Marriage
A sacred ritual reserved for the purest of couples, an eternal link of love.
Not just anyone can get married on Aeldrithius (with exception of eloping (meaning without the blessings of the Goddesses)), standards are set as there are many benefits that come to getting married (such as creating offspring without approval, gaining an honorary status of sainthood, etc…) that the goddesses simply believe is best left to pairings that show great love and understanding of one another. With this magical ritual, two or more souls become permanently bonded and can never be separated. Meaning; even if the partners die the two will follow each other to the next part of existence- whether it be Heaven or Hell, reincarnation, ascension to godhood, etc… In rare cases during afterlife, the couples can actually merge and share one body (which is most likely to happen in a marriage between two saints, and always happens with angels and gods).
Despite what many believe, marriage isn’t only for romantic partners. Sexual and platonic partners are the two most common types to get married just after romantic partners. In cases of sexual partners, they’re given special privileges of owning a brothel if they so desire. It’s also common for groupings of 3 or more to get married at once.
Execution
Leading up to the actual wedding, the partners must consult with each other to see if they really want as long term commitment like marriage. They’ll consult a Saint about it and be given a quick evaluation in whether or not they’ve been given blessings from the goddesses to get married. From here, if given a yes, then the partners can propose at any moment. If given a no, they can be given consultations with angels to find out how exactly to become eligible for marriage.
When proposing, there’s no set ways to approach it. As long as all parties are comfortable with how it’s played out, there’s an almost infinite amount of places or methods of asking to marry. But, in order to magically start the process at least one of the partners must bow to their partner(s) as if they were bowing to royalty. From their head a spiritual representation of the person’s soul will pop out with arms open wide. To say no, the recipient must bow as well, but let their arms droop. This causes the person asking to shoot straight back up. To say yes, the recipient will bow just as the person proposing is, causing a spiritual representation of their soul to appear as well. The two souls will hug tight and do a little dance before exploding into fireworks, in which the partners can then exchange jewellery.
There’s a lot of preparation that goes into planning weddings, but most of it falls onto the angels to coordinate. The Nyizhi are involved, but mostly for choosing different options about the aesthetics of the wedding, who’s invited, and even who can be hired to do some aspect of the wedding. Most of the time, there’s little to no cost for a wedding, regardless of the economic situation in the different cultures. The more expensive weddings happen when the Nyizhi are eloping, as there’s no noticeable incentive to please the goddesses by doing it at a discount.
The night off before the wedding, the Nyizhi will spend time and celebrate with their closest friends apart from each other usually, to increase excitement. What exactly the celebration entails varies culture to culture, there’s no wrong way to celebrate as long as actions wouldn’t harm their Nyizhi in some capacity.
The day of the wedding the Nyizhi will dress up in their custom made garments and prepare. The Saint officiating the wedding will set up an altar, while some others help set up rows of chairs into circles around the altar. When the ceremony is ready to commence, each Nyizhif will be walked up towards the altar one at a time carrying a single flower, with the person’s parents or close friend accompanying them. Depending on the size of the group getting married, they’ll either line up at the altar, or circle it. The people accompanying them will then place a tray of food on the altar and sit down. The Saint will collect the flowers from the Nyizhi while reciting an incantation, a poem about the souls and bodies coming together as one in the name of love and companionship. The Saint will tie the flowers together into a bouquet using silver string. When the poem is finished, the Saint will ask if they all desire to be married. To say yes the Nyizhi will lock arms and bow down, bringing out the spirits of their souls. They’ll dance once more the same as during the proposal, and twirl together until they encircle the bouquet and set it on fire. At that point the spirits will all merge together into one new spirit, before splitting into multiple forms of this new spirit and returning to the bodies of the Nyizhi. If saying no, a Nyizhif or more will let their arms droop during the bowing. The spirits will merge, but without the person(s) that says no. It’s actually pretty common for not everyone to say yes in groups of three or more, many value the ritual to such high degrees they say no just so they can plan a second wedding. Either that, or they just prefer to marry in a specific order.
After everything is said and done, the married people will each feed each other a scoop of the food they brought to their partners before allowing the guests attending to dig in.
Components and tools
Jewellery of some type; normally a family heirloom, a custom garment for each of the participants of the marriage, an altar, a place of worship (or just a place that’s important to the partners), flowers, and food.
Participants
There’s the partners (usually just referred to as Nyizhif (Nyizhi for plural), the Saint officiating the wedding, one parental figure or close friend for each of the Nyizhi, the angels, and the guests.
Observance
The ritual happens during any type of cosmic event; whether it be eclipses, certain moon phases, aligning of the planets, or even shooting stars. It’s part of AeshÞa’s blessings that helps grant protection of their binding.
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