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I vaugely remember Keith Baker saying that Eberron dragons look at dragons mating with humans/elves/whatever as akin to beastiality, and it's strongly frowned on.
The dragons of Eberron were pretty socially tied together and 'monolithic,' in a way that even Dragonlance dragons would find a bit stifling, I think. (Almost Council of Wyrm-esque, with a society and rules and laws and whatever.)
In most settings, I imagine it's a lot more freewheeling. Some dragons might see some strategic use for having lots of dragon-blooded servants. Others might find it icky and beneath them. This one might fall in love, and regard their humanoid lover as an equal (or, in the cut-throat world of inter-dragon relations, the 'only one who really understands them' or 'the only one I can trust' or 'the one who won't (can't!) leave me'). Another might 'fall in love' with her dozens of little pet humanoids, and be the creepy cat-lady of dragonkind, always fussing over her 'babies'...
Now I want to make a barmy cat-lady dragon, who keeps her humanoid 'babies' in cages and fusses over them until they are 'house-trained' and 'don't try to get out' (i.e. their spirits are broken and they don't try to escape). :)
If you follow the idea that the dwarven race is fading there is a case for adding an aversion to homosexuality. This of course would extend to dwarven mating with other races.
If you follow the idea that the dwarven race is fading there is a case for adding an aversion to homosexuality. This of course would extend to dwarven mating with other races.
.. Can dwarves even tell the difference? Was "I didn't know" a viable dwarven explanation or not so plausible deniability?
I vaugely remember Keith Baker saying that Eberron dragons look at dragons mating with humans/elves/whatever as akin to beastiality, and it's strongly frowned on.
The very birth of dragon-elf hybrid (which was intended by her parents as a gesture of peace and way to end elf-dragon war) pushed dragons and elves to eradicate whole bloodline that was responsile for that half-dragon creation. She survived and is still (un)live and kicking.
(I often wondered if instead of the Rage of Dragons, if the Realms had the Rutting of Dragons where they had the compulsion to jump anything with a pulse.)
With number of half-dragons appearing in various places one could think that Rage Of Dragons actually happens only when Rutting of Dragons is magically prevented. Well, it explains a lot.
The dragons of Eberron were pretty socially tied together and 'monolithic,' in a way that even Dragonlance dragons would find a bit stifling, I think. (Almost Council of Wyrm-esque, with a society and rules and laws and whatever.)
As I love Eberron, it's take on dragons is one thing that bothers me the most. They are made too human and too social. Not to mention that I am not fond of world-wide conspiracies. They are sooo overdone.
I vaugely remember Keith Baker saying that Eberron dragons look at dragons mating with humans/elves/whatever as akin to beastiality, and it's strongly frowned on.The very birth of dragon-elf hybrid (which was intended by her parents as a gesture of peace and way to end elf-dragon war) pushed dragons and elves to eradicate whole bloodline that was responsile for that half-dragon creation. She survived and is still (un)live and kicking.
(I often wondered if instead of the Rage of Dragons, if the Realms had the Rutting of Dragons where they had the compulsion to jump anything with a pulse.)With number of half-dragons appearing in various places one could think that Rage Of Dragons actually happens only when Rutting of Dragons is magically prevented. Well, it explains a lot.
The dragons of Eberron were pretty socially tied together and 'monolithic,' in a way that even Dragonlance dragons would find a bit stifling, I think. (Almost Council of Wyrm-esque, with a society and rules and laws and whatever.)As I love Eberron, it's take on dragons is one thing that bothers me the most. They are made too human and too social. Not to mention that I am not fond of world-wide conspiracies. They are sooo overdone.
The funny thing is, I ran an Eberron game once and that's pretty much how I had the dragons be, and I didn't know it was intended that way. The party is discovered by a trio of dragons early on, consisting of a rather tsundere black dragon, a bronze dragon who was very wise acting, and a very hedonistic red dragon who was the mother of the half dragon in the party. The other two dragons thought the way the red dragon carried herself was disgusting. She preferred to be in human form most of the time because she liked to indulge in her lusts, drugs, alcohol, etc. The other two dragons thought she was an embarrassment to dragons everywhere; but she was still one of them.
