Leokrates
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Hurr, admin doin' work? YUP.
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Post by Leokrates on Aug 13, 2012 11:59:38 GMT -5
CULTURE [/font] Based on Ancient Greece, of course, although there are differences. The most major difference is the equality between women and men amongst these people. The reason for this dates back many, many years to a time when they were always being attacked, and they needed to step out of the traditional zone of having only the men fight and have rights. Once the women could fight, they demanded rights, as well. The well-off families have their own manner of dealing with women and their own culture around it, but it is far from anything that the actual Ancient Greeks had. The style of dress is pretty much the same (the tunic with sandals or boots, white or brightly colored), although the women do not have to wear the longer clothing and may wear clothes very similar to what the men wear. What to do with hair, currently, is that men have it no farther than below the shoulders with curly being the βinβ style and go beardless or clean cropped (although some do go with stubble). SEXUALITYAs far as it comes to sexuality, people are very open about it, and nobody cares very much what sexuality a person is. Marriage is not meant to be something made of love (especially for the wealthy), but rather it is something for the continuation of the family line. It is expected that all people do end up married and with children so that their faction can grow strong and rich, but it is always allowed to have extramarital adventures, so long as it does not endanger the family line of one or more families -- for example, a man could not have an affair with a very wealthy woman who was already married, in case he got her pregnant, no matter what his own rank was. On the other hand, if the woman were not married already and were not planning to get married, then it would be alright (although pregnancy out of wedlock is often considered taboo), and if the partner were lower in rank and it did not matter, then it would be alright, but openly admitting love for a lower ranking person is also frowned upon. Emotions are usually kept discreet, but passion is not. SLAVERY[/font] There is indeed slavery, but what that means specifically varies from person to person. Slaves are people who are, legally, property of other people, and they do anything their owner wishes of them. Many times, slaves are just people who fell into debt and need to repay their debtors in some way so they give themselves, or were sold by family, to the person they owe for a set period of time, normally several years, for the debt to be paid off. Slaves can also buy their freedom, if they so choose and if they accomplish this. They way owners treat their slaves differs, but there are laws against flat out murdering a slave when it is not for a justifiable β to the law β punishment. Slave traders will sometimes kidnap people from poorer families and take them to another city to sell, but this is fairly rare and normally slave traders just deal with slaves as any other merchant would any other stock. Each slave trader has a set of wares and goods, although during festivals they will often meet in large groups to have auctions and more private sales, and there is a slave master to oversee this sort of thing, and the slave master likes to get a cut of those. Slavery is not illegal, but there are laws about it. Slaves also are not normally viewed as less than people, but just lower people, and often slaves of the wealthy will live in more luxury than the lower classes, which can cause some slaves to stay on for life, if they wish, after they have enough to buy themselves or their debt is repaid. [/size][/blockquote]
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Leokrates
Staff
[M:0]
Hurr, admin doin' work? YUP.
Posts: 35
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Post by Leokrates on Aug 17, 2012 20:42:57 GMT -5
MARRIAGE & LOVE Arguably one of the most important things keeping a society together, marriage is very important in Alithra. It allows families to continue and it allows children to be raised within the culture with an understanding of authority figures and power structures in the society. Sound crazy and weird and fancy? It's not, don't worry. Smaller words ensue.
Marriage is, legally, between one man and one woman in Alithra, though there is nothing keeping people from having affairs, so long as these illicit relationships do not produce children. Bastards are automatically a lower class of citizen for the upper class, though it does not matter as much for the classes that are already low. If the mother and her husband claim the child as theirs, then the babe is not considered a bastard. If an unmarried woman has a child or if the father does not accept it, though, it can be considered a bastard (unless the father is dead or dies before it is named).
Women and men are allowed the same amount of sexual promiscuity and are encouraged always to avoid having children. Officially, they suggest that male-female sexual interactions should happen when children are desired. Of course, everyone know that these things happened. First sign of pregnancy? Get married. People are not "required" to be virgins upon marriage.
The young do not often choose their marriage, however. As both boys and girls reach legal maturity between fourteen and sixteen years of age, many get married fairly shortly after. Normally, women are married at younger ages than men so that they can bear many children, for women need youth for children and men do not. Women often get married between fourteen and twenty-five years and men between sixteen and, well, death. Powerful and influential women often get married for political reasons, and these can happen at any point in time because children are not always the main focus of these.
Parents most often organize marriages for their children and most often they are for money, especially for the poor if the parents are alive. Both parties of the marriage, bride and groom, give a dowry so that the family can have a comfortable start (as comfortable as possible, at least, for the impoverished). When the parents are not available for whatever reason, then the parties wishing to be married must organize it themselves.
In order to make the marriage official, there must be at least three witnesses and a signed legal document to be stored in an official government archive so that children will be legitimate and allow for tax deductions. Often, people are married at a temple or shrine of Hera, as she is the goddess of marriage, but the closest main temple will work as well if a trip to a temple of Juno is unavailable. The opinion of the gods is on the couple and their families, however.
Love and affection may grow from a long time of marriage, but most marriages do not begin with love and are not caused by love. Some people do marry for love, but the upper class especially is confined by marriages for political power and alliances. The lack of money and the lack of any substantial dowries on either side allows some poor people to marry for love, though it depends on whether their parents allow it (if the parents are involved). Whether or not the love remains through the marriage, of course, depends.
People are allowed to be in love and, as mentioned above, affairs are not considered taboo unless they result in children. Normally, affairs are of the same sex variety so that children do not occur, although some people simply do not care about whether or not they create a child. There are no laws against that, and social stigma generally is against the production of children out of marriage. Adoption can occur if a wealthy father wants his bastard in his life but does not or cannot marry the mother; it depends on class. While affairs are not generally looked down upon, there are people who are passionately against it and, of course, envy can lead people to do all sorts of things.
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