Deysachni Marital Law

In the land I come from, it is said there are two courts, but in reality there are three. There are the religious courts, where the laws are fact and you argue over opinions. There are secular courts, where the laws are opinion, and you argue over facts. Then, there are marriage courts, where facts are opinions and you argue over nothing.

― Venik Pul, on his then-ongoing divorce

Deysachni Marital Law is a subset of Deysachni Secular Law, exceptional for having a level of rigidness and complexity rare elsewhere in secular law, more comparable to Deysachni Religious Law.

Officialization

A marriage must be publically certified by an ordained Modhes Priest, with paperwork submitted to Modhes Temple, following all local law. A marriage which is found to be uncertified, incorrectly certified, preformed in secret, or certified despite violating law, it will be ruled a False Marriage, and both the responsible priest and weded parties will be tried for the crime. The marriage will thusly be declared to have never occured, and any consequences of the marriage will have to be undone in accordance with the aforementioned trial.

A married couple must both consent to the marriage, and no other consent is required. In spite of this, unofficial "arranged" marriages are known to take place in rural locations and among Sasatanl'c, though Modhes Temple dissaproves of this practice and attempts to stamp it out.

Polygamy

Polygamy, or any form of multiple-marriage, is flatly illiegal in Deysachin. It is one of the most concrete and unflexable laws in the Deysachni legal code, as well as one of the oldest. The precise reason for this insistance is unknown, as pre-Modhes society was often polygamous. The sole case of a multiple marriage not being prosecuted as a crime is in the case where the multiply-married party is unaware of the circumstance, such as that their original spouse was presumed dead, or their divorce was not correctly officialized.

Priesthood

Modhes Priests are forbidden to wed, as part of their Denial of Family. Any and all marriages which include a priest as one of the wedded are automatically False Marriages, and any priest convicted of attempting to wed is immediately disbarred from the priesthood. Only the priest will be put on trial in this case.

Incest

There are no universal laws prohibiting an incest marriage, but every province has some form of restriction. These can vary wildly depending on custom; For example, in Singbalah it is prohibited to wed a parallel cousin but a cross cousin of any degree is acceptable, while in neighboring Dhogdrmh it is prohibited to wed a first or second cousin, but beyond that is allowed. Every province prohibits a parent-child marriage, and every province other than Idrstras and Iwiwfded prohibits a sibling marriage, though half-sibling marriage is allowed Anab Du.

Soiawdl province is unique in allowing for a prohibited couple to argue their case before a priest, and be possibly granted exceptional permission to wed. Guiysh-te has a similar law, but specific to the case of the couple being unaware of their blood relation until after their wedding.

Non-blood

The complications present in cases of non-blood incest are notorious among Deysachni legal scholars. Even within a single province's legal code, provisions for the allowence of an individual to marry their step-sibling, step-cousin, etc, can extend for pages on end. The most extreme case of this can be found in the case of the Tsukemfuke Family.

Age

The universal minimum age of legal consent in Deysachin is 16, though some provinces raise it as high as 19. Provisions exist for borderline cases by province, allowing for an individual just under the age limit to wed one just above it, and/or for two individuals just below the limit to wed one another.

Divorce

In the event of a married couple choosing to end their marriage, they must go through the same process of certification as to be wedded, and all entwined assets of their marriage must be seperated accordingly. For a planned divorce, ei one between two agreeing parties, the disentangling of assets must be agreed upon prior to any attempt to divorce, typically this is done through legal intermediaries. In the case of an unplanned divorce, ei one of the couple independantly seeking to end the marriage, seperation of assets can occur through and after the divorce, however this is known to be a less careful process, and it is not uncommon for the result to be contested at a later date.

Children of a divorce are kept by one parent, in according to their ability to care for them. If it is found that neither parent is individually able to care for the child, and the child is younger than a certain age (13 univerally, as low as 6 provincially), then the child is enrolled into the priesthood.

Conceptive Marriage

In Deysachni cultures, marriage is synonomous with the intent to produce and raise children. In cases of the unintentional and/or premarital conception of a child, the available paths for the prospective parents, assuming they are unmarried, is either to get married, or enroll the child in the priesthood. As marriage requires consent of both marrying parties, the decision to wed must be unanimous.

If a child is conceived as the result of an extramarital affair, the legal situation becomes complicated. The wedded affairer is forced either to divorce their spouse (If this occur, the prosiding priest will in most circumstances hold favor to the spouse in any disagreements) and wed the affairee, or disown the child, and be put on trial for infidelity. It is likely that, if the affairer does not wed the affairee, the child will have to be disowned by the other parent due to an inability to raise it alone, and it will be enrolled in the priesthood. It is possible for the wedded couple to adopt the child, if the affairee parent consents to disown it, but this is not common.

Eyoprul

An Eyoprul (sometimes translated as "paramour", though this is an inaccurate discription) is a form of relationship found within Deysachin, wherein a married individual takes a lover of the same sex as a committed partner, similar in nature to a homosexual marriage, however it is not seen as such due to Deysachni marriage being directly tied to child production. While there is no legal aspect of an Eyoprul, it is not uncommon for one to be unofficially brought into the finances and assets of a marriage as though a third member. In the event of a marriage with one or more Eyopruls, the seperation of assets becomes difficult, due to the lack of legal standard.