Gender in the Spiral Empire

All members of the Spiral Empire recognize at least three genders: men, who are generally born with external genitalia; women, who are generally born without; and wifere, who are either identified as such during childhood or come to self-identify as wifere before the age of about ten. Roles associated with the genders vary by empire.

## Seprum Republic

In Seprum, children are given the opportunity to identify as wifere at the age of eight, when it is assumed gender identity has settled. Approximately eight percent of the population is wifere, fifty-five percent are men, and thirty-seven percent are women.

### Appearance

#### Men

Men are expected to keep their hair short, though in general, only new members of the army shave it off completely. It should not be clipped or tied back, no matter how long it gets. Especially amongst Alleatas, beards are a point of pride. Men are expected to keep them well trimmed and may shape, dye, or volumize them. Straggly hair is unacceptable and means it needs to be cut or shaved.

Men are permitted outside in loincloths alone and, unlike wifere and women, may strip completely at public beeches. They do not wear jewelry or makeup, nor do they pad their clothes to change the shape of their silhouette. Though they may walk without them, most Seprum men have sandals with straps that go at least above the ankle. Men wear togas most often, and, as with the rest of their clothing, they come in a variety of colors. Only men with exceedingly high opinions of themselves wear specially tailored clothing.

#### Wifere

In Seprum, wifere tend to adopt an androgynous appearance by avoiding the main gender markers of men and women but without any unique ones of their own. They may bind their chests or wear padded clothing to emphasize their hips. They wear their hair between the shoulder and upper ear, or in the south, may be bald. They are always clean-shaven. Their clothes tend to be drabber and less well-fitting, even for wealthy wifere. Unlike men, they do not leave the house or villa without shoes.

It is not unseemly for wifere to wear only loincloths, especially commoners or indentured wifere, though most choose to wear tunics whenever possible. If they can afford jewelry, it should go on the nose, ears, or lip, not around the neck or in the hair, and it should not include gemstones. A paler complexion is preferred, as it suggests time indoors working as an administrator of some sort, the most seemly job for a wifere.

#### Women

Women are expected to wear their hair long, at least below the ears, generally below the shoulders. Alleatan women curl their hair if it is naturally straight and may have servants help them create elaborate updos, though they avoid using headdresses and other externally visible scaffolding. Alleatan women should have their chests, navels, and upper thighs covered by clothes in public and may have tailored togas or tunics that fit their shoulders and waists. It is considered unseemly to wear jewelry during routine travel but earrings, necklaces, and hairpins are common at government functions or during holidays. Only women wear makeup.

Commoner women wear less fitted clothing, though it is often as vibrantly dyed. They tie their hair back or put it into nets to keep it out of their face, especially if they are involved in cooking. They are forbidden from wearing togas, even at important events, though wealthier commoner women can wear jewelry in public. Some, especially merchants or craftswomen, may wear makeup around the eyes. Women in the army or those who work for the grey hand may choose to bind their chests in public.

Depending on their sponsor, indentured women may reveal their stomachs or chests in day-to-day outfits. They have shorter hair, tightly braided and rarely let loose, and wear neither makeup nor jewelry.

### Status

Men are highly valued for their ability to fight, as well as their courage, loyalty, and strength. Because the army is composed mostly of men and military service encourages leadership, men also make the best leaders. The vast majority of Seprum emperors, black hands, and senators are men. During the First Spiral War, Seprum opened up military service to wifere to bolster the ranks and after the second, they allowed women to join as well. Of the three academies, the one at White Cliff is most open to women, though it has never had more than sixteen in a class.

Inheritance is patrilineal, though most ars allow wifere to inherit if they are eldest, and some permit women to do so as well, especially if they are only children. Ars are led by a pater, who can determine marriages, military service, and occupations, if he chooses to do so. Except in larger artes, the pater is called to court for the crimes of any members of his family and is expected to suffer the consequences.

Wiferes enjoy a high status in society due to their intelligence and perseverance. Outside of farms, most serve administrative roles, such as accountants, tax collectors, census operators, lawyers, and spiromancers. Traditionally, the silver hand is a wifere, and much of their immediate staff may be as well. Wifere tend to be quick witted and funny, though they can get in trouble when their tongues move faster than their mouths. White Hand Lelus was publicly whipped after remarking during a feast that the size of the emperor's beard was rivaled only by the size of his gut.

They are too wily to make good emperors, but perfect as strategists and logisticians. Even before wifere were allowed on the front lines, they traveled behind the Seprum army to handle supply chains. One of the most crushing defeats of a Seprum legion occurred near Delphyn, when Henesian hoplites ambushed the wiferes and left the army stranded without food in enemy territory.

Women inhabit a world of feeling and emotion. They make the best artists, sculptures, and playwrights, when they can learn to keep their emotions in check. Like wifere, they are clever, in the realm of pain rather than the realm of numbers. Grey hands are almost always women, and their strong stomachs make them excellent workers in the grey keep. However, women often suffer from both cowardice and laziness and need proper guidance to flourish—they rarely make adequate leaders alone.

### Marriage

Seprum recognizes marriages between men and women, men and wifere, and men, women, and wifere. The Alleatan artes are almost all led by a pater who has both a wife and a spouse as their strengths and weaknesses balance each other out. Men may have multiple wifere partners or multiple women partners, but no one may be married to multiple men.

A pater is responsible for overseeing marriages and authorizing divorces. He has the last say in whether or not people may marry. As the pater of the entire empire, emperors may also, in rare cases, call for or forbid a specific marriage. Senates frown upon emperors who marry any of their hands.

