Lore rambling today because I started thinking about this and couldn’t really stop. This probably will be hard to understand because I’m just kinda throwing ideas down. I also mention a bunch of characters I’ve never talked about before.
Name Changes and Marriage in The Clockwork King.
While many things in TCK are at least slightly based on real society (at least at the moment), something that has always been different is names. Every main character and most of the side characters have changed some part of their name at least once. Finn, Alistair, Ria, and Ryan have all changed their first names while Zoe, Elis, Finn, Ria, Xym, and Alistair have all changed their last names. The legal rules for name changes are pretty loose. You can change your first name, legally, at any age and for any reason. For last names, you normally have to be 15 but exceptions are made if you are a child being adopted. You can change your name as often as you’d like so long as you keep everything updated. This brings us to the next part, marriage. In our modern society, marriage is a very defined thing. It is between two people of a certain age, it comes with a bunch of extra legal stuff, it is often celebrated with some sort of ceremony, there is a particular way that you have to end it, and it is normally the only way peoples’ last names change. In TCK, marriage is a lot less defined. In that world, weddings aren’t really a thing. If a royal or noble were joining power with a partner then there might be a ceremony but most people don’t have any celebrations. There also isn’t a legal side to it. Really, marriage doesn’t exist. We frequently see marriage as being between two people who love each other romantically, move in together, and share everything with each other. In TCK, very few relationships would fit into this idea. Monogamy is very uncommon within the TCK world. Most people would actually find it strange if someone were to settle down with just one partner forever. They also have pretty loose definitions of “love.” It often isn’t romantic but instead a very deep bond between people. They also have different ways to displaying their relationships. That often depends on species and how/where they were raised. For example, Ryan’s hair ribbon acts almost like a ring. It’s in Zoe’s favorite color and Ryan only takes it out when they break up. Most people wouldn’t recognize it as that but that’s how the two of them see it. Rose and Hope wear matching necklaces, Richard (Ryan’s stepfather) and his wives would make each other clothes in their own favorite colors, Emma and Alice carry matching daggers, it’s not always a noticeable symbol but it’s something that shows their love for each other.
I’ll give a few examples of different relationships here.
Ryan and Zoe:
They are the closest to a modern couple. Two people who love each other in a very romantic sense, who share a last name, and who live with each other/plan to live with each other. They are “the couple” in this story. In fact, the reason I created Ryan was so that I could have someone to be Zoe’s partner. Their romantic relationship is important, both to their characters and to the plot of the story.
Elis and Alistair:
I want people to look at them and assume that they are dating only to realize later that they actually aren’t. There have been many drafts and versions of the story where they end up together romantically. However, they are simply very close. I would describe their relationship as being queer platonic. (Or possibly as platonic soulmates).
Elis, Alistair, Ryan, and Zoe:
They are 100% in some sort of polycule. The levels of romantic feeling vary a lot, and I still see Ryan and Zoe as the only people romantically together. But the four of them are very, very, close. There really isn’t any other way to describe them.
Fen and Mason:
They are besties. They want to live together, they share a passion, they are always together, they love being around each other, they want to open some sort of doctors office together, they know everything about each other, they have spent years working together and have ended up knowing each other so strongly that they have no secrets. But I wouldn’t describe them as being in a romantic relationship or a queer platonic one. They are best friends and that’s that.
Ria and Archer:
Not romantically together. They hook up with each other but the relationship doesn’t really go beyond that. Archer has two other partners and Ria isn’t looking for a full on relationship. It works for them and they like it. It has confused Finn who took a while to really grasp the concept that they weren’t dating.
And, going back to names, people will take other’s last names as a sign of a close bond. There isn’t any pressure to. You and your partner don’t need the same last name to be together. Last names are often hyphenated. Sometimes people will make up new ones rather than use one or many existing ones. For example, Ryan uses zer mother’s last name and zer stepfather’s last name while Zoe dropped her mother’s name and took one of Ryan’s last names. They did that pretty early in the relationship too, at least unofficially. Names also don’t have to change when people break up. Because most relationships are pretty fluid, there is already no concept of divorce. You change your last name if you want to and if you feel connected to the person or the name.
Name rules are the same with adoption too. If you want to take a different last name you can. It can be from any parent or none of them. You can add it to your previous name or drop the old one entirely. For example, Finn changes his last name but doesn’t take Ria’s. Or Elis takes Finn’s last name but adds it onto his old one. People see names as an important part of someone’s identity and therefore as something that should be easily changed.
Of course, this all applies to the largest group of society. The King’s Kids and various groups in The Wilds all have their own ideas and customs. (The King’s Kids are a lot closer to the modern world when it comes to just about everything. And there are so many groups in The Wilds that it would be hard to summarize them all).
If you have any questions feel free to ask them. I know this might be written in a way that makes it difficult to understand. This is how it all looks in my brain and it’s a mess.