Gender And Sexuality In Adel

Adel does not operate like the average European fantasy game does on the issues of gender and sexuality. The Adelians have grown not to maintain the norms common to most fantasy game settings, which are based on European cultural modes and on analogues to Abrahamic religions. Already Adel is different in many ways than those kinds of worlds. Both its religious folklore, the biology of its citizens and the way its cultures have developed militarily has led them to the following cultural modes. Though this is a subject of some controversy among gamers, who would rather it not factor into their game at all, it is still an important cultural note, and ultimately, much of my work on this setting is cultural dissection of a fictitious world. I believe that anybody can ignore this aspect if they want – but ultimately those who find it interesting and unique should be allowed to see and employ it.

Gender: Freedom To Make Oneself

Adelian life is not institutionally gender-segregated. Since the tribal period, there has only been a brief cultural moment during the Aptoan Age where hints of patriarchal militarism (and overt displays in Sargasso’s case) created institutional segregation and gender roles. The Intolerable War and its devastation snuffed out such concepts before they could take much hold. Adelians returned to their roots. Anybody who wants to do, and who could do, should do. Everybody can farm, everybody can fight, everybody can build. These are attitudes that they have been held for far longer than they have been lost.

Over the majority of its history, and during the current period, Adelians have had no real concept of gender-segregation. Though Adelians can be outright convoluted in numerous respects (such as their idea that industrial production will doom them all to a robot-infested hell) they believe that a gender-segregated society would be an insanely inefficient society. What’s more, their religious teachings, particularly of overarching Greater Spirits such as Arcline and Rashine, advocate these freedoms.

Though one might still find quaint ideas in Adel that seem to hint or echo at gender segregation, such as a person swiftly protecting a lady-friend from a perceived insult. But these ideas spring more from other perceived concepts – delicacy, elegance, virtue – than the idea that “a man protects a woman.” Particularly because the person defending the insult is just as likely to be either/or, and a delicate enough male would likely find himself defended in the same way as a delicate enough female.

Adelian culture does not correlate to a gender oblivion, however. There exist different modes of dress and conduct that serve as signs of a person’s gender. There are aspects of culture which can be said to be female or male and which are more commonly adopted by what Adelians consider “male” and “female.” There is also a certain blending and subverting of them.

Though many (some would say most) Iomadi are born and grow physically distinct along sex lines, they do believe in a certain disconnect between gender and sex. A level of androgyny or blended effeminacy or masculinity is endemic in their biology – among the Iomadi masculine females and effeminate males occur naturally, moreso than in normal humans. This kind of physical and behavior blending is part of their culture – so if a Iomadi has found itself flirting with someone and inaccurately guessed their biological sex due to their appearance and dress, it is unlikely to appall, though it might surprise.

Among the Droemedae, their biology tends toward effeminacy always, and no Droemedae can be said to ever be truly masculine regardless of their reproductive function. Damakran and Cuporo on the other hand have their biology much more stratified and never quite blending or trending in the ways the Iomadi and Droemedae do. They still tend to follow Iomadi ways of thinking and behaving, since the Iomadi’s culture has spread the most among all Adelians, but somewhat more reluctantly.

However, there does exist some exception to this, which we’ll look at further ahead.

Sexuality: Freedom To Love

One can conceive of most Adelians as bisexual. Among them, heterosexuality is not “dominant” or perceived as inherently “natural.” Among them, of course, there are heterosexuals and homosexuals, who are born the way they are and cannot casually divert their romantic affiliation between the sexes. But it is common for Adelians to feel themselves capable of attraction and love for any person regardless of their sex or gender (or race). Like their conception of gender, this stems out of both the dominant (that is to say, Iomadi and Droemedae) biology, the rural culture, and their shared religions experiences.

Despite these ideas, Adelians keep a fairly steadily growing population, mostly because Adelians are fairly fertile. The average Adelian reproductive couple has 4 or 5 children on average and mortality attrition is fairly low in most places. So for those families that do have children, they’ll generally have plentiful children over time. Population density is still pleasantly low compared to the total landmass of the Adelian continent, despite the high numbers of Adelians, and looks to stay that way.