Now I want to make a barmy cat-lady dragon, who keeps her humanoid 'babies' in cages and fusses over them until they are 'house-trained' and 'don't try to get out' (i.e. their spirits are broken and they don't try to escape). :)
VISUAL IS WINNING.
That being said, this sounds vaguely reminiscent of a bit of troping I did in my DragonStar campaign, Blue Ascendant; as it was as much a political game as it was an action thriller, there were many opportunities to solve issues through bribery and/or influence peddling, and it came to be that certain types of 'interactions' were more plausible with certain Houses and types than others. Golds could be tempted but were likely to refuse in the end unless there was a clearly sincere interest; Silvers were most likely to produce half-breeds on the metallic side purely out of their love for lesser mortals as a whole; Coppers rarely did so for pure lulz; Brass more often did so as part of maintaining a cover role and with non-humanoids; and Coppers were the least likely to produce half-dragons of any sort.
All of this was fine and reasonable, until we got to the Chromatic side.
Reds were more likely to kill and eat you, and do so while fully aware of one's intent, than to indulge in bedroom diplomacy; Greens could take or leave, but never, EVER with an elf; Blues found it mostly beneath them, unless it was reward for a truly devoted servitor of the opposite gender, and then being 'seeded' was the highest honor that could be bestowed on a non-dragon, and was handed out exceedingly rarely; White dragons were too obtuse to catch such offers; and Black dragons were literally of the mindset of 'everything and anything that moves, and many things that don't' as one of their possible flaws, with one having a Preserve World entirely populated and terraformed to support a biosphere completely comprised of myriad dragonblooded creatures of her bloodline, the products of her legendary terrifying ruttings. And the main reason she had this preserve set up was because she occasionally enjoyed the taste of her offspring.
The idea of a barmy (I'd always heard it as balmy like the weather) dragon who collects people the way some people collect small mammals is both intriguing and terrifying, especially if one thinks in terms of that dragon calling them her pets/darlings/babies/what have you, and finds that humoring their libidinous urges is simply a part of responsible pet ownership, since their seed is less likely to find purchase in her (or at least, so it goes in many settings where only the humanoid female can conceive such crossbreeds, as the female dragon would nod).
The above posts could very well put a rather dark and creepy spin on The Great Experiment of Hermea, couldn't it? Not that it needs help...
The above posts could very well put a rather dark and creepy spin on The Great Experiment of Hermea, couldn't it? Not that it needs help...
While not my intent by any means, I'm glad to have been of inspiration.
(guess I need to add Night Fuel Station Attendant to my set of talents)
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Hey gang,
Jim Zub here. I'm the writer of the official Pathfinder comic being published by Dynamite and Paizo.
Since the comic series follows the story of 6 Pathfinder iconics (Valeros, Seoni, Merisiel, Ezren, Kyra and Harsk) quite a few people have asked me if I'll be revealing/dealing with any homosexual relationships in the story and, I'm happy to say, yes!
When Paizo approached me about writing the series they asked me if, in addition to showing action-adventure elements, if I could include relationship drama and I was eager to make it a part of the series. Pathfinder fans have seen these characters for years on the RPG products but never had a sense of their back story or full personality. It's been an absolute blast working on that as the series progresses.
In issue #5 of the comic series (arriving Feb/March) there's a brief aside showing that at least one of the iconics is homosexual and, in our second story arc (issues #7-12), that character's relationship will be part of a subplot running through the arc.
If you haven't had a chance to check out the comic series yet, I suggest you give it a whirl. Along with 22 pages of comic story each issue has new gaming content and a fold-out mini battle map, making it well worth the cover price.
Feel free to drop me a line here or on Twitter if you have any questions/comments.
Just subscribed. Looking forward to the plot developments.
Already an issue #1 subscriber here—and now I'm eager for the fifth issue, thanks for the teaser Jim!
I hope it isnt Kyra, I'm still wishing a Valeros/Kyra ship
I got no problem with them sharing Valeros
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Actually i wouldn't be surprised at all if it is Kyra, I could see the comic ending along the lines of this.
Val comes up to Kyra and asks her out for a night on the town. She informs him he is not her type. He is confused and doesn't understand, she explains Seoni is more her type. He looks at her dumb founded for a moment, then the dawning of the light.
"OH.... *he smiles* can I watch?"
*Kyra punches him in the head*
with the last panels of the comic being from Val's perspective with a Kyra's fist in his face and the final panel being black with a moaning of pain word balloon.
