Lets see...
Jewellery... Nope. I expect all tengu regardless of gender to have comparable weakness for bling.
Make-up? Painting tips of talons and beak?
Physical differences? I don't know - do the corvids have difference in body size between males and females?
Makes sense to me. I could see a pair or trio of tengus on a ship or something occasionally swapping outfits just to screw with the fleshies.
The ARG discusses how its hard for non-tengu to tell tengu apart, and that tengu will sometimes bleach feathers or decorate their beaks to be more distinctive.
I think there are slight body size differences between male and female ravens/crows, but none significant enough that you can distinguish sex in the field. So it would make sense for that to carry over to Tengu.
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Yah, I would imagine that there would be obvious general differences like with every other race, and rare/uncommon exceptions, but not enough to really break the general stereotype (whatever the equivalent of males have larger shoulders, females have breasts or whatever might be).
Not sure I really see a need for anything else unless someone is specifically wanting to hide or fake gender or something, but being a fairly common race in game, I would assume most people would be familiar with them to tell on sight most times.
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Yah, I would imagine that there would be obvious general differences like with every other race, and rare/uncommon exceptions, but not enough to really break the general stereotype (whatever the equivalent of males have larger shoulders, females have breasts or whatever might be).
Not sure I really see a need for anything else unless someone is specifically wanting to hide or fake gender or something, but being a fairly common race in game, I would assume most people would be familiar with them to tell on sight most times.
Well the thing is, humans, elves, dwarves, goblins and the like are all primates and mammals. Sexual dimorphisim is the norm in mammals.
The reasoning behind nagaji females having breasts is they are a created race, not a natural one.
However Tengu are likely egg layers, and therefore have no reason for breasts. It seems that most sexing of corvids is done by blood and DNA tests, so I see it for a reason to, unless you REALLY know tengu, for them to be very difficult to tell apart. I mean crows are a very common creature, and they're hard to sex just by looking at them.
Don't you just have to wait around for a bit, I mean, eventually one of them is going to ask, "Does this hat make my beak look fat?"
Female tengu have jewelry matching shine of their feathers or color of their eyes.
Male tengu just put on any jewlry they can find.
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I think one thing that might be important to consider is clothing.
The Tengu tend to hitch on to other societies and sort of style themselves after the locals (not without keeping their own style of course). So while physicly it might be very difficult to tell them apart, based on what form of clothing they wear might make your average tengu going about their dayly life easier to gender, females dressing in the skirts and airy fabrics of smooth ladies in their area and males wearing more of the styles of the men in the land.
Ooohh
This reminds me of some papers I read for a bird speciation class.
Finches and quite a few other songbirds, of species with absolutely no red color or long tail feathers, have females that preferentially choose mates with those features if they are artificially added on.
So if we extrapolate that to Tengu, than Tengu females may find very flamboyantly patterned males more attractive than typical males. So maybe male tengu color feathers vibrant colors, wear frilly clothing, don ridiculously tall hats, etc.
Don't you just have to wait around for a bit, I mean, eventually one of them is going to ask, "Does this hat make my beak look fat?"
Hahaha! Women are vain and overly concerned with physical appearance! This is so inherent to to the nature of women that it persists across all sentient species! That's so true and funny and not at all playing into misogynistic steorotypes! *gag*
In the ARG there's a lil difference but not much
Tengu, male 4 ft. 0 in. 65 lbs. 2d6 ×3 lbs.
Tengu, female 3 ft. 10 in. 55 lbs. 2d6 ×3 lbs.
One of the gags at a convention with a tengu party member was trying to send the male tengu into a girls only area. (who'd know?)
Well now I am offended, as I seriously did believe that female tengu will eventually ask about their hats making their beaks look fat.
I really can't tell if you are being serious or just playing up the over the top reaction to a stupid joke for laughs of your own.
It was a joke.
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Whenever I draw Tengu, I add more plumage in the places that a humanoid of that race would have more hair. So my arcane duelist tengu male has a 'beard' of feathers underneath the lower beak that connects to the neck. My Tengu sorceress has two slight curtains of feathers on either side of the head, appearing a bit like short hair hanging down.
While they probably attract each other more with calls and displays of wealth rather than appearance, I would think that Tengu would want to hint at their gender to humanoids to avoid repeated mistakes in introductions. So clothing could be a big indicator too.
It was a joke.
Yes, a joke at the expense of women. Tabletop RPGs are already male-dominated. Why contribute to an environment that is unwelcoming to women?
I apologize for offending you. My wife and daughter both think it was funny, so I'm going to have to say that I believe, it may have been in bad taste, but is probably not as mysogynistic as you're making it out to be. Again, I am sorry for offending you. And I will not clutter this thread anymore with my bad jokes or defneses of them
Question: given that tengu lack sexual dimorphism, why should gender be a necessary part of their culture? If really the only difference between female and male tengu is their role in reproduction, why even have gender? A tengu might adopt a gender for interacting with other races, but why have tengu culture prescribe different roles (and physical markers) for female and male tengu?
That is the best thing said so far in this thread, in my opinion.
It was a joke.Yes, a joke at the expense of women. Tabletop RPGs are already male-dominated. Why contribute to an environment that is unwelcoming to women?
