I'm pretty ok with this idea, really. These types of things are part of the world simulation that Toady is going for, and they can cause some very interesting emergent behavior.
However, I'd like to see some racial/cultural tags that influence this. For example, right now the dwarves work on a purely love based marriage system. And one based on a a very, very strong bond, at that, since they never choose another dwarf if their lover dies. Which is cool.
But what happens when we have humans in our forts? Or Elves? Or goblins, even? What do they do? Humans aren't very good at the whole 'eternal love' thing. And most human cultures traditionally had arranged marriages. Which is simply a cultural trait and not a racial trait. Anyway, I'd like to see relationships be guided partially by the culture and partially by the race.
Dwarves: Naturally very monogamous. Tend to form very strong bonds, and rarely choose a new spouse if their current one dies. There should be some cultural shifts to this, of course. Maybe in some dwarven cultures marriage is considered vital to the survival of the fortress, so dwarves are required to remarry (assuming they aren't too old to have more children). That could make for some interesting love-less marriages.
Humans: Naturally monogamous, but up for lots of variation. They usually move on after a lover leaves them or dies, but this is heavily influenced by personality and culture.
Elves: Naturally polyamorous. Their eternal lives gives them little incentive to stay with any one person forever, and since they constantly seek growth and change, they find the idea of binding themselves to just one person odd. There may be some cultural influences on this, however, so there may be elven cultures that do have marriage, they simple think nothing of eventually divorcing and moving on.
Goblins: I see them as going one of two ways. One direction, they care nothing for love or marriage. Mating is simply a pleasurable experience that occasionally produces children. Parentage is unimportant to goblins anyway (with the babysnatching and all), so they don't worry about family ties. In the other direction, you could have very power-based mate selection. Polygamy is common, with powerful goblins taking as many concubines as they wish. Concubines and children become a symbol of status. Perhaps the scarcity of available mates drives them to steal children from other races to raise their own status within the society? Considering that goblins are immortal, they'd think nothing of waiting years for a stolen child to grow up before making them concubines.
Kobolds: Anything is fair game if you can steal it, mates included. Ownership is such a fleeting thing.
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Topic: Relationship Breakups? (Read 818 times)