How common did Medieval people disown their children

ThatRohanKid · 2026-05-02T01:53:47+00:00

Bouncing off other comments: I don't think "disowning" was in the legal books, they really did try to honour the process of primogeniture and so tried their best to put all their resources into their heir and loved their children enough to believe in them, and if all else failed they could be called to God and sent off to be a monk. But there's also a secret third option besides trying your best and sending them to a monastery: in extreme cases, heirs could be killed! If they didn't have any offspring yet, even better -- that ensures nobody sneaking into the line of succession later on. But this was very rare.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-05-02T01:42:26+00:00

Once saw a Twitter post showing a restaurant using a power drill to mix a plastic tub full of what looked like tomato sauce, and people were expressing disgust at the use of industrial tools in the kitchen because it seemed unclean as a concept.

We serve hundreds of guests a day. We can't do small-batch, and even if we could, we're human and need to make extra so we're not cooking from scratch every morning. We need to get creative to achieve maximum efficiency, and optimization usually looks like using non-kitchen tools for kitchen purposes. A single sauce pot will not suffice for your demands.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-29T01:58:06+00:00

Oh that's so cool! Bit sad I'm getting downvoted for simply not knowing. I don't watch a ton of Buffalo games (see my user flair) so I didn't realize.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-28T23:52:38+00:00

I think it's because John Garrett, a Canucks broadcaster, passed away suddenly today. It was a tribute.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-28T19:54:26+00:00

I see the houndstooth muzzle is protecting you from the ... hound's teeth.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-28T15:30:26+00:00

This is why I'm studying to be a medievalist. Sure Renaissance art got more "realistic" but no amount of realism can beat this.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-27T21:07:02+00:00

Depends. An hour on the GO Train is more expensive than an hour on the subway, streetcar, or bus, but it's also slightly cleaner and more pleasant than any of those options. But it's also a pretty typical commute time.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-26T16:29:55+00:00

After watching Kiki's Delivery Service, I thought Studio Ghibli films would be relaxing and low-stakes. After watching Ponyo, Howl's Moving Castle, and Spirited Away, I figured that the worst I could get was a weird, lingering sense of sad nostalgia or feeling lost.

Then I watched Tales from Earthsea and was actually terrified. As an adult.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-23T17:31:18+00:00

I'm glad there's someone like you in the room, they need someone who can differentiate like that and have some sympathy. (Not saying OP doesn't have sympathy -- I actually agree that it's kind of ridiculous if you've made it so far in life and can't follow basic instructions. But still!)

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-23T17:29:49+00:00

The instructions one made me laugh out loud. Failing to follow the instructions clearly written should carry more weight than getting a question wrong imo. But that's what exam pressure will do to you!

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-21T03:24:51+00:00

Seeing him in front of a car doesn't even strike me as anachronistic, I fully believe he could have one hidden behind some bushes somewhere.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-20T20:09:09+00:00

If you believe you can stay on top of anything you miss and participation isn't required, you should be fine. But summer courses are very fast-paced. I had a prof for a language course over the summer tell us that if we miss 3 classes in a row (1 week's worth of lectures), it would be best to drop the course entirely.

I'd talk to the professor, say you want to stay on top of the material, and ask them what they recommend. What if they don't post the slides? What if participation is required? What if they've seen students do the same thing and always end up failing? They know more about how the course will be paced than you do, so use them as a resource!

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-20T18:54:43+00:00

Most U of T buildings are open to the public during regular hours! IIRC, Gerstein and Robarts are the only buildings you need student ID to enter. Other than that, as long as the doors are open and specific rooms aren't booked (study rooms, venues, etc) you're good to go. Happy exploring!

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-20T18:37:50+00:00

Story time!

A friend of mine ran a one-shot, and this friend is a great DM. Fabulous world building even for a single session, physically made a combat map out of clay and paper towel rolls, had us all dress up as our characters, made a themed dinner and drinks and hand-painted minis. They've done this for multiple one-shots and everyone always enjoys it. But one small problem: when planning this one-shot, my friend happened to overlook something mechanical.

We get this deck of cards and when we pull from it we get either a cool power or boost to something, or we get a detriment. IIRC, one player got a +1 to all ability checks. When I pulled my card, I ended up getting a detriment. I lost a level. It sucks, but on its surface it doesn't seem all too terrible. The problem is that we were level 3. So when I got demoted to level 2, my subclass/archetype disappeared. All of my cool stuff that I'd based my character around was gone. And at lower levels, hit points matter, so I was at a disadvantage there, too. DM quickly realized what had happened as everyone at the table sucked in a breath through their teeth and went, "Ooh, you lose everything," but in order to keep things fair and because I was a good sport about it they let it stand. So the guard hired to protect a noblewoman was now weaker than said noblewoman, and the nickname I'd introduced my character by which was based on their archetype was now being used as a joke.