That would be so cool, now I can only hope the actual comic can live up to that! :)
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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I'd laugh if it was more.
"Seoni's more my type, Valeros."
"Oh. Can I watch?"
"Watch? You can join!"
*Valeros stands slackjawed at the thought*
"Is he ok?"
*Kyra takes Seoni's hand* "It works every time, we can go, he'll be like that for a while."
Late comer to this thread, well I'm late to every RPG party for the last three-four years it seems. ;-)
A couple of random (very) thoughts into the mix:
The amount of relationship/sex in any game I run would probably cause a good deal of players to cringe. And it runs the gamut of sexuality and then some (fantasy opening up all manner of new gateways).
In essence a lot of the games we play are derived from myth and history - and man, there is a lot of sexual anarchy going on in Greek myth. Its dramatic. Drama is fun. Its cathartic, exciting and lends us perspective on our own more mundane lives (and our own, perhaps tamer, sexuality).
That said, its the emotions underlying the sex that REALLY drive the drama, so its pretty easy to deliver a whollop with your narrative without going NC-17. And those emotions are the same whether you are gay, straight, bi, tran, etc. Its all about our desires. That's what drives us. That's what drives our characters and we can let our characters do some pretty dramatic things if they are chasing their itch.
Honestly, it never matters to me what gender or sexual preference a PC or NPC - the desires are the same and that's where the drama comes from.
Fun stuff!
Recently got my hands on issue 1 of the PF comic... and whereas I'm not sure she's homosexual, it would seem Merisel at least swings both ways. She seems pretty... interested... upon seeing Ameiko Kaijutsu (then again, can you blame her?).
I make a point of her possibly being bi, because later on in the same issue, a drunken Valeros makes a come-on and she turns him down.. but in a way to suggest "not right now" instead of flat-out "no". Either way, I'm eager to see how it develops, and I'm enjoying the fact that physical attraction is shown in the comics, just like it happens in real life.
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Actually i wouldn't be surprised at all if it is Kyra, I could see the comic ending along the lines of this.
Val comes up to Kyra and asks her out for a night on the town. She informs him he is not her type. He is confused and doesn't understand, she explains Seoni is more her type. He looks at her dumb founded for a moment, then the dawning of the light.
"OH.... *he smiles* can I watch?"
*Kyra punches him in the head*
with the last panels of the comic being from Val's perspective with a Kyra's fist in his face and the final panel being black with a moaning of pain word balloon.
Seems absolutely cliche. . .
I'll be very disappointed if t is Kyra (or Seoni for that matter), just because it seems, not obvious, but overdone. To the max. That and th whole dumb-joc "dum-dee-dum. . . Oh can I watch" is really stretching it and a terrible steroetype.
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I guess it could be useful in the sense of making the bodyguard character seem more tragic and the queen more evil and despicable. But until that scene comes (and even then, only if the characters are somehow in the know about the personal lives of the royals) it may seem like a tacked on,"...and did we mention they were hot lesbians?"Personally, I'm fine with it and all, but I just wonder whether it's gratuitous or not. Will the Queen's relationship to her bodyguard be all that explicitly important in the coming adventures?Possibly...
** spoiler omitted **
Nah, no more so than ending a king's description with "oh, and he was also in love with the washerwoman" or some-such. Just extra flavour you could possibly play with. A DM might allow a player to exploit that Fallout-style. Plus, ironically, with the inclusion of the Changeling, knowing an NPCs sexuality influences Diplomacy checks (since a possible racial ability of the Changeling, and other creatures too, come to think of it, increases their charisma check results against those that might be sexually attracted to them).
But on the subject at hand. I'm going to assume elves don't care (what with Calistria's lust portfolio apparently not being too too concerned with 'standardization'), Absalom and Katapesh would be open, because honestly who cares there so long as you have money in your pocket and that fact can't be exploited. As for complete social acceptability...I have no idea. I WOULD know that worshippers of Erastil would probably disapprove. He is a bit of an old fashioned god, after all. Worshippers of Shelyn would 100% not object so long as the love shared is genuine, rather than just lust. After all, she is the goddess of love of all sorts, despite adversity or opinion. I highly doubt the goddess of love would be so old-fashioned as to prefer one sort to the other (that'd seem a tad out of character for her).
