World Building 101: Let's Talk About Sex, Baby

No, today's essay is not going to be about how to handle sexual situations through dice-rolling mechanics or scene descriptions. The rather raunchy Book Of Erotic Fantasy already did that, and even though I am a credited artist in the much more tame and factually/historically-based Naughty And Dice, I'm not talking about that one, either.

Although if you asked me which one I would recommend? Naughty and Dice, all the way, and not just because I have art in the book. N&D handles the topics of taboos, gender politics, and the history of sexual equality in various societies for the bulk of its text, while BOEF is mostly a treatise on which Alignments have which kinks. I'm not even kidding.

Okay, so, here's the thing:

Sex and the politics surrounding it are two of the most heavily influential factors in the development of a society. After "Where does the food come from?" and "Where do we sleep?", "Who is having sex with whom?" is the most prominent developmental factor in any society, real or imaginary. As a world-building GM, you need to understand this, dear reader. Who has what rights in society, how those rights are enforced, who is seen as "equal" and who is seen as "other" all have a tie, somewhere, to the sexual (and gender) politics of the society.

Let's take an example of the Doro, from Loris, or more specifically, the matrilocal society of the Apache, on which the Doro are heavily based. Here's a handy Wikipedia link for your reference. Go ahead and read it. I'll wait right here, it's cool.

Okay, so, you got all that? Let's take a look at part of that:

All Apachean men practiced varying degrees of "avoidance" of his wife's close relatives, a practice often most strictly observed by distance between mother-in-law and son-in-law. The degree of avoidance differed in different Apachean groups. The most elaborate system was among the Chiricahua, where men had to use indirect polite speech toward and were not allowed to be within visual sight of the wife's female relatives, whom he had to avoid. His female Chiricahua relatives through marriage also avoided him.

For those of us from any kind of "typical" Western society, this is almost completely unfathomable. Not simply because (let's face it) most of Western society is Patriarchal in its organization, but because ostensibly, we come from an egalitarian culture where everyone is equal regardless of their gender. Now, I won't get into any arguments about whether or not that presumption on our part is true, because that would require the entirety of Tumblr to debate (and surprise! We'd all lose, regardless of whatever side we took), but I will point this out:

Gender politics like those of the Apache are almost universally avoided in fantasy RPG's.

In most fantasy RPG's and game worlds, society is almost uniformly displayed as being perfectly and inexplicably egalitarian, where even though men run the show politically, there are still tons of powerful women around doing their thing. Adventuring, running countries from behind the scenes, conjuring up demons to beat up the neighbors, you name it. But did you notice something, just now? I said "even though men run the show politically..."

Not very equal if that's the case, is it?

Well, there are also those games where they have vast, immense, Matriarchal societies, like the Drow of the Underdark...

Oh. No. Wait. The Drow, with their Matriarchal society and their mercantile clans and their constant internecine bickering are portrayed as evil. And yeah, worshiping a soul-eating Spider Demon is pretty evil, but the Drow are almost literally the only fantasy RPG society in which women control the way things run, and they are universally the bad guys. (And no, I don't care about your dual-wielding Ranger, thanks.)

Throughout the typical fantasy RPG world, even though there are tons of female adventurers, politicians, powerful magicians, you-name-it, the fact of the matter is that the gender politics of the world conform to a Powerful Male Leader model. Sure, you might have your exceptions (a few of the Lords Of Waterdeep are women, to call back to The Forgotten Realms, again), but by and large the concept of a society that focuses on the type of gender politics that we see in a matrilocal society such as the Doro and their real-world references is almost completely foreign. Because of this "otherness" of such a culture, they are almost always painted as the bad guy - they go against the "norm" and because of that, they are portrayed as the antithesis of the "acceptable" culture. The leading women are portrayed as domineering, overbearing, "men are all weak and wicked" types, a-la the hardline Amazons in just about any Wonder Woman comic. I love Wonder Woman, but the portrayal of a Matriarchal society as being anti-male as a matter of rote is simply not borne out by the evidence of historical cultures that practiced that model.

