marriage and birthrate in the empire
like with many cultures and societies, the empire has its customs and norms when it comes to things like marriage.
for the vast majority of ppl in the empire, sith or imperial, monogamy is the most common type of marriage seen. and within monogamous unions the couple can be of any combo of gender or sex.
for simplicity’s sake the color code is as followed:
RED, female
BLUE, male
PURPLE, trans/nb/intersex
those in higher castes have more stipulations, considerations, and thought put into their partners rather than those in lower castes who can casually hook up with whoever they want.
another type of marriage that is seen, though not very commonly, are polygamous marriages.
with a poly marriage there is the head of house (crown icon) and the spouses/consorts (no crown).
these unions are typically only seen among sith families with prestige and history, but it’s not completely unheard of for some imperials to have them as well.
a monogamous marriage can turn into a poly one. if the head of house is like “hey, there’s this person i met… and i kinda like them? maybe if you vibe with them, i can bring them into our union?” and their spouse says “cool beans.” then yea, more spouses lol.
within a poly union, all children must be of the head of house’s bloodline. and the children produced with the first spouse (grey box) become the household heir(s)… usually.
and while all of the spouses/consorts may be married to the head of house, any/all parties can engage in whatever intimate activities they want with each other. the only “unacceptable” thing would be to produce any children that does not involve the head of house.
so you could have two husbands or wives that are way more into each other than the head of house. and it’s all seen as totally cool and fine. such attitudes however are more common among the sith than with humans.
for those in the upper castes, having An Heir of some sort is important and kind of a big deal. it’s part of the reason why getting juuust the right marriage partner is so important. it’ll usually be a thing the families discuss and negotiate over months or even years.
it’s serious business… lol.
but regardless of type of marriage (monogamous or poly), there is the one getting married (crown) and the one being married off (no crown).
those that are married off take the family name of their spouse and all resulting children of the union have that family name.
with the children you’ll either have an heir or a chosen heir.
in the GREEN circle up above you have an example of a plain, regular heir. that is to say, the firstborn.
in the ORANGE circle you have a chosen heir. not the firstborn.
there could be a myriad of reasons on why the family decided on a chosen heir over a regular one. maybe the oldest kid is a dumbass and fucks up. maybe they died before getting married. maybe the kid didn’t want that responsibility. etc.
again, as we move down the caste ladder, the less and less important all these inter-familial details become.
most “common” folk simply hook up with whoever they like, have kids, and their kids go off and do the same. they may not even take on their spouses name depending on how much they care about that.
just on a side note, if the married couple isn’t capable of producing children by themselves modern medicine and technology can help. or if the option exist, they could go the old school, natural route.
for example, among same sex sith couples (PINK rectangles) they will look for and hook up with other couples and… help each other out.
these unions don’t happen too often since they’re only there to make the babies and go on their way lol. though, the two families could stay connected and friendly if they wish.
now this is a lot of pomp and circumstance to get some babies! and you’d be right lol.
bringing in some REAL LIFE FACTS lol, but here’s how things went down and are going down for ppl irl on earth.
you see everywhere on the planet, before the advent of industrialization, you had populations like this.
all the babies. so many babies. but not too many old folk.
and it’s obvious why. no birth control, lack of modern medicine, famine, diseases, wars, etc etc etc. a lot of ppl died before getting ripe and old.
nowadays, or at least among the Wealthy Industrialized~ nations, it looks something like this.
also a couple of real graphs just to show how drastically things have changed.
this is attributed to a LOT of things. full super in depth research here if anyone wants: https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate
but in short… yea. birth control, women being educated and being allowed to work means they don’t have to just pump out kids. (which is GOOD btw). and the fact we have a lot more food and access to medicine means more ppl are living longer.
this ofc, is leading to Actual problems tho. bc if you don’t have enough New Ppl to replace the Old Ppl… yea, there will be some societal issues. now, i’m so nOT an expert but imho countries like the US could off set this by… immigration. by letting other ppl into the country to make up for a declining birthrate… but i digress!
within the empire you could have something like this during wartime where you’d have a portion of your adult population go off to fight and probably die.
a perfect square of population if you will lol.
as older generations age out and die off, you have newer generation to fill their roles and keep the imperial dream going.
now unlike some modern countries irl that do a terrible job of trying to incentivize young adults into having kids (we all know who lol), the empire aids and supports parents 110%.
paid leave (for both), govt run daycares and schools so that when the kids are old enough to go to those the parents can focus back on their work. either tax breaks or monthly allowances from the govt to help pay for the kids. and usually, extended familial support is more common in the empire. so the question for most ppl in the empire isn’t “do you want to have kids?” but rather “when are you having kids?”
if however someone just vehemently opposes the idea of being a parent, there is no down side. the empire will not force parenthood on ppl since that’s a terrible idea for everyone involved.
that’s basically it… a more informal and jumbled post i know lol.
teen pregnancy isn’t really a thing. if it happens the attitude is “you’re basically a child so no, you’re not gonna have baby.” (abortion is seen as a health service)
when imperials join the military at 20 (the legal adult age in the empire) everyone, regardless of sex, gets a birth control implant. bc having a lot of young adults close together… ppl are bound to get horny and you don’t wanna have the possibility of anyone having kids in inopportune circumstances so yea. they can have the implant removed whenever their mandatory service is done and get straight to making babies if they want lol.
children born out of wedlock def exist. very frowned upon in upper castes. not really a big deal with lower castes.
can you adopt kids. yes. and unlike rl where you have to pay lots of money, you don’t really pay anything. but the govt will require a lot of forms and check ups and visits and etc etc.
can adopted children become house heirs? yes. if that is the wish of their parent.
god the drama and tropes there must be in their media…
“well your father is a lesser consort, so how bout you stfu!”
“D:<”
are there “pure love” marriages in upper castes? yes. but a lot of drama revolve around those depending on who is the one being married off.
also, sith can and have been totally disowned if they decide to marry someone without their family’s approval. (this is serious business for them! lol)
y’all are free to send me questions or comments or whatever.
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