"I... don't think it's done quite so obviously as all that. But the element is there. You are very acute, my lord," says Maz.
Ivan says, "But how does the haut-lady who gets handed out like a good-conduct medal feel about it all? I mean... if the highest haut-lady ambition is to become an Imperial monopoly, this has got to be the ultimate opposite. To be permanently dumped out of the haut-genome — their descendants never marry back into the haut, do they?"
"No," confirms Maz. "I believe the psychology of it all is a bit peculiar. For one thing, the haut-bride immediately outranks any other wives the ghem-lord may have acquired, and her children automatically become his heirs. This can set up some interesting tensions in his household, particularly if it comes, as it usually does, in mid-life when his other marital associations may be of long standing."
"It must be a ghem-lady's nightmare, to have one of these haut-women dropped on her husband," Ivan muses. "Don't they ever object? Make their husbands turn down the honor?"
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2014-07-11 12:06 am (UTC)Ivan says, "But how does the haut-lady who gets handed out like a good-conduct medal feel about it all? I mean... if the highest haut-lady ambition is to become an Imperial monopoly, this has got to be the ultimate opposite. To be permanently dumped out of the haut-genome — their descendants never marry back into the haut, do they?"
"No," confirms Maz. "I believe the psychology of it all is a bit peculiar. For one thing, the haut-bride immediately outranks any other wives the ghem-lord may have acquired, and her children automatically become his heirs. This can set up some interesting tensions in his household, particularly if it comes, as it usually does, in mid-life when his other marital associations may be of long standing."
"It must be a ghem-lady's nightmare, to have one of these haut-women dropped on her husband," Ivan muses. "Don't they ever object? Make their husbands turn down the honor?"
"Apparently it's not an honor one can refuse."