Now, again, I don't want to get in to the why of this sort of thing. That's a discussion for a different time and in a different venue. Suffice it to say that you can have a Matriarchal or Matrilineal culture without the necessity for the subjugation of the male portion of the society. (Don't believe me? Judaism is Matrilineal. Go look it up.) The purpose of the essay today is to discuss how gender politics influences society, and how you can incorporate such things into your game world as you're building it – and also to help you get the idea that you can incorporate cultures into your game world that are otherwise foreign and unusual to a "normal" societal method of thought. Let's go back to the Apache (and by default, the Doro) for a moment, and talk about how their leaders were chosen.

From Wikipedia, again:

Several extended families worked together as a "local group", which carried out certain ceremonies, and economic and military activities. Political control was mostly present at the local group level. Local groups were headed by a chief, a male who had considerable influence over others in the group due to his effectiveness and reputation. The chief was the closest societal role to a leader in Apachean cultures.

The office was not hereditary, and the position was often filled by members of different extended families. The chief's leadership was only as strong as he was evaluated to be—no group member was ever obliged to follow the chief. The Western Apache criteria for evaluating a good chief included: industriousness, generosity, impartiality, forbearance, conscientiousness, and eloquence in language.

Got that? Gender politics within the Apache people were based around relational proximity to the eldest women within the group, and the leader of the local groups was a man chosen by virtue of his overall effectiveness and reputation. The two are clearly intertwined, but at no point does the one prevent the other. The husband of the eldest and most favored daughter of the most powerful grandmother might be passed over for election as the chief because he is lazy and does not comport himself properly. By contrast, the husband of the youngest, least known daughter of least powerful grandmother might surprise everyone because he is strong, fast, clever, and kind. Is it a perfect example of gender egalitarianism? No, but then, nowhere in human society is there a historic example of such things.

Still, though, as you can see from just a few short paragraphs, the real world gives us an example (and there are many, many more) of a culture in which sex and gender politics influence the society differently than the typical Western viewpoint.


The Doro were also heavily influenced by the Mongols and their culture, as well, and although I have purposely tossed the vast bulk of the societal and sexual politics of the Mongols, potential world-builders might want to read up on an overview of Mongol kinship and family life, especially their views on children born of concubinage (something that is also completely foreign to most fantasy RPG settings).

What does any of this have to do with sex, though? Well, everything, really. Who is sleeping with whom is a direct influence on the gender politics of a society. The gender politics of a society determines what, if anything, is "men's work" vs "women's work" and what the implications of those two types of work will be. The societal views on things such as manners of appropriate dress, speech, and music can and will be influenced by their views on sex and sexuality. History shows us that a society that places an extreme importance on female virginity, but not one on male virginity, will have a very conflicted view of a woman's worth outside the bed chamber and an overly proportional value on the sexual prowess of the man. Almost universally, this leads to the increasing use of force to control the female population and keep them "proper." Contrariwise, a society in which the sexual agency of both men and women are guaranteed by tradition, law, or religion will tend to place a higher importance on the freedoms of both sexes as a whole, leading to a more open and politically progressive society. Not always, mind you, but often enough for me to cite this with some confidence.


Religion also plays a very strong part in all of this. It's important to remember, though, that oftentimes religion and society are completely at odds with one another, and that most of the time, society wins. There are hadiths and verses within the Quran that very clearly cite that Islamic women are to be treated with respect and consideration, as well as being given rights to education and employment, but nearly all aspects of traditional Arabic culture go against this. Similarly, in Judaism, the entirety of a families lineage and hereditary standing is traced through the mother's line, but all religious matters are handled by men. I make no judgement in this essay on either of these things, I mention them only from the observational and academic viewpoint. Religion can have a tremendous impact on the sexual agency of men and women, which in turn influences gender politics.