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I find people who argue about religion, politics, or sexuality on the internet to be tedious people without a glimmer of self-awareness and with egos the size of a Tarrasque. This is a thread about made-up characters in a made-up world that was made-up to facilitate a game of make believe. Shut the nine hells up about the real world.
Also, what subforum should I post Valeros/Harsk slashfic in?
The subforum for that is called my porn folder. Yes please.
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I play in two campaigns with all gay players (except one). We've never brought up sexuality of our characters, but I presume they're all gay.
In our main game, the gay players outnumber the straight 3 to 2, and this run only the bard is specifically gay, and even that is handled with humor as he has a girlfriend in every town we hit to fool his wealthy parents so he doesn't lose his trust fund. When we visit his fam, they are always quizzing him about when they are getting grandchildren. HAHA.
I find it scary, and sad that anyone would be threatened by this. A lot of people have some growing up to do.
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It is necessary. Just as it's necessary to move beyond having every PC and NPC in the game be white. And why it's important to show women in positions of power (be they bad like Queen Ileosa or good like Mayor Kendra or whatever.) It's called diversity, and it's a Good Thing. If diversity isn't something that you're interested in, Paizo products might not be for you.
Just musing on this: I can't say I'm 'interested' in Diversity in the 'Celebrate Diverstity!' political sense. On the other hand I think having the occasional gay or lesbian character works well, and obviously most of Golarion's humans aren't white. Sometimes so many female characters in positions of bureaucratic (Deverin) or military (Croft) authority are a bit difficult in a quasi-medieval setting though. Given that few of the Golarion nations are Seattle-style Liberal utopias I have some trouble imagining how they attain their positions. There were a lot of political, cultural and technological developments that made senior female professional women somewhat common in the latter part of the twentieth century, but they are still pretty rare in our societies, I have trouble imagining how the (eg) Cheliaxan society is so accommodating.
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It is necessary. Just as it's necessary to move beyond having every PC and NPC in the game be white. And why it's important to show women in positions of power (be they bad like Queen Ileosa or good like Mayor Kendra or whatever.) It's called diversity, and it's a Good Thing. If diversity isn't something that you're interested in, Paizo products might not be for you.Just musing on this: I can't say I'm 'interested' in Diversity in the 'Celebrate Diverstity!' political sense. On the other hand I think having the occasional gay or lesbian character works well, and obviously most of Golarion's humans aren't white. Sometimes so many female characters in positions of bureaucratic (Deverin) or military (Croft) authority are a bit difficult in a quasi-medieval setting though. Given that few of the Golarion nations are Seattle-style Liberal utopias I have some trouble imagining how they attain their positions. There were a lot of political, cultural and technological developments that made senior female professional women somewhat common in the latter part of the twentieth century, but they are still pretty rare in our societies, I have trouble imagining how the (eg) Cheliaxan society is so accommodating.
You're assuming Golarion is based on the social mores and taboos of Earth's Middle Ages. It's mythological history has numerous examples of extremely powerful women, which has effects on how civilizations form.
As for women in positions of power in places like Cheliax, remember that Hell serves Cheliax. Hell's hierarchy is misogynistic, but it was a woman (Abrogail Thrune) who made the deal with the church of Asmodeus to begin with. Cheliax does not suffer the hierarchies of hell to command it. They pick and choose of their own free will and if the devil's don't like it, they can go screw themselves.
That and it's important to bear in mind that the ruling class throughout human history has always behaved as the exception to cultural rules and norms rather than as the epitome thereof. Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses, from Emperor's to Dukes to Lords, love to demonstrate their ability to defy the laws that keep the people in line. It's one of the perks of rulership.
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It is necessary. Just as it's necessary to move beyond having every PC and NPC in the game be white. And why it's important to show women in positions of power (be they bad like Queen Ileosa or good like Mayor Kendra or whatever.) It's called diversity, and it's a Good Thing. If diversity isn't something that you're interested in, Paizo products might not be for you.Sometimes so many female characters in positions of bureaucratic (Deverin) or military (Croft) authority are a bit difficult in a quasi-medieval setting though.
Why? This is a fantasy setting. Just because a civilization is at a medieval level of technology doesn't mean that it must automatically partake of the absurd views of women that co-occured with that level of technology in Earth's history.
