>Even more so, even if they do so legally, that doesn't stop people from >having multiple partners if they really want to, and they can be quite happy >with all of them... And even from them being openly acknowledged by society >(think back to Dangerous Liaisons if you will) I wouldn't go so far as to postulate polygamy or polygyny without a concrete example from a book. It IS true that Vlad seems to assume that all of his superiors in the Organization have a mistress as a matter of course. The dangers of a mistress are generally the same as those of a prostitute. Namely, disease and children. In a world where neither exist unneccesarily and many marriages are likely arranged due to political neccesity or House propriety, it's probably fairly accepted that one or both spouses will have some outside liaisons. I imagine that tolerance for this sort of thing depends on one's station and one's House. The House of the Lyorn would probably have very different ideas about what is "proper" than the House of the Issola, say. Actually, to draw an example from the Real World, I can imagine Lyorn sensibilities to be rather like Feudal Japanese sensibilities. A samurai's relationship to his wife had some very clear-cut boundaries. One of those was that, being the provider, you don't unneccesarily burden your wife with your troubles. Geisha houses existed (among other reasons) to allow a noble a place where he COULD unburden his soul in a safe environment. A geisha was NOT generally a prostitute, though she might engage in sexual relations with a client if she chose. A geisha would more properly be thought of as a kind of courtesan whose job it was to pamper the client and distract him with beauty so as to help him forget his troubles for awhile. Anyway, I can easily imagine that a Lyornlord might wear one face around his family, yet feel the need to visit a "geisha house" occasionally for personal reasons. With the House of the Issola who more or less train from birth to be a courtier/courtesan of one stripe or another, it would be surprising if something like a geisha house did not exist as an accepted part of Dragaeran cultures someplace. Errr, this has gotten away from the point I was trying to make but since it's interesting conjecture I'll let it stand. *heh*