History Main / ExoticExtendedMarriage

* ''LightNovel/AscendanceOfABookworm'': This has yet to be shown among commoners, but nobles are known to take both extra spouses and concubines. Karstedt had three wives at some point, one of them having died a few years prior to Myne meeting him. When shown [[spoiler:Sylvester]]'s home, Rozemyne is explicitly told that there's a wing meant for his eventual second and third wives.

*** In "Up the Long Ladder", the crew of the ''Enterprise'' discovers two human [[LostColony Lost Colonies]], both of which are under threat. The Bringloidi are an agrarian society that has given up advanced technology for a simple life, but their planet is no longer habitable. The Mariposans are a more technically advanced society of clones derived from five original settlers who survived a crash, threatened by CloneDegeneration. The only solution provided by Dr. Pulaski is to re-join the two peoples (they originally came on the same ship). However, in order to provide enough genetic variety to ensure long-term survival, each Bringloidi or Mariposan will need to have three mates. This state of affairs is likely to last for generations, until enough genetic variety has been created. Even then, cultural inertia is likely to keep them doing it for long after the necessity has passed.

** One exception to the rule in Westeros are the Ironborn. Ironborn men are allowed to have multiple wives, with one [[TopWife rock wife]] who ''must'' be Ironborn as well, and an unlimited number of salt wives, who will inevitably be [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe women from the main land captured on raids]]. The children of salt wives are considered legitimate and have inheritance rights, but they come after the rock wife's children in the line of succession.

** One exception to the rule in Westeros are the Ironborn. Ironborn men are allowed to have multiple wives, with one [[TopWife rock wife]] who ''must'' be Ironborn as well, and an unlimited number of salt wives, who will inevitably be [[women from the main land captured on raids]]. The children of salt wives are considered legitimate and have inheritance rights, but they come after the rock wife's children in the line of succession.

** One exception to the rule in Westeros are the Ironborn. Ironborn men are allowed to have multiple wives, with one [[TopWife rock wife]] who ''must'' be Ironborn as well, and an unlimited number of [[AndNowYouMustMarryMe salt wives who will inevitably be women from the main land captured on raids.]] The children of salt wives are considered legitimate and have inheritance rights, but they come after the rock wife's children in the line of succession.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Polygamy was acceptable, though not common, in the Valyrian Freehold, in contrast with monogamous Westeros. Aegon the Conqueror had two wives, Rhaenys and Visenya, who both also happened to be his sisters, as BrotherSisterIncest ''was'' common in Valyria and Aegon married his younger sister Rhaenys for love after marrying his older sister Visenya out of tradition. The Targaryens basically gave up polygamy after Maegor the Cruel, who had six wives and practically a ZeroPercentApprovalRating, but it's still practiced in certain places in Essos. That said, it's still common for royals to keep [[TheMistress mistresses]], they're just not given the official status of a spouse. In fact, if they're so inclined they can legitimate any bastards resulting from such relationships, as Aegon IV did with all of his Great Bastards on his deathbed, precipitating a civil war between supporters of his trueborn son Daeron II and his bastard son Daemon Blackfyre.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'': Season 4 shows that marriages between three people are apparently relatively common in Atlantian culture, so long as all the participants wish it. Lagoon Boy has both a husband and a wife.

*** In one episode the ''Enterprise'' crew has visitors from an alien race where the women are larger in stature than the men and hold all of the business, scientific, and government jobs as well as any occupations requiring physical strength. The smaller men are thought to be better suited for domestic and artistic endeavors. Important women, especially, have multiple husbands, and they all share a marital bed.
*** This trope is the alternate interpretation of a throwaway line from [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E11DatasDay "Data's Day"]] that Andorian marriages consist of four people. The Literature/StarTrekNovelverse preferred the BizarreAlienSexes interpretation.

