Sexuality in fantasy settings

Now, not sure this is the best place to put this but it seems like an important bit of worldbuilding.

What are the sexual norms of your fantasy (or even sci-fi) cultures? who do people have sex with? is sex outside of marriage forbidden, discouraged or the norm? how is prostitution viewed,

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Elves cover the full spectrum. I don't think any are totally homo or heterosexual. Marriage isn't really a thing either as life is too long to be devoted to any one individual. Monogamy exists but its commonly understood among the elves that no relationship lasts forever. It's because of this tha elf families are full of half siblings.

That's the only sexual details I've developed so far.

Why must you inject sex into gaming

>Monogamy exists but its commonly understood among the elves that no relationship lasts forever
I hate it that Veeky Forums thinks this the whole time, it's really unromantic and it's always with elves.

Romance is a fantasy.

And we are talking about fantasy here.

>it's always with elves
Sometimes it's very romantic and with redeemed succubi

>it's really unromantic and it's always with elves.

It's also realistic, and with long-lived creatures like elves, they're far more likely to drift apart after a few centuries than stick with a single partner for their entire lives. People change as they age, it makes more sense to move on and find a new partner than stick with someone you're growing distant from.

Because NPCs have lives too

t. degenerate

Really? I've found that the common depiction is with life long monogamus relationships. Which i find is more an ideal of what humans want as our time is fleeting. To elves, who have chaotic hearts and aren't driven by mortality, i think their romantic ideals would differ greatly from our own.

>It's also realistic
We are talking about fantasy here.
>they're far more likely to drift apart after a few centuries
What says they must?
>People change as they age
I thought the cliché was that they are unable to change, very stagnant, very conservative in their life.
>it makes more sense to move on and find a new partner than stick with someone you're growing distant from
Not necessarily, they are elves, not humans. You must not apply human-logic to a fantasy-race and even humans can manage to be monogamous their entire life. I know this is becoming increasingly less frequent, but we are talking about fantasy here afterall.

I would thought so too, it's just whenever I hear talkign Veeky Forums about it that they change relationships the whole time and it makes me wonder where this comes from.

Besides one player enjoying the company of prostitutes, its never really been a thing in our groups campaigns.

Fantasy doesn't mean you just ignore the effect fantastic elements would have on society.

I mean, you can, but isn't half the fun of fantasy entering a different world

and for some people, they just want a powertrip full of magical handwaving
I know Veeky Forums likes to pretend it's better than that, but a lot of posts here point to that kind of behavior

Depends on the setting. DnD has Wood Elves, Drow and High Elves. I'd say Wood Elves may follow the more open path of many relationships over a lifetime, but High Elves would be more likely to have a single partner. Drow, of course, couldn't care less about anyone other then themselves.

In other settings, like LoTR, Elves are almost exclusively singular in this manner, as they tend not to change much over long centuries, and they require much less to keep their attention than mankind.

>they are elves, not humans. You must not apply human-logic to a fantasy-race

Then why are you applying human romantic ideals on them? I think its far more strange that their relationships are fleeting things. They follow what the heart wants no matter the cost or circumstance.

Kinda need to decide on a specific setting if youre going to debate how Elves behave, because they are depicted differently among settings. Sometimes they are borderline fey-creatures whom are ever-changing and sometimes they are stagnant, staid immortals.

Elves in my world are monogamous, but don't mind cheating. Elves have exclusively open marriages

Not really user. They have chaotic hearts, including High Elves. The lawful sorts of elves are Tolkienisms, which aren't D&D elves.

Yes, it can vary between settings, but OP asks about our settings.

You are saying this again like it's a set thing. It's unromantic from my perspective, that's all I'm saying. Haven't talked about how romantic they think their relationships are.

As the user you started the elf lone of conversation, they're definitely in the more fey camp that the other. Ennui sets in easily and so elves change things in their life regularly. Regular for them can be anywhere from 20-50 years

>You are saying this again like it's a set thing

I'm not about to change it because you don't like it.

Because it's a fact of life, and ignoring it is silly unless there are children in the room or it's discussion makes other players uncomfortable.