## Kuan

Kuan children may self-identify as wifere at age five, during their first haircut, or at age fifteen, when they become full adults in Kuan society. However, most are identified by shaman. Only about one percent of the population is wifere, and the remainder is evenly split between men and women.

### Appearance

Because most Kuan wear many layers to protect against the cold, gender signifiers must appear on the face or on the outer layer. Married wifere wear headdresses that make them easy to identify. They also button their coats on the left side instead of the white. They may wear makeup or jewelry, even outside of special occasions, and are less likely to make eye contact. Wifere tend to travel unarmed.

Both men and women grow their hair long, though women tend to braid theirs and men tend to tie it back. It can be difficult to tell men and women apart when outside in Kuan, as they wear similar clothing, engage in similar behaviors, and are both equally likely to be armed.

### Status

Men and women enjoy an equal status in Kuan society. Both find valor and earn lands, herds, and peasants on the field of battle, though in general, men are soldiers and women are spiromancers. Almost all shamans are women and it is recognized that women have a special connection to the spiral, the Forest, and the spiritual world. Units of spiromancers are led by fellow women and spiros, but because these units are almost always smaller, women rarely lead men on the battlefield.

Men and women inherit when their parents die, the men the land furthest from home, the women, the land closest to home. Wifere do not inherit. Eldest sons are expected to marry any widowed wifere left behind after the death of a father.

## Makkada

Approximately fifteen percent of Makkada's population is wifere, with the rest evenly divided between men and women. Wifere may self-identify at any time before the age of twenty.

### Appearance

Modesty is highly valued in Makkadi society. Wifere wear gloves in public, often up to the elbow; women wear veils over their mouths and sometimes over their noses; and men wear scarves over their hair. No one shows their shoulders or knees outside the house.

#### Wifere

WIfere cultivate a soft, curvy appearance, through layers of tailored clothing and padding. They apply makeup to emphasize the roundness of their faces and eschew physical exercise that involves the upper body. They speak in neutral, often even tones at a soft volume except when panicked, when their voices become higher and faster. The preferred upper layer of wifere is the robe, woven with jewels and metals when possible. They wear their hair long, sometimes to the waist.

#### Men

To avoid appearing like wifere, men wear clothes that create hard edges and a triangle-shaped silhouette. They are encouraged to engage their upper bodies, either through hard labor or a sport like wrestling or boxing. They often grow short beards, though they do not cultivate them like Seprum men do. Their hair is kept short. Because few Makkadi ride, their men tend to wear skirts, which rarely fall below the knees.

#### Women

Women are also at risk of being mistaken for wifere, because both have softer outlines and wear jewelry and makeup. To compensate, women keep their hair cut above the shoulders or style it extravagantly, including dyeing and curling it. Their skirts fall to the ankles and rural women like to match their veil color with the color of their socks, if they wear them.

### Status

The majority of government positions are held by wifere. They excel so much at administrative tasks, local governments have begun offering scholarships and prizes to men and women who sit for the examinations. Wifere are recognized for their intelligence, dedication, and attention to detail. However, it is understood that they are often indecisive and make worse sultans than men and women do.

Men are valued for their physical prowess and and leadership. They make excellent sultans, laborers, and craftsmen. When Makkada had an army, most of the soldiers were men—today, men guard caravans and ilve temporarily in caravansaries, ensuring merchants survive their nights in the Forest. However, they are too honest and straight-forward to be merchants or diplomats and give up too easily to excel in bureaucracy or spiromancy.

Women are valued for their keen eyes, creativity, and diplomacy. They are natural-born merchants, able to spot a counterfeit coin at a distance, and most of the counterfeit division beneath the vizier of coin is composed of women. Though too flighty to make good script-writers (this task is mostly done by wifere), their artistic eye makes them excellent at constructing runes. Most hedge witches in Makkada are women, and about a third of spiromancers are.

### Marriage

The Makkadi government allows wifere to marry one another, but otherwise supports marriages between people of different genders. Wealthy Makkadi may have multiple spouses and past sultans have had up to five hundred dedicated partners. Makkadi believe that children inherit traits from every sexual partner of the mother or wifere who gives birth to them and large family structures are not unusual. Women sultans who choose not to have children themselves may assign members of the harem to the task and raise children as proper heirs. Because few positions are inherited and much of the land is broken up to avoid concentrations of power in the wealthy, heirs play a less important role in Makkadi society than Seprum.

## Dhi

Dhi recognizes a gender pyramid, with men, women, and wifere at the apexes along the base and a lack of gender at the top point (called agender). People may fall anywhere within the pyramid or outside it entirely. Their perception of gender may also change over time. Dhi recognize no biological essentialism and allow people born as men or wifere to dress and behave as women and vice versa, and they can announce their desire to change genders at any age. Exact population numbers are difficult to ascertain.

Dhi prefer not to constrain people's roles in life by the gender they identify with. Coupled with the cold weather and bulky outfits, it can be extremely difficult to distinguish Dhi genders—it is best to ask. Luckily, Reyari has no gendered pronouns and Dhi people are generally laid back about mistakes, so long as they are corrected.

Dhi is a matriarchy, insofar as it is anything. Land cannot be owned and villages work together to plant and harvest, but women more often than men or wifere act as makeshift leaders. Their throne is inherited through the mother's side and generally to daughters, though the monarchy is so decentralized, this often confers little power.

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