Marriage in House culture unites not only two people, but also the obligations of two Houses. The main question is not the place of residence itself, but which inner circle will accept the future decisions of the spouses and their children. Personal consent is therefore necessary, but does not exhaust the consequences of the union for the lineages.
Two People and Two Houses
Before marriage, the parties state what they will keep separate: names, inherited duties, rooms, and debts to their lineage. They then determine their shared decisions—hospitality, raising children, and the right to leave. Anything not agreed upon is not automatically considered shared.
A marriage was entered into not by two, but by four, and of those four, two were houses; and therefore the wedding night, which everyone regarded as the concern of the newlyweds, in fact took place above all between two walls, between two thresholds, between two memories, and the entire subsequent life of these people depended far more on whether the houses came to an agreement that night than on whether they themselves did—for people are capable of making peace after the first autumn, but houses that have not reconciled by that first autumn will never reconcile.
Forms of Union
A complete merging of houses is rare. More often, one spouse enters the other's outer circle while retaining a place in their own lineage; children receive a provisional affiliation and undergo a separate induction later. There is also alternating marriage, in which the family lives seasonally in two houses without moving inner-circle belongings between them.
Moving by itself settles nothing. A person may live under the same roof for decades and remain accepted only as the spouse of a resident. Conversely, a House sometimes recognizes an absent person as a participant in family decisions even before they move in.
Incompatibility and Divorce
Incompatible lineages are not necessarily hostile: they may understand the same obligation differently. One House holds a promise binding until it is explicitly withdrawn; another, until its purpose is fulfilled. A child between such measures learns two orders, but any shared action risks being recognized by only one side.
Divorce ends the union of people more quickly than the bond between Houses. Keys are returned, invitations are closed, and decisions once made jointly are reviewed separately. The most difficult disputes concern not property but memories: which House has the right to retain an event from their shared life, and whether the other must cease responding to it.