Is it now a thing that all elves have in all settings or only in your?

Depends on the location, culture, and race in the setting.

Obvious answer is obvious.

It's always been how I depict them and my argument of why the way I depict them makes sense Its also brining to light how d&D elves tend toward the chaotic statistically so the lawful and stagnant depiction of the elf isn't the intended depiction in D&D

My setting is Bronze Age-ish, and attitudes vary between different kingdoms, cities and tribes, so I'll focus on the main one the players are from.

>What are the sexual norms of your fantasy (or even sci-fi) cultures?
>Who do people have sex with?
In general there are very few norms. Same-race heterosexuality is the standard and the majority, interracial unions are not very productive (an even if they are, half-elves or half-whatever are always sterile) but not really looked down upon among the general population. Regular taboos about rape, incest and pedophilia still apply. In general people have other things to worry about than who is doing what with who.

>Is sex outside of marriage forbidden, discouraged or the norm?
There isn't really such thing as formal marriage, there is little need for such a system. People just agree that they're married and move in together to one of the family homes (or a new home). Herbal contraceptives are known among the civilized people and are generally effective. In general, sex is sex and marriage is marriage.

>How is prostitution viewed?
As any other job. Some prostitutes are well respected and educated, these are attached to temples, where they exchange sex for "donations" to the temples, as well as provide other services like maybe-magical healing. Regular, non-holy, prostitutes are also plentiful, oldest profession and all that.

Nice b8.

DnD still comprises multiple settings. Forgotten Realms Elves, for instance, tend much more toward lawful then chaotic. However, even this tended to vary, depending mostly on how much contact a particular race of elves had with humanity. Those whom mingled closely with humanity often took on more human-like mindsets, becoming less conservative and more liberal, in alignment as well as sexuality. Those whom stayed apart tended to be very conservative, while those whom lived, and mated, completely intermeshed with humanity often took on "open" relationships, or had many relationships of consecutive human lovers.

Depends on the Kingdom/Realm;

In the Western Kingdoms, Sex is usually perceived as something to be saved for marriage, because it risks pregnancy and marriage is seem as an contract and a bond meant to secure a blood lineage. Much like in the medieval europe. The Chapel of Nine enforces this views, but they don't outright claim non-marital sex to be a Sin, mostly because the notion of Sin in a polytheist society is a bit different and more flexible. It still happens and often, but most with lower classes were marital bonds are less significant, since they have fewer possessins or outright no lineage. Sure, most men prefer to marry a virgin, but most will settle for 'Likely a virgin' or 'not a known slut'. Homossexuality is perceive as less of an issue because girl on girl tends to no threaten one's maidenhood (no break hymen), and guy on guy is just boys will be boys. Homossexuality is usually perceive as immaturity though, something young folks might do mostly on being impatient to marry.

There's a race of females that lives in segregation from the world, and their rite of maturity is to go outside, journey, and eventually return when they are pregnant. Since this alone doesnt sustain their numbers, the ones that already have had children will sometimes organize forest parties where their goal is to find males to mate, hopefully securing a few more children among their numbers. This parties are rare though, usually once every three or so years. Their pregnancy chance is directly proportional to their emotional involvement with the mate, which they will by definition never see again so, it's a bit of a bitch for the young'uns. The old ones are usually more jaded and they can understand the need for doing it, so although it is hurtful to fall in love and then disappear into the woods, they do it. Feys, right?

So the elf-slut meme comes from the humans bad influence. Got it.

Both very interesting. That it would vary from culture to culture is assumed, I'm just looking for examples

In a recent real robo game I ran, the primary rival aces were an asexual fascist who wished she weren't one, supported by an actual lunatic who was built like a monster and was misogynist towards women who WEREN'T the fascist.

There was also one who had a line marriage and full-body prosthesis, and got plastered on all the posters and pro-war pamphlets saying shit like "God is dead. Why not worship something alive, like Democracy?"

...I really liked that game.

