Happy Worldbuilding Wednesday Eve
What do marriage and weddings look like in your world? Does it vary depending on the area? Have any of your characters had insane weddings/wedding stories?
What would you estimate is the divorce rate in your world?
Ooohh I love this question! Happy WBW!
Marriages depend heavily on the nation!
Midonia follows very typical European customs of being officiated by the church/ a priest. Y'know, arrangements, parental consent, dowries, and strict social etiquette. It becomes a huge thing when royalty is involved. Giant family parties, every aristocrat involved, etc. While its not practised anymore at the time of the main stories, but the consummation of royalty use to be witnessed. Royal weddings are almost always officiated by the high priest.
In common folk's weddings, its more of a family get together in smaller churches.
Divorce rates in Midonia are very low and divorce is sort of a social taboo. While during Xavier's reign, many wives had gotten divorces as he changed quite a few laws and had his brother/advisor assist in approving lawful divorces, divorces still had to be presented to the church.
It can often be less of an issue with the law, and more so with the church and their peers judgment.
Ishidan marriage can be a little complicated, especially so for men.
Women often form polycules with a matriarch as head of the house. This is especially so among royalty. These polycules sometimes not formed for love, but for money and status. Several aristocratic women have much more sway towards the Dynast and policy, or sometimes rich women will simply support women who she gets along with or finds attractive. The larger the harem, the more impressive a show of wealth and power. -- They will have one husband (or usually called Sires) among them or several, depending on the individuals. Sometimes multiple men within a marriage is due to disagreement over who would be the best sire, as a status symbol being able to support more people within the family, or due to genuine love between partners. For men brought in specifically as sires, they essentially are given social standing above what they'd normally have as a single man in exchange for fathering children, specifically daughters and to act as a body guard for the family.
They usually have to work quite hard to appease their families, producing daughters consistently (pretty much completely luck based) and putting the wives and daughters first before himself.
The actual marriages can be utterly huge between women. Plenty of beach side celebrations, emphasizing harmony between the women and asking their Goddess for her blessing. For Sires, there is often a feast and a blessing by a local priestess, but nothing so fancy. If the sire is borrowed and not a permanent fixture within the family then there is usually no celebration, just an exchange of money between the families involved.
Sometimes Ishidan families will also incorporate eunuchs. This is among aristocrats and they are kept as labour and for social status.
Divorce rates are very high when it comes to men, maybe 70 percent end up being left by their families and between women its likely around 50-60% of partnerships that end in divorce- but only because there are so many partys involved. In simple partnerships between two women, its probably closer to 30
for Gix and Drasil, marriage is a very simple thing. There is plenty of love and duty to each other involved, but celebration wise its just a contractual agreement. Sometimes there are family get togethers for it, but otherwise theres nothing similar to Ishida or Midonia.
Divorce rates are probably at about 30 percent?
Anemoi is a bit more complicated, not due to any wild celebrations or societal rules, but because there are few rules. Its quite common for arranged marriages to happen between aristocrats, just as common as partnerships for love. For the common man, its all to do with love.
Celebration wise, there is no official idea of what marriage should be for anyone besides royalty.
In Anemoi, its a cultural quilt. There are Midonians, Gixians, tons of Ishidans and even sometimes Kannatians.
For the everyday person, they will usually go with whatever culture they hail from.
For the aristocrats llike the Hoxha, who have had roots in Anemoi for many, many generation, marriage is almost a public affair. They involve galas and parties and lots of food. It does not need to be officiated by anyone, just an oath is made to eachother- but its customary for a member of the Aeraki royal family to be in attendance if you know them. An invite should at the very least be sent.
for the common man who has no roots in other cultures, marriage is usually just a family get-together and an oath to one another.
For the Aeraki, marriage is a public event among aristocrats. Everyone is invited. Similar to a coronation, their God appears before them to bless the spouse of the coordinated Aeraki. Gala, feast, entertainment, etc! :) At some point I need to write one of these out and get it a bit more organized, but that's basically it.
I haven't really decided much for the Aiman, but its probably not too dissimilar.
Divorce rates for Anemoians is a bit low, at 25 % ish? Theres some societal expectations to stick around your spouse for your kids so a lot of people just don't divorce
