I think we can all agree that "satisfying your mount" is not a socially accepted behavior, and probably never will be (at least until we come to understand animals as being just as sentient as ourselves and establishing lines of communication with them, such that a human and a horse might be able to develop this kind of relationship naturally, but that's probably millennia away)...
I certainly agree with you, but surprisingly in real life its actually legal in some states.
In one of the southern states, it's legal to get married at 14, and perhaps even 12, with parental permission... 8|
From what I've read online (which probably disqualifies me right there from making a serious comment on this lol) typically a court order of some kind is needed if you are under the age of 16. Personally I think even allowing marriage under the age of 16 is ridiculous.
It looks like in the case of Arkansas you can only get married under the age of 16 if you have parental permission, there is a pregnancy involved, and you have "a judge of the circuit court of the district where the application for a marriage license is being made" sign off on it. I mean the laws are horribly dated and sexist I'll freely admit (when a pregnancy is not involved girls and boys have different age requirements), but under the law they list on their state website you can only get married if the conditions I mentioned are met. I don't know how that plays out in practice however and frankly I think the notion of allowing marriage under the age of 16 is ridiculous, but that is more of an opinion than anything else.
Likewise a district judge has to sign off on a marriage under 16 in Kansas if he believes after "due investigation" it is in the best interest of the child.
For the record, and seeing how this is coming from someone who is not an american I hope you take this without much insult, but americans need to get their shit together and gain some consistency on who can get married where and how. I mean fuck, 50 different marriage rules in one country? its pretty ridiculous.
Woops...for some reason I thought you wrote Kansas and instead you wrote Kentucky...umm...I'll just go check on that. I clearly need to read up more on US geography and state locations haha.
I actually tried looking for Tennessee's statuetes, but you have some weird login thing and I did not want to sign up for it. From what I've been able to gather online though even people under the age of 16 there still have to go get a waiver by a juvenile court (which to me sounds pretty easy to obtain).
As it's Sunday, have a bacon butty, with brown sauce...
This particular one is from my favouritest ever cafe / restaurant.
And back to the topic at hand... Forgotten Realms is originally Ed's Realm but by putting it out there into the public domain and allowing us to play in it; either via the PnP game, a computer game, or however else you interact with it, by extension is becomes our world - Yes, yes, there's the matter of copyright and licencing but - ultimately whatever form your RPGing takes it's not a passive interaction, you make your mark on it simply by creating a your own character to play in it, as such it would be foolish for him (or anyone else for that matter) to impose limitations to inclusivity on it, thereby excluding large numbers of people from 'buying into' it.
Sure, if you don't like a certain aspect of the world, by all means choose to exclude it from your own personal world view, but certainly don't try and impose that exclusion on the wider world simply because it makes you feel uncomfortable or you have an issue with it, because the inclusive nature of the world is the joy of it, and to try and restrict it is to take away someone else's joy.
EDIT: That said, theoretically I see nothing wrong with introducing RL issues into the Realms for the sake of creating an interesting story or conflict (to be resolved) so long as it's done in a way as to promote open-minded discussion, not simply to force an agenda*. For example: Lathander's dogma to "be furtile in mind and body" suggests some ideas regarding sexuality, the use of contraception, and even the consequences of indiscriminate relations for his followers.
*Unless there's specific agreement within your gaming group, in which case you're probably preaching to the choir anyway.
For the record, and seeing how this is coming from someone who is not an american I hope you take this without much insult, but americans need to get their shit together and gain some consistency on who can get married where and how. I mean fuck, 50 different marriage rules in one country? its pretty ridiculous.
I found a list of marriage ages on Wikipedia. I think I remember @elminster mentioning being Canadian in a different thread. According to this Wikipedia article the lowest marriage age in Canada is 15. The lowest in the U.S. is 12, in Virginia and 13 in New Hampshire, but most states are higher than that. For the U.S., the article only mentions the marriage ages for the 50 states and Puerto Rico, so for all I know it could be lower for DC or one of the other territories.
Edit: I just did some Google searches and found that the minimum marriage ages for Guam and American Samoa are 14 and that the minimum age for the Virgin Islands and DC are 16, but so far I can't find it for the Northern Mariana Islands.
I agree that it would make sense if there was some national consistency.
For the record, and seeing how this is coming from someone who is not an american I hope you take this without much insult, but americans need to get their shit together and gain some consistency on who can get married where and how. I mean fuck, 50 different marriage rules in one country? its pretty ridiculous.
I found a list of marriage ages on Wikipedia. I think I remember @elminster mentioning being Canadian in a different thread. According to this Wikipedia article the lowest marriage age in Canada is 15. The lowest in the U.S. is 12, in Virginia and 13 in New Hampshire, but most states are higher than that. For the U.S., the article only mentions the marriage ages for the 50 states and Puerto Rico, so for all I know it could be lower for DC or one of the other territories.