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Why? This is a fantasy setting. Just because a civilization is at a medieval level of technology doesn't mean that it must automatically partake of the absurd views of women that co-occured with that level of technology in Earth's history.It is necessary. Just as it's necessary to move beyond having every PC and NPC in the game be white. And why it's important to show women in positions of power (be they bad like Queen Ileosa or good like Mayor Kendra or whatever.) It's called diversity, and it's a Good Thing. If diversity isn't something that you're interested in, Paizo products might not be for you.Sometimes so many female characters in positions of bureaucratic (Deverin) or military (Croft) authority are a bit difficult in a quasi-medieval setting though.
In some ways, the medieval view of women was superior to the Early Modern period that followed. At least they didn't have the witch-trials.
Anyway, the Inner Sea is not Europe (as Jessica says). A lot of absurd or idiotic notions are impossible to sustain en-masse in a world with magic, objectively real major female deities who might oppose masculine violence, a lack of historically monolithic patriarchal structures (like the defunct Roman Empire and not-so defunct religion in Rome), and so forth.Edit: I'm referring to the medieval and Renaissance religious consensus in Europe, not necessarily its modern descendant faiths.
Well, at the risk of being piled on, it should be noted that, historically, virtually all great military leaders have been men. This has happened because men have dominated in martial positions throughout history. Why? Well, despite the fact that I believe men and women to be innately equal in terms of value as human beings, that does not equate into equality of capability. Nature has made men larger, stronger, and more able to handle the rigors of combat. Hence, many more men have been able to rise to positions of military authority.
Now, I know Pathfinder is fantasy, and suspension of disbelief is important. I'm not clamouring for different strength scores for males and females or anything like that. But one does wonder if Paizo has simply decided that they need X% of authority positions filled with female characters in their modules. It does make me scratch my head sometimes and question what their inspiration is.
Homosexuals, however, are another matter. Who knows how many great leaders have been gay? I can point to greats such as Alexander with certainty, but no doubt there have been many more. As a gay man, I can appreciate that Paizo represents homosexuals in a positive light (e.g., it treats us as normal people, both good and bad).
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Thing to remember is, if the majority of the setting is oppressive to female adventures, then you are essentially offending a demographic of the Pathfinder game. No amount of realism is worth making a group of people feel uncomfortable at the table.
I was once in a game that took place in a Caribbean-pirates setting. Going into the game, I had made a native. I wasn't warned about how much of a second-class citizen I was going to be. The GM kept it real. Uncomfortable real. When his NPC called my character a sp*c, I raised an eyebrow, wondering what the hell was going on. Note, I'm Puerto Rican and another player was Nigerian and playing an ex-slave turned pirate. We found ourselves very poor and treated like garbage by everyone, despite constantly saving the day. Lord knows how many times I heard us get called sp*c and n@@*&%. And the GM did it all with a straight face, which is what surprised me. After about two months of that game, it came to a boiling point as one of the other players tried to take advantage of our "low social standing" and force us to do his bidding. My friend and I packed our things and never looked back.
Realism is fine so long as it's fun. As soon as you're telling adventurers to get back into the kitchen or the closet or the cotton fields, suddenly, it ain't fun anymore.
PS: Paizo, probably want to add sp*c to the censor ;) Did it myself.
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Well, at the risk of being piled on, it should be noted that, historically, virtually all great military leaders have been men. This has happened because men have dominated in martial positions throughout history. Why? Well, despite the fact that I believe men and women to be innately equal in terms of value as human beings, that does not equate into equality of capability. Nature has made men larger, stronger, and more able to handle the rigors of combat. Hence, many more men have been able to rise to positions of military authority.
Now, I know Pathfinder is fantasy, and suspension of disbelief is important. I'm not clamouring for different strength scores for males and females or anything like that. But one does wonder if Paizo has simply decided that they need X% of authority positions filled with female characters in their modules. It does make me scratch my head sometimes and question what their inspiration is.
Homosexuals, however, are another matter. Who knows how many great leaders have been gay? I can point to greats such as Alexander with certainty, but no doubt there have been many more. As a gay man, I can appreciate that Paizo represents homosexuals in a positive light (e.g., it treats us as normal people, both good and bad).
