Lore:Sex Patch Notes. Available in case I change something significantly enough that warrants a talk page post.
This page is also going to be used to talk about some of the less reliable sources and break down why they're unreliable so I can condense that in a polite, academic manner if I actually end up having to make that talk page post.
Patch NotesEdit
- Intro looks good.
- Need to address the Council of Healers' biases.
- Potentially going to have to rewrite the bit about mothers to not imply that children primarily taking their mothers' features is a solid, immutable rule: Bretons exist. So does in-universe racism.
- Okay, it's a real shame people are taking Notes on Racial Phylogeny seriously at all, the authors have clearly done absolutely zero research on Argonians and are making unacademic, racist assumptions about everyone they don't deem "elven" or "human". This is a Morrowind-era book. Orcs have been sapient since mortals were conceived as a concept. How hard is it to ask an Orc to participate in your clinical study and compensate them for their time??? Lackwits.
- >"The reproductive biology of Orcs is at present not well understood"
- Okay. Then do some research. Go to the tavern and ask your local neighborhood Orc if they'd like to engage you in a friendly night of research. I promise you interracial relationships aren't scary, Dr. Imperial.
Just throw the whole book out the window. These healers know nothing and refuse to do any actual research. We cannot in good faith take 90% of this seriously.
What we learned from Notes on Racial PhylogenyEdit
There are scant few facts that we can take away from this book.
- SOMETIMES, the children of interracial couplings take on the mother's racial profile with a few of the father's features sprinkled in.
- Land sloads, just like plenty of snails, are what's referred to as "true hermaphrodites", meaning they possess fully functioning sexual organs, both to fertilize and to be fertilized, at birth. They reabsorb their reproductive organs once they're old enough to live on land.
Notes on Racial Phylogeny is a Dumpster FireEdit
Let's break down the racism and determine which parts of the book are unreliable by way of sheer academic incompetence:
- It is less clear whether the Argonians and Khajiit are interfertile with both humans and elves.
Ok.
- Though there have been many reports throughout the Eras of children from these unions, as well as stories of unions with daedra, there have been no well documented offspring.
Also ok, but we the readers are well aware of Daedric demiprinces (see: Dearola). The Council has not documented offspring between Daedra and mortals, but we the all-knowing people from real life have. We don't need to take their lack of knowledge into account: that would bloat the article and obfuscate the evidence we have to the contrary.
- Khajiit differ from humans and elves not only their skeletal and dermal physiology -- the "fur" that covers their bodies -- but their metabolism and digestion as well.
Interesting to note, but that's more relevant to Lore:Khajiit than Lore:Sex.
- Argonians, like the dreugh, appear to be a semi-aquatic troglophile form of humans...
"Troglophile" is an adjective that denotes something as capable of surviving in a cave. Apart from the fact that it's obvious the author has never made conversation with an Argonian willingly in their life, defining Argonians as "troglophile" given all the information we the people of real life have on them is ludicrous. An Imperial could just as well survive in a cave too, couldn't it? Yet we don't define them as a troglophile form of Elves. The quoted statement tells us nothing except that the author(s) really love filling their "academic papers" with unfounded spittle dribbled from the corner of a drunkard's mouth on a Sundas night.
"... appear to be a semi-aquatic troglophile form of humans". "Appear" to be. Your father was a swine and you lack academic integrity.
- ... though it is by no means clear whether the Argonians should be classified with dreugh, men, mer, or (in this author's opinion), certain tree-dwelling lizards in Black Marsh.
Baby I know Molag Bal's forces burned all of your people's research on the disparate cultures of Tamriel during the Planemeld, but there's no way you put this in an academic paper and expected anyone to take you seriously. You could throw everything in this book that talks about "racial classification" into the garbage and your knowledge of Tamriel's races would be better for it.
- The reproductive biology of Orcs is at present not well understood, and the same is true of goblins, trolls, harpies, dreugh, Tsaesci, Imga, various daedra and many others.
Skill issue. Planemeld book burning, etc. Tsaesci and Imga, I get. The developers don't want to explore them. Daedra, I get. The Daedra are creatures of chaos and change, their forms aren't wholly static, and it's more fun for the developers to keep us in the dark on the specifics of which Daedra are capable of or enjoy getting it on. The rest is unacceptable. Go commission an adventurer to bring you back the corpse of a slain troll, harpy, dreugh and goblin. Dissect it. Compare and contrast with other specimens. Imperial law has a clause that states necromancers are allowed to use the corpses of prisoners who died in the Imperial Prison, no? Consider petitioning the courts to allow you to examine a deceased prisoner if you're so uncertain about the sexual biology of some of your peers and are too big a coward to ask an Orc to dance with you.
- Certainly, there have been cases of intercourse between these "races," generally in the nature of rape or magickal seduction, but there have been no documented cases of pregnancy.
Intercourse between these races and people of other races, or intercourse between individuals from these races? In Tsaesci-Tsaesci couples, dreugh-dreugh couples, etc. The author hasn't cited any sources so far and is drowning in racism, so most of this looks like the author is pulling it out of their ass.
- generally in the nature of rape or magickal seduction
Two of those races, the Tsaesci and the Imga, are without a doubt confirmed to be sapient, so this blanket of "they can't have sex without putting someone (assumedly of another race) under a spell or assaulting them" is a cart of manure. Painting an entire race with such a broad stroke, implying they're deceivers and loveless brutes, is as absurd as it is dehumanizing.
- Still, the interfertility of these creatures and the civilized hominids has yet to be empirically established or refuted, likely due to the deep cultural differences.
And there it is.
- Surely any normal Bosmer or Breton impregnated by an Orc would keep that shame to herself, and there's no reason to suppose that an Orc maiden impregnated by a human would not be likewise ostracized by her society.
The author is really telling on themselves here. This is a stellar example of bias in sources. The author is making a broad statement painted by their personal feelings that holds no academic bearing. It's an assumption, not a fact based in experimentation, and indubitably painted by the author's own cultural background. The author is biased against Orcs: they think that Orcs are "lesser" or "disgusting", something "no normal Breton" would want to be amorously involved with. A disgusting display of personal opinion that doesn't belong within ten feet of an academic paper.
- Regrettably, our oaths as healers keep us from forcing a coupling to satisfy our scientific knowledge.
Their one shred of academic integrity.
- We do know, however, that the Sload of Thras are hermaphrodites in their youth and later reabsorb their reproductive organs once they are old enough to move about on land.
Finally, something useful.
- It can be safely assumed that they are not interfertile with men or mer.
I'm not going to refute this, but never say never unless you've done the experiment. To assume makes an ass out of u and me.