| abstract | - A salt wife is essentially a bound concubine in ironborn culture. They are usually the women kidnapped during raids. An ironborn may keep several salt wives, but only one "rock wife", which is of ironborn origin. Salt wives have a low status in ironborn society, similar to thralls. Salt wives don't toil in the fields and mines as thralls do, but they do serve as concubines in all but name. In some ways salt wives are the mirror opposite of sorts to paramours in Dorne. Unlike salt wives, Dornish paramours are relationships based on love, and which are often marriages in all but name. Paramours are high-ranking and respected positions in Dorne, while in contrast, salt wives have a low-ranking social position similar to thralls. Children born to salt wives are not considered bastards, but they rank behind children of a lord's rock wife in the line of succession. Meanwhile, children born to Dornish paramours are still considered bastards.
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