The main setting is a human empire. Monogamic relationships are the norm and severe diviants are punished by law.
In elven tribes there is no such thing as marriage but monogamic relationships are still by far the most common ones. Some room for more open relationships, as well as non heteroesexual relationships exist.
In the dwarven kingdoms beneath the earth, marriage is a matter of family bonds and traditions. Love is dying and rare.
The far flung human city states are more varried.

Among this female race is needless to say homossexuality is the norm, they form bonds with other females to raise their children, and those bonds are very similar to our marriage: They move into the same house, and raise each other children as their own without much difference in affection to those who are of their blood and those who are not. Even adopted girls of this species are usually treated just as well and affectionate as biological children, because there's a strong sense of the tribe being the family. Young and chaste love between the young ones that did not take the pilgrimage is the norm. But they know this relationships will end the second they step into the wider world, for all of them must journey alone, and that is sacred. Plus, they know they'll fall in love with a male mate outside in order to become pregnant, and that's a problem too. When they return, their views in love tend to be less chaste, though not necessary lustful. They'll have their children and usually pair with a mate, be it one of their childhood sweethearts or not, to raise them.

Then we have the Krov, who are a militaristic reptilian society. Sex is not associated with pleasure with them, because although it is pleasurable, its very little compared to other emotions and to what humans experience. They mate for life and although for the first two months the female has to carry the eggs inside her stomach, the next four months of gestation can be done either by the male or female. So the weaker partner stays in the tribe to gestate the eggs, and the strong partner go out hunt/raid to ensure tribal survival.

>People change as they age
ive found the exact opposite to be true, the older they are the more they define themselves into one thing.
with this in mind it would seem elves would find their most ideal mate in a couple of hundred years and just stick with that one since the other person compliments them the most

It varies from culture to culture.

The high population density culture tended towards collectivism and therefore arranged marriage was the custom for the middle class and up. Prostitution is strictly forbidden, typically by killing the prostitute, but it still happens- mostly among the underclass, and typically only when she fails to give a highborn a freebie and he rats her out.
Oh, and polygamy exists for the upper class. In rare cases even polyandry if the daughter is from a particularly large estate. This was seen as a way of diffusing large fortunes to maintain a balance of power among the aristocracy.

Then there's the low population ultra-rich civilization next door. A clan of mages in the desert who said "who needs economics?" and basically formed a military alliance around "what's the point of being all powerful if you can't hunt men for sport?". The ultra elites (the mages) have harems of imported sex slaves from the indigenous tribes to the south. The entirety of the rest of the population are literally bastards who live off the effortless wealth of the mages in a weirdly incestuous middle class community. Think renaissance Italy where everybody is related by some clan or another in a merchant society. As fucked up as it sounds, the society is also by far the most liberal, with abundant homosexuality, high scientific literacy, and by force of economics is promoting a global trend in female equality (because apparently a fireball kills you just as well when cast with a vagina).

Then you got the elves, whose entire society is being stuck in ghettos because of sexual taboo. Half-elves are sterile mules, and elves are few in number (and not immortal whatsoever) so breeding with humans is frowned upon. IN order to sustain a breeding population they need to stay within their own. Humans, unfortunately, are really attracted to them and get pissy when rejected. Hence ghetto.

>All these people who's setting is basically modern norms
I'm a little disappointed in you Veeky Forums. Where are the races that mate for life on instinct, where are the races who have only a few mating periods in their entire life and otherwise have no notion of the thing, where are the races for whom mating is a death sentence and is put off as long as possible, where are the species who reproduce through sporulation or budding, where are the races with sporadic hermaphroditic periods in response to environmental conditions, where's the race that just lays egg clutches that are then fertilized, or the race that pollinates, or the race that complex life cycles where in mating is sometimes but not always possible, etc etc? Also where is the highly advanced and convoluted ritualized customs surrounding these different ways of mating that would develop for intelligent species in complex cultures?

In short where is the inspiration?

>that list
Mostly extinct for having unreasonable reproduction strategies. That or non-sentient.

I like to keep my settings reasonable and consistent. I don't like shoving in fantastic things just for the sake of being different.

>I don't play fantasy to have fantastic things in my setting

>Mostly extinct for having unreasonable reproduction strategies.
But most of those are all natural reproduction strategies that are proven to work though.

