How would a species with legitimately hermaphroditic biology...

How would a species with legitimately hermaphroditic biology, and a culture with one gender work in relation to other cultures.

What if in one particular setting there were no female Dwarves? What if they were self replicating hermaphrodites, or could only reproduce magically or something?

how would this effect relations and opinions of them from other races?

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Depends on the species' religion(s), culture and how long they have had contact with the Herms.
A deeply pious people that has a religion where magic = satan, and where sex is between a man and a woman for the purpose of child making is not going to like magic hermaphrodites.

If all other races around them only have the regular Man/Woman genders, and don't have any knowledge about other Hermaphroditus animals like we have in the modern world, they are going to be considered fairly strange creatures just from that alone.

>How would a species with legitimately hermaphroditic biology, and a culture with one gender work in relation to other cultures.

They'd develop a reputation for being shameless sluts.

Here's what I did.
>Players discover dwarven city beneath a mountain
>Start exploring
>There are hundreds of dwarves mining in a deep shaft like you see in The Hobbit.
>Every few minutes or so, a loud cheer would go up from all of the miners, like they were celebrating an old friend coming home.
>Players ask around for explanation
>Dwarven priest explains that dwarves dig for riches, yes, but gold is nothing compared to gems.
>Every time a dwarf digs up a gem, the gem is sent to the priesthood.
>A stone statue is carved in the likeness of a dwarf.
>The gem is left in a closed room with the statue. No one may look inside for three days and three nights.
>At the end of that time, the doors are open.
>The gem is still there, but the statue is now replaced by a young dwarf, naked and shivering.
>Te young dwarf spends the next few years in education to learn all the stuff he needs.
>The rarity, size, and value of a gem are believed to directly affect the quality of the dwarf produced.
>Gems include the common stuff like quartz and opals, so finding a rare gem is like discovering a scientist or battlelord.
I had a lot of fun with this concept and the players really enjoyed the explanation. It also allowed me to explain why dwarves were always mining despite having plenty of gold.

I'm fucking stealing this, that's a neat idea

that's really cool.
could you tell me some more lore about these dwarves

Basically, when dwarves die, their souls are said to 'return to the earth'. Most people think this is just their way of saying that the bodies are buried and returned to Nature, but the dwarves literally mean "a dwarven soul turns into a gem in the ground and we have to find it to bring him back." So, when a great leader dies, it's not uncommon for the mines to be filled with thousands of dwarves who loved that particular leader digging furiously as a way of honoring his soul in the hopes of finding his gem.

Thank you, I had a ton of fun making this particular culture. I wanted to write a short book about them so people can use it in their games.
Sure man, see here
And I'll write up some more. Feel free to ask question.

So do they guard these rooms when the dwarves are going from the gem to the body?

what would happen if someone peeked?
what would they do to someone who tried to study this?

>Very rare rosy diamond the size of a fist found in the mines
>Left in room with best statue they have, the most well carved, good looking one
>When they open it, dwarf is clearly brain damaged and eating his own poop
>Whole system of belief collapses

Alternatively:
>Breeding/birth ritual overseen by Priesthood
>Atheist radical sect of the Mining guild's take power to set a communist regime based on reward for work alone and equality at birth
>No priesthood means no birth magic
>Dwarves extinct within a couple hundred years

Well, I got a few plot hooks now.

Mkay, so here's another tidbit for you. I'm gonna write this stuff as green text so I don't have to format sentences.
>Dwarves find a gem, send it to priesthood
>Priests inspect every gem carefully
>They look at the edging, clarity, color, imperfections, size, hue, EVERYTHING
>Priests usually spend a week examining each stone and writing down every detail they can find.
>The writings are placed in a vault for future reference in guiding that dwarf's future should he ever come to the priests looking for guidance.
>Some of the predictions included things like:
>A longer edge that splits into three faces shows how many major battles the dwarf will win.
>The size of the gem is how long the dwarf will win.
That kind of thing.
>When the dwarf is born, the priest directs him to one of several educational institutions depending on the information they gleaned from their gem findings.
>They are often right in figuring out who would make the best warriors, diplomats, mages, priests, etc. but every dwarf is allowed to change schools after a certain time if they feel like another area is a better fit.
>As a general rule of thumb, I referred to the pricing of crystals for the importance of a dwarf.

>could only reproduce magically or something?

That's what dwarves are in my setting. The first step I take, is to not bother worrying about sex or focusing on being a fucking hermaphrodite, because that are too many other things that are actually interesting, and not /pol/.

