Demihumans as Gender

Inspired by the Demihumans as Social Constructs post by Throne of Salt and Cavegirl, I thought I’d do a similar sort of thing just in time for not in time for pride month.

The premise is, essentially, taking the standard dungeon-and-dragony demi-human races and reimagining them as socially constructed. In this case, as a kind of gender role/expression.

I’ve seen a couple of people complain when they hear modern gender-terminology in their fantasy and thought I’d make a more setting-appropriate terminology.  

I doubt any of this is actually gameable but maybe your table is different from mine.

Elves

Androgynous pseudo-nobility.

Elves are a kind of third-gender with a long list of requirements.

The first and most obvious is meeting an overwhelmingly high beauty standard. Elves are expected to appear ageless, as well as hairless and flawless. Surgical ear-pointing is an extension of this.

The other requirements relate to skill and demeanor. Elves are expected to be courteous but never friendly, wise but never practical, and sensitive but never emotional.

Being neither men nor women, elves aren’t obliged to perform either men’s or women’s work, which is a not-insignificant part of the appeal. Elves aren't expected to go to war, to bear children or take part in any activity that might blemish their perfect skin.

Typical elf-work is artistic and spiritual in nature and includes the  accumulation of magic items, of which elves are considered the traditional keepers, as well as the bardic arts, religious ceremony and historical recitation.  

Typical taboos on homosexuality are waived in the case of elves. Elves are considered highly desirable partners irrespective of sex. Although they’re also famously difficult to court as partaking in relationships with a non-elf may degrade their elvish mystique.  

Half-elves are those on the fringes of elfdom, either transitioning in or out. They are often quietly shunned or demeaned for their failure to perform elfdom. A sufficiently talented elf can make up for their aging appearance, while an untalented elf can acquire a great deal of makeup.

Orcs

Alpha-male militia units

Orcs are men who believe marriage is a devious trap designed to emasculate and subjugate them. They reject not only marriage but the entire society that facilities it and advocate a return to, what they consider to be a more traditional, rape-and-pillage model of gender relations.

Orcs consider the warband, not the family, to be the fundamental unit of society. Naturally, these societies don’t have a long life-expectancy. Brotherly comradery is constantly vying 6 with fierce macho competition

Amazons were a similarly-minded female counterpart to orcs which supposedly menaced the menfolk of eastern plains during the reign of King Gandrin the second.

Dwarves

Hobbyist Masculinist Separatist

A more peaceful approach to masculinist separatism. Dwarves are men who've abandoned marital relationships in favor of pursuing traditional masculine hobbies such as metalworking, ale brewing and hole digging. This arrangement has led to a skill imbalance in dwarven communities which has been somewhat mitigated by substituting plate armor for clothing.  

Dwarves are generally thought of as undesirable men who've turned to dwarfdom as a last resort, hence the stereotypical image of the dwarf as short, pudgy and elderly.

Halflings

Rural Mommune Derivatives

Beginning as something like the female equivalent of dwarves. Halflings are communities of female-separatists, most commonly abandoned, widowed or divorced women who come together to raise their children collectively. The term “halfling”, meaning “half” a married couple.

Coming, as they often do, from an impoverished situation, halfling women are commonly stereotyped as small, shoeless, hungry and hole-dwelling.

The halfling label will often stick with a community for generations after. Halfling men born from such communities, are known for being submissive to their wives and mothers. While often used as an insult some men adopt the label of halfling if they forgo traditional masculine trappings in favor of gardening and jam-making.

Dragons

Powerful Polygynous Patriarchs

A dragon is the, typically male, possessor of a “hoard” of courtesans, concubines, and the occasional catamite. A dragon is rich and powerful while being independent of the nobility, whose strict marriage customs he flaunts. Wealthy merchants, rogue princes and cult leaders are all archetypal dragons.

A dragon’s “color”’ indicates his sexual preferences and disposition. Bronze dragons style themselves as the first among equals in a community of freelovers. Red dragons are notorious princess kidnappers.

Kobolds are underlings of a dragon that aren't part of his hoard; servants, flunkies, lingering cuckolds etc. Dragonborn are, as the name implies, offspring of the dragon. Expect a complicated relationship with your parents and a small town's worth of half siblings.

Goblins

Low-status itinerant harlots

Although most commonly used as an insult, a Goblin is a member of a culture of wandering prostitutes, known for advertising their services loudly and shamelessly. Goblins are commonly pictured as short, scrawny from poverty and with skin a sickly green from disease.  

Tolerance for Goblins varies from place to place but is never very high. They will often be able to find a camp or slum to call home but are routinely chased out of town before holy days.

The sex of a goblin is considered largely irrelevant, since the shame of being one, or coupling with one, far outweighs any associated with homosexuality. If you told people you fuck goats, no one’s going to care if it they’re male or female.  

Hobgoblins are a subset of goblins who follow armies on the march and sometimes turn soldier when the looting is good or the commander is desperate.

Gnoll

Obsessive taboo violators

Gnolls are a bogeyman depiction of sexual degeneracy taken to an extreme.

If some moralisers are to be believed, the hinterlands are teeming with prowling bands of gnolls, covered in animal skins and various bodily fluids, abducting innocents and debasing them before pagan idols.
They’re also supposedly just as likely to gather in the catacombs of certain rival churches or the basement dungeons of the wealthy and powerful. The Marquis de Sade is an exemplary gnoll.

While true gnollism might be effectively non-existent, the vivid descriptions  found in supposedly-educational literature on the matter indicates a few interested gnolls may lurk among us.