Bastardy

A **bastard** is a person whose parents, at the time of their birth, were not married to each other. There is a certain stigma that comes from being born as a bastard, as their nature is often seen as lustful and deceitful. As a polite way of referring to someone who is bastard-born, someone may be referred to as a "natural son" or "natural daughter". A less polite term, indicative of the social stigma against bastards, is "baseborn", although this term does not apply if both parents are noble. A euphemism for being bastard-born is "being born on the wrong side of the sheets".

## Status

### Lack of Inheritance and Discrimination

Bastards are not allowed to inherit their father's lands or titles, and have no claims to the privileges of their father's House. It is up to their father on how to raise or treat them: at worst they are unacknowledged and ignored, though they may fare better and be discreetly sent funds to ensure their well-being. At best, a lord will acknowledge his bastard children (allowing them to take on one of the special bastard surnames), but send them away to one of his distant castles to be raised away from his lawful family. For bastard children to be raised by their father in his own castle alongside his trueborn children is considered extremely unusual.

There is no outright law punishing noble men or women for having bastard children, instead it is considered a social and religious disgrace.

It is possible for the king to legitimize a lord's bastard children, though this special dispensation is difficult to acquire and infrequently happens. It will usually only be granted if a lord has no other legitimate children (or no male children) to carry on the name of his house. However, the social stigma is not automatically removed after the bastard is formally legitimized.

### Bastards in Volaenis and Across the Sea

Due to its unique history and culture, bastards are not looked down upon in Volaenis the way they are in the rest of the Seven Kingdoms. The present-day Volaenish descend from the people who sailed to Trost a thousand years ago. The culture they passed down to the present-day Volaenish has relatively relaxed attitudes towards sexual matters. While the Volaenish who came to Trost did convert to the Faith of the New, they basically just ignored the rules they didn't like, and follow the religion much less strictly than other parts of Trost. Many Volaenish nobles have formalized lovers known as paramours, and they do not possess the same stigma against homosexual behavior that the rest of Trost does.

Because Volaenish culture holds little if any stigma against bastards, it is not unusual to see bastards work their way up to important social or court positions there, holding castles or leading armies for their families.

Bastards in Volaenis still face a few restrictions, but they are relatively minor compared to the social contempt that bastards in the rest of Trost often face. Bastards in Volaenis must still use the special bastard surname "Sea", and they are less likely to inherit from their parents.

Another minor stigma against bastards in Volaenis is that it is still seen as marrying beneath one's station for a powerful lord to marry a noble-born bastard. This is often simply due to the practical reason that a bastard cannot inherit, and thus the marriage would not bring with it any new wealth or lands.

## Terminology

The stigma of illegitimacy is so great, that all acknowledged bastards born to a noble in Trost have to identify themselves through a specific surname marking them as a bastard, which varies by region:

* Jewel ?— Aubeux
* Crown — Beorgan Way
* Middle — Centriole
* Mud — the Flatlands
* Forest — Grovenreich
* Mount — Ortinbras
* Sea — Volaenis

However, this system does not apply to the bastards of smallfolk: at least one parent (usually, but not always, the father) has to be a member of a noble House. If both the father and mother are commoners, the child cannot use the special surname.

The low-born commoners of Trost do not actually use surnames at all. Therefore, possessing a bastard surname is simultaneously a mark of distinction and badge of shame. Anyone who encounters someone with a bastard surname will immediately know that they are not simply a bastard, but the bastard child of a noble.

Bastards only use the special surnames if they have been openly acknowledged by their noble-born parent. In such cases, their noble parent will usually try to make sure that they are well cared for, or send money for their support, but it is extremely unusual for a noble to raise their bastard child in their own household. There is no official distinction between bastards who have one noble-born parent, and those whose parents are both noble-born. In practice, however, a nobleman would be much more likely to acknowledge a bastard child born to a noble lady, than he would a child born to a commoner.