Growing up I only knew one married couple — the Vegas. Dorian’s parents were the only people I knew who were married. Which is uncommon in the Venatori. At least as what a human considers marriage, the proposal, the engagement, the wedding, the honeymoon, and then so-called bliss and then end in divorce or death.
No marriage for the Venatori is just a means of human paperwork stating they live together, they have joint accounts, and they share things as a unit. It’s a piece of legal paper nothing more. It is born out of love — why spend your life with someone you don’t love? Unless it’s a marriage of convivence.
Most marriages in the Venatori do not change last names or combine to make a new one for the children. Procreation in the Venatori is about preserving blood lines — which is typically why two off spring are required. One to preserve the mother’s line, and one to preserve the father’s line.
And before you get all oh he’s not very woke marriage can be this or that. Not in the Venatori. It’s nothing to do with who you love. It is literally about blood lines. Every gay/trans/asexual Venatori must produce two offspring. Failure to compline results in Exile. And as a Venatori who never really ever had to pay any bills or find a real job with no college education and who only knows how to operate with in the Venatori it’s usually a death sentence. And most Exiled Venatori are treated poorly by the other supernatural races. Unless they do it for themselves or their children. Growing an Exile isn’t good.
I regret things in the original version of Books. Where I tell Alex that marriage is just a piece of paper. Cause it’s more than that to him. It is a piece of paper. It’s a piece of paper that declares to the world that I am his (and he is mine) and that is more than enough for me.
The Mind of Nox 