Skip to main content.

Noble Shaman Marriages

Posted by Apostate on 09/07/19
Q:Are Noble marriages with only a shaman ceremony acknowledged as lawful and right in the Compact? I thought by entry into the Compact the shaman inclined Houses had to give the appearance of the Faith including marriages.

A: In most of the Compact, part of the coming to age ritual of being recognized as an adult (typically on an 18th birthday), is taking a vow of fealty to their liege. For any Abandoned becoming a prodigal, it's also a vow of fealty. These are all given before Limerance, and it is always assumed that anyone in the Compact recognizes the primacy of the Faith of the Pantheon- or at least the sanctity of those vows. Similarly, for a marriage to be considered valid it does have to be recognized by the Faith, but in practice, this is often just a matter of informing the local seraph of a parish that a marriage occured, or individuals are living as married. So for the Northlands, for a noble marriage, this could be politely informing the local seraph that such a marriage occured and was recognized by Limerance, even if the wedding was performed entirely with shamanistic rites, as it would be implicitly understood that any vows given (and any marriage contracts) would be undertaken under the eyes of Limerance. Still, even in the Northlands, nobles marriages without a seraph present are rare, simply because it can create a situation where there is no theoretically impartial eyewitness to the precise terms of a marital contract, and inviting the possibly of a dispute of terms down the line, and putting the noble houses in a situation where the Faith could decide against them (particularly if they felt slighted by the lack of inclusion).

It is often customary for important contracts to be recognized by a local seraph to be considered binding, but as commoner marriages involve no contract between houses, it's not considered pressing and more of a polite formality to inform a seraph and liege of any change in status. Love matches between nobles are considered much the same as commoner marriages (which adds to some noble disapproval of them), and some powerful commoner merchant family marriages intentionally mimic noble marriage contracts to put on airs of importance (and are in turn scorned by nobility). Ultimately, how much seraph involvement usually is taken as a societal sign of how important the marriage actually is, which has contributed to the Northlands being taken less seriously by the rest of the Compact. But as long as a local seraph knows that a shamanistic wedding has taken place and there's no overwhelming reason to object (ie, polygamy, forced marriage, etc), then it is recognized as legitimate.