@Tlok: There is a feeling that is coming through your posts that you would like to be able to play PS independently yet are using RP to justify reasons for changing mechanics that are impeding you to do that.

Brief digression to ask, quite seriously: why would it be bad to want to play independently, especially when new?   Some people are shy, especially when they're new players first getting used to a game.   Some people are hesitant to accept charity (I know I personally am often uneasy asking for help, in part because I had an very unpleasant experience as a newbie re: one of those oldbie benefactors).   Some people may just want to play loners or very independent people.   I'm not sure it's a great idea to cater PS exclusively to shameless extroverts.   

Back on the main topic: yeah, I've gotten to the point where I'll either use cheap and disposable weapons or (occasionally) pay some other sucker to do the work for me.   I think I ran the numbers once re: how much cheaper that was!   Repair weapon/armor being so difficult doesn't even make sense in context, as there are other, cheaper skills that objectively would be no easier or harder to learn to do.

I'm sorry but I can't agree. You must be very young to think that, of course I am quite old, born in the fifties, but this is pretty much exactly what the western world looked like to my parents generation. Even today society gives more leeway to those who are married -- more promotions, more raises, more likely to get off with a warning for minor legal infractions. Just because it has been expressed simply doesn't mean there cannot be a whole range of nuances in the practice.

Dude.  My objection isn't "This is bad because it's not something a society would do", it's "This is bad because it creates roleplay problems".   I'm not sure how to explain it more succinctly.

I did say some after all. But yes, I believe that most may feel ashamed by such. Not every single ylian, but something that is culturally theirs. An entire race, whom has been on a single world for years; believing this sounds relevant to me. However, there could have been splits in this way of thinking. Just my two cents.

Here is the problem: keeping this as settings makes most PC Ylian aberrant from the norm.   As someone who tries to keep her characters settings-compliant, I know I personally will be hesitant to play a Ylian if I have such a problematic settings issue to grapple with, because it preloads every Ylian character over the age of sixteen with obligatory drama.   Repetitive drama, no less!  After fifty rounds of "I am a social failure and a shame to my family! " and another fifty rounds of "I'm a bad boy/girl who spits in the face of your marital conventions!  ", it's gonna get so boring. 

It's just bad worldbuilding from an RP standpoint, sorry. 

To be constructive, if the devs want to keep a marriage-equals-status thing going with the Ylian, IMO a better spin would be to have Ylian customarily not marry until they've established themselves in their jobs or otherwise built up a reputation in the community.   (Making marriage a sign of status, rather than a requirement for it.)   This meshes more neatly with how most people are going to play (i.e. leveling up a bit, getting to know some people, then maybe deciding to pursue an IC romance).   

How does Nolthrir society even function if most of them will start and then abandon projects on a whim?    And join and leave relationships and organizations on a whim?   (Not to mention the whole "commonplace abandonment of partner and child" thing...)   What constitutes 'social rank' for them, and how is it achieved?   

Also: while the "Ylian aren't considered full adults until they get married, and BTW they don't usually divorce either" thing is realistic to many human societies, from a player's perspective that is near on unplayable.   Can't speak for anyone else but I'd rather not have every new Ylian character I play be either underage, a widow/widower, or considered a (wo)manchild by all the rest of their race to account for their unpartnered status.

I like believable villain RP, whether playing a perpetrator or a victim.   By which I mean, if you're playing Saturday morning cartoon villain levels of obvious, then I really hope the character's just a temporary one for plot purposes.   And few things make me growl rapidly than players who insist on ignoring the NPC guards.   There's like twenty of them, mostly concentrated in a few areas.   If you can't figure out a way to move your RP away from the places where you'd obviously get arrested then you are terrible.

Other things I like:
* Tricky characters running tricky schemes
* Music/poetry/other art forms being incorporated into RP
* Players who take into account their characters' appearances/current on-hand belongings in describing how they move
* Non-standard location choices for RP
* Characters with complex/hidden motives
* Non-Ylian characters who aren't played as humans with fur or green skin
* Religion-centric plots/devout characters
* Mystery RPs (oh man I love a good murder investigation)
* Plotlines featuring scholars bein' scholarly

Here, have a chocolate assortment of gods-and-religion questions I've been pondering.  (Mostly because I'm planning on making a religious zealot character.)  Kinda curious what the rest of the PS community thinks the answers would be.

* Are PS's gods capable of any level of omniscience?   In particular, how much can they poke into mortal minds?  If you claimed to be a follower of X but in your heart your true loyalty is to Y, can X tell you're a fibbing fibber who fibs?

* Can gods screw with followers of other gods?   Or can Talad place his followers under protection from Laanx's wrath, for example, or Xiosia run interference for her followers against Dakkru?

* How much do the beliefs of specific religions influence Yliakum's general laws?  I'm thinking about this specifically as pertains to the Iron Hand, since Laanx is supposed to be particularly attractive to politicians and other elite.

* Is any form of polytheism possible?   Or are all the gods of the jealous, 'you'll worship only ME' disposition when it comes to their followers?

* Which god actually has the most followers overall throughout Yliakum, anyway? 

This is already available in-game, check out the sanatorium in Hydlaa.

I'm aware, but that's always been a silly way to make the information available.  Not everyone trots to the library first thing upon making a character, after all - and the in-game books really should be reserved for info not every character would know, rather than things as basic as "if character of X race is a young adult what age range are they".  Putting it on the website is more straightforward.

I also believe that both Laanx and Talad created their little realm within the distance between Xiosia and Dakkru, like nesting dolls. Because Talad and Laanx exist within the definitions of Dakkru and Xiosia, they are essential to the existence of the two Goddesses. I'd rather be telling you this through character, but my characters have yet to arrive to this conclusion.

A valid interpretation of how the quartet of publicly worshiped gods mesh together, although one that I bet would ruffle some feathers with many followers of all four! 

I'd like to see more IC debate and philosophy about how the gods interplay and interact with each other.   Might have to try to be the change I want to see in the game re: this one.