Courtly love or domnei was a medieval European conception of nobly and chivalrously expressing love and admiration. Generally, courtly love was secret and between members of the nobility. It was also generally not practiced between husband and wife.
The "courtly love" relationship is modeled on the feudal relationship between a knight and his liege lord. The knight serves his courtly lady (love service) with the same obedience and loyalty which he owes to his liege lord. She is in complete control of the love relationship, while he owes her obedience and submission.The knight's love for the lady inspires him to do great deeds, in order to be worthy of her love or to win her favor. Thus "courtly love" was originally construed as an ennobling force whether or not it was consummated, and even whether or not the lady knew about the knight's love or loved him in return.
The "courtly love" relationship typically was not between husband and wife, not because the poets and the audience were inherently immoral, but because it was an idealized sort of relationship that could not exist within the context of "real life" medieval marriages. In the middle ages, marriages amongst the nobility were typically based on practical and dynastic concerns rather than on love. The idea that a marriage could be based on love was a radical notion. But the audience for romance was perfectly aware that these romances were fictions, not models for actual behavior. The adulterous aspect that bothers many 20th-century readers was somewhat beside the point, which was to explore the potential influence of love on human behavior. The behavior of the knight and lady in love was drawn partly from troubadour poetry and partly from a set of literary conventions derived from the Latin poet Ovid, who described the "symptoms" of love as if it were a sickness. The "lovesick" knight became a conventional figure in medieval romance. Typical symptoms: sighing, turning pale, turning red, fever, inability to sleep, eat or drink. Romances often contained long interior monologues in which the lovers describe their feelings.
tl;dr characters are in a fantasy/medieval setting and having a courtly romance.
How to Play
- Comment with your character, preferences, etc. Also, be sure to include what "role" your character will be taking on in this little affair.
- Lord/lady
- Knight (gender neutral, of course)
- Prince/princess
- Bard or poet
- Servant
- Commoner (for the ultimate "forbidden romance")
-Comment to others, using the RNG to determine your fate.
Prompts- When I First Saw Your Face: You are meeting your liege or your knight for the first time. What you see takes your breath away.
- Lovesick: Your pining for your beloved has made you ill! You can't eat, you can't sleep, you're in loves throes.
- Playing Hard to Get: If you're of nobility, you at least have to pretend you're not interested.
- You're So Coy: The art of flirtation is just getting started, but you have to be subtle about it.
- In Your Honor: Be it a jousting match or a battle, you're going to win this for your lord/lady's name!
- A Token: You must give your knight something for good luck.
- A Gift: This is the reverse of the above. You must give your love something.
- Keep a Secret: Kisses behind columns, holding hands under the table. You must sneak away little moments together, but you have to keep others in the dark.
- Back from War: Your knight has been away in combat, and now they've returned. You want to shower them with affection.
- Consummate: Believe it or not, courtly love could have a physical angle, as well. Sometimes physical afairs happened.
- To Defend Your Honor: Someone has insulted your fair lady or lord. You know what that means! DUEL.
- I'll Protect You: The lands are under an attack, and you must protect the person you love!
- Breaking the Rules: You've decided to abandon the pretense of courtly love and actually be with this person, even if that means running away.
- WILDCARD
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bakerstreet2017-11-20 06:19 pm
souma kanzaki | ensemble stars!
Mordred | Arthurian legend AU | M/F for shipping
...I mean likePrince (of Lothian and Orkney), knight (of Camelot), or king (of the Britons... briefly).]
belle ❀ beauty and the beast (2017) → f/m
I love assumed CR, crossovers (♥ ♥ ♥), convoluted scenarios, combustive attraction, bickering, first time, arranged marriage AUs, culture differences, ingenue/gruff, worldly man, inhuman characters, Beauty and the Beast dynamics because duh, fairy tale/fantasy settings, magic, passionate reunions, redoing first times that didn't go so well. sneaky trysts, risk of discovery, emotions spilling out in private, and much, much more.
Ridiculously into Tolkienverse (dwarves yes pls), ASOIAF/GOT, HP (my kingdom for a Newt Scamander or Lupin), and MCU right now and equally into AUing Belle to fit in any of them, but check out my slightly embarrassing dream list of shit I'd like to play. ]
Emrys Trevelyan || Dragon Age
Mary Crawley | Downton Abbey | M/F
bruce wayne | dc
can provide an older dceu version at
you get 1!
When he'd seen the knights riding by in their bright metal suits with their streamers and flags and the bright colors of their shields, he'd been intrigued. He wasn't supposed to leave their home for any reason other than to hunt for game or scrounge for herbs and berries, and he'd originally left to do just that. But his eye had been well and truly caught, and he'd found himself drifting that way, his small basket forgotten at the outskirts of the clearing they'd chosen to pause in.
He didn't know he was being offensive when he'd asked to join them, when he'd ever dared suppose that he too could be a knight, could aspire to such heights, that he would ever be worthy of a shield and all that came with it. After all, their King was of the house of Wayne, an ancient and noble lineage.
Well, then he'd asked why he couldn't and there'd been an explanation about bloodlines and who'd been born to who and Kal had pointed out how unfair that all was: after all, what if a child dreamed of becoming something other than what society had intended? What if a child aspired to something greater?
...that, apparently, was the wrong answer. Which was when things had gotten worse, and now, well.
Kal's pretty sure that he's technically an outlaw? After all, you're not really supposed to beat up all the knights. Or even some of them. He definitely feels bad for scaring their horses, though he's gotten them all calmed down. As for smashing all their lances, he considers going out into the wood and carving new ones for them; he should be able to do that before they awake. Except that apparently they were only the first and he can hear more horses and armor trotting along towards him.
Hopefully, this goes a little better... ]
Harry Potter \\ Rule 63 AU
Karen Page | MCU
Eren Jaeger | Shingeki no Kyojin | M/M
cordelia peacebringer | original | ota
Zelda | Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Samus Aran | Metroid/SSB
Princesses preferred~]