@TheEdVerse I should preamble a little, because for reasons that break the gods’ brains some would ask this looking to trap a creator or some similarly juvenile nonsense. I’m an author, I know well that setting & characters are not the creator not reflective of her values /1
— 🌈Jaye🦄Em🌹Edgecliff🏳️🌈 (@jayeedgecliff) February 1, 2019
By the same measure I’m aware that in the grand scheme of The Realms every conceivable answer is represented *somewhere* because divers peoples, tribes, nations, etc. I grok.
Across … Classic Realms: Faerûn, principally the Sea of Fallen Stars, Cormyr, Waterdeep 1e grey box /2 Maps region.
What is life like for a transgender or non-binary individual? Especially the former given the existence to such a thing as polymorph magics?
Is it significantly different for rich vs impoverished? Noble vs common, regardless wealth? Zhentilar vs Sembian? /3— 🌈Jaye🦄Em🌹Edgecliff🏳️🌈 (@jayeedgecliff) February 1, 2019
I’d always made certain generalised assumptions about gender equity which I translated over to such matters but then I got to thinking about how on-screen War Wizards seem as much as 4/5 male, Purple Dragons almost exclusively so. Waterhavian Watch not exactly 50/50 but nearer /4 Zhentarim vibe a might more female, Red Wizards the opposite, and so on. So given a seeming wide swath of mindsets on the roles of sexes perhaps … gender affirming spellcraft? is maybe a less dull topic than previously envisioned?
I dig if you’d rather pretend this /5— 🌈Jaye🦄Em🌹Edgecliff🏳️🌈 (@jayeedgecliff) February 1, 2019
Question doesn’t exist. Regardless what you answer *someone* is going to probably have something horrid to say. But I hope even a ha’penny’s worth gem could be begged of you. /fin Perhaps I should ask: does human vs other make any remarkable differences?
/fin+1— 🌈Jaye🦄Em🌹Edgecliff🏳️🌈 (@jayeedgecliff) February 1, 2019
Hi! Great question, because a topic that almost never gets directly addressed in published Realmslore. The Realms is, as you say, a big place, with many regional variations and just as much racism, sexism, and mistrust of “the other” and change than our real world. Bigots are.. 2)everywhere, it is the nature of most to be at least a touch cynical, and so on. Yet to offset that, beings of any one race in most surface locales in the “classic” Realms coverage areas live with a variety of other races, and see “monsters” from time to time, too (albeit mainly
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 2, 2019
3)dead, as wall-trophies). And the effects of magic, if not seeing spells hurled in your presence, is widespread, too.
For reasons of body weight and strength, some professions (smithing, professional soldiery, rowing) tend to be dominated by large-bodied males, but by and large 4)(once you get away from Lolth-dominated matriarchies, the Rashemi, and the like) there is gender equality. As in: individuals may be discriminated against on the basis of age/experience, height, hardiness/have all their limbs in working order, and whether or not I like your…— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 2, 2019
face, BUT there’s no societal bias of role on the basis of gender. There ARE recruiting officers who go looking for guards of a particular build, size, and even hair color, and the units they assemble reflect that. Vangerdahast wanted female War Wizards “implanted” at Court and 6)as “house wizards” in the households of the nobility he wanted watched over because he thought they were better at fitting in, acting, and being subtle than his young, ambitious male War Wizards (whom he deployed more in combat/action/military support functions, which is why…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 2, 2019
7)you see them more on-screen), and his too-few really trustworthy and competent senior War Wizards he needed for vital roles (Laspeera being one of those).
Having wealth or status (e.g. nobility) provides a measure of freedom to “be yourself” in every meaning of the word—indulge 8)your eccentricites/hobbies, and so on—so we see more nobles habitually doing “odd” things. Wealth allows those without the Art (gift of wielding magic) to hire spellcasting, so they can experiment with changing their own bodies in various ways, having sex while body-flying, and— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 2, 2019
9)so on. Such “freedoms” are limited by disapproval/your own thinking depending on your local society (Sembia is very much “do what you want if you have the coin,” whereas modern-day Zhents are always aware of the Zhentarim and their scrutiny and war-readiness and supremacy of… 10)wizards and Bane and Zhentarim objectives.
However, magic is most often hired by the non-magical to change their own bodies, usually to make themselves more functional (overcome a withered or malformed or damaged limb, increase handsomeness). More than a few use it to switch..— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 2, 2019
11)gender, either to experiment or fulfill themselves (because they don’t feel comfortable as they are) or to escape persecution (by changing looks and often gender and taking on a new identity, sometimes to elude justice). “Everyone” has seen or at least heard of someone doing.. 12)this, and it’s not considered crazy so much as “restless.” So although individuals who put on “camp” voices and lisps, and dress and use cosmetics to “outrage” may be ridiculed for such over-the-top behavior, there’s no stigma about changing your gender, nor would most folk in
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 2, 2019
13)the Realms be repelled by discovering someone they have the hots for as one gender was once another. Nor is homosexuality, “swinging both ways” and dwelling in family groups of several “mates” of mixed races and genders frowned upon, societally. Individuals may find it too… 14)much for themselves to handle, but the laws and general attitudes of society don’t frown on it. There are strict laws regarding inheritance among royalty and nobility, but that’s purely to cut down on strife within powerful families and the resulting chaos.
This is, of course,— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 2, 2019
15)given who was first publishing the Realms (that is, the time and place of publication, and the game and literary market of the time/societal attitudes of the time) something downplayed or even written out of published Realmslore, but from the outset, I thought racism (as in,.. 16)prejudice against people who have a different skin color than you, or “talk funny” was ridiculous in a world in which elves rub shoulders with dwarves and scaly lizardfolk and talking dragons and talking bugs), and I thought my Realms would be a lot more tolerant than our real
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 2, 2019
17)world of individuals who weren’t the one-man-one-woman-two-point-five-children-in-house-with-white-picket-fence family.
In my own background, I grew up in a very wealthy neighborhood filled with people from all over the world temporarily stationed in Canada as executives, and 18)my mother died when I was young so I was raised by a tag team of VERY competent and strong-willed grandmothers and maiden aunts, and from age 14 on to right now I have worked in public libraries where almost all of my bosses and co-workers were women, many of them openly…— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 2, 2019
19)lesbian or bisexual, so none of this seemed unusual to me.
Which is a very long-winded way of saying that transgender and non-binary folk can live comfortably and accepted in the Realms, though they may have to pick their neighbors and friends to do so. [fin]— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 2, 2019
In Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes it said that Corellon still offers his blessing to some of his children that allows them change their sex after a long rest. Most elves in Forgotten Realms it is seen as a blessing but to the drow a cures that must be purged…..interesting indeed Indeed. ;} There are layers and layers in lore. Use the threads that seem bright or useful to you, and leave the rest for later. They're all part of the grand tapestry. The Weave. ;}
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) February 3, 2019