I kinda like the Apex in the Culture series, which is an alien species with trinary sexes. There's the male, the female and the apex. The apex is a hermaphrodite with reversible genitalia: the male has sex with the apex and partially fertilizes an egg, the apex flips its genitals and has sex with the female who carries the egg to term. Transfer occurs at each stage, so all three are parents that influence the child's genetics. In the actual society, the apex are the dominant sex who control the others and keep them in menial positions.

The same series also has the Idirans, who are all hermaphrodites with each 'half' of their body having a sex. When they mate each half impregnates their counterpart's half, and each gives birth to twin offspring. The Idirans are biologically immortal, and after 1 or 2 pregnancies they become infertile and go through an additional stage of development: they get bulkier, their armor gets thicker and their emotions change.

That's an interesting point, do better gems ALWAYS mean better Dwarves?

If it's magic then there are still rules, so that implies that a "Very rare rosy diamond the size of a fist" would make a great leader, or a king or somesuch

>what would happen if someone peeked?
Not him, but I would have them see a mix of the results of Tiberium poisoning and one of those babies that are born with serious deformations.

I was actually pondering an idea of a similar nature. I wanted to introduce a tribe of women in the jungle of my world. a long time ago the tribe warred with a small coven of witches, the witches knowing their defeat cursed the tribe so no men would be born. Seeing their numbers decline because there were no men being born the leader decided to take a daring ritual to reverse the curse. The ritual worked but not as intended. Instead of men being born, some women would be born with both parts.

Could this actually work or am I too deep in the magical realm? if I were to implement this I wouldnt really focus on any sexual aspect unless my friends are the ones to initiate it

Funny enough, one of the characters peeked, thinking to catch the dwarves in a scam.
>Rogue sneaks to gem chamber
>No guards at the door
>No priests (they pray once a day but that's it)
>He picks the lock on the great metal door inscribed with dwarven sigils and runes.
>Can't read Dwarvish but they basically say "DON'T FUCKING OPEN ME UNTIL 3 DAYS 3 NIGHTS"
>He looks.
>Nothing happened. Statue and gem are in there but no dwarf.
>Rogue steals rare diamond, runs away.
>At the end of the ceremony, tons of priests gather at the door, anxiously waiting to see the newborn dwarf.
>Nerves are everywhere.
>Priest opens door
>Statue is gone, naked dwarf is there, no gem
>Priests go fucking apeshit
>Grab dwarf, haul him to the mineshaft, and toss his ass into the shaft.
>Screaming the whole way down, the dwarf plows into the ground and shatters into a thousand pieces of stone.

No, they simply refer to the potential each dwarf has. Also, they do not say what KIND of dwarf the guy will be. He could be Dwarven Hitler, or he could be Dwarven Gandhi. I'm writing more about this in a second.

>What if in one particular setting there were no female Dwarves?
This has been answered already

I feel so bad for that dwarf.

That rogue was a cunt.

Have them lament their fate and hand the PCs a quest to look for a rumored cure (It existing/working doesn't matter) and you should be fine. Otherwise they are a waste or just magical realming.

I actually was thinking about that when I was trying to find a reason about why the local horde race manages to keep their population so high despite being ultra-violent retards. I decided to go for the tried and true "all males and spores" method of warhammer and orc stain.

Most other species on the setting would not really give a fuck about it since they are too bussy killing them. Except humans, and not even all of them. And some of the humans that DO care would probably fetishize them. Because humans.

Then again, humans are considered the "sexually deviant" species on the settting so no one really pays any attention to whatever they have to say about sex and sexuality..

ITT: We create the Dwarven version of Gems from Steven Universe, but nobody will admit it because it's too SJW.

Continued
>Priest explains
>When a dwarf is in the process of being born, no one may look or touch the gems inside because the soul takes three days and three nights to fully transfer into the body.
>They found this out the hard way when a branch of priests decided to observe the process themselves.
>They never saw the statue turn into a dwarf because it wouldn't happen if you watched BUT it could happen when you blinked or looked away.
>Everything seemed fine at first until several years later
>The dwarves who were born to the Watchers were corrupt, evil, drunkards, thieves, warmongers, etc.
>Priest explains that the soul must transfer into the vessel privately because it is an intimate connection between the magical realm of souls and the physical world of bodies.
>Basically, the dwarf who was born is an empty vessel of stone with a corrupt soul.
>There is ONE major problem.
>If the gem is gone when a dwarf is born, it is the Dwarven gods' wayof saying "This guy is going to be fucking evil as hell."
>When a soul consumes the vessel AND the spirit gem, it is the ultimate sign of "a bane to all life."
>So they toss his ass in the shaft to kill him.

Is this a thing already? Because I'm not sure what Steven Universe is. I'm the writer.

>i'm going to take anons idea and make it stupid and edgy!