Not trying to pile on, but I should point out that female warriors and leaders are a part of fantasy since at least the Classical period, given the depiction of Celtic women and the Amazons by the Greeks and Romans, and later the occasional depictions of female knights or powerful Queens in medieval legend. I'd say that depicting strong women in positions of power or able to resist patriarchal structures, for a variety of reasons (out of fear or curiosity or identification), is a pretty standard trope of fantasy. Golarion is a fantasy world, in part to answer to these tropes. It's not a medieval or "realistic" world.
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One thing that has been brought up many places is that the GBLT characters are most always perfect specimans. I know that there is pandering to the 'Girl on Girl is Hot' crowd but what about having some 'ordinary' people? Perhaps even a 'ugly on the outside but has a heart of gold' man who dotes on the children he adopted with his partner?
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One thing that has been brought up many places is that the GBLT characters are most always perfect specimans. I know that there is pandering to the 'Girl on Girl is Hot' crowd but what about having some 'ordinary' people? Perhaps even a 'ugly on the outside but has a heart of gold' man who dotes on the children he adopted with his partner?
Huh, but I did have a Vanara character in a campaign that never got off the ground. He was the adopted son (and another player was playing the adopted daughter) of two dwarven gay magic shop owners in the starting village. They were not handsome in a conventional sense. Hairy, loving, guys.
Well, at the risk of being piled on, it should be noted that, historically, virtually all great military leaders have been men. This has happened because men have dominated in martial positions throughout history. Why? Well, despite the fact that I believe men and women to be innately equal in terms of value as human beings, that does not equate into equality of capability. Nature has made men larger, stronger, and more able to handle the rigors of combat. Hence, many more men have been able to rise to positions of military authority.
IIRC at least one Japanese Empress, one Chinese Empress and one Egyptian female Pharaoh (I think that the last made herself legally recognized as male to maintain the throne... or was it Chinese Empress?) were successful military leaders. What links all three (and probably more)? All three were subject to censorship as the following generations made a lot of effort to erase them from historical records and there is little information about them left. There could be more who were more successfully censored into oblivion.
PS: Paizo, probably want to add sp*c to the censor ;) Did it myself.
Out of curiosity and desire to improve my English, what is that word? I never meet it and if it is offensive to Puerto Ricans/all Latino-Americans I'd like to know, mostly to avoid using it improperly. If you could PM me with the word itself, it's meaning and how offensive it is considered and to whom specifically (if it has any non-offensive meaning).
Well, at the risk of being piled on, it should be noted that, historically, virtually all great military leaders have been men. This has happened because men have dominated in martial positions throughout history. Why? Well, despite the fact that I believe men and women to be innately equal in terms of value as human beings, that does not equate into equality of capability. Nature has made men larger, stronger, and more able to handle the rigors of combat. Hence, many more men have been able to rise to positions of military authority.IIRC at least one Japanese Empress, one Chinese Empress and one Egyptian female Pharaoh (I think that the last made herself legally recognized as male to maintain the throne... or was it Chinese Empress?) were successful military leaders. What links all three (and probably more)? All three were subject to censorship as the following generations made a lot of effort to erase them from historical records and there is little information about them left. There could be more who were more successfully censored into oblivion.
PS: Paizo, probably want to add sp*c to the censor ;) Did it myself.Out of curiosity and desire to improve my English, what is that word? I never meet it and if it is offensive to Puerto Ricans/all Latino-Americans I'd like to know, mostly to avoid using it improperly. If you could PM me with the word itself, it's meaning and how offensive it is considered and to whom specifically (if it has any non-offensive meaning).
Hatshepsut wasn't, herself, very militarily adept. The rightful heir to the throne (Thutmose III) was the military genius of the family and marshal of the armies. I saw a documentary which came to the conclusion that he didn't pursue his rightful claim to the throne seized by Hatshepsut because he didn't want to plunge Egypt into a civil war; most modern sources are quick to lavish praise on Hatshepsut and ignore the noble actions of Thutmose III.
I do get your point, Drejk, and of course there will be exceptions. I don't believe for a second that no woman, anywhere, anytime has never been a great soldier. That's crazy extremism.
Well, at the risk of being piled on, it should be noted that, historically, virtually all great military leaders have been men. This has happened because men have dominated in martial positions throughout history. Why? Well, despite the fact that I believe men and women to be innately equal in terms of value as human beings, that does not equate into equality of capability. Nature has made men larger, stronger, and more able to handle the rigors of combat. Hence, many more men have been able to rise to positions of military authority.
