Marriage Laws

Marriage is in Daleth considered to be a bond between two persons. To understand the modern laws of marriage, we have to look at the past.
In the early days, the laws of the Naglani had it that sexual intercourse was in fact a wedding ritual. Whoever had sexual intercourse with another person was married. This could only survive in a culture where either the persons were true to each other or where marriage was not a big issue. Hence the laws have changed.
In Luban, however, people only can get married when one of the future partners is already pregnant. Many unlucky couple can’t get married because there is no child to prove the sexual intercourse. This idea of proven sexual intercourse and fertility of the couple is still a ritual for many families in the upper classes who need offspring to guarantee the heritage will be passed in the family and not fall into the hands of strangers.
Of course, lovers who can’t have a child might in secret turn to strangers to get the woman pregnant. reason enough to have strict rules for unmarried women in the upper classes.
A note here on homosexuality: this, and the marriage of two people of the same sex is legal. However, in circles where the marriage must lead to a child, homosexuality is a social taboo. Homosexuals there tend to get married to someone of the opposite sex and have a secret lover of the same sex. The lover has no rights in that case. Many homosexuals have fled -with their lovers- these circles and started a new life elsewhere.

In the early times, to prove the wedding, the couple was asked to have sexual intercourse while the families and the rest of the community watched. Some communities still ask this from their members, but usually this act is changed into a wedding in the blood. The future partners -who might have sexual intercourse before or not- cut themselves in their hands and let their blood mix, a ritual to stress that the bloodlines of the families are now tied together. In some Naglani villages, the wounded partners are tied together with the same bandages for a few days, first to stop the bleeding, and second to show they are married.
In most of Daleth, the ritual has developed into a single kiss. Bonding the hands together for a while is done in some remote areas such as the Black Mountains and the hamlets close to Skaunsric.

The Dalethian Law has three kinds of marriage defined: the personal wedding (or Naglani wedding), the religious marriage, and the administrative wedding. These come in stages: the temples will only accept a wedding if the couple has already been wed the Naglani way, and the administrative wedding can only take place when the religious wedding has been done.
The personal wedding is the stage where the couple has for themselves decided they are going to live together. Acts of love might be involved here, and close relatives and friends might be informed about the wedding. For the law, the couple is married as soon as “body juices are exchanged”; of course, the blood ritual of the Naglani comes to mind, but this also involved kissing. Both partners have to agree on this exchange, thus rape does not count as a wedding ritual.
The second stage is where the couple confesses to the gods they are wed. Usually, a priest performs a ritual, according to the wishes of the couple and the god(s) involved. Gräins is the most popular goddess to bless a marriage, especially with couples who want to have children. For a good sex life, the couple might ask to be blessed by Phyarx. The idea behind the religious marriage is that the couple can’t lie to the gods and they will be bound to the vows they make in the temple.
Finally, the couple can decide to have their marriage registered in the community administration. This is usually just an administrative act, where things concerning the law (especially that of heritage) are managed. This is also the time to have the partners get registered at the same address and to changes the family names if that is what the couple wishes.
Many couples go to the temple and the registration office at the same day, ending the events with a wedding party.

A marriage is in Daleth no longer needed to have legal children, and children is no longer the goal of the marriage. However, a couple that does have children (together) changes the marriage. More on that later.

A marriage can end any time. To look at the way a marriage ends, we have to see the three stages again. Only death can end the three stages at the same time. The registration can end any time, although many communities ask a minimum amount of days for the couple to stay married (usually a full bisunjane) and a couple of days to think things over - just to avoid a wrong decision. If one of the partners wants a divorce, and the other refuses, a third party -usually a judge- has to decide what to do. It is not possible that only one of the partners cancels the marriage without the other knowing it.
The divorce for the gods is more difficult. In fact, it is the content of the vows that counts. If one of the vows is “we will stay together till death does part us” and the couple divorces without one of the partners dying, the couple has lied to the gods and will be excluded from further religious services. Many temples offer a limited time, for example five bisunjane. When that period is over, the couple has to take the vows again - or get divorced without further problems.
The Naglani or personal marriage might end in the minds of the partners at any time. But because the law sees this marriage as the root of the other stages, there are some extra rules to avoid sudden, intuitive decisions. A couple has to live apart for a bisunjane to be divorced for the law. When the couple is apart for a year, they are divorced. The religious marriage ends then as well. The registered marriage stays intact as long as the partners don’t cancel it.