*** In "Up the Long Ladder", the crew of the ''Enterprise'' discovers two [[LostColony Lost Colonies]], both of which are under threat. The Bringloidi are an agrarian society that has given up advanced technology for a simple life, but their planet is no longer habitable. The Mariposans are a more technically advanced society of clones derived from five original settlers who survived a crash, threatened by CloneDegeneration. The only solution provided by Dr. Pulaski is to re-join the two peoples (they originally came on the same ship). However, in order to provide enough genetic variety to ensure long-term survival, each Bringloidi or Mariposan will need to have three mates. This state of affairs is likely to last for generations, until enough genetic variety has been created. Even then, cultural inertia is likely to keep them doing it for long after the necessity has passed.

*** In "Up the Long Ladder", the crew of the ''Enterprise'' discovers two [[LostColony Lost Colonies]], both of which are under threat. The Bringloidi are an agrarian society that has given up advanced technology for a simple life, but their planet is no longer habitable. The Mariposans are a society of clones from the original five surviving settlers, threatened by CloneDegeneration. The only solution provided by Dr. Pulaski is to re-join the two peoples (they originally came on the same ship). However, in order to provide enough genetic variety to ensure long-term survival, each Bringloidi and Mariposan will need to have three mates. This state of affairs is likely to last for generations, until enough genetic variety has been created. Even then, inertia is likely to keep them doing it for long after the necessity has passed.

* ''Series/MotherlandFortSalem'': The fictional witch culture at least in the US has polyandry (marriage between a woman and multiple men) as a common feature. In fact it's standard among High Atlantic witches, an elite upper class group, with three husbands being common. This is explained as a way to have a larger source of positive genetics in any child's conception (which [[ExtraParentConception they all contribute to simultaneously]], probably [[MysticalPregnancy by magic]]).

* In ''Series/BabylonFive'' Londo Mollari has three wives, all {{Arranged Marriage}}s, whom he hates. It's apparently not uncommon for high status Centauri nobles, and made easier by their [[ExoticEquipment six "appendages"]].
* Clarice on ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' is married to multiple men and women, who are all married to each other. This is implied to be unusual but perfectly legal. It does, however, set her group of monotheists apart from mainstream polytheistic society, which is implied to be more monogamous.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Polygamy was acceptable, though not common, in the Valyrian Freehold, in contrast with monogamous Westeros. Aegon the Conqueror had two wives, Rhaenys and Visenya, who both also happened to be his sisters, as BrotherSisterIncest ''was'' common in Valyria and Aegon married his younger sister Rhaenys for love after marrying his older sister Visenya out of tradition. The Targaryens basically gave up polygamy after Maegor the Cruel, who had six wives and practically a ZeroPercentApprovalRating, but it's still practiced in certain places in Essos. That said, it's still common for royals to keep [[TheMistress mistresses]], they're just not given the official status of a spouse. In fact, if they're so inclined they can legitimate any bastards resulting from such relationships, as happened Aegon IV did with all of his Great Bastards on his deathbed, precipitating a civil war between supporters of his trueborn son Daeron II and his bastard son Daemon Blackfyre.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Polygamy was acceptable, though not common, in the Valyrian Freehold, in contrast with monogamous Westeros. Aegon the Conqueror had two wives, Rhaenys and Visenya, who both also happened to be his sisters, as BrotherSisterIncest ''was'' common in Valyria and Aegon married his younger sister Rhaenys for love after marrying his older sister Visenya out of tradition. The Targaryans basically gave up polygamy after Maegor the Cruel, who had six wives and practically a ZeroPercentApprovalRating, but it's still practiced in certain places in Essos. That said, it's still common for royals to keep [[TheMistress mistresses]], they're just not given the official status of a spouse. In fact, if they're so inclined they can legitimate any bastards resulting from such relationships, as happened Aegon IV did with all of his Great Bastards on his deathbed, precipitating a civil war between supporters of his trueborn son Daeron II and his bastard son Daemon Blackfyre.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': Polygamy was common in the Valyrian Freehold, in contrast with monogamous Westeros. Aegon the Conqueror had two wives, Rhaenys and Visenya, who both [[BrotherSisterIncest also happened to be his sisters]]. The Targaryans basically gave up polygamy after Maegor the Cruel, but it's still practiced in certain places in Essos. That said, it was still common for royals to keep [[TheMistress mistresses]], they're just not given the official status of a spouse. In fact, if they're so inclined they could legitimate any bastards resulting from such relationships, as happened with Aegon IV.

