: Re: How do you normalize a taboo custom in a setting that most readers would not agree with? This setting' world is populated by witch covens that function as both royal houses and political entities.

@Candy753

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To bring readers closer to a concept unfamiliar to them, connect it to something that is familiar.

That is how you explain tech to non-techies: "So it is basically like the postal service, just digital."

For example, that people in your setting like to have multiple fathers for their children for political reasons (alliances, etc.) is quite similar to the way noble families in Earth history married off their children (especially daughters) for the very same reasons. Instead of collecting marriage connections, your people collect parentship connections.

Clan marriage certainly has something roughly similar as well. Maybe the way trade guilds supported widows of their members. They didn't exactly marry them all, but marrying a craftsman did mean joining the trade guild with all its advantages.

It also very much depends on how you introduce these facts. Very often, there is a naive character in stories whose purpose it is to be dumb on proxy for the reader, and have a regular member of the fantasy society explain things to them.

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