Go away Virt

if i am going to do that im probably gonna do it like the companion quest from skyrim, because some of them would want to remain in their hermaphroditic state. but that is a very good idea, thank you user

Not everyone watches Cartoon Network or what network that show is on.

1: If you never knew about the SJW craziness you could probably enjoy steven universe as much as something like adventure time or regular show

2: I'll admit there are similarities, they're not my dwarves and I didn't come up with it but I can see what you're saying

3: you're being a dick

What happened to her right arm?

I just read about one "warrior race" species that was hermaphroditic. They all normally look like men, but come mating season, they'll duel each other, and the loser shapeshifts into a female, and they fuck. The physical traits of the 'male' are more dominant in the resulting children to make sure they are strong, the rest is biology as normal. After the child is weaned, the loser becomes masculine again.

The only reaction most other races have is to simply call them "they" singularly. This race has the strongest individual strength among its members, so no one mocks them.


There was also that one oglaf character, the faggot barbarian. Something Son of Men, his line was unpolluted by women for over 100 generations, until the tragic day his own son was born. His son... was a girl!


I also had a Wizard character that made his wife, with necromancy's "clone", and many, many other spells and materials. Even levitation on each tit because he likes 'em big and didn't want her to have back pain. The idea was, he didn't trust women(or anyone else), and had a high opinion of himself, so he thought "Who do I trust more than myself? Who do I love more than myself?" and made her.

It was a huge sidequest. I hired psions to transfer some memories and values, learned the spell behind the cursed belt of gender change, hired necromancers with corpsecrafter feats for dem bones before she was technically alive, and more. It was hard, but worth it. I think that counts.

It isn't, really. But sort of similar. the 'Gems' in Stephen Universe are a race of single sex "Female" Crystals, their caste is based on the kind of gem they are, and they can fuse and shit to create a new gem. They had a civil war and something something it's basically Transformers but for little girls instead of little boys. Also musical numbers.

youtube.com/watch?v=6JARVfb-FBg

It's basically colorful tiny horses, part 2. Decent kids cartoon, has gathered a very creepy/annoying/shrieking fanbase

To answer your question, the gem refers to the potential future a dwarf can have. However, magic must be balanced. "Gem prophecies" are a form of magic from the magical realm, so to balance this, free will from the physical realm truly determines the worth of a dwarf. Finding a super rare gem the size of your head is great, and means the dwarf born could be an amazing spiritual leader, but the dwarf also has the free will to exercise control over his own future, which is why the Dwarves were given one chance to change their schools of learning halfway through their education.

You could probably throw in a couple of them as enemies that try to sabotage them, even attempting to kill them in desperation as they get closer, just to drive it home that not everyone of them wants to be uncursed.

I mean, that's cool and all, but none of that ever happened. My plot hook was actually a rival Dwarf faction made by the old Watcher sect.
>Queue evil dwarven crusader army.

Involve a part of their culture and religion place an importance of the seperate but equal nature of Man and Woman, and how the two differing souls in unity are what truly complete the spirit of a person.
Thaat way, the curse would be seen as truly a curse that they wish to get rid of, and it would also cause a situation where the futas are deemed as pariahs for being an abomination and a twisted mockery of the union of the male and female spirit.

It also givwe more sense into why the tribe would go to war with the Witches and Hags, since they tend to have a misandrist streak to them, which would be seen to the tribe in a way that overly misogynistic men are seen to western culture

It also works well if the tribe has very particular preset notions of gender roles in their society, and as such the lack of males means that certain activities in the tribe are under utilized since not many girls want to abandon their duties to pursue manfolk duties.

That is not how Gems reproduce and you know it. Gems are straight up viral parasites that get injected in stone and then pop right out of the stone. Whereas with these dwarves, if I had to compare them to anything, would be the similarity to forming Golems in Jewish Folklore.

Dwarf writer here. Nah, it's cool, I've never seen Steven Universe so if it's similar to something that's fine. I'll probably check out what he's talking about so I can get some more inspiration.

Get past the fanbase and the fact it's aimed at teenage girls the show isn't that bad. The fanbase ruins it for everyone unfortunately, just like tiny technicolor horses.

>futa amazons
>not sexual

I would hate you less if you would be honest.

Well the gems have a lot more of an impersonal method of birthing. user's dwarfs are far more happy and individualistic and mystic about the birth of their fellows, Homeworld gems use machinery to plant babies in the ground and reap masses of soldiers and workers to repeat the process. The methods are somewhat comparable but the themes are so different I don't see how you could consider it copying one or the other

A pretty good take on it. Long story short: If everyone's a potential mother, there's a lot less incentive for pair bonding and social rules around sex and a lot less of a potential upside to getting yourself killed doing something dangerous that benefits those around you.