>I like to keep my settings reasonable and consistent
What good is measured reason and careful consistency in a fantasy setting. Come on user, live a little.

I like fantastic things. I like magic, I like different races and heroic adventures and fae creatures fucking up their day.

What I don't like is "fuck you, magic" settings where things are different for the sake of being "fantastic" without rhyme or reason.

I like my fantastic settings to have rules and be reasonable and plausible.

None of these things must be because of fuck you, magic, but rooted in biology.

My setting requires three people to procreate.

I'm with you user. I have trouble explaining this idea to others as well. I call it parasci-fi, rather than fantasy. It's hard science fiction, just with different laws of physics (which I have painstakingly built a world on).

>rooted in biology
Usually they aren't, though. Particularly if you want any of those races to have civilizations and cities.

>exclusively open marriage
gross. when will this meme die

>I hate it that Veeky Forums thinks this the whole time, it's really unromantic and it's always with elves.
What are you even talking about. You're the one guy talking about pancakes.

You guys being autists about your settings is less interesting than the people just discussing theirs.

>Particularly if you want any of those races to have civilizations and cities
Oh come on, the point of fantasy civilizations is that you can make even lizardmen, insectoids, stone-people and Belgians having a working society. Must not be of the same level as the ancient rome, but still.

Sorry man, but I just can't accept Belgians having a working society in my settings, user. That's just too far fetched.

>tfw you haven't thought about your world's attitudes towards sex.

Need to go and flesh this out in my settings. Can't believe I overlooked this shit...

To be honest, it is something that doesn't need to be elaborated necessarily in-game, although feel free to keep personal notes.
While all living creatures that produce offspring have sexuality, it is not usually explored in games ( because player discomfort, awkwardness, cringyness etc. )
You can allude to it by using it to explain some other seeminhly non-sexual aspects - courting rituals, for example.

I opened this thread with fucking glee in my eyes. Veeky Forums gets so anal about anything sexual these days so I wanted to see people whining and raging. Didnt really happen this time for some reason. Maybe the right timezone isnt awake yet.

You could simply have elves have a clan- rather than family-based society. All elves in a given society are "married" with all that implies, but of course some are closer than others. Children result from eugenical planning.

Aside from possibilities for Magical Realms, this has the advantage of being exotic yet still easily comprehensible for players. It can be played as free-love utopia or a decadent dystopia or some combination of them as needed.

It's that teegee elf prejudice again.

I would only accept that with wood elves.

Since it's my fetish, every game I run is filled to the brim with romantic, marital sex. Unmarried characters either pine for marriage if Good, or show indicia of sexual cruelty and moral depravity if Neutral or Evil. Most villains are married but unfaithful, to demonstrate their deficient character.

Is this an American prudishness thing?

user, it's time for you to stop.

Fucking Tiefling/Draenei stealing good human males with their sinful brothels.

I want in on that fun

No, it's because awkward people rarely do justice to something that has gravitas, and it can be hard to portray normal sexual behavior if your experience is warped or lacking.
It's like playing a game about hacking with actual hackers.

I did that for a science fiction setting. When thinking up the biology of the different sapient species, I purposefully gave each of them a different methof of reproduction.
So you've got one species that lays eggs which are taken care of in communal creches (and as a result they don't have a concept of family in the same was as humans do), another that is hermaphroditic, and one that works like eusocial insects where only the queen can reproduce (if not regularly exposed to the queen's pheromones, however, the "worker" females begin to transform into queens; as the queens are also considered the ruling caste, this leads to each of their starships being treated as effectively a small independent nations). The specie with closest thing to human reproduction (males and females, female gives birth to live young after pregnancy) still differ from humans in that they're actually ovoviviparous (ie. they technically have eggs, but the eggs hatch inside the mother's body), and their equivalent of pregnancy is actually the offspring undergoing a larval stage inside the mother's body (the adults of the species can live on land, but they undergo an aquatic larval stage similar to amphibians; their ancestors used to just lay eggs into bodies of water, but eventually evolved to have the eggs hatch and the larva develop inside a womb-equivalent up untill they can survive on land).