Most rural Adelians have no conception of marriage as granting any benefits. They don’t own the land of the village – the village Spirit does, and the village as a whole shares it. They don’t really own their homes or their crops. Because the community as a whole is the owner, the individuals don’t have much concept of economic heredity. As such, marriage for rural Adelians is just a vow of their love before the spirits. Anybody can perform this vow with anybody that they love.

Adelians’ conception of other behaviors varies somewhat by region. Emduerer for example, with its Emperor and his vast retinue of lovers of all sorts, are more likely to see polyamory in a good light as the Andalians, who are are as monogamous as their respected figures, and don’t have a close example of the opposing conduct that they can emphasize among themselves.

The Case of the Upper Class

Adel is not a utopia. There does exist some rejection and imperfect adoption of these ideas, not only among a small sector of the lower and middle classes, but among the wealthiest Adelians. During the Aptoan age, concepts of law that benefited the wealthy, such as economic heredity, began to arise. Keeping this new wealth inside the family or across respectable families, and advancing the family wealth, were key issues to the wealthy. Childbirth is the key vehicle for economic futurity – the long-kept wealth of a family is passed only along a line of scions. It can never disperse or be taken while the bloodline remains.

Marriage is also an economic tool. The wealth of two families could be united down a shared line. This kind of maneuvering clashes with the ideas of the rural Adelians. Among the wealthy and powerful, marriages are economic in nature, adding either respectability or hard wealth to a family, and ultimately more heirs. The kind of freedom the rural villagers have does not exist among the upper middle-to-upper class. An upper class man and an upper class woman are the marriage.

However, problems arise as the facts mentioned further above are neglected. Those wealthy Adelians born physically or mentally or both outside the norm are forced into hetereosexual marriage for the advancement of family money. Regardless of their wishes, it is expected they must “grow out of” their feelings or, at best, “endure” until they reproduce. For some people, love does not have to enter – you can have your homoerotic dalliances so long as you reproduce at some point. But for most of the veteran elite, the patriarchs and matriarchs of arts, entertainment and wealth, the idea of economic heredity has been completely internalized. The behavior of most Adelians, regardless of their proliferation, are a sign of childishness to the wealthy. Their superiority is inherent in their way of life, they believe – let the little foxes play with each other all they want in the village and town, they say. They will never be wealthy and powerful that way. As such, they can’t simply tolerate “low behavior” in themselves.

By self-policing in this way, the wealthy perpetuate their culture of intolerance among themselves and they believe this is what makes them powerful, what maintains their station above the “little wanton animals.” They won’t force the local paperboy or apothecary’s daughter or other minor person (in their eyes) to give up the standards of adelian culture. That wouldn’t be worth their while. But they will force their scions to suffer should any sign of “low behavior” be shown. The subculture of the wealthy exists among them everywhere – from the upper class of Andaliel, housed in the massive cities of Oomash and Impel, to the would-be lords and ladies seeking after delegated guardianships in the territories of Sargasso.

Problems also arise when aspirants to wealth begin to adopt the culture of wealth. Though it is highly unlikely that Adel will ever lose its values in these regards, the attitudes of the wealthy are troubling to see and painful to live.

Applying This Knowledge

•In Adel, there is an equal chance that any character, in any profession, will be female or male.

•In Adel, there are plenty of influential women. “Important Characters” are not exclusively male.

•In Adel, same sex relationships are unlikely to illicit shock or humor, and are a fairly common sight.

•In Adel, trans people aren’t rare or invisible. Gender at a psychological level can disagree with inherent sex. In Adel, Gender can also be morphic at a biological level in races such as the Droemedae and Iomadi. A sexually male character could have some markers of physical appearance and mentality of a female gender and vice versa, regardless of inherent sex.

•In Adel, only the upper class is obsessed with hetereosexuality as moral purity (and not all of them).