentices have been taken advantage of, but it's usually grounds for changing masters. A charge of rape or incest usually has to involve physical evidence or witnesses, unless a mage is available capable of truthspell. Mages who take sexual advantage of nonmages are thought to be abusing their magic. Since few mages are capable of 'shadowing' others outside of Fiallyn Mor, it usually ends in the mage's death by mob violence. Charges MUST be substantiated, however, because the penalties are so severe. Mages who are charged but found innocent usually end up moving elsewhere, though.
Casual couplings outside the marriage bond of any kind are frowned upon, though they often precede a marriage bond, depending on the families involved. Soldiers and prostitutes of both sexes march together (most mercenary companies figure 10% for camp followers, and that's if they're lucky and don't have to figure a higher percentage).
There are sexually transmitted diseases, but not fatal if treated fairly soon after being contracted. The major one can be cured by almost any mage, or by a hideously expensive treatment from Ramius involving bread mold, mercury, and various other awful substances. When it is discovered that Tameron is immune to all spells, this offers yet another inducement to avoid casual encounters (before
There is little S&M except very, very privately, or as a side-effect of information-gathering. The Church in Talisgran does not go in for heresy trials or inquisitions--they're just barely holding their own as it is (but it does in Grand Marq, and that's another story). There is a small but thriving industry in what is euphemistically called 'marital aids' in Argnon, but that's mostly for the southern trade (though you can get some really amazing things at Mrina's if you ask nicely). A few are sold as curios in Skiro, but those are mostly from Caphtor. There is rarely any special clothing worn for sexual purposes (except at the court of Geven). The after-sermon orgies in Peyer usually involve a special sort of communion with drugged wine. How much of it is the drugs and how much the power of suggestion is a good question. The Church steps in with cases of incest everywhere but there. Bestiality does occur in agricultural areas, and really sick jokes are made, but no one ever admits to it, no matter how drunk they get. Those who are caught are total social pariahs forever--they usually end up changing their name and moving someplace else.
Summary: personal relationships are often seen legally in Talisgran. Emphasis is on production and raising of children, but allows for personal needs. There are differences in provinces. People can move around to find a congenial area. Women's lives could be better, but they could also be much worse. Children are usually loved and cherished, if not by their own parents, then by an 'aunt' or 'uncle'. Sexuality is not as openly expressed as in Fiallyn Mor, but tends to be channelled into early marriage. Family bonds are strong, not only legally, but with love.
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