As long as we're in evolutionary biology mode, how would you get sapient quasi-humanoids with bats as their closest living relatives, and could they actually develop human intelligence while still in the caves? Could they retain flight while developing in this fashion?

This is clearly what he's here for.

take it and leave

the irony is i am more interested in telling it through a storytelling perspective while also messing with my friends by laying the groundwork just a little past the borderline

Lack of usable fingers would be a bitch. Though I believe their toes are fairly dexterous. Maybe they'd evolve to walk on their forelimbs/wings, and manipulate thing with their hind limbs. Like that alien pod racer in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Don't some bat species have two or three fingers at the a part of their wing, or is this just me watching too many cartoons?

Iirc it's just the one finger which is the equivalent to the human thumb that is free from the wing membranes.

That would require the following things:

>1
Large enough protien supply for the mto take advantage of, possibly large flying insects like moths, which would in tern require their own nutrient/trophic infrastructure

>2
access to tools and a manipulable environment in said caves, or at least surrounding the caves. A cave in the mountains near a tropical forst could work well for that, or perhaps their a savannah.

>3
Evolve some means of dactyl dexterity, possibly either through more advanced thumbs, or advancely reticulated toes

>4
A reason to keep flight, meaning something to both incentivise it niche wise, and something to select against the nonfliers. The large moths mentioned previously are an example, and a selective force would be overly predatory dermiscid beetles

First you'd have to find a way for the Bats, or the bat-like ancestors, to have an incentive to learn how to use tools, if we're going the biological route. The ancestor species will likely have developed elongated fingers, or extra limbs. Then you find an incentive to get them to use tools. From there it's developing a predisposition for the species as a whole to favor Cranial development as a survival trait.

As for only evolving underground. You'd have to create some fairly diverse ecosystems in order to propagate cranial development to the point of sapience, so Underdark or Journey to the Center of the Earth level underground world stuff.

So the biological urge to pass on your genes to a new generation doesn't exist? How does such a society even keep going?

>hamster_banana.jpg

The obligation to produce labor for society's continued function.

Neat. Thanks, anons!

So reproduction is like a tax?

The Amazons have a creation myth which has a man and woman as the creator gods, while the hags/witches have a creation myth that has a mother goddess as the only creator deity. That way they are even more at odds.

Well, I find it taxing.

Just feels like a system that's dependent on the society and would not functions without someone telling you what to do.

>gamagori
>not in a suit that barely fits, sweating nervously because one wrong move would destroy the suit.

>implying Gama isn't the Waifu

Say it with me : P-O-L-Y-D-A-C-T-Y-L-I-T-Y

Elves in a setting I played in online many moons ago:
>One gender and sex, vaguely vulva-esque genitalia
>No real sex drive, but very romantic people. Massage and courting a-go-go
>Pregnancy is viral, based on airborne particles or fluid exchange. Not predictable/preventable. Knowing who the "father" of your child is would be like knowing who gave you a cold in a large city.
>Each parent only gives birth once, non-identical twins relatively common, birth:death is like 1.2:1 in normal circumstances
>Long-lived
>Children usually raised in kibbutzes
>Family bonds much less important than friendship groups and apprenticeships.

Screencaped like shit, but found too good to not do it.

Okay, so we have gems and yeast.
Any other weird ways to alter fantasy reproduction?

Well, who knows what kind of freaky shit went on in a Creation Forge...

Orks.

>How would a species with legitimately hermaphroditic biology, and a culture with one gender work in relation to other cultures.
Sexily

...

It's possible that the ancestors re-evolved their wings to be more like a pteranodon's, ie, with one (or maybe two) fingers -- with some associated fibrous muscle/cartilage/bone-spurs to support the wings, leaving the others available to manipulate tools.

There's no irony in what you just said.

...

>the irony
what irony?

I guess the irony is I was telling the truth. my gaming group despite its flaws has the capability to dabble into the sexual realm without it getting sexual.

can the gem be re-used?

1-2 pregnancies means 2-4 offspring; after a war or something, they'd need more pregnancies to bolster numbers.

Maybe high-stress turns them fertile again?

Have them reproduce via budding. Eventually the dwarfs beard falls off and another one grows from the beard.

If we're okay with spoilers, I prefer this video:
youtu.be/5GJz1UgnhFU

They had a servitor species, the Medjel. Little reptile dudes. There were maybe a dozen for every Idiran. And Idirans were seriously tough to kill, like Krogan turned up to 11.

Take dwarves.
Turn them into stone people.
They reproduce by taking a big stone and digging a new dwarf out of it.
They cut their own body to form beards, because you gotta have beards on your dwarves.

As an optional feature, you can have their "blood" be lava or some really hot liquid.