Family Structure

Primogeniture

This social system is all based on male primogeniture, so heirship is centered on the eldest surviving son, grandson, etc. If no male heirs survive a woman my inherit, gaining the delineation “in her own right” abbreviated to I.h.o.r. If the woman’s overlord gives her to a new husband, then the man inherits her title—it is not unknown for the husband to take the wife’s name, insuring some continuity. The king will often use wealthy widows and their holdings as a reward for his loyal vassals.

Arranged Marriage

At most levels of society, marriages are arranged by the parents, the sovereign or parliament. Love matches are discouraged and they even may actively be annulled if discovered early. For nobles and royals, marriage may be arranged at a very young age and the girl child delivered into the male child’s family to be raised and educated. Consummation is usually held around 14 years of age but sometimes a little later or earlier (not younger than 12). Marriages are primarily brokered for alliances and dowries.

Morganatic Marriage

This type of union takes a special place because a morganatic marriage is one where a noble marries a commoner and the commoner spouse gets no title or holdings, nor do their children inherit. With royals, some have had royal consorts and a morganatic consort, effectively allowing for polygamy and separate but unequal families. Both families are real and legal, but the royal family inherits the titles and place in the succession, and the common family has no part in it.

Mistresses

Mistresses are like morganatic marriages without the marriage. A noble may have several mistresses, besides his legal wife. The mistress’ status (and that of her children) ranges from open-secret and tolerated to accepted and very public. The legal consort often overlooks the mistress, unless the mistress parades around as though she were the wife and the noble seems to prefer her. Then it’s war. The mistress’s children are bastards, usually taking names like Fitz-Monarch, Fitz-King, and similar variations.

Divorce

Divorces are illegal, although the Church allows for annulments or the putting aside of marriages, especially if it is politically expedient for the Church or a lot of money has changed hands. The reason for such annulments is usually consanguinity, or the spouses being related with seven degrees. Marrying within consanguinity limits is often a safety valve that is only brought up when the marriage needs to be severed. Marriage between first cousins is very rare except for royals and requires church dispensation. Marriage between siblings is always illegal. Heavily doctored family trees are often used as excuses for royal annulments.

Fosterage

For gentle, noble and royal boys, it is common for the boy to be sent to another household for his education. This usually happens around age 5 to 10 and the boy becomes a page to a knight or lord of the household. Similar action is taken with gentleborn, noble and royal girls, although they are fostered to the lady of the house and complete their educations as ladies-in-waiting. The alternative for both boys and girls, especially younger born children, is the Church. These “extra” children may will become oblates and eventually take holy orders, or they may only be in the Church’s care long enough for a good education. Urban non-noble parents often buy apprenticeships for their children, putting their boys into a trade around age 8.

Illegitimacy

Most illegitimate children do not get last names. If a father officially recognizes a bastard as his offspring, the child (and his children) are effectively legitimized and then may assume the family name and inheritance. This rarely is done and most of these children born out-of-wedlock would be morganatic and receive nothing for the recognition. This is only done to secure a house’s continuity. There are a few very rare examples of adult adoption without blood ties, such as Tyrell of Gwyfned adopting Osrick I for political reasons. Some illegitimate children take the “Fitz” surname (see above)

Dynasties

Dynastic Houses From the founder of a house forward, each successor gets a denomination being first of his line, second of his line and so forth. This count begins anew when a new dynastic house succeeds an old one. Repeat regnal names are also numbered, so Terrence I, Terrence II and Terrence III; these remain numeric but can skip down generations such as Terrence I, Allrick I, Terrence II. Terrence III, Allrick II, etc.

Nested Enfeudation

Nested enfeudation means that there is a co-coterminous level of land ownership. A king has his dukes; each duke has his earls; each earl has his barons; and each baron has his knights. Within that structure, the king is duke of one of his regions; the duke is earl of one of his regions; the earl is a baron of one of his regions; this practice stops at the knightly level because that is bottom rung of the landholding classes.

Dukes

Dukes come in two sorts: Royal Dukes and Non-Royal Dukes. Royal Dukes are usually brothers or uncles of a king, and they may or may not have an estate attached to them, but they usually do. Titles There are also archdukes, archbarons and viscounts. There are no baronets or marquis titles in Aorlis. There are also high kings, kings of kings, petty kings, co-kings, emperors, co-emperors and king-emperors.

Courtesy Titles

Because upper nobles have multiple titles, aka disposable titles, they usually cede some of their extra honors to their sons. These extra titles are called courtesy titles. For example, a duke is also an earl and a baron. Because of this, he usually grants the higher courtesy title to his eldest son and his second highest courtesy title to his next oldest surviving son, making them an earl and baron officially.

Heraldry

Heraldry and shields are attached to the land, not the family, so there is no quartering of arms or hybrid coats of arms in Aorlis. Cities, towns, universities and guilds also are awarded crests, but theirs in not shield shaped but diamond-shaped. The arms of women are diamond-shaped as well. There is no tradition of ecclesiastical crests in Aorlis unless the bishop is also a noble. So if the bishop is also a ruler of a barony or county, then he is then known as a bishop-prince and he bears that barony’s armorial bearings.

Badge

Parallel with crests and heraldry, many people in authority adopt a personal badge to differentiate themselves. For example, a prince might pick the gray squirrel as his badge, and then all his liegemen and employees are expected to wear them as well. Badges are not tied to the land, but to their owners. They are not heritable in any formal way, and each new generation can adopt a badge as they wish. The badge is usually included in the owner’s personal seal, further delineating who is doing business and issuing orders. A few very important individuals have even used multiple seals, one for each role they fill, but this is rare. Wizards often adopt a personal sigil.