Sex and Romance

My love in her attire doth show her wit,
It doth so well become her;
For every season she hath dressings fit,
For Winter, Spring and Summer.
No beauty she doth miss
When all her robes are on;
But Beauty's self she is
When all her robes are gone.

--Madrigal (anon)

There's a lot of sex in this game. Most of it is legal (with your wife ). But, in the spirit of the times, you can also seduce the wives and daughters of other players (if your stats are good enough) and get them pregnant. The other players may not appreciate this, but the option is there. If a child is born whose SIRE ID does not match that of its mothers husband, than someone has been playing the field. Chasing a ladies favor was marginally safer than jousting and, for some, provided a smoother high. The clerics kept most of the records (and thus cooked the books when this seemed prudent), so we don't have a complete picture of who did what to whom. Chaucer, however, let the cat out of the bag big time. And there was the "Roman de la Rose," (a very racy, and popular, love story that was all the rage several generations before Chaucer showed up.)

If you are tired of every Tom, Dick, and Jean having at your women , one solution is to seize the ladies in question and free them when they are ready to marry. Sort of locking them up in a tower until you are ready to let them out. Rather historical, that. Actually, "captive" is one of the safest places to be in the game, and not just for daughters. Having a reliable friend capture you and put you some place real hard to find/break into is just the ticket for those who don't take an active military role. The most common solution, however, is to use the fief lockout function to prevent certain (or all) players from having access to the court of the fief where you have your women stashed.

Some players will find they cannot conceive. This is because there is a hidden "fertility" rating that will result in an historically accurate one third of the couples not being able to make babies. In this case you divorce your wife and get another one. If that doesn't work, the male is at fault and it's time to get the wife a virile boyfriend.

The scoring system penalizes you if any of the women in your family are seduced and it gets mentioned in the Herald (in other words, the affair became public knowledge and your "honor" is sullied.) Your only recourse is to challenge the miscreant to a duel to the death. Consult with a Herald for the details on this. If the other fellow declines to meet you on the Field of Honor, his Stature will be decreased, so he has an incentive to accept the challenge.