Fantasy Gender Concept

[bruorton]

So, a couple friends and I were discussing how magic would actually change a society -- as opposed to the fantasy trope of "medieval-ish world where some people also know magic, but it does not fundamentally change anything." And it was observed that to work out a realistic magic society, you'd have to go back to the origins of culture, to the very beginnings and work your way up... and one thing led to another, and now that's what we're going to try to do, as a sort of correspondence writing game thing. We worked out a few fundamental starting concepts to orient us and how our early people think and maybe the first glimmerings of how they use magic -- from "place" and "death" to more practical things like "food" and shelter." 

My first entry is "gender" and the only request was that it not be some boring binary patriarchal nonsense. I was entirely down with this, although... I may have gotten carried away. Critiques are welcome.

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Gender

Early people recognized 5 primary genders. Children were regarded as without gender, tending as they matured to grow into one or another identity, their physical and sensory characteristics maturing accordingly as they took on that social role.

While gender roles were hardly rigid -- a pneot could easily go foraging if pne felt like it, for instance, or a hleot go hunting -- when the pull toward a different identity ran deep, a person would gradually grow into the new gender in full, naturally adapting much the same as when transitioning from childhood. (This was especially common in the decade or so after maturity, often to and from chaot, but could happen later in life as well.) This state was called praot (pra/prar), when a person was for a time considered to be of more than one gender. It was also not uncommon for a person to actually remain praot the rest of prar life, gaining a unique synthesis of the given genders (and their associated abilities). While rare, a praot might even become a third gender as well.

Chaots (cha/char) bore children, and possessed a preternatural sensibility about living things, death, and transformation. Consequently, hunting was also char domain.

Geots (ge/ger) could listen to the earth and bodies of water, and so were the primary foragers for a clan.

Hleots (hle/hler) had an affinity for the sun and other heavenly bodies, for heat and cold, and seasonal change. They sustained community life, tending the camp, and were primarily responsible for parenting.

Pneots (pne/pner) were scouts and rangers, assessing dangers and opportunities for the group, and determining when and where the camp might move. They were attuned to the sky, to wind and cloud and weather.

Staots (sta/star) were the least common gender, possessing an awareness of the world’s deeper rhythms. They were able to perceive things from a distance, even far off, and could remember things from before there were people, and sometimes also things which had not happened yet. They were a group’s keepers of communal memory, and its storytellers.

Most people initially adopted one of these genders upon adulthood, even if many (in fact, most) would eventually become praot and transition to another. There were, however, a few who never developed distinctly into a typical gender, and these were called rmaots (rma/rmar). While rmaots tended to take on whatever communal roles felt right, and at first might be mistaken for praots, rmar affinities tended to be very specific, but fit no existing pattern or category. A rmaot might perceive other realities, hear others’ thoughts, or even walk waking through dreams.