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Children's Fealty

Posted by Apostate on 05/06/20
Q:So I know that, until a kid comes of age at 18, their fealty is generally wrapped up in that of their parents. But what happens if someone's parents are in two different fealties? What happens if, uh, one of the parents is in a /foreign/ fealty? Do we generally just hope that a conflict doesn't arise to force anyone to have to consider the question fully? Does nobody care as long as the king doesn't care?

A: When a child is born, typically the parents and/or the witness (see 'lore Godparents and Birthdays') will notify the local seraph of the birth, and depending on the fealty might even take an oath before a representative of the Faith to see to the wellbeing of the child, which persists until the age of majority at 18. That oath represents fealty on behalf of the child, and the fealty of the child is just considered whichever parent or guardian the child is current living with. Now there can be families of mixed fealty, which isn't all that uncommon for a city like Arx, where merchants might spend months or even years away from home, and marry other merchants or travelers from other parts of the world.

Custody disputes between commoners within the same fealty are handled by a representative of the domain title holder, and in rare cases the title holder themselves. In cases of split fealty, this could be resolved by a crown magistrate. Noble children do not have any set law, as this is always handled between houses and typically the status of children is part of the marriage alliances. Custody disputes between love matches of nobles typically find the parents de-nobled and removed from their families in the scandal.