Girl tax

The girl tax was an oppressive and misogynous tax placed upon the Gundarakites by Duke Gundar. Any family that gives birth to a child was required pay the tax by the time she reached the age of 15. If the tax went unpaid, the child was taken by the state. This tax was based on the idea that females are not as productive farming as males are.

Dirca and Torvil, a case of the girl tax in action

The decimation of Dirca's family is one example of the effects the oppressive girl tax. Like all Gundakites, Dirca knew the terror of Duke Gundar well. At that time, she was the wife of Torvil, and they lived together in poverty. Dirca and Torvil had two children together, both girls. Torvil ordered her to abandon them in the forest because he did not want to support caring for children that would be claimed by Duke Gundar's for not paying the girl tax. To prevent any future conceptions, Dirca bought a potion to render her irrevocably barren from Madame Avana for a measly pittance, as Avana showed sympathy for her.

The same night, Torvil came home on a pallet. He had become too inebriated and had a nasty fall, leaving him only half alive and unable to work. Sensing their deaths from starvation as a result of the disability tax Gundar would levy, Dirca allowed Torvil to catch his death of cold. However, her mariticide was detected, and she fled Gundarak with her brother Ivar to Tepest. The psychological scars of the matter will continue to have negative implications for Dirca later in life, eventually contributing to her death.