Sexual Mores

I cut this chapter out of the regular customs document, so that no-one who is offended by such matter would have to read it.

Sexual Mores

The Law places a great deal of emphasis upon the sanctity of marriage and the importance of live and fidelity. At the same time, most marriages are arranged and family life is not always good. Divorce is socially acceptable but often economically ruinous, so there is a great deal of flexibility in sexual matters.

The law is mainly concerned with inheritance and clan relationships, not what people do together in their spare time. Legally, sex is seen as the act of attempting to create children. Anything that can't create children isn't legally sex. Homosexuality, sodomy, fellatio, blowjobs, even protected intercourse, is not legally sex and is thus not grounds for infidelity charges and divorce. Of course, peoples feelings don't always follow the Law, but in general, "foolishness and dalliance" is not considered serious matters except by moralists.

In a magical world, there are magical ways of preventing and causing pregnancy. These are considered serious matters; using magical preventives only reduces the risk of conception, it does not insure against it, so magically protected sex is still legally valid. Magic can also alter shape and allow conception between members of different races or even species, and such sex is legally valid, too. Paternity suits become a real nightmare when genies are involved.

The children of mixed couples are never half-breeds. The races are magical archetypes, parts of our heritage actualized by magic, and a person can only be of one race. A mixed-race couple can produce a child that is of either of their races, or (rarely) of an entirely different race altogether.

Inter-species sex is more complicated. Supernatural Creatures usually conceive other supernatural creatures, but they are a mixture of the traits of their parents and of the local environment. Genies always raise their children on the elemental planes to insure their "purity of element", and such children brought up on earth often display very strange and varied characteristics. Transformed animals are born in their mother's form, but can later (sometimes several generations later) display characteristics of a transformed animal.