Blessed Memories

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[[{{SUBST:Blessed Memories}}|]]

Adventurers share many experiences with their comrades-in-arms. They share highs, lows, and everything in between. Over the course of an adventuring career, it is to be expected that the relationship of trust between two party members will occasionally develop into something more.

What memories do married adventurers have of the wedding ceremony that brought them together as one? I spoke to adventurers who had taken part in the ceremonies sanctioned by the three nations.

Taiyou and her husband-to-be Malduk spent the entire night before the wedding talking. Perhaps this is why Malduk dozed off during the ceremony itself.

Fortunately, he proved to be a light sleeper and the ceremony was not delayed. You might expect that as the bride, Taiyou would see this as an unforgivable offense...but when the ceremony started, and the couple marched down the aisle to take their vows, Taiyou was overcome with joy and forgave her beau with a smile.

More than the wedding itself, Fio and Kamui remember the reception, where they played games with their friends well into the night. The two spoke of the event as if it were only yesterday.

Of course, what they remembered most about the day were the feelings of love and the blessings of their friends.

There is one more person required for a wedding beyond the bride and groom. Known by a different name in each country, the representative of the state or the Goddess is the person who conducts the ceremony.

I spoke with Registrar Cloudwalker, a Galka hailing from the Republic of Bastok. He has married quite a few women...to their husbands. We spoke about some of his more memorable ceremonies.

--How many couples have been married so far?

C: Almost a thousand, when you count marriages in all three nations. We'd like to do more ceremonies--for the sake of the couples, of course--but that's more easily said than done.

--Have any ceremonies been performed in an unusual location?

C: There was one ceremony in the Valkurm Dunes, but most weddings are performed in the locations specified by the three nations.

--What is the largest wedding you've overseen?

C: I've presided over ceremonies with almost a hundred guests before. I was really stunned. The chaperon was running all over the place making sure things were ready. In the end, the importance of the ceremony seemed to overtake all of the minor issues and there weren't any problems.

--Tell our readers about one of the more interesting ceremonies.

C: It was in Windurst. Windurstian weddings include a ritual where the couple symbolically binds flesh and blood by exchanging and consuming food that they have prepared. Well, it seems that at one ceremony, the bride presented her new husband with Mary's Milk...so he just fell asleep on his feet! (laugh)

--Are there any particular difficulties in performing a ceremony?

C: Even with couples that did everything right at the rehearsal, people sometimes get scared. Voices quaver and mouths go dry... There are some people who pass out entirely. I think calming those jumpy nerves is probably the biggest challenge we face.

The proper and composed answers that Registrar Cloudwalker gave belied his rather imposing appearance, to say nothing of his memorable smile.

As Registrar Cloudwalker said, the wedding masters from the three nations have joined nearly one thousand couples in matrimony. Those couples most certainly treasure the memories of their special day.

And perhaps other adventurers who are just now gazing into one another's eyes will soon create memories of their own...

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