In fantasy, however, I figure elves, dwarves, etc. are similar enough to humans they probably reproduce in a roughly similar manner. There's still some differences, like elves function more similarly to most other mammals than humans (ie. they have an estrus period, unlike human females who are essentially always fertile between puperty and menopause). This results in them having a lot more liberal view on sex than humans, since the chanse of accidental pregnancies is effectively zero (for most of the year, there's no chanse at all for sex resulting in pregnancy).

Wait, did you invent a tribe that is made only of women?

They live very long. Serial monogamy makes sense for them, especially if they're willing to mingle with the shorter lived races

Wood elfs are hippies. If you aren't outright hated by the community, you can get pity sex just by asking.

High elfs are "enlightened" aristocrats. Sex is all about politics. If you want some, better get something to bargain with.

Drow are randroids. Sex is all about domination. To have some, either get slaves or become one. Outright violence is punished, but scheming so your object of lust must choose between "voluntarily" submitting or dying is a powerful aphrodisiac for both parties.

Orcs and dwarves are communists. You'll be assigned a mate whose quality is based on your contributions to the community. You want a hotter one, fight or blacksmith harder.

Exalted sort of gets around this. Every Solar has a Lunar mate. (So yes, this means you probably have Ahri as your waifu.)

The thing is, the relationship varies. Some Solars are monogamous, others have a lot of sex, but the only one they can ultimately relate to no-matter-what is their Lunar counterpart, because both are similarly powerful and close-to-immortal.

Never. How does never work for you?

For the standard pseudo medieval Europe setting sex, gender roles, etc. is handled like medieval Europe.

For settings with no historical analog it could be anything.

>scheming so your object of lust must choose between "voluntarily" submitting or dying is a powerful aphrodisiac for both parties.
Hot.

If there's a fetish, there's a succubus for it.

Normal human females wage a constant war to invent new kinks before Succubi can steal their men

Not tribe, species.

It's the end of the world, people bang who they want.

Can succubi alter themselves to match the fetish of their target (or if you summon one, you get one tailored for your fetish), or do you just have to hope you got a footcubus instead of a futacubus or vorecubus?

They can swiftly change themselves to be the perfect woman for any man to fuck if they just meet at random, but if you summon one you can specify what you want so it summons a succubus and changes her into the exact kind you want.

The transformation is involuntary, without the presence of a male they default to being lethargic and just waiting to be summoned. A few are in loving, committed relationships to disgusting deviants who enjoy handholding and true love

One guy I knew had the elves who weren't nobles marry through common law while the nobles essentially trade their kids off as concubines.

Depends on where you are. In the north, things are more formalized and men and women are supposed to court at length if they're nobility. Down in the 'less civilized' south there's an old joke that if you've never had a child, you can tell how fertile you are by asking your partner. If they've had more partners of the opposite sex than you, you're fine.
Common law rules in the south, when it comes to marriage, and betraying a spouse is considered selfish. Children are raised by their parents, which leads to some remarrying or knifepoint weddings.
A marriage can be broken off in the south without hard feelings if no child comes from it.
Homosexuality is sort of shrugged at, but the expectation to raise children puts them under a lot of pressure to adopt.

...

Humans, halflings, dwarves and jotun largely have the same standards, being mostly heterosexual and monogamous. Jotun chieftains however are required to take three wives for religious reasons. Jotun and halflings forbid prostitution, but the human stance on prostitution varies and dwarves consider it a holy profession, female prostitutes being considered muses of a kind. Halflings are religiously incestuous, but not open about it.

Orcs vary between monogamy and polygyny depending on culture. In some cultures certain females are sterilized for spiritual reasons and effectively treated as men, and as such can't be made wives. Relations between them and males are taboo (though still an occurrence), but they are allowed relations with other females. Homosexuality between men however is taboo. Prostitution varies by culture, being a religious practice in the places where it is allowed.

Goblins are matriarchal and polyandric, with the number of husbands a female has increasing her status. Being exclusively homosexual is considered deviant, though bisexuality is acceptable if uncommon. Male prostitution is also acceptable, but female prostitution is considered shameful.

