Woodreads 5
Well, that was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it?
I can’t really govern your reactions to this story, so I’ll just say that I’m not judging Naror’Nj too harshly for this. Arranged marriages on the cusp of adolescence were very much the done thing in many of the societies from which Guilded Age takes inspiration, or at least their farming communities: the idea that a young woman should always decide whom she marries or if she marries is a pretty modern perspective, historically speaking.
Wood elf culture is somewhere in between our way of doing things and the arranged-marriage tradition: it does appear that some wood elves choose their own mates, but at times, the family leans on them pretty hard. Like Phorpha’Thr (forefather) advises, the family is more likely to get involved when the child doesn’t seem to be feeling “the call of nature” on their own. Hormonal development aside, Syr’Nj isn’t feeling that call too strongly because she hasn’t met a boy-elf who can keep up with her roving intellect, and there’s no time for dances when there’s so much to learn!
I am not getting ‘Fleksm’zl’…
“Flex muscle”
I kept coming back to “Flex muzzle” – Hyes!
For that matter, I feel dumb for asking hit what is Naror’Nj?
“Narrow range.”
I thought it was Fake Smile.
I read it like “Flex missile” and was very confused.
IRL, there are a number of variations. In some cases, it’s arranged for both the boy and the girl – at least the enforced marriage is applied to both genders. That makes it still unfair is that, in many cultures, it’s easier for boys than for girls to go… taste other saplings.
Judging from what happened to an Indian colleague who had his marriage arranged, for him it was more of a, say, very insistant matchmaking. Both partners still had the option to say ‘no’, theoretically, and this is that happened with the first match. Well, that’s nowadays, and for the community my colleague was from. I can’t say about other Indian communities and/or 50 years ago.
When arranged marriage is about finding a young child-bearer/bed warmer for an old bachelor, I’m starting to be less open-minded about this tradition. And in many, if not all IRL human farming communities, including Old Europe ones, arranged mariage traditions were more about securing land ownership – either increasing the family’s domain size, or at least insuring the domain will stay inside the family. Not unlike the arranged marriages between aristocraties/monarchies. So, yeah. In cases like these, the wishes of the soon-to-be bride don’t weight much. The interests of the family tend to come first.
Ah. That’s the bottom line, isn’t it? Even in their mildest form, arranged marriage traditions go with the assumption that the girl should be married, and to a man.
Who else can we rely on to bring out the old “natural fallacy” than the wood-elves?
Turns out there’s a reason why they’re aligning with Gastonia.
Sky elves do it because of their disregard for externalities of conjuring.
Wood elves do it because of their abhorrent views of “malformation”.