As one might notice, one can be seen with as many other people as up to ninety. Quite Scandalous, I’m aware, none the less it intrigues me that it can also happen while one is espoused to someone else. So why can one, if no-one is bothered by being Seen With many people at once, marry multiple people as well?
After all, the Church has little to say about Monogamy anymore since the Fall. One can even have a certain intercourse with many people on the Throne of our Empress, with no repercussions. So I ask you dear fellow Londoners why is it that one cannot be Polygamous in our Fallen City?
In-game explanation: while people have changed their mores quite drastically, polygamy will probably be one of the last things we accept. London changes constantly, but not that fast.
Game design explanation: so that players would treat the wedding grind as a momentous event, and divorce as another.
After all, the Bazaar collects love stories and monogamy is the cause of many tragic romances.
Having said that, this might change as our own mores change.
To get married you do need a marriage license from the Bazaar and "The Masters take marriage seriously. Obtaining a licence is a complicated process." I believe there’s also becoming-a-POSI text in which the Ambitious Barrister explains that Bazaar regulations limit people to one spouse at a time.
It does seem like monogamy is tied to the Bazaar’s love story pursuit.
The church may have lost some influence after the Fall, but is still regarded a Respectable faction within Fallen London, at the top part of the social hierarchy. Part of ‘the establishment’, so to speak. There are enough people/players attending church services, giving small donations and helping out God’s Editors to keep the churches running. So they may have some say about Polygamous Marriage. And while there is no lore to confirm this, I don’t believe they have changed their views on it since the Fall.
And no repercussions, you say? You are being exiled to the Tomb-Colonies right away. I must admit that that is rather mild for a player character, both mechanically and in-lore (seeing how you lose no society favour/renown, and slip back into London quite easily). However, it is exile, and points out that the Court does not approve.
How on earth did they pull that off? Though this does give evidence to my theory that polygamy would be really easy to implement, mechanically. C’mon Failbetter, think of all the money you would get from Fate spouses!
My best in-game guess is that official monogamy is strictly enforced to fend off that notorious 19th-Century nuisance: Mormons.
[quote=Honeyaddict]After all, the Church has little to say about Monogamy anymore since the Fall. One can even have a certain intercourse with many people on the Throne of our Empress, with no repercussions.[/quote]Yeah. About that:
[quote= Saklad]I like the idea that the Masters have a “one ship, one spouse” rule.
It doesn’t have to be reasonable. I mean, seriously, there’s a tax on speckled eggs.
edited by Saklad5 on 12/1/2018[/quote]
Exactly. Nobody is calling you out for having numerous paramours, or a number of other unusual behaviors. But the laws are the Masters’ to enforce, and they have their own ideas. Love stories are a particular interest of theirs, so this is where they will be at their most inexplicable.
That’s… interesting and I’d love to know how they did that.
A fun "solving" for the Monogamy would be that you can pay Fate to have multiple spouses (eg 50 Fate for the second, 100 for the Third etc) and that each following wedding would cost more and more preparations.
None the less; I agree with Saklad that the "One ship, One Spouse" rule sounds like the most reasonable Lore answer. (And of course the fact that one would have to live in the Tomb Colonies lol)
I do think a Polygamous amorous story would pique the Master’s interests for Love Stories, but the Masters are very peculiar in their tastes so, who knows?
I think the main “issue” the Masters would have with the idea is due to the whole wanting love stories thing. If it was just a case of passion, we would have so many polygamous marriages it’s not even funny. Hell I have one or two people I’d marry here if they were up for the idea.
But the thing is it’s very specifically love they are looking for, and the more people you throw in to a tale, the harder it becomes to love everyone in it. The idea of loving, genuinely loving more then one person is not impossible, but it’s a case of the more you add the more chances to go wrong in the eyes of the tale I guess. Plus it’s a case of what sort of love it is: if you are head over heels in love for one of the people, but platonicly love the other, how does that work? DOES it even work.
Simply put, as fun as it would be to gather a bunch of people round for marriage and other exercises, the more you add the more complex the story becomes. Which may work in their favor, or may not, but i don’t think they will think it will.
There is another explanation, too: for a long time, humanity has leaned towards monogamous marriages while other forms of romance flourished around it. So the Masters are enforcing the rule which spawned the most romantic, tragic tales so far. After all, they cannor regulate love, but they can regulate the law and this is what they are working with.
I’m repeating myself then: the formula for human love stories historically, is a monogamous marriage and a variety of non-marital romances. My guess is they are enforcing the formula in their human laboratory that is London.
The creators might have other ideas, of course. My guess is that Honeyaddict made the thread for us to speculate, even if we know that there are game design reasons for the choice.
Kylestien’s explanation works too, for me.
