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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Malanath" data-source="post: 2878450" data-attributes="member: 25538">Wow, thanks Fusangite you've given me a lot to think on.  In general I snagged a lot of my ideas from various historical time periods and cultures.  So if it reminds you of one culture or another, it's probably because that's where I got the idea. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  Thanks for all the suggested areas of investigation, I'm gonna go give them a look.I haven't used the Separate Spheres model as you have suggested, but I am going to do some research into it.  (Google is a friend to us all.) Actually, the Nobility is rather different from the common folk.  This response also ties into your comments regarding the Church's role in society... I think I should perhaps explain things in more depth.To understand how the nobility works you will need to understand a bit of Imperial History.  Humanity for much of it's time in existence, has found itself enslaved by one superior race or another.  First it was a snake like race known as the Sslithar, then it was the Elves who emerged to fill the huge power vacuum after the Sslithar mysteriously disappeared or died out.  The Elves dominated Humanity for nearly 20,000 years and during that time is when many of the demi-human races were forged such as the Orcs.The Elves of the time also conjured up Demonic beings and made pacts with them to gain more power.  This is how another race was formed, the Nephilim.  It was during this time that Humanity was finally managing to have some success against the Elves and small independent human kingdoms began to emerge.  The Elves were slow to breed and were immortal due to their bond with a sacred tree.  It is believed by Humanity that during this time a Human king emerged to fight the Elves, defeated the Demonic forces of the world and killed the sacred tree that the Elves were bound too.  This in turn resulted in near instantaneous death for nearly the entire Elven race.  Once their tree had been destroyed many of them died with it.Eventually, many years after this Humans death, a Human cult arose venerating this hero of humanity as chosen by their God, and they prophesied that he and his descendants would eventually rule the world.  They also claimed to be the keepers of his ancient bloodline.  Many cults too many various gods prospered as Humanity eventually emerged from the dark ages of slavery.  Kingdoms formed, warred, traded, and eventually faded away as new Kingdoms appeared to take their place.  Overtime this cult that I mentioned gained a consistent number of followers, they were never really mainstream though.  Until a time period when Humanity began to face a new threat: themselves.  Humans eventually began to be born with the talent for magic, as all those who can use magic in my world have the talent inborn in them.  In the beginning those with the talent were either weak in the use of magic or were powerful enough to prove deadly to themselves and those around them.  This eventually lead to the formation of certain groups which studied magic, and some of them as is human tendency, developed magic as an instrument of war and used it for their personal conquest.  This eventually lead to the War of the Magi, which ended badly - culminating in a regional semi-apocalyptic type event.  (Such things really never do go well do they? Heh.)Afterward those who did not have magic were able to rise up against those who did and the typical result was to slaughter them.  It was during this time that more and more people started looking toward this cult that I mentioned earlier.Fast-forward 150 or so years.  War of the Magi has ended, humanity is picking up the pieces and rebuilding.  In comes a charismatic individual, a strong political figure and a military genius.  He had just inherited a small kingdom which his father had forged.  He became determined to expand his kingdom, but he lacked many things... resources, political power, military power.  So he had to overcome these obstacles and he did.  His first was to reach out to the cult, and struck a bargain with them:  They would become the official religion of his Kingdom provided that they could "prove" that he could trace his lineage back to the hero that they venerated.  This was accomplished.  His second was to reach out to magi, who at the time were hunted throughout the human world.  If you were even suspected of magical abilities during this time you were likely strung up a tree as fast as someone could capture you and tie the knots to make the noose.  Really, they weren't going to risk fancy trials - paranoia reigned supreme.  This upstart King offered anyone who had magical abilities amnesty in his Kingdom provided that they swear loyalty to him and his crown.  Mages throughout the world, of course, flocked to a place where they could live their lives without fear of being murdered.  Through the mages and the cult he was able to expand his kingdom greatly - which would eventually continue to expand for several more generations until most of the known world was conquered.Now, this brought about the formation of the three pillars of power in society:  The Nobility, the Church and the Imperial Shadows.  The Imperial Shadows is the only official sanctioned organization for those who use magic.  They get their name from the fact that they shadow all those with power, literally.  There are six imperial shadows to either side of the Emperor; every noble house has at least one Imperial Shadow living among them.  They serve the Emperor as spies, informants and in rare cases even function as the voice of the Emperor himself.  They also serve as very effective bodyguards against those who would do harm to the nobility.  (A huge part of the success of the Empire is laid directly at the feet of the Imperial Shadows.)The Church and the Nobility are heavily linked together.  