I understand your feelings as I've spent hours looking for a picture of an elven archer for my wife that actually had clothes on.
However, being as they are bird people, I think it would be up to the male to be more flashy and concerned with appearance to attract females. Seems to be a common trait among birds.
Being birds wouldn't the male be the one to go for the bright plumage?
Or is that cladist of me...
Question: given that tengu lack sexual dimorphism, why should gender be a necessary part of their culture? If really the only difference between female and male tengu is their role in reproduction, why even have gender? A tengu might adopt a gender for interacting with other races, but why have tengu culture prescribe different roles (and physical markers) for female and male tengu?
Because even if the female tengu are just as good at fighting as the males, sending the gender that can reproduce to fight and losing them is bad for the tribe/colony/flock, whereas if you lose males the other males can more or less make up for the lost reproduction.
Also just because we can't tell the difference doesn't mean there isn't one.
However, being as they are bird people, I think it would be up to the male to be more flashy and concerned with appearance to attract females. Seems to be a common trait among birds.
Depends on how detailed your "bird-people" are. There are some birds that have strong sexual dimorphism for exactly the reason you propose. Peacocks (and peahens) are famous for this, but you can see it in ducks, finches, chickens and so forth as well. On the other hand, crows and other corvids don't seem to have any sexual dimorphism; frankly, I have no idea how crows can tell the boy crows from the girl crows.
So, the question becomes -- are tengu "bird people," or are they specifically "crow people"?
Ms. Laflamme suggested that there's no reason that tengu couldn't have an entirely gender-neutral culture. Again, there's a question of fidelity here. Crows do not have a gender-neutral culture. Male crows don't incubate eggs; that's a "job" for the females. Of course, this doesn't mean that fictional crow-people can't have any culture one likes....
Because even if the female tengu are just as good at fighting as the males, sending the gender that can reproduce to fight and losing them is bad for the tribe/colony/flock,
Birds don't get pregnant.
Also just because we can't tell the difference doesn't mean there isn't one.
Sure, it's possible for tengu society to have gender. That doesn't mean it's necessary.
Because even if the female tengu are just as good at fighting as the males, sending the gender that can reproduce to fight and losing them is bad for the tribe/colony/flock, whereas if you lose males the other males can more or less make up for the lost reproduction.
Only if tengu/crows are polygamous, which crows appear not to be. It's of course hard to follow a crow -- which can live for 30 years -- around for its entire life to make sure it's not getting a little nookie on the side, but I don't believe there are any credible reports of crows mating outside of a pair-bond, and the pair-bonds are known to last for years.
If the "husband" of a pair of crows is killed, the wife will take a new husband, and vice versa -- but other than that, it appears to be a genuine "until death do us part" relationship. And crows are also cooperative, in that females help raise (and even incubate) other females' nestlings and eggs. So killing a male crow has no greater or lesser effect than killing a female.
Does this dictate how tengu behave? Of course not.
Because even if the female tengu are just as good at fighting as the males, sending the gender that can reproduce to fight and losing them is bad for the tribe/colony/flock,Birds don't get pregnant.
Also just because we can't tell the difference doesn't mean there isn't one.Sure, it's possible for tengu society to have gender. That doesn't mean it's necessary.
Of course, it doesn't mean it isn't necessary either. I personally think it's neat to speculate cultural and biological differences for races, especially if they are really different from mammals.
Lets see...
Jewellery... Nope. I expect all tengu regardless of gender to have comparable weakness for bling.
Make-up? Painting tips of talons and beak?
Physical differences? I don't know - do the corvids have difference in body size between males and females?
There are size differences between genders of the Crow family, but again, these can be within millimeters of each other. I think the ARG has it right where non-tengu races have difficulty telling.
Yah, I would imagine that there would be obvious general differences like with every other race, and rare/uncommon exceptions, but not enough to really break the general stereotype (whatever the equivalent of males have larger shoulders, females have breasts or whatever might be).
Not sure I really see a need for anything else unless someone is specifically wanting to hide or fake gender or something, but being a fairly common race in game, I would assume most people would be familiar with them to tell on sight most times.
Well the thing is, humans, elves, dwarves, goblins and the like are all primates and mammals. Sexual dimorphisim is the norm in mammals.
The reasoning behind nagaji females having breasts is they are a created race, not a natural one.
However Tengu are likely egg layers, and therefore have no reason for breasts. It seems that most sexing of corvids is done by blood and DNA tests, so I see it for a reason to, unless you REALLY know tengu, for them to be very difficult to tell apart. I mean crows are a very common creature, and they're hard to sex just by looking at them.
By blood and DNA tests? What?
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Because even if the female tengu are just as good at fighting as the males, sending the gender that can reproduce to fight and losing them is bad for the tribe/colony/flock,Birds don't get pregnant.
Also just because we can't tell the difference doesn't mean there isn't one.Sure, it's possible for tengu society to have gender. That doesn't mean it's necessary.
Some sort of gender would be present because, if you assume they are derived/evolved from crows/ravens, the female lays eggs and is responsible for incubating them. Also, while males crows/ravens might not have complex songs or colorful plumage, apparently they will use aerial acrobatics to attract mates.
So I suspect some gender differences to be present...although they probably are going to manifest differently than in hominids