Editing TROS in the Hammer:Setting Political People (section)

===Marriage===
The People have several important practicies and traditions regarding marriage.  Marriage among the People happens at both the tribal and personal level.  Certain tribes have are considered "husbands" of each other.  This relationship means that those tribes have a relationship in which men of the one tribe interact with the women of the other tribe.  For some tribes, these are very tightly governed arranged interactions, for others its more of a preference.  For two tribes to be husbands means that those tribes will have a strong alliance with each other, as many of the children in one tribe will be sired by men in the other. Some tribes, especially the very small, the very large, or the most geographically spread out, may have multiple "husband" relationships with other tribes, representing a web of kin-ship alliances.

At the personal level, the People are essentially polygamous.  Both women and men may have a number of husbands or wives at any one time.  This is because the husbands and wives do not, in general, live together; they stay with their own tribes.  Therefore a woman may have several husbands from different tribes with whom she maintains a relationship, with the husbands visiting her at different times to renew the acquaintance.  Men may have wives in several tribes in several locations; for the sailing tribes this may literally be a wife in every port.  

The basis for these marriages is usally mutual fondness developed during courtship. Courtship among the People usually takes place during semi-formal meetings (dances, entertainments, dinners, etc.), arranged by the tribal matriarchs of two or more husband tribes.  In some tribes, however, these marriages are completely arranged, with little choice for either the man or the woman.  An example of this would be a debt marriage.  In a debt marriage, a tribe essentially "pays" another tribe for a debt occurred, usually from an oath-breaking (see below) by providing a husband to a woman in that tribe who has not been able to find one of her own (perhaps due to disfigurement, personality, whatever).  

Except in the largest tribes, marriage never takes place within the tribe.  In some large tribes, marriage between clans is allowed, but not within the clan; this is one way new tribes come into being, as clans slowly become more and more autonomous.  Sexual relations between members of the same tribe is viewed with varying levels of approbation; in some tribes it is considered a minor transgression, a kind of kissing cousins that is never allowed to blossom into full romance.  In other tribes (especially the smaller ones) it is a full taboo, with extreme, sometimes fatal punishments involved.