Lana Jay  -  https://www.facebook.com/Lanajay2  -  https://www.redbubble.com/es/people/lana-jay  -

(1/3) In my fantasy world, I have humans, elves, and dwarves. I’m trying to give them all a wide variety of races and cultures, though we only meet a few of them. They all have pretty different approaches to gender. The humans in the area I’m focusing on have I guess pretty Western conceptions of gender, but I have multiple trans characters, including some nonbinary ones later one (one of the main characters is a human trans man).

(2/3) The dwarf cultures we encounter have pretty set gender roles but they don’t care who fulfills them/their ideas of gender aren’t tied to biology like humans’ often are, so there’s a really large percentage of trans dwarves. The elves don’t really have gender at all. They don’t have gendered pronouns. They can also change their appearance at will, and obviously sex and gender are different and also both socially constructed, but the elves as a whole don’t really think about either one.

A lot of elves do prefer a certain presentation, but the only ones who ever really gender themselves are the ones who live among humans or dwarves and have to choose pronouns in those languages. Some of them choose pronouns that “match” their presentation, some deliberately don’t, and some ask that people just change it up, the way that a lot of humans also do. Is there anything I should avoid or anything I need to think through better in all of this?

(I submitted that before saying so but the elf pronouns ask was 3/3)

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Honestly, I have never come across an ask about fantasy gender stuff that was more evidently thought through or knowledgeable about gender and gender systems. You seem to have really gone through the work to make this a diverse and beautiful world. I think you’re doing great, but here’s some things I’m thinking.

I would keep in mind that the term ‘trans’ doesn’t necessarily translate across cultures. Using a different word or label doesn’t make it any less representation. It’s more in the portrayal and the way of getting across how different people relate to their own gender identity. Dwarves might be free to ID as trans in a translation, or maybe they have a similar or identical term but it just means something different. If there aren’t gender assignments the same way as in the cultures our contemporary definition of trans* had in mind, it might feel like a compromise for a dwarf who has grown up their entire life free of the same constraints to feel like trans (in our definition) is an accurate label. Or maybe not, or maybe it depends on the individual or the place they grew up or who they grew up around or their own specific culture.

In cases where terms/labels change, the key to making it actual representation is to focus on concepts of relatability. There’s no one way to be trans of course, but there are some things that I see in other cultures that I relate to because of my relationship with my gender. 

Another idea on something you could use to add more depth - gender is seldom just gender. For some people, their gender identity is tied in with their sense of kinship. Like, someone might really love being a mother, and that’s a large part of how that particular person relates to their gender identity. There are also a lot of cultures (including most of western-colonial gender systems as perceived through most of written history) (subcultures can have this too) where things like orientation might be a big part of how someone relates to their gender identity. For example, I know a lot of people who identify their gender as lesbian. These kinds of things exist in pretty much every culture (that I know of). I think more people feel this way too than most of us really think about - we have our gender identity label in its simplified form and then we have other terms and ideas associated that we relate to; ways of interpreting our relationship with other ideas and feelings and social and societal ties. Or whatever else.

I would also think a bit about the third culture folks and how nomadic people may develop identities. (Nomadic cultures exist on nearly every continent in our world. Some of these cultures did the whole ethnogenesis thing within the past 300 years, though most of the nomadic peoples I am familiar with go back at least a thousand. Some nomadic people aren’t part of nomadic ethnic groups but may have a subculture, like military families and carnies. I’m mainly thinking about how the subculture folks would develop identities and what that would be influenced by because otherwise folks just have their own regular cultures.)

I’d also think about maybe making up pronouns that are meant to refer to someone with a dwarf or elf etc gender identity. I know some folks who want the pronouns they use in their ancestral or native languages to be the ones used in English as well. Maybe instead of choosing an English (or Common, idk your world) pronoun, some folks opt to just keep using the same pronouns as always, regardless of the language they are using.

All in all, most of my advice and tips are just, “here’s how you can get even more creative with it if you want to, and add more depth.” There’s a lot to read on these topics but it can be hard to research because people don’t typically get to this level of depth. (I definitely don’t mean to knock at anybody - there is not a soul out there who is not learning and growing in some way.)- mod nat* The definition of trans I’m referencing here is identifying differently (either wholly or in part) with a gender (or lack thereof) than what was assigned to you at birth. That kind of hinges on the idea of birth assignments being a thing. I do have a feeling this definition will change a bit once people stop gendering infants based on genitalia shape. But y’know, that’s something to think about. Maybe have a lore-based definition. Maybe it varies in different cultures. I dunno - go with the flow! Get creative with it.

Lesbians still making posts about how bad it is for bi women to use butch/femme:  We know! We heard u! We’re trying to make our own terms and have them used widespread but we need to get the WORD out for them to be commonplace and that’s hard when literally nobody but bis reblog posts talking about bisexuals lol! It’s not like we all follow each other. At this point the only people trying to take ur terms from you are lesphobes or young bi girls who straight up don’t realize they aren’t generic wlw terms because they haven’t learned the history bc literally no one is out here trying to include and teach bisexual kids shit about their gay lineage, everyone’s too busy trying to push it under the rug. 

bi equivalent of femme: doe bi equivalent of butch: stag

There are more for nb bis and such you can look into but there’s the basics! Look I’ve even designed flags you can find if you scroll through this tag! (i didnt come up with the terms)  

Supervillains announcing their plans is actually a union thing so they can’t be sued for damages someone else may commit at the same time

a billion screaming, squamous things approach, oozing and crawling through the shattered tatters of a sane world.

all the doors are open, now.

CHURCH INFO

Compiled all the Church Animatic info so far into a doc!  

This is not by any means a slight against the other person who started this process a while ago!  But since I have all the information in my head, and I’d never demand that they keep theirs constantly updated…this seemed like the best way to proceed. @v@

Some relevant notes:

-To comment, select the text you want to comment on and click the little speech bubble button in the top right corner!  There’s also a key command for this but I’ve forgotten it.  To reply to someone else’s comment, just click it.

-Please don’t just write comments in my text!

-To view the nice organized outline, click the pull-out tab near the top left corner with the list symbol on it!

Celestial Mapping and Celestial Proportions by Tallmadge Doyle

The mighty nein boyos!!!!

tbh this is proof that social media has completely ruined my sense of humor like i could go see a stand up comedian live and not laugh as hard as i did from reading this one fucking tweet

What people think writing is like: careful planning and thought out plotlines

What writing is actually like: being possessed by an idea that you are constantly arguing with

Chain OC time

Name: Smoke Race: Human Class: Cleric Height/Weight: 5′5″ish/180 lbs Bio: One of the few clerics for the Greenboots, he marched under Red’s command and now King’s. Wielding a spear and a shield, he’s more used as fighting retreat or to hold a position as other Greenboots rush in to defend him. Nicknamed Smoke due to his first day with the Chain, coming in with a short wooden pipe, and insisting on setting up the camp fire. He was there for most of the Alloy campaign, but joined right before the Chain left for Alloy. Heavy drinker.