"Dunno. Marriages without soul bonds end horribly tragically after a few centuries and usually both parties die of grief. Children they raise turn out psychologically unhealthy somehow. The Valar get mad."

"...The Valar getting mad would be sorta... circular. - There's actually been studies on human children raised by gay couples, they're fine, ones with two moms ambiguously slightly better off."

"That's good to know.'

"Yeah. I guess if the soul bond thing is actually necessary for Elf reasons that could be a valid justification but it... seems like the sort of thing they could've mentioned..."

"I mean, maybe they did. I haven't exactly ever met them."

"Also seems like something all the intervening passers of information could have preserved, I mean, if they dropped something like that they might be missing other major justifications or details. Maybe horrible things happen to Elves if you don't make sure to, to avoid having pet teacup pigs, and this doesn't come up very often and it will be an awful surprise if anyone gets a teacup pig."

"Maybe. We could go visit Valinor and ask."

"Maybe. 'Excuse me, Valar, did you by any chance have a reason to be huge homophobes, I'm guessing no but this could be an unfair generalization from my own world'..."

"Phrasing it like that'd be a little dangerous. But yeah."

"I probably wouldn't want to approach them in the first place if I wasn't pretty sure I could say anything and have whatever they did about it bounce off me, considering."

"Yeah. Well, maybe some of the Noldor know."

"Maybe. Sounds like they may be a good source of information in general."

"Yeah. We'll have to be careful but we should definitely talk with some. The King's reputed pretty reasonable, we could go there and steer clear of the Kinslayers proper."

"Is there, like, a political hierarchy I should know?"

"My parents are King and Queen of Beleriand but since our awful losses in the early years of the war they are not really in a position to exercise power outside Doriath. Most of the Lindar - that's a catch-all for the Elves who aren't the Noldor - follow my father's laws, so things like the Quenya ban took effect far outside Doriath. But at this point most of the Lindar outside Doriath are sworn to one of the Noldo lords, at least officially, even if they're really loyal to my father.

The Noldor have a big family and they give out all political positions to relatives. Male relatives. The Noldo King's sons and nephews each rule a kingdom, and there's an internal hierarchy there, too."

"Do you know much about it?" Bella asks, taking notes.

"Some...my cousin Galadriel, the one who's a quarter Noldo, can be induced to rant about it at length...so the Noldo King was Finwë, and he had five children, three sons, which are the politically relevant ones because the Noldor are sexist. The eldest son, Fëanor, and the second son, Fingolfin, disagreed over which of the two of them should be King when Finwë died. Fëanor tried settling it by abandoning Fingolfin and everyone who supported him in the far north on the Ice to die. But they didn't die, and they successfully crossed the Ice into Beleriand, and of course they were mad at Fëanor but by then he'd died in the war."

"What a charming history."

"I know, right? They're awful. Fëanor had seven sons, and one of them had been captured by the Enemy and was a prisoner in Angband, and so the second one was in charge, and the two Noldo hosts just kind of sat across the lake from each other glaring at each other and making no progress for around five years. Then Fingolfin's son - do you need me to draw a family tree?"

"I can." Draw draw scribble scribble.

"Fingolfin's eldest son Fingon sneaks into Angband with magic and rescues Fëanor's eldest son Maedhros - the Valar helped him do it, it's not possible in general - and Maedhros surrenders his peoples' claim to the crown and so the Noldor finally stop being on the brink of a civil war. Except Maedhros doing that was unpopular with most of his little brothers, so he ended up moving the people loyal to him across the continent where there'd be less conflict with the people loyal to Fingolfin. Then they split the kingdoms - Dor Lomin is Fingon's, Gondolin is Fingolfin's second son Turgon's, Himring is Maedhros' -" she fills out the map.

Bella is attentive and notetakey.

"Remember I said Finwë had three sons? Well, the third married my cousin Earwen of Alqualondë, and his children are half Lindar. Finrod, Angrod, Aegnor, Galadriel. They're the Noldo King's nephews so he gave them kingdoms too - well, the boys - and they didn't take part in the Kinslaying except Galadriel who fought to defend our people, so they're allowed into Doriath. Finrod's kingdom is Nargothrond, Angrod and Aegnor rule Dorthonion together, and they've also got human vassals in Ladros. 

The Feanorians have their humans in Estolad, that's here, and more humans sometimes cross the mountains and of course run into them first. The Feanorians on Doriath's eastern border are Celegorm and Curufin, that's number three and number five, and south is Amrod, number six, and east of that's Caranthir, number four, and Maglor's next to Maedhros in the hills here. 

You might notice that's six. They don't say what happened to the seventh but Galadriel thinks his father had him killed."

Note note note note note - "Oh joy."

"He apparently publicly expressed a desire to apologize for Alqualonde before he vanished. I actually don't know if it's the Noldor who are evil or just their ruling family. But everyone else is creepily loyal to their lord, whichever one it is. I actually wondered if they did loyalty oaths but Galadriel says the King at least does not."