PREFACE:
This conversation is created not to talk about any aspects of copulation but instead genetic combination. Please take this document seriously as I have worked diligently on this post to create a non “firestarter” based thread. I understand that in our current real life climate that there are concepts that some people may find vile and offensive. I want to present this feedback to Soulbound Studios and the community to create a conversation that is civil amongst us and not a shouting match over morality.
CHILDREN CONTRACTS FROM A LGBTQ VIEW:
I would bet 90 - 95% of the users will find this post silly. Though, if you ask around, I have found a few like-minded persons of the LGBTQ community & friends who ask the same questions as me. Why can’t the Children Contracts simply take genetics from both parents regardless of gender of the donors? Some, if not many, will answer along the line of thought that “This isn’t how the real world is. It takes a male and a female to make a child.” and while we understand this, there also becomes a question of being reminded in a fantasy game that we are different.
I can only speak from a male perspective but my observations over the years have lead to the following conclusion that many players will choose to create characters based on typically one of three routes.
Characters that are a hyper version of the player
Characters that play out a fantasy (such as opposite of themselves)
A combination of both.
This is shown as athletic or aggressive males playing hyper aggressive characters built around war OR a less physical person acting hyper aggressive to show a level of dominance that he may not have in real life but has always wanted. Fantasy may also lead cisgender heteronormative males to playing female characters. All of this is acceptable but if your a member of the LGBTQ community and you wish to play a LGBTQ character; you might find yourself stuck in a heteronormative reproduction because “it’s natural”.
Before you tune me out, please, read what I have to say and try to put yourself in our shoes.
Child creation is not tied to marriage but it is tied to binary gender creation. Most people think in a binary basic when it comes to gender. If a male marries a female, typically the concept of child reproduction (or contracts) in this case are simple. The two wish to build something together. Their children are a combination of the both of them. The may each provide half of the children’s genetic code and without any problem they have children. From the LGBTQ point of view is that if two people of the same gender wish to create a child, a barrier or rather a mechanic of the game has been built to stop them. Now, that wall may not be built to intentionally disallow same-sex couples from making children but out of a need for the game system to use xx and xy based on how the genes are being combined in the system. Intentional or not, what it does is remind our LGBTQ community that even in a fantasy game, we are still different… and that can create an emotional and disheartening scenario when we just want to feel mechanically the same in the game.
One may think that the solution is that two characters, regardless of gender appearance, could combine their genetic code into a child. The child’s gender could being randomly generated upon creation and while that seems reasonable their may be a more scientific explanation.
SCIENCE:
The world of Elyria has already shown evolution takes different steps and goes outside the confines of what appears “possible” in the real world. However, there could be more under the hood than meets the eye. Perhaps nature has made all Elyrians Intersexed or sequential hermaphroditism while having visable attritubes towards one gender or another. Perhaps all persons are capable of having children with anyone else. Perhaps we have more than simple XX and XY chromosome combinations.
The most common chromosomes in the animal kingdom on earth are based around an XX and XY combination. What the reader may not know is that we actually have many other combinations. Often times, in real life, these combinations lead to an inability to reproduce however evolution may have taken a different path on Elyria. To name a few, we have:
XX, XXX, XXXX, XXYY, XXY, XYY, and XY
...And even within those combinations their lie variations. XXXY syndrome, Aneuploidy, Tetrasomy X (aka 48,XXXX), Klinefelter syndrome (aka 47, XXY), XXYY syndrome, XYY syndrome.
In fact, based on some of the very concepts and physical manifestations of some of the tribal races in the game, one could theorise that these syndromes may be at the heart of some of the mutations to Mann. Beyond even the protein base of the Yoru, some might expect them to have XYY genes. The reason I bring this all up is that maybe Elyria has just as rich of a chromosome base as the real world but these differences didn’t evolve into negative effects such as sterilization but instead enhanced the creatures on the planet. This could be the very base of what lead all mammals on Elyria to be Intersexed. The plant life on Earth varies in its own reproductive way. Intersexed plants are common.
Even beyond that, in real life we also have sequential hermaphroditism. In these species, such as many species of coral reef fishes, sex change is a normal anatomical process. Clownfish, wrasses, moray eels, gobies and other fish species are known to change sex, including reproductive functions. [see Wikipedia] This could be a simple science explanation why two people of the same starting gender can have a child. Perhaps one of the characters changes sex for X amount of time if needed. Science!!!
PROPOSAL:
All life in Elyria carries more complex chromosomes such as xxy and so forth. Perhaps a majority if not all characters are technically intersexed or sequential hermaphroditism at this point but the way this has evolved on the planet makes it perfectly natural and without a detriment. This would allow two characters, regardless of male / female appearance, to contain the complex genetic codes for Child Contracts. Everyone can have children with anyone.
BENEFIT:
First, if we frame the scenario that two people who care about each other want to combine and have children that are literally from both partners, then we remove the “you are not really the father/mother” from the spouse of the parenting couple. It changes nothing to heteronormative earth tradition and simply places non hetero based couples into the exact same mechanic and responsibilities. Both partners would be the creator of the child.
While to some, this may seem ridiculous but let me ask you this... If it doesn’t affect you, why would you fight against making the system the same for others?
CONCLUSION:
I want to thank you for taking the time to read down this far. I know I expressed some ideas that seem odd to people and while I understand there may be some persons who wish to troll; this is a heartfelt message and plea to the creators of the game. I don’t go into a fantasy game to have “real life norms” thrown in my face while mages, vampires, and liches appear in the game and are accepted without question because “it’s fantasy” yet two people of the same gender is “too far!”. Please, if liches can exist, please let two men or women combine genes to make a child. Don’t make us take extra steps to find suragets and always have the dreaded “one of you isn’t really the father” scenario come up. It’s a fantasy game. I beg you, let us have this fantasy.
Thank you for your consideration,
Arieus
Count of Ironroot
The Kingdom of Bordweall
