#EngenderedWriting 98: Is marriage inevitable? Is it an exclusive symptom of patriarchy? Do any of your stories touch on the subject?
Marriage is almost unheard of among dragons. Mating partnerships are frequently contracted between "bloodlines" but they're not the same thing. The production of an clutch of offspring with another House is seen as a political alliance, if even acknowledged outside the families involved.
Since dragons have no sexes, and reproduce in a manner completely unlike anything biological, marriage is seen as an artificial mayfly imposition on dragon culture.
And I keep saying dragons, but honestly, this really only counts for the Houses of Obsidian and Ruby, the basilisks and salamanders of stone and flame. The serpents of water and the lung of air have both sexes and genders, as they are actually biological entities, albeit long-lived and with complicated life cycles. Neither Pearl nor Jade have marriage, either, as that would require the Pearl to acknowledge their females as anything other than breeding stock animals, and the Jade would have to contemplate the prospect of a low-born marrying into a high-born family, which would defy the Mandate of Heaven, so some such thing. Heresy, at the best of times. Blasphemy always.
In counterpoint, the Xiang are inevitably drawn to their soulmates by the Flow, whom they almost always enter into life bonds with known as Bonding. These are only superficially like marriages, though, as Xiang biology often induces mating activity outside of such bondings, and without social or moral repercussions, as Xiang raise their children communally, and parentage isn't a concern until the child begins to show indications of talent, sexual maturity, and/or is pretty obviously the offspring of a specific male. Maternity, obviously, doesn't need to be tested for if the child was born under normal conditions.
The Xiang keep extensive genetic profiles, especially since the Sergal attempted to ethnically cleanse them from the universe. But no one buiilds and keeps records of scientific data like the Xiang, and their databases of known Xiang gentic profiles has been revuilt among the survivors and includes those Furres who exhibit Xiang genetic Binding profiles. They consider the notion of 300 million Xiang to be a genetic bottleneck that could destroy their diversity so badly that having not been born a Xiang isn't seen as a reason to oppose being considered one for breeding purposes as long as the proper genetic markers are in place indicating the Binding protocol is present in their DNA.
Furres have marriage rites that run the entire gamut of possibilities, from traditional straight to pansexual polycules. The only difference between Furres and humans in this regard is that no one cares who or how you love someone, nor what species they even are. There are wolf pack families, and there are mixed herds of equines, pachyderms, and rhinos. Not an eye batted across the lot.
(Side note: humans weren't the only creatures on Earth affected by SERRA when the Event occurred. She infected 100% of all life on Earth, and only altered those from Earth who displayed a capacity for empathy. Non-terrestrials and those without an ounce of empathy were not altered, though the non-terrestrial entities were granted access to her networks, since she was their technology. Non-human animals were also affected and uplifted, meaning about half the Furre population aren't humans, but altered animals. Zero fucks given about this fact, too, among Furres.)
