I just popped in here wondering what sex and sexuality have to do with rocket propelled grenades. And I still don’t know.
I meant the use of virgins by good characters. For example our own Uncle Cecil has noted the usefullness of male virgins in locating the resting place of vampires. I can also see many good deities requiring their clerics to be chaste.
I have often wondered why places beset by virgin-slaying monsters don’t have their children deflowered.
Whatever for? Most deities in the Realms (for instance) promote things like love and fertility. Sharess is a chaotic good goddess of hedonism and sensual fulfillment. If anything, her clerics would be encouraged to lead by example.
Whatever for?
1 Some death gods require their clerics to forgo worldly pleasures- especially the act of procreation
2 Some gods will demand that their clerics place them ahead of all else and make a symbolic sacrifice to demonstrate their faith.
I have no cite but doubt very much that only the Abrahamic faiths place a value on being chaste.
IIRC, D&D unicorns still have that virgin hang up, right? That’d be some strong evidence for a “good=chaste” connection, at least for some deities.
But you said good deities. Of the four (pre-spellplague) death deities, two were evil and two were neutral, and I’ve read no indication that any of them required their clerics to be chaste. Granted, Torm might demand chastity from his clerics, but that would be on account of his lawful tenets; and he’s way, way more lawful than he is good. In fact, Torm would be at least as likely to forbid his clerics from getting married while not proscribing premarital sex.
More likely, I’d expect lawful deities to require celibacy of their clerics.
Note, by the way, that “chastity” and “celibacy” are not synonyms. I responded in terms of celibacy, because I think that’s what you actually meant.
Max I wasn’t thinking purely of fictional deities.
I’m aware of the difference. Chastity=no sex outside of marriage Celibacy=no marriage and no sex.
I can’t see many good deities requiring celibacy. I can see them requiring chastity.
ETA
What’s Saint Cuthbert like under current revisions? Because I can see him (whether he’s currently LG or LN) requiring chastity. He was originally based on a real Christian saint.
That’s kind of a simplistic (and popular) view of Greek sexuality. If the play Lysistrata, where Athenian women withhold sex from the men in order to force them to make peace with Sparta, is any indication it would appear as though Greek men thoroughly enjoyed banging their wives. Otherwise why would they care if women withheld sex?
The big difference is that Gods aren’t people. Just because Artemis and Athena are really powerful and respected doesn’t mean that mortal women are going to receive the same respect.
Sexuality is a really complex subject and -in my experience- most RPGs really can’t do justice to. I generally don’t deal with it in any of my games aside from a rather superficial manner though I’ve had a few homosexual NPCs and one transexual NPC in Shadowrun.
RPGs don’t take a lot of things into account. D&D has what is essentially polytheism with groups of people acting like monotheist, magic generally hasn’t affected society as much as you think it would have, and they don’t account for adventurers in the economy. That’s not really a criticism because I didn’t play D&D to explore deep topics I played it to smash stuff, get treasure, and save the day.
Odesio
I meant they would get respect through the power of their priestesses. When the clerics of Artemis and Athena begin killing men they deem disrespectful, the surviving men learn respect. Either that or a war breaks out- in which case they still learn to respect their enemy.
Re: Elves and procreation
The explanation I read (I think it was in one of the Dragonlance novels but I won’t swear to that) was that elves are highly infertile. Even if a boy elf and girl elf marry young and have sex every day, they are unlikely to have more than one kid every handfull of decades or so (I don’t remember the exact birth rate).
I think this would still lead to bisexuality being the norm, though (or at least it would be quite common). With the natural birth rate being so low, the focus of sex would be almost solely pleasure, rather than procreation. This would lead to elves being much more experimental with sex, including the genders of their partners.
I am unfortunately contractually obligated to quote this and add
Then you’re not doing it right!
I could see this going the other way, though: with the birth rate so low, there might be considerable pressure not to waste time having sex that couldn’t possibly lead to children.