#cw: mention of misogyny and gay fantasy equivalents

[rauchendesgnu]

⭐ For At thy will!

*cracks knuckles* alright, so (I have no idea how tumblr is gonna treat this post lol)

I am going to elaborate on a few things: medieval marriage laws in what would later become Germany (and how my seminar on middle high German became the catalyst for this fic), a few details on the restrictions and powers of being a dominant or a submissive, and how the marriage laws and misogyny translate into fantasy sexism.

Before all that I have one more thing to say, though: the fic is inspired by the AUs I read in the Witcher fandom (the designation marks are heavily inspired by this fic specifically).

That being said, I hope I can satisfy your curiosity without boring you.

First: medieval marriage laws in the area that would later become Germany (I keep saying this because at this time there are a ton of principalities and small factions. It's only later that something like a nation is founded. I'm a language student, though, not a historian, so if you're interested in that, I'm probably not the right person to ask).

There are two types of marriage, the "muntehe" and "friedelehe" ("ehe" meaning "marriage" and "munt" meaning something akin to tutelage. i forgot what "friedel" means, I'm afraid). The first one, "muntehe", is much (much!!) more common, and the reason why I am writing this fic right now instead of finishing my other wips. The family of the bride and the family of the groom (or the groom himself) make a bargain. The bride goes from the tutelage of her father (or eldest remaining male relative) into the tutelage of the groom/her husband. The bride's family then receives money for her to use should her husband die before her. She has no rights and no say in the matter at all. (I believe there are one or two things I'm missing, but you get the idea.) The wedding has, of course, to be consummated, and sexual abuse within marriage did not count as rape in Germany until 1997 (which is very fucked up and not actually part of the medieval laws, but it still makes me really mad (as it should)).

the "friedelehe" is a form of marriage where both members consent to getting married. There are a few differences, first: the bride has more rights and may divorce her husband if she decides to do so, but: there is also no money, since her family is not selling her (it doesn't say so in the text book, but that's basically what happens). If I recall correctly, the ceremony at church is also not a thing in this one. My professor said this form of marriage happened more or less never.

In general, this wasn't news to me, but discussing it at university, realising I could technically read the laws written down over 500 years ago, sort of started this whole thing.

Second: being dominant versus being submissive. The visual difference between both is the designation mark: a long, black bar from the wrist up to the crook of the elbow on the left arm for the dominant and a thick, black cuff around the left wrist for the submissive. There are conventions, but much like the whole "men can't wear dresses" thing, that's a society problem (which I will get to later). To be submissive means the body requires submission in order to function properly, and to be dominant means to guide someone into submission. Should those needs not be met (as Martin mentions), physical and mental consequences follow (in the worst case, depriving oneself of the submission/domination ends in death, like it did with Martin's mother). Scenes do not have to be sexual. There is one thing that makes it more complicated: the dominant can use their Voice to force a submissive to obey (I'm pretty sure most of what I'm currently saying is pretty standard for the AU, but I haven't seen it around in a while, so I'll just leave it here and hope nobody is annoyed).

Third: The fucked up part about how society screws it all up (aka fantasy sexism so we can still make it gay while also discussing how sexism is very fucking shitty). In this AU, submissives take on the role of brides/wives in medieval Europe. No citizenship, no rights, the only way to escape the arranged marriage is to pledge yourself to a religious order (like Jon tried with the Temple of Beholding). There is a very strict set of rules ("etiquette") on how submissives have to behave around their dominant, but also other dominants and neutrals (neutrals being the majority that can, but doesn't have to, assume either position if needed). Submissives are also taught to cover their hair (this was custom in medieval Germany). This does not apply to neutrals or dominants, although it is very frowned upon to Command a submissive that is not your own (writing this makes my skin crawl).

There's probably more, but this post is getting pretty long. Feel free to ask any further questions you might have and I'll try my best to answer them. Here are some sketches I did to illustrate my point (plus Jonah Magnus' smug face in case any of y'all wanna punch it)

Thank you for this ask and for letting me ramble about the world of my wip. It ended up being more of a "I write down a shit ton of stuff I feel like mentioning" and less "I pick something specific to talk about", but well.

If you haven't read the first two chapters yet and you're interested, you can find At Thy Will here.