For the people in the notes confused about the monogamy point: the religion that is the foundation of morality for the majority of humans we interact with in the setting has as a key part of its foundational myth a prophet who had two husbands (one mortal, one divine). And when World of Thedas vol. 1 tells the story of Andrastianism, when discussing Maferath’s sins, it specifically names his jealousy of the Maker’s love for her as a reason for his betrayal of her to the Imperium. Not just her popularity as a charismatic figurehead who rallied armies to her banner. Possessiveness/jealousy is literally an “original sin” in this religion.
Seeing as Maferath’s sins are the specific reason why men are barred from roles of spiritual leadership in this religion, a very strong argument could be made that there is a spiritual basis for polyamorous relationships in the setting, at the very least as one school of thought within the Chantry. Real world religious schisms have occurred over much more trivial points of doctrine than the motives of a key figure in the foundational mythos. At the very least, polyamory shouldn’t be considered strange or unusual to the point of being totally absent from Andrastian societies. Inheritance issues among the nobility are a separate issue ofc, but there’s no doctrinal basis against it, quite the opposite in fact.
This is actually the lore basis I use to explain the blasé attitudes toward polyamory in the verse my PCs inhabit. Diverse and complex systems of laws govern inheritance and vary from place to place. But literally no one gaf that the Prince of Starkhaven has a wife and a husband, or that the King and Queen of Ferelden each has an acknowledged royal consort.
Tl;dr: Andrastianism is literally named for a polyamorous woman and men are on some level considered tainted by the actions of the jealous husband who betrayed her, and this is yet another example of how DA writers never seem to think through the implications of their worldbuilding to their logical conclusions, instead falling back on allowing their own views of what constitutes cultural norms (as shaped by the society they live in irl with all the biases that entails) to seep into the setting.
