Gods and Gender

Ishin

Actually, as far as I can tell Mebrene is female. It also wouldn't surprise me if the Essence within Severn was female as well, given that females(as far as I'm aware) are much better at the long game than we males are. I think we're getting a little far afield, though.

It's my opinion that 'male and female' are more or less a human construct. Several of nature's animals can switch back and forth as needed, and the 'Gods' in the game exist on a higher plane than we do. To our perception, some of them APPEAR to have traits we would associate with male and female, or masculine and feminine(more likely than male/female), but that doesn't necessarily hold true for the way the Gods perceive one another at all.

I find it a great deal more likely that the Gods don't perceive one another with a 'gender' at all, and instead look more at their Kin's alignments and aspects, as it were, to determine things like association and expectations, rather than something so limited as gender.

@Rashar - @Damariel did Hulk out for a little bit. Came to Spines, raging like hell. Killed a slew of guards, that @Moirean made Ishin bury. Killed Ishin several times(god freeze + cleave OP ), and that's not to mention all the grief and loss that Ishin sustained from unexpected consequences from doing what he did. Him and Damariel both lost out hard, so like...even if you didn't see it, some deep shit did indeed go down.

Ezalor

Haven said:

Moirean said:

Haven said:

@Moirean: There are more gods than the ones we know. Remember, Albedos had some that we don't know much about beyond that they met some grisly end I think. There might even be more continents out there! Who really knows how big Aetolia's world is at this point?

Then there's probably other dimensions or maybe even creatures on the other planes that could qualify as gods. We've been getting hints at a ton of stuff about that Lanu Du thing and other ancient evils. Is the Shadow Mother a god in Her own right from the Shadow Plane? Are there other creatures like Her on the other planes as well?

The Angels and stuff probably have their own gods as well. Whatever the case, our list isn't by any means absolute.

That's kinda a cheesy cop-out for an gender imbalance and a skew towards a male-dominated pantheon at a design level. I'm not saying it's like a super serious problem, but I do think it's a quiet trend - combined with other things like Damariel's fridged GF or the Cotelle quest - to be a bit aware of.

There are and have been lots of strong, independent female characters throughout Aetolian history

Got my unicorns handed to me by Nesventesh, can confirm.

Ishin

Nesventesh also prefers females.

(A conversation which made me lol).

Kerryn

Got my unicorns handed to me by Nesventesh, can confirm.


Best. Student. Ever. >.>

Omei

It is well within the rights of users to mark posts in a way they feel matches their own thoughts - I honestly prefer the system, since it helps avoid a lot of "this" or "what (s)he said" or "I just disagree but don't want to get into it" posts. Given that the negative marks (Off Topic, Disagree) don't hide your posts like they do in the big social media sites, why borrow the trouble?

I'm also going to have to ask that we get back on topic. Posts about the Divine gender imbalance or forum flagging can become their own topics.

Auresae

Ishin said:

Actually, as far as I can tell Mebrene is female. It also wouldn't surprise me if the Essence within Severn was female as well, given that females(as far as I'm aware) are much better at the long game than we males are. I think we're getting a little far afield, though.

I made this a whole separate topic so I could correct this: Mebrene is not female. Mebrene is not male. Mebrene is.

Essence doesn't have gender. Rahn was male because Idar was male, Auresae is female because Oniala was female, and I'm using male and female -very- loosely here. Think of the Gods like Barbie dolls - They have male or female characteristics, but pieces of plastic are neither male nor female. It's been a hot minute, but I don't THINK Slyphe even took a new vessel when She became a He, so vessel doesn't even -really- matter.

tl;dr Mebrene has no gender and gender means little to nothing to the Gods.

Ishin

I meant more from a mortal perceptual sense, than from what I can tell

Irruel

Rashar said:

That's the only thing iffy to me about rp like that. Realistically, that's not something you ever get over. I'm always curious as to how people deal with it, and what is expected. I've seen people do things and then get upset that they had consequences that lasted more than a week or two before, and it always kind of irks me.

Oh well. Off topic, my b.

Edit: sorry about the off-topic, replied before I saw the second page of the thread

That kind of RP can be the best. Yeah, you can't just keep ganking the character forever, but the hatred can remain and can resurface in the future with fun effect. The character can be your nemesis. Remember, in a setting where death isn't permanent, it's easy enough to transition from uncontrollable rage to the point where the revenge becomes long term.