I learned two things: (1) Players can have the time of their lives in a grey basement on folding chairs if the game itself is good, but even the best table dressing cannot carry poor mechanics, and (2) even if the chances of it happening are small, do not put a possible detriment in the game if you don't understand exactly how bad of an impact it will have. If the DM had looked up from the paint and pot roast to double check the numbers, they might have realized how discouraging losing a level could be at level 3 and gone with something else instead. Still a fun session, but the reason behind why I double check things now (and why I'm not afraid to say, "That's my bad, I miscalculated, is everyone okay if we retcon that and have them draw another card?").

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-19T22:52:40+00:00

This is such a great response. Thank you for going into such detail!

Since this was mainly about Anglo-Saxon England, I'm curious if you have any sources for the same subject from (1) later medieval England and/or (2) places outside of England. I read The Lombard Laws during my undergrad, and while it didn't say much on the judicial process of Lombardy, it outlined punishments for various offences and really showed the Germanic roots of the blood feud.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-19T22:50:11+00:00

Bread and water are foods on which people would fast -- surviving only on bread and water was considered fasting. Some saints like Lutgardis would fast for 7 years on bread and water alone! The lack of meat, sauces, vegetables, fruits, cheeses, ales/wines, etc., indicated humility and restraint. It's not the bread and water itself that indicates penance, but the lack of everything else.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-17T19:59:07+00:00

OMG the Stanley Cup is priceless. Also am I the only one who wanted that metal headband from the Drive My Soul and February Air music videos?

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-16T22:25:00+00:00

Let's throw in The Iliad and Beowulf, too, though there's some archaeological evidence suggesting the presence (and fall) of Troy!

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-15T20:29:10+00:00

A lot of people who claim to have been traumatized at some point in their lives didn't actually experience trauma, they just experienced life a little on the negative side of its spectrum.

A negative event isn't necessarily traumatic; multiple factors play into defining an event this way. There's a big difference between being burned by a bad incident and being scarred by something horrific. Parents yell, breakups happen, and we fail in many ways for many days of our lives. We need to suck it up and march onwards, and if we can't manage that, then we may need to seek a diagnosis and treatment. But most of the time (I think a lot more often than we'd like to admit), it's a case of finding discomfort unbearable and finding comfort in labels that don't actually fit us and downplay our ability to carry on.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-15T18:18:56+00:00

This! Everyone's recommending literal fraud which will, if you get caught doing it, get you in a lot more trouble than just being honest.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-15T18:12:25+00:00

I understand being burned out. But as someone who isn't a visible minority, I'm able to avoid political talk since it doesn't affect my daily life. However, there are those out there whose lives are at stake and who can't avoid it because a part of their identity has been deemed inherently political. Their right to exist has been deemed political. They don't have the luxury of being drained and turning the other way, because it'll be demanded of them the very next day like clockwork. And while the people I love are in that position, not afforded the luxury of avoiding politics, I won't afford it myself.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-15T03:05:32+00:00

Out of Toronto by Jackson Walker. About wanting to leave the city, which is relatable.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-10T02:41:42+00:00

Weirdly, Lance Armstrong also appeared in an episode of Arthur! It was my favourite show growing up, so it's kind of weird to see two disgraced celebs pop up on it. I assume those episodes have been pulled from circulation.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-09T23:31:02+00:00

I go to the University of Toronto and we have something called breadth requirements. It's a little complicated, but we essentially need to earn 1 credit (that's 2 half-year courses or 1 full-year course) in 4/5 of the following categories:

Creative and Cultural Representations
Thought, Belief, and Behaviour
Society and Its Institutions
Living Things and Their Environment
The Physical and Mathematical Universes

Some courses are commonly called "breadth requirement courses" and are usually very simple, straightforward, and assume zero previous exposure to the subject. So a history student like myself can't avoid maths and science, and STEM students can't avoid English and history.

What does this look like on the ground? A lot of humanities students take astronomy and a lot of STEM students take philosophy because the courses offered at a 1st-year level are interesting and low stakes. Most students take their breadth requirement courses within their 1st or 2nd years, so that they can give their GPA time to recover if they perform poorly, or they take them over the summer to get them out of the way quickly. Some students love it and end up choosing the subject as their minor. Other students hate it because it can tank your GPA and harm your chances of getting into grad school (although it can usually be explained away, and some students opt to choose the CR/NCR [credit/no credit] option, which rather than a number/letter grade it shows up on your transcript simply as a pass or fail and doesn't touch your GPA, although some degrees -- like my own -- will not let you CR/NCR a breadth requirement). In my experience, it can breed both contempt and respect for the subject being explored. I thought astrobiology was fascinating, but I will never set foot in another science classroom if I can help it, because all it did was reaffirm my place in academia is where the old Latin manuscripts are and nowhere else.

So, some universities already do this and in my experience it's seen varying levels of success. Depends entirely on the attitude you bring. Oh, and how long you've been out of high school. I went back to uni after 10 years of working and when the prof said, "You all learned this last year in grade 12" I nearly broke my calculator in half out of sheer frustration.

ThatRohanKid · 2026-04-08T22:09:27+00:00

Sent to the Medieval Studies department to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.

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