In addition, all religious characters gain a +1 bonus on all social rolls, as the charisma of their devotion impresses all those they meet, if only subconsciously. If a religious character ever fails to maintain their required Virtue values, even by a single point, they immediately lose these benefits.
Many people across the continent of Galatia strive to live and act in accordance with the chivalrous ideal. Some few work to maintain two ideals at once (being both religious and chivalrous knights, for instance), though this is a great challenge not easily met. Centuries ago, early in the reign of Dyonna Vezia, the Warrior Queen of Roses, the great sage Seyort Artwametontas wrote the first descriptions of high chivalry and then illustrated them in epic poems of grand adventure and romance, and his definition of chivalry has formed the basis for their elaboration by less skillful writers and poets since. To Seyort, chivalry embodies the loftiest values of true courage, a passion for justice, elegance, and culture ~ that is, right conduct, sensibility, and the proper handling of personal relationships. These values are then expressed in the two domains of chivalry, which Seyort defined as the battlefield and the home. To be chivalrous is to be civilized in Galatic eyes, and much of the empire’s history has been composed of looking outwards to spread the ideals of chivalry by beating down everyone who disagrees (chivalry, after all, does not preclude violence).
Finding no place for themself in the noisy danger of combat or the slow importance of the home, the nonbinary sage Hwivargin Drynemetontas introduced the Court of Romance to Galatia a couple of centuries ago during the reign of Queen Eliesia the Half-Elven. Queen Eliesia’s kingly human father had forcibly married her mother in order to leverage the ancient fey ties between land and monarch and add the elfin realm of Dalmat to the Empire. This was the courtly atmosphere of Drynemeton (the capital of Galatia) in which Hwivargin extended Seyortite ideas of chivalry into a third domain ~ the heart. Their writings kicked off the popular activity of fine amor, or “courtly love” ~ a principle decree of which is that it is everyone’s duty to flirt with well-spoken guests and to receive flattery from them. Fine amor remains an invention of social outsiders, misfits, the disenfranchised, and poets to recognize and reward those who neither fight nor support. It is love for love’s sake — romantic and passionate love that must be contrasted to the emotionless, political attitude of arranged marriage. Courtly romance gives social power to people who previously had none (or at least very little).
In time, Hwivargin’s Court of Romance has formed the basis of formalized social events known as the Courts of Love. Selected members of a court (usually people of nonbinary gender and/or outsider status ~ many include, for example, the court fool) preside, with everyone else as audience. People may come to this court to inquire of the rules, to complain of their lover (who nonetheless remains anonymous, of course), and/or to receive the judgment of the court whether an action — “a theoretical activity, of course . . .” — is romantically “correct” or not. If the Court of Love condemns an affair, or any activity involved in the affair, it might even rule that the love must be ended!
Part of the allure of courtly love is its forbidden nature. It is directly opposed to the practice of matrimony, for “True Love” is liberating while matrimony is bondage. Thus the most intense of all romances involves a married woman cheating on her husband. The purity of their bliss sets both lovers free from the gross material concerns of a world drained of its magic these past 12 centuries and places them into that rarefied realm of emotional commitment. The fact that adultery is forbidden by both Church and Emperor makes its consummation all the sweeter. But courtly love is not just the work of a back-door lover ~ simple lust is only a base reflection of True Love. Courtly romance is delicate and formalized, and its practitioners are required to go through proscribed stages. Troubadours are an important part of the romantic scene. They write and sing passionate songs that praise a beloved’s beauty, grace, generosity, and chastity. The poems are often disguised, using the names of ancient lovers so as not to name the lady directly. Thus the poet pretends to be entertaining everyone, but in secret sends his love and messages to someone in the court.
There are a number of behaviors expected of lovers in courtly romance. Firstly, they must adore any upon whom their heart might shine in word, thought, and action, with an overwhelming preoccupation. When problems occur and only failure and frustration ensue ~ as is, of course, inevitable ~ the doting lover must be nourished by their agony until love becomes the all-encompassing passion of their life. In fine amor, lovers are subordinate to their beloveds, vassal to the object of their affections. This humble and submissive attitude of the lover was an idea entirely new when Hwivargin first formulated it, at a time when the primacy of one’s desire over the wishes of the one desired was otherwise unshakable and no doubt insufferable in both social and clerical circles, as exemplified by the actions of the queen’s own father. Sadly, this attitude is still a pitifully young idea in many Galatian courts. The deliberate role reversal is a reaction against the bondage imposed by the prevailing attitudes. It exalts Love, transforming it into something new.
Chivalry in any domain supports the protection of the weak by the strong. Before its acceptance, most people lived by the attitude that “might makes right” in all of life. Chivalry seeks to turn that attitude into one of noblesse oblige, the belief that nobility obligates one to behave honorably and benevolently. This definition of chivalry places its emphasis upon refining a person’s duty. A devotee of romance honors all who might be their beloved and must do everything in their nature and ability to protect them, to deliver them justice, to respect them, and to do their bidding. They must honor every possible beloved as if they actually were their own beloved. Of course, a lover must also be true to his love. Infidelity is the worst offense of all. Like religious people, those known as chivalrous knights must meet certain requirements; those that do gain magical benefits for as long as they maintain those requirements.
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