The Church decides who has noble blood and who does not, and noble blood is determined by who and who isn't related to the hero I first mentioned.  The Church has changed a lot since its early days, although they would maintain that nothing has ever changed.  Nobility is divided up by High Nobility and Low Nobility.  Low Nobility typically serve as regional powers (such as dukes and local lords) and High Nobility ranges from the Imperial Family down to Governors of various provinces.  Young Noble Children once they reach the age of three or four are sent off to various branches of the Church to be educated.  Their education lasts until they are around the age of 14 to 16.  From there they are sent back to their families who have arranged their marriage typically for political gain or to marry someone with more noble blood than their family.  The male/female social structure is much less well defined among the Nobility than the commoners, and women can wield considerable power.  The society is by and large a patriarchal society, and although commoners typically have polygynist relationships (where one man is married to more than one woman), the nobility form mostly monogamous relationships.  There are exceptions among the very High Nobility and the very Low Nobility, however.  There is no law or rule that outlaws having more than one wife, it is just generally not preferred (by the women).Also among the nobility women wield considerably more power than their commoner counterparts and this is due to them being freed from child raising as their children are often taken care of for them.  In the end the lives of Nobles are almost totally different from the lives of commoners.  The Church often acts as a buffer between the two.---To answer your other questions:Hmmm, after you made some of your points you are correct.  However, allow me to better explain what I was saying above.  The society as a whole is more or less patriarchal.  For commoners and for nobility their families often choose their first wives for them.  They typically have little to no choice in it, although they *do* have the right to refuse; the parents also have the right to say, "Well to bad, you're marrying him/her anyway!"  After marriage, they are considered to be an entirely separate family unit.  From this point onward to have another wife, the male of the relationship is approached by another male with a daughter.  If the male of the relationship is interested in his daughter, then the wife *also* has to agree to the marriage.  Understand that women, quite literally, rule the home.  If she were to say, "That harlot isn't stepping foot into my home."  Well, that's that.  Of course, the man may intimidate her, or try and coax her into allowing him to have another wife... things of that nature.  But both have to agree to have the new wife.  Once she is accepted, if the Husband wanted to take on a third wife, the previous two have to be in agreement with her.  So on and so on.  (Logically speaking, you're not going to get more than three wives unless you are seriously dominating the women of your household.)  Having more than one wife is beneficial.  More wives means more hands around the house.  A typical household may have up to eight to twelve children... and unless your a woman who wants to conceive your husbands twelve children you'd give serious consideration to sharing your home with at least one other woman.  Also, understand that women don't have the type of medical care that they do currently.  There is a high infant mortality rate, as well as a higher rate of having miscarriages.  Therefore, a single woman could easily spend the bulk of her life being pregnant; having multiple wives helps alleviate that pressure somewhat.Also, understand that courtship is typically involved in taking more than one wife.  It isn't quite the same as a first arranged marriage.  A daughter has to be offered to the male first, although a male may offer to give some type of dowry to "purchase" another mans daughter. There would be meetings between the potential wife and the current wife, and they would get to know each other before marriage.  Typically speaking there are very likely to be strong power struggles among the women, but there will also be women who become good - perhaps even best - friends.  It is those type of relationships which would likely lead to same sex intercourse between married women. Also consider this scenario:  There are three women married to a single man.  One woman, the original wife, engages the third wife in a sexual relationship.  In this culture this is in effect showing a great deal of love and affection toward that woman.  This may alienate or upset the second wife, which may cause a rivalry between her and the third wife.  (The old "Why does she love her more than me?" story.)  Which may in turn have the second wife trying to seek to gain the attention and affection of the first wife…. or things could get even more complex. At the end of the day, once you are in a marriage you are stuck in it.  There really is no way of getting out - there is no sanctioned divorce except for incest (a parent having sex with a child) or having sex outside of the marriage (a woman sleeps with another man, or a man sleeping with another woman).  Outside of those two major things it is until "death do us part"... literally.  If you want a divorce your only recourse would be to get it sanctioned from the Church - which is a long drawn out process, that will most likely be flatly rejected.  Anyway, let me wind down this insanely long post.  My society is not set in stone and is still evolving.  I am considering other things you have said and pointed out.  I hope that some of the stuff I have written here helps make things more clear… or confusing depending on how well I have done explaining it.</blockquote>

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