Gender and sexuality

Most Kasslynian societies require that marriages are between a man and woman for the explicit purpose of procreation and view homosexual behaviors as a quirky or poor lifestyle choice. The gender binary is strictly enforced in patriarchal Alderode, with Third Options occupying a strange male role, but is not as big a deal to their southern neighbors.

## Black Tongues

The Black Tongues only take males, or reasons only known to their ancient patron. *"A romantic/sexual fixation is not at all required with Lady Ilganyag; but it does often develop. Frankly, it’s what most men she acquaints herself with want most of all. I wouldn’t blame the giant crow, I’d blame tedious human nature.*
*Ancient wisdom on tap, impressive pymaric power, a workshop full of wonders; but in the quiet darkness of one’s mind where the Lady lies ever in wait, connected to her through the powerful ring of her silver talon ‘round one’s throat, so many ask for love, companionship, and the carnal bliss that’s supposed to accompany both. Even geniuses grow lonely. And the Lady’s supernatural caresses - aided by memories of sensation harvested like the sweetest apples from the khert’s golden boughs - are mind-breakingly potent.*
*She becomes the only entity that can grant them that. Gelded, they can’t even have conventional sex without her assistance. She is gatekeeper of their pleasure, though she has ensured they can never make children.*
*And most of them can’t help but fall in love with her in these circumstances.*
*But Rahm, for instance, is not romantically nor physically in love with the Lady. He does love her, but it’s Platonic - he’s assured Iori of this many times (Iori mostly believes it, but still feels frigging weird and unhappy about it all). What he wishes most of all is peace. He wants to finish his and Dani’s work so he doesn’t have this constant ache in his heart accusing him of letting his son die in vain.*
"

## Cresce

"Cresce is by nature a much more egalitarian place than either Sharteshane or Alderode," it "“takes a separate but equal” approach, believing that there are roles for which each gender is best suited, and then mandating those have equal or near equal power". "The only positions denied to anyone are the Monarchy [and the highest position of religious authority being denied to men]", while "the head of the military must always be male, the cultural stereotype being that women are even-tempered peacemakers good at nurturing and males are passion-driven warriors good at killing. Then they’re supposed to even each other out." "The Sororal Gefendur faith is led by priestesses, [though there are priests leading shrines as well]. Otherwise nature does trend things the way you’d expect. Dudes have the physical strength so most soldiers are dudes. Ladies have [breasts] for breastfeeding and the handicap of pregnancy so they do tend to spend more time with the kids. Iori, for instance, was what we’d consider a pretty traditional mom. She worked her twenty hours a week in the Distributory and then went home to her kids. That was what she wanted to do and her husband was cool with it, so that worked for them."

*"It’s pretty socially laid back but they don’t have same sex marriage. If Ufal wanted the benefits of marriage, he had to find a woman to marry. Fortunately this arrangement is not super weird in Crescian society and isn’t typically any sort of secret."*

## Alderode

*"[In] Aldish society - and most other extremely patriarchal societies - [there is] a lot of gender separation. Guys and girls don’t hang out together socially, and it’s considered scandalous for a woman of class to be alone with a man, [or even out without a chaperone at certain hours]. [A ghersit man would] only seldom [be] in a location where there are unattached women around. The most likely spot for antics would be at a ghers function, where everyone in the community gets together in a big old group for eating and dancing and drinking and courting, or to celebrate a holiday. Something could happen there, but to sleep with an upstanding Soud girl outside marriage? If they were caught he could be kicked right out of the ghers, or forced to marry her. It’s pretty risky. [The efhghersit shanties, like Sevencrow Court, are less regulated and liaisons with] barmaids or prostitutes [found there come without the social obligations of a ghersit woman.]"* "A man is his wife’s keeper and responsible for her welfare once he takes her away from her father." "Women can’t work in many jobs, nor own property at all, so without a husband they’re helpless. Even worse if they have kids. But their *Ghers* will take care of them and get them remarried as soon as is appropriate, unless they’re older and then they normally transition to living with their adult kids or relatives."

*"Alderode is much, much more conservative than the rest of Kasslyne when it comes to sexuality, but if you then add the burden of a rich and titled family and the contractual meaningfulness of marriage to that family - straight marriage being the only option - a gay man doesn’t have a lot of room to do what he wants."*

In Ssaelit teachings *"Gay affairs are stigmatized to the same extent straight affairs are: they’re coarse, ignoble, ungodly. You’re supposed to work hard, marry someone appropriate, make babies, and dedicate yourself to following Ssael’s path. Sexuality is a distraction from that; another of the gods’ demeaning systems put in place to lead humans from their better natures."*

## Sharteshane

"Sharteshane generally cares less about what’s in your pants than what’s in your pockets, but without a regulated level playing field for everyone," and criminal families acting as de facto nobles society leans heavily towards patriarchal control.

## Ulestry

Ulestry is led by the sisters of the faith in Silverleaf, the high priestesses of the Sororal Gefendur faith.

## Notes

* Ashley included sexist societies and laws against gay marriage in *Unsounded* *"[b]ecause discrimination is a rich source of character drama and a theme of the comic.* Unsounded *is thicc with discrimination - gender, religion, country, race, class, species. It is busy almost unto preoccupation with the inherently tribal nature of the human animal."*

1. ↑ https://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/179986130685/since-a-romanticsexual-fixation-on-ilganyag-seems
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 https://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/90964201770/we-know-there-is-much-gender-bias-in-alderode
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 https://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/621026202449215488/do-any-countries-in-kasslyne-prohibit
4. ↑ https://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/175951521030/why-would-ufal-marry-a-woman-if-hes-gay-i
5. ↑ https://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/89345052715/has-lemuel-ever-had-a-sarthos-experience-of-his
6. ↑ https://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/622936171407966208/do-jets-often-marry-for-life-im-writing-a-fanfic
7. ↑ https://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/180194054025/piggybacking-off-the-last-ask-about-marriage-are
8. ↑ https://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/172992592885/how-well-known-is-it-that-roger-is-gay-or-are
9. ↑ https://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/157460550110/cordolia-replied-to-your-post-cordolia-replied
10. ↑ https://unsoundedcomic.tumblr.com/post/630836024156798976/any-reason-in-particular-why-you-chose-to-make