Now, I know Pathfinder is fantasy, and suspension of disbelief is important. I'm not clamouring for different strength scores for males and females or anything like that. But one does wonder if Paizo has simply decided that they need X% of authority positions filled with female characters in their modules. It does make me scratch my head sometimes and question what their inspiration is.
Homosexuals, however, are another matter. Who knows how many great leaders have been gay? I can point to greats such as Alexander with certainty, but no doubt there have been many more. As a gay man, I can appreciate that Paizo represents homosexuals in a positive light (e.g., it treats us as normal people, both good and bad).
Any sort of natural advantage in strength a man has over a woman could be more than compensated by magic and magical items. In that case it isn't surprising that you have generals, kings, and other great leaders who are also women.
Thank you Odraude.
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In some ways, the medieval view of women was superior to the Early Modern period that followed. At least they didn't have the witch-trials.
Anyway, the Inner Sea is not Europe (as Jessica says). A lot of absurd or idiotic notions are impossible to sustain en-masse in a world with magic, objectively real major female deities who might oppose masculine violence, a lack of historically monolithic patriarchal structures (like the defunct Roman Empire and not-so defunct religion in Rome), and so forth.Edit: I'm referring to the medieval and Renaissance religious consensus in Europe, not necessarily its modern descendant faiths.
Eyup. I in general think that the whole high degree of religious intolerance and homophobia in the modern era are a result of some very specific historical circumstances that have only recently started ebbing away. But I won't go into more detail, as I don't want this topic to turn flame-y
I have no problems with the gay in Golarion. Hell, while I haven't written them up yet, two of the friendly NPCs in my setting are a chipper gay goblin shopkeeper (Aligned CG) and his grumpy Kobold mechanic life partner (Aligned TN). There's also a transgendered Hobgoblin filmmaker* NPC (M-to-F) who lives in the setting's equivalent of Hollywood, having escaped from Nazi-ish Hobgoblin society LIKE A BAWSS.
I do wonder more about the weirder brands of sexuality that would crop up in a society with magic use, with the sorts of physical alterations one could theoretically introduce. You know those consumable items in Corruption Of Champions? Well, firstly, if you haven't heard of it, don't look it up unless you have a high tolerance for the sort of stuff they post on 4chan's /d/ board.
But if you have, lemme just say that I'm pretty sure body-altering pervy stuff like that would be very common for use in magic-heavy areas like Nex, Katapesh or Jalmeray. Am I right on that guess? I would make a thread to discuss it more, but I'm pretty sure that's against board policy.
*Photography has been around for years in my setting, but movies are a very new invention.
tbok. Of course you now know everyone will be visiting that particular area. Kind of like 'Wet paint. Do not touch'
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... I didn't intend it that way, if that's what you're implying, but you have no idea how maniacally I am laughing inside my head right now. But, on a more serious note, I do think that the fact that there's a lot of overlap between /d/ and /tg/ shows that there'd be a lot of people who might be interested in CoC, or at least might not be bothered (too much) when they inevitably do look it up to find out what the hell I was talking about.
But seriously, I do think that the essentially "limited polymorph" effects (Most of which I can't specify for fear of violating forum content restrictions) of a lot of the stuff in CoC might likely be emulated in potions in the more magic-rich areas of Golarion for the kinky rich and upper-middle-classes of those areas.
It makes sense on a backgroud level and on the level that whenever we as humans come up with an invention, we will first find a way to use it for perversity, so would it likely go with magic. Though it probably wouldn't come up in-game except for throwaway jokes and background detail for obvious reasons, unless the "changes" are hereditary...
Hm, some of those I'm thinking about would be a very "interesting" way of telling that "This peasant girl is actually the long-lost heir to ________". But only about half of those would be usable in an actual game without squicking the players and making them throw things at ya.
But, back to gay in Pathfinder, I've actually speculated before to myself on how the gods in regular D&D would feel about homosexuality. I'm betting Kord's church would be very gay (Both G and L kinds) friendly because... well, he's a god of muscles and sports that walks around shirtless all the time, you do the math.
Eh, I'd rather they not stick to stereotypes when it comes to representing different demographics.