* ''LightNovel/HowARealistHeroRebuiltTheKingdom'': The Elfrieden king is allowed to take multiple wives. When Souma wonders about this, Liscia states that it’s not considered immoral, and that she’d be willing for him to have up to eight including her (the number of days in this world’s week). Legally, the daughters of royal or knightly families are Queen Consorts, while those of commoner stock are Mistresses (their offspring having no claim to royalty). This sets Souma up for no less than five such marriages, although he denies Juna at first until she obtains the status to be a Consort.

* ''Literature/TheOccupationSaga'': Polygyny is common among the alien species of TheVerse due to typically having much higher ratios of females to males than humans do, though it's normally a matter of [[LadyLand the women sharing a subordinate male between them]] rather than a straight harem setup. Main character Jason Linford gradually gets used to this, and by the start of book three is in a polyamorous relationship with two Shil'vati, Raisha and Kernathu, and a Rakiri named Yaro.

* In Wen Spencer's ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', a plague has left the world seriously gender-skewed, with 5-10 girls born for every boy. The solution for this is for boys to marry all sisters in a family. The hero, of course, goes on on to marry [[spoiler:all of the princesses of the realm]].

* In [[TabletopGame/EmpireOfThePetalThrone Tékumel]], the Tsolyáni [[TheClan clans]] are not just polygamous, but also follow the Iroquois kinship in which one's paternal uncles and maternal aunts, and all of their spouses (but not [[SexSlave slaves]] or [[TheMistress mistresses]], although [[GayOption same-sex spouses]] count), are treated as your parents (including calling them "Father" or "Mother"), and all their children are also your [[MassiveNumberedSiblings siblings]]. The Tsolyáni people have such a [[SexIsGood sex-positive]] outlook on life, that no one bats an eye towards adultery, nor teenagers running back and forth between the boy's and girl's dorms. Despite how complicated this all sounds, everyone knows who one's biological mother is, and usually one's father. As clans are highly communal and massive, responsibility for raising children fall on the whole clan, and as such, vary few people grow-up unwanted and unloved.

*** This trope is the alternate interpretation of a throwaway line from [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E11DatasDay "Data's Day"]] that Andorian marriages consist of four people. The EU preferred the BizarreAlienSexes interpretation.

* A ''[[ComicBook/LoisLane Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane]]'' story has Lois fall in love with Titanman, a muscular {{Human Alien|s}}. On their wedding day, Titanman reveals to Lois he comes from a planet that legalized polygamy, and that she will become his ''eighth'' wife. Lois objects to the thought of having to share a husband with seven other women, so Titanman tranquilizes her into proceeding with the wedding. Superman [[OutOfCharacterMoment jealously refuses to save her]], but [[spoiler:she escapes having to marry Titanman by awakening back in the Daily Planet.]]

The existence of this trope is often a necessity for a MarryThemAll scenario. The RoyalHarem, when played for exoticism (often in an {{orientalis|m}}t way in Western works), is a subtrope involving elite men who practice polygamy--though a lot of women in the harem are mere concubines instead of official wives in many cases, and the man's children and female blood relatives may live there too if the writer is going for accuracy. See the Useful Notes page, UsefulNotes/ForTheLoveOfMany, for a broader discussion of the general topic.

The existence of this trope is often a necessity for a MarryThemAll scenario. The RoyalHarem, when played for exoticism (often in an {{orientalis|m}}t way in Western works), is a subtrope involving elite men who practice polygamy--though many women in the harem are often mere concubines instead of official wives, and the man's children and female blood relatives may live there too if the writer is going for accuracy. See the Useful Notes page, UsefulNotes/ForTheLoveOfMany, for a broader discussion of the general topic.

The existence of this trope is often a necessity for a MarryThemAll scenario. The RoyalHarem, when played for exoticism (often in an {{orientalis|m}}t way in Western works), is a subtrope involving elite men who practice polygamy--though at least some women in a harem may be mere concubines instead of official wives, and the man's children and female blood relatives may live there too if the writer is going for accuracy. See the Useful Notes page, UsefulNotes/ForTheLoveOfMany, for a broader discussion of the general topic.