Draconians do not have a concept of romantic love and do not marry. When the season comes, they mate with anyone they happen to be attracted to at the time. Any eggs produced are raised communally, parent and child never knowing each other. Homosexuality is rare and prostitution unheard of. Draconians living among other races have adopted the idea of marriage but treat it as temporary, staying together only long enough to raise young.

I have no idea about elves.

Meanwhile, in alternate-universe Veeky Forums:

>Why would intelligent monkeys suddenly discover monogamy? Just because we cat-people discovered it doesn't mean its universal. This setting is unrealistic

>tfw I never planned to write the culture of love and sex in my setting, but the players wanted it

The region the players are in is binormative, seeing pure hetero or homo folk as being a bit picky but otherwise there's no issue there.

As far as marriage goes any formal union exists to form a family, so it's male/female. Traditionally it's seen that love will be the result of a good marriage, not what causes a marriage.

Unmarried romantic love is common enough, but tends to be seen as different from married love. For someone to have a spouse through marriage and a lover through independent passion is commonplace enough to be seen as the norm, though these each have their own layer of monogamy; it is illegal to have multiple spouses through marriage at one time, and is frowned upon to have multiple lovers at once. It's not uncommon for 3 or 4 person households to form around a married pair and their extramarital lover(s), and the usual lines of monogamy tend to dissolve between the members of this household. Pretty much all sex outside of with your spouse or lover is frowned upon, prostitution is (mostly) illegal.

Family lines pass through women for this reason; the identity of the father can be fuzzy, and even in a non-scandalous family can be one of up to three people. Most domestic offices are similarly held by women because of this.

Transgender folk tend to be seen as a curious oddity and follow marriage rules based on their physical sex. Such folk would be identified as a man-woman or woman-man (MtF/FtM), and trying to lump yourself in with men or women (the cis variety) isn't really frowned upon in and of itself but can get you a reputation for being deceptive, particularly if you try to use it to bed one of those picky sorts who doesn't like all manner of genitals.

>invent
I wonder if the ancient Greeks had magical realm material about Amazons. They were, but for a few exceptions, mostly all about the dudes, and employed the Amazons as villains, but there's got to be something.

Sedoretu is a 4-person marriage from Ursula K. LeGuin stories that sounds alien enough to be applicable to plenty of fantasy cultures.

Sorry for the site hosting it, but this is the concisest explanation: fanlore.org/wiki/Sedoretu

Basically you introduce another social identified besides gender (here, moiety) than has greater influence on marriage than gender does.

>There's a race of females that lives in segregation from the world, and their rite of maturity is to go outside, journey, and eventually return when they are pregnant

this is pretty interesting and seems not to be born of some disgusting perversion. good job user.

...

>What are the sexual norms of your fantasy (or even sci-fi) cultures?

Sexual preference, as long as those involved are consenting adults, is not a moral issue and never has been. It's treated more like food preferences, i.e., some people might hate the idea of gay sex, but they hate it in the same way that they might also hate asparagus or mayonnaise, there's no "weight" attached to it.

Most people still tend towards heterosexuality due to biological imperatives, but tend to be more "flexible" than in most Western cultures. Basically, using the Kinsey scale for simplicity's sake, a rating of 0 (exclusively heterosexual behavior) is practically unheard of. 1 is the most common, 2 and 3 both reasonably common after that, an there's a higher incidence of 4 and 5 than in modern Western society (but, for the record, a rating of 6 (exclusively homosexual) would be almost unheard of as well)

>is sex outside of marriage forbidden

Depends on the culture. Dwarves tend towards monogamy and an affair is enough to break the marriage (and bring shame on the one who committed it), while gnomes don't even have a concept of marriage or family units, with kids being raised communally (a trait they ironically share with kobolds). Halflings generally practice polygamy (so there's not much in the way of "affairs", if they like someone enough to have sex with them they'll just marry them - why not? Everyone likes weddings), while elves get into an arranged marriage at age 25 for the express and sole purpose of producing and raising kids, but then break that marriage at age 110 and are free to do whatever they like after that. Orcs are broadly monogamous, but that's more for the safety of the potential competition ("KAGHA ONLY WOMAN GOOD ENOUGH FOR HRUGUKH! ME KILL BIT ON SIDE AND REMIND HRUGUKH HOW LUCKY HE BE TO HAVE KAGHA!").

