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Courtship

Question: Are courting periods between nobles thematic, and if so, what is the average length of courtship?

Answer: This is generally expected for marriage pacts in so much that if two houses are creating carefully arranged treaties, they want to be sure the future happily couple can theoretically tolerate one another enough to not completely screw up the plans of their families. Three months is common, and the length is usually stipulated into the treaty negotiations. For love matches, which are already seen as selfish, courtship doesn't factor in since they would implicitly be seen as in love and doing their own thing over their families' desires. Some still would out of feelings of tradition, but it wouldn't really change the societal approval or disapproval one way or the other.

Incest

Question: I can't believe this is a thing that has to be asked, but: What's the stance of the general populace on incest? I sincerely hope it mirrors general modern thought in that 1) eww and 2) EWW. What sort of repercussions are there for people who seem utterly intent on banging their siblings and/or cousins?

Answer: Taboo largely mirrors western modern (rather than medieval) sensibilities in EWW. That said, a simple (and expected) denial is usually enough to settle matters- a lord can't go around asking incredibly offensive questions, because the implied insult just by asking is so great it is destructive to their own prestige. "Hi so I hear you are having sex with your sibling" just isn't done. ICly, nobles that had a consensual incestuous relationship and made it public would typically be denobled and live out their days as social pariahs. OOCly, incest is a prohibited theme (see 'help prohibited themes').

Kissing Cousins

Question: So in recent discussions of marriages in our household, we have a person who is interested in potentially marrying but they have familial ties to pretty much every major line in every major house, give or take. That's not really my question, though. It made me wonder: how close is too close? Socially, and legally, at what point are two people with familial ties considered kosher to marry? Second cousins? Third cousins? Or are all cousins off the table?

Answer: Less historical royalty and more modern RL adjacent. First cousins are a no, second cousins are an 'eh', third cousins and further are fine.

Polygamy

Question: my house history suggest it's founder practice polyandry. is this something my character should be denying? what is the social and religious prohibitions on polygamy?

A from Aureth: As the author of the passage in question, I can clarify that the husbands were not concurrent, except insofar as she had a rep that included a rep as an adulterer.

Answer: Polygamy is not practiced in the Compact.

Use Of 'Consort' Title

Question: How should a 'consort' title be used ICly? Is it something that most people would only use formally?

Answer: Can be, it's a formal IC title to distinguish the difference between the ruling title holder of a demesne and their spouse, but people aren't clasped in irons or stretched on the rack for forgetting it since it usually seen as extremely formal usage.