Putting all of this together in Loris, then, I had to consider what sort of gender politics I would enact in the various cultures of the world. I've already spoken on the Doro. Some of the other decisions I enacted include:

* The Vetrur are modeled on a very Norse view point of gender politics. "Men's Work" and "Women's Work" is clearly delineated and by and large kept to, but unlike the ancient Norse, there are methods and manners by which those boundaries can be crossed without shame or dishonor. Due to the harsh environment of their homelands, Vetrur society is a meritocracy, for the most part, with men and women both holding power over their families and within their clans. Sexual agency between the two genders is guaranteed equal, with strict rules on when and where and how contact can be made, along with extremely harsh repercussions for breaking the line of consent. As well, violence between genders is almost universally forbidden, with a series of cultural taboos and strictures guiding the few places such violence can be legally carried out. A duel under the full gaze of the entire village is a betting event, while an angry fist across a jaw can get the offender stripped naked and thrown into the winter night (almost certainly a death sentence).

* In Angarn and Cymrik, women have long been second class citizens, culturally. Although Angarn has in recent centuries shifted away from this tradition (due in no small part to the influence of the Church Of The Nine), there are still certain expectations and a great deal of condescension levied against most women in the land who seek to break out and make their own path. It is safe to say that the closer one gets to a major city, the fewer these are, but they are still present within the culture. Both the religion and the law of Angarn and Cymrik say that women are to be given each and every right and protection of a man, but discrimination still exists. While Angarn prides itself on the fact that a full quarter of its navy is composed of women, for instance, those ships are crewed entirely by women, and of those ships, less than half have a female in the Captaincy. Cymrik has more female fusiliers and artillerists than any of its allies, but less than a tenth of its infantry is made up of women. The urge to "protect the girls" runs high in the armed forces of both of these nations, and it shows.

* In the Cualish Free States, women are very rarely the public face of political power. Behind the scenes, however, they are probably the most adept and influential members of any City State's leadership. "Sex and Money and Death are three sides of one coin," they say, and this is reflected in the proliferation of not only well-established, well-respected houses of prostitution, but also the very present reality of many of those same houses being training grounds for assassins and professional killers. "He died in bed," when said in the Free States, more often than not means the subject of discussion was the target of a successful assassination. Moreso than any of the Allied Nations, the women of the Free States have near-total freedom of their own path in life. They have the longest history of land ownership, property management, and monetary influence of all the women within the "Big Four," combined. Despite this, there are still prejudices and societal restrictions on women within the walls of many of the City States, although more and more of their leaders are dying in bed, so this may change, soon.

* Perhaps paradoxically, it is the Kolanthans, with their rigid and unforgiving society, that have achieved actual, total, gender equality. As dictated by the High Inquisitor of Kolas – and thus by Kolas himself – it is an affront to the One True God that any Human, male or female, be kept from their full potential under the eyes of Kolas. Kolas sees everything, everywhere, as he is the God Of Knowledge And Truth, and so to attempt to prevent a Sacred Daughter from achieving her full potential (whatever that potential might be) is a mortal sin. Given the choice of being tied to a pole and left to rot in the summer sun or encouraging your daughter to pick that sword back up and get back out there and unleash hell on the neighborhood boys, which would you choose? The armed forces of the Kolanthan Inquisition are fully fifty percent female, and their columns, battalions, and armadas are just as likely to be led by a woman as they are a man.

Of course, adventurers can and will buck the examples presented here. That's why they're adventurers, after all. But as you go forward in determining how your game world handles such things – whether it's as simple as saying "all societies are equal, regardless of what they're based on," or diving into a more complex, multi-faceted approach as I've done with Loris – it's important to remember that the three driving factors of any culture are food, shelter, and sex. Those who control or command such things are usually the ones with the power, and those with the power are usually the ones who decide how the future is shaped. With a little research on history, and a little adaptation on your part, you can come up with some awesome concepts to fit into your game world.

If you've got any of your own to share, please throw them into the comments section. I and the reader base here would love to see them!