What are you talking about? Elves are aligned to Law or Neutrality.

In the Kingdom my players are currently in sex outside marriage is fine, but having children outside of a marriage is illegal, and these pregnancys will be terminated

I don't make it a point to put anything in my campaigns that would potentially alienate players. e.g. I'm not going to say your character can't be whatever sexual orientation you want it to be. But I also don't put any explicitly sexual content in the campaign. Although players are free to solicit prostitutes according to their gender preferences, there will never be any sexual plot-related elements, nor will I bother to use foes like succubi.

Whether or not the game takes on any sexual undertones is better left up to the players. That may be a whole can of worms that some players just don't want to open, and I'm not going to question their reasons for not wanting to be subjected to that.

I'm fairly sure that depends on the setting

We did end up developing one particular concept during a game.

The main setting was a city state, something like Venice at it's peak but whilst also undergoing a form of industrial revolution built upon alchemy and alchemical processes on an industrial scale.

Now, for a married lady of noble blood to seek comfort in the arms of another man, that is just downright unacceptable in this society, it's common for the husband and the lover to settle their dispute in a public duel. Naturally, this can lead to issues of estrangement and instability.

Now, for one reason or another, over the years a certain subculture that is practically a profession of sorts has developed where women who possess qualities normally considered to be of the male strata (handsome, dashing, capable, boyish, short hair and trousers) are seen as an acceptable solution for a woman who is not satisfied with her husband.

They are sometimes disdainfully referred to a Cockerels, though Bravado is a more approving term. Whilst not all nobility approve of the practice, it has become a socially acceptable norm in the past decade for a lady to be seen with her Bravado escort on her arm. Generally it is considered bad form to bring a Bravado to an official function or flaunt them in front of the husband, some are practically seen as an extension of the household.

One particular benefit for a man to allow his lady to take a Bravado is that they have generally considered to be adept swordsman, with a few even possessing the skill to become proficient masters of the art to be recognized as such by the Guild of the Blade. The guild in turn benefit from the renewed interest and custom that the Bravado have brought by making fencing such an integral part of the subculture. They therefore make for surprisingly effective bodyguards, simply from their reputation.

I mean, this is all purely one players fetish they injected into the game, but I have to say I think they packaged it well.

Because adventuring is sexy.

This was actually a thing in China.

It's a time honored tradition literally older than you are.

t. Arduin Grimoires, 1978.

pretty neat, stealing this for my duelist city state.

>lol, everybody must conform to my preconceptions about sexual orientation and traditional marriage

You sound like a shit GM. This is a surefire way to alienate everyone at your table.

I had a race of spider people in my space setting who would impregnate other species male or female with shitloads of eggs. The eggs could fit into almost any warm wet place and would work especially well in the stomach. There they would draw nutrients from the blood stream by partially bonding to the host organisms flesh. This also meant they took some of the genetic material of the host to better adapt to their surroundings.at birth, the eggs released a chemical that basically caused the organism to Expell everything. Because the eggs could live off of almost anything the host organisms ate, the host wouldn't produce any waste. Thus, they end up vomiting, shitting out or having contractions to force out, dozens of roughly goofball sized soft eggs with now more developed half breed spiderlings. Purebreds have three sets of arms and four legs and chitinous skin. Human half breeds have only two sets of arms and a vestigial third set that are usually removed at birth. Human hybrids are also usually more hairy. The faces of the species basically look like a humanity face with extra eyes and mandibles. There aren't any females per second, but seeing as the thorax/spider butt thing contains a pouch where the eggs are SUPPOSED to go, this means that due to genetic lottery there are people with really wide hips and spider ass that are sought after as purebred mates. This is sometimes unfortunate as the introduction to male and female human gender roles means that there are often male identifying spider people (or speople) who have more soft features and wide rear ends that end up being taken as mating partners in an attempt to keep the bloodline pure.

Alignment is stupid