thoughtfulAnd people wonder why the word "trilogy" has started making me laugh like a Batman villain who's just escaped from Arkham Asylum.
One of the things that's really fascinating about working at this sort of remove is that I have time to actually test my rules for functionality and long-term stability. To go with an example everyone's likely to be familiar with, look at Quidditch. Anyone who thinks about the rules for too long will realize that they have some pretty serious issues as written, but is that really the fault of J.K. Rowlings? No. She had no way of knowing that her weird little wizarding game would get the sort of scrutiny it did, and it probably seemed like a good idea at the time. (No, I don't expect to get her sort of readership. Not that I'd complain if I did...)
Right now, I'm stress-testing the fae marriage laws. At their most basic, they look a lot like mortal marriage laws: two people decide to get hitched, break out the champagne. And then they start to get complicated. For example, there aren't any social stigmas against group marriage (some fae races practice it as a matter of course, like the Centaurs and the Gremlins) or same-sex couples. Divorce when there are no children is literally a matter of going "I don't want to be married to you anymore" and posting an announcement at the hall of your local liege.
Divorce when there are children requires waiting for the children to reach adulthood, and then asking them to choose which family line they wish to belong to. Children of divorced parents can only inherit from one side of the family, because the other side must remain available to any potential future descendants (ah, immortality). (Kate points out that this probably leads to a lot of people assassinating their parents so as to inherit everything. Kate is very correct in this assertion.) This also means that the parents of a missing, elf-shot, or otherwise unavailable child must remain married until the child is either located or declared dead.
Marriage to a mortal (IE, "playing fairy bride/bridegroom") has no legal standing in Faerie (hence why changelings can't inherit), and thus doesn't interfere in any way with an actual pre-existing marriage, or prevent getting marriage. It's actually not uncommon for fae couples to fight, huff off, marry a mortal, and get back together twenty years later, having never legally been unfaithful.
World-building. It's not just for continental drift and evolutionary pressures anymore.
October 7 2009, 23:18:59 UTC 7 years ago
By the same token, disinheriting a child is socially discouraged, but possible? Or do you need the permission of the local Regent or the High King?
So a marriage doesn't affect the inheritance of existing children? I think I see where this is going; it's really about family groupings -- as long as the marriage is intact, the families are (to an extent) merged, but as soon as there's a separation the children have to decide which side to go with (can children refuse to choose in order to delay/prevent the divorce -- say, if they're waiting on an assassination plot of one or both parents?)
Wills are uncommon (fae don't expect to die); what about marriage contracts affecting inheritance? (I could see this primarily in the case of explicitly temporary marriages; a "any first child is in your family, any second child is in mine" would avoid problems/delays on dissolving the marriage and help with marriages expressly for the purpose of issue) Are those done/not done?
How much are the ways against changelings and humans inheriting a matter of law and custom, and how much are they one of practicality -- that the possessions that Fae value aren't ones a less magical creature can really own?
October 9 2009, 18:44:08 UTC 7 years ago
2) You either need consent of the local regent, or the kid needs to have done something HORRIFICALLY BAD.
3) No, marriage generally doesn't affect the inheritance of existing children, although as long as you're alive, you can change your mind about who gets what.
4) I have no idea what you're asking me, dude.
5) Law and custom.
October 9 2009, 19:19:29 UTC 7 years ago
Thank you!