When the couple has children, either own children or adopted children, the partners are considered to be the parents. The couple is responsible for the upbringing and education of the children. When a couple has children, the registered marriage can only be ended by a judge, who will see to it that the children are taken care of. In many cases, the partners might be divorced for themselves and the gods, but the judge has decided that their administrative divorce is illegal as long as the children are still dependent on the parents. Only if one of the partners has a new partner that is willing to take care of the children as official parent (and registered new partner), the old marriage can end.
The registered marriage has its roots in the laws for heritage.

Unmarried mothers are not unusual in Daleth. Some women might chose to have children without getting married. Some will tell who the father of the children is but -especially in regions where sexual intercourse still counts as a legal marriage- might keep it a secret if they want to. In both cases, the mother has the full responsibility of the upbringing of the child. This is a hard job and without the support of friends and family undoable.
The Empire can take care of children of single mothers, but only if they are sure there is no father known. If the woman gets married after giving away her child, she has to take it back, and the partner has to accept his or her parenthood. If the partner refuses, a registered marriage is impossible. Most temples will refuse to marry a couple with a partner that is unwilling to accept the children of the other partner.
Mothers with unwanted, still unborn children can chose for an abortion. However, 90% of the women trying to get an abortion dies. Abortion is legal and midwifes take care of it professionally, but still the chance to die is very high. The alternative is to give birth to the child and then give it away to the Empire.
The Empire does have orphanages to take care of the children, but will try to get the children adopted by childless couples. Especially homosexual couples are keen on adopting children, so are couples who have gotten married at an older age. Some rich, single persons might want to adopt a child to make sure their wealth will come into the right hands. In each case, as soon as the child is adopted, the bonds with the former parents are broken forever. 10% of the orphans die, 80% gets adopted (50% within the first year) and the rest gets a legal pair of parents, usually the couple that runs the orphanage.
The laws in Daleth don’t take bloodlines from parents to children as something very important.

Every adult in Daleth can get married to every other person is both partners want that out of their free will. Arranged marriages are only possible if the future partners both agree to it - and without pressure of the parents. Parents might try to rise some interest in the ideal partner by scheming and pushing a bit; some will punish a couple by breaking the contact, but for the law the marriage is all right.

Getting remarried is no problem if the first marriage has ended in all stages in a divorce. No one should be ashamed of having had more partners as long as the marriages has ended properly.

Adultery is taken as a serious offence to the betrayed partner. The judges are convinced that adultery is not necessary, because getting married in the first place is no obligation, and secondary, getting a divorce is not difficult at all. But if both partners do agree with a third person in the relation, the law has nothing against it.
Where partners both agree, they can get married with more than one partner for themselves. Some priests (especially those of Phyarx) might bless these weddings as well. However, to avoid extremely difficult cases with heritages, a person can only be the registered partner of one other person, who must be registered as the partner for that person.
So far, many multi-partner marriages have ended in a divorce, because one of the partners felt neglected compared to another partner.

Singles in Daleth have no other rights than married persons. Getting married doesn’t have any advances. As stated before, getting married is a bond between two persons. The Empire cannot interfere with this and has to accept that some don’t find a partner.
Only exception here are the Ainahawair, who are on demand accepted as both father and mother to their children; thus getting support from the Empire to fill the financial gap of a partner and parent that is not there. Most Ainahawair don’t demand this and continue their life as single parent. This is very hard, because the Ainahawair do only have one parent and a small (half) circle of relatives themselves. It is rumoured that Ainahawairs have a secret society that takes care of children of the poor Ainahawairs in order to support the continuing existence of the race that is nearly extinct.

In every way, the Naglani of De Taycha and those of Skaunsric have their own laws for marriage. When they come to live in Daleth they live to their own laws and get the Naglani wedding, and sometimes have a Shaman for a religious wedding. They hardly ever have a registered marriage.