Edit: I just did some Google searches and found that the minimum marriage ages for Guam and American Samoa are 14 and that the minimum age for the Virgin Islands and DC are 16, but so far I can't find it for the Northern Mariana Islands.
I agree that it would make sense if there was some national consistency.
Yea I am Canadian and I would say we should probably look at that ourselves as 13 different laws is silly as well (the territories have their own rules which is odd given they are under the jurisdiction of the federal government). On a provincial level Saskatchewan allows it with a lower court order if under 16, BC requires you to go the the provincial supreme court (I would be surprised to learn if this has happened at all certainly in this century), Manitoba you have to be over 18 to get married, Quebec and Ontario seem to have the same requirements (no one under 16 can marry), New Brunswick requires an application to the Court of the Queen's Bench for marriages under 16 (like BC I'd be surprised to learn if this has successful cases in the last 15 or more years), Nova Scotia has it that you have to get consent of the court to get married under 16 (plus your parents consent), Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland aren't very clear on the age requirements for under 16 (but frankly in the case of PEI most of the people getting married there every year are probably tourists). For the territories the Yukon is 15, not sure on the North-West Territories, and Nunavut's website seems to be down in that area.
Marriage is legal at age 12, 13, 14 in some countries!? The hell!? Most kids don't even know what marriage even MEANS at that age, lol. This just boggles my mind... In my country, the legal marriage age is 18, no more, no less and I think that's the best choice. Sorry, but I don't believe kids are mature before 18 years old, and even then the mentality of some people still makes me question that.
We can forget all of the western idea's when it comes to monks, lawful good or even paladin's, for those who have played dragon age think of leliana when think of the typical attitude of people inhabiting FR worlds, do no harm to the innocent but enjoy life with a vertical discussion when able
Comments
Likewise a district judge has to sign off on a marriage under 16 in Kansas if he believes after "due investigation" it is in the best interest of the child.
For the record, and seeing how this is coming from someone who is not an american I hope you take this without much insult, but americans need to get their shit together and gain some consistency on who can get married where and how. I mean fuck, 50 different marriage rules in one country? its pretty ridiculous.
I actually tried looking for Tennessee's statuetes, but you have some weird login thing and I did not want to sign up for it. From what I've been able to gather online though even people under the age of 16 there still have to go get a waiver by a juvenile court (which to me sounds pretty easy to obtain).
This particular one is from my favouritest ever cafe / restaurant.
And back to the topic at hand... Forgotten Realms is originally Ed's Realm but by putting it out there into the public domain and allowing us to play in it; either via the PnP game, a computer game, or however else you interact with it, by extension is becomes our world - Yes, yes, there's the matter of copyright and licencing but - ultimately whatever form your RPGing takes it's not a passive interaction, you make your mark on it simply by creating a your own character to play in it, as such it would be foolish for him (or anyone else for that matter) to impose limitations to inclusivity on it, thereby excluding large numbers of people from 'buying into' it.
Sure, if you don't like a certain aspect of the world, by all means choose to exclude it from your own personal world view, but certainly don't try and impose that exclusion on the wider world simply because it makes you feel uncomfortable or you have an issue with it, because the inclusive nature of the world is the joy of it, and to try and restrict it is to take away someone else's joy.
EDIT: That said, theoretically I see nothing wrong with introducing RL issues into the Realms for the sake of creating an interesting story or conflict (to be resolved) so long as it's done in a way as to promote open-minded discussion, not simply to force an agenda*. For example: Lathander's dogma to "be furtile in mind and body" suggests some ideas regarding sexuality, the use of contraception, and even the consequences of indiscriminate relations for his followers.
*Unless there's specific agreement within your gaming group, in which case you're probably preaching to the choir anyway.
I found a list of marriage ages on Wikipedia. I think I remember @elminster mentioning being Canadian in a different thread. According to this Wikipedia article the lowest marriage age in Canada is 15. The lowest in the U.S. is 12, in Virginia and 13 in New Hampshire, but most states are higher than that. For the U.S., the article only mentions the marriage ages for the 50 states and Puerto Rico, so for all I know it could be lower for DC or one of the other territories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriageable_age#North_America
Edit: I just did some Google searches and found that the minimum marriage ages for Guam and American Samoa are 14 and that the minimum age for the Virgin Islands and DC are 16, but so far I can't find it for the Northern Mariana Islands.
I agree that it would make sense if there was some national consistency.
... o_O
Don't worry about the mentality/maturity of the children - it's not them making the marital decisions anyway :P
I was fawning over Mass Effect too much to try it out.