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Stranded in Space: He'Elean Pronouns, Sex and Gender

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Well, I did notice on your game post how you used a new pronoun for the alien. Honestly I am not too sure how to feel about that. I mean, the thing about making new pronouns is that if everyone is otherwise just speaking English and you throw out an alien word, it's kinda jarring. Though admittinglly English borrows words all the time, so it would make a degree of sense if it was borrowed for some new concept of gender. Like for a race that has three main gender roles, none of which really are directly parallel to 'male' or 'female'. But if you do do that, I wanna know how it works, especially if they have three sexes too. Give me the messy details yo! Though what about a race that doesn't even think gender is a meaningful construct, or understand what it is, and/or their language just doesn't use gendered pronouns at all and the whole idea baffles them a bit?

The above text from user Kayzee made me want to make this entry.

 

The He'Eleans actually don't have a concept of gender. Pronouns are given based on current social standing. Vanity, for instance, was a part of the He'Elean royalty, but for reasons I cannot explain because of spoilers, he was exiled from his planet and given the nov/novs pronouns. Another He'Elean you meet later in the game has different pronouns entirely (neb/nebs), due to being a relatively high member of the He'Elean royalty. The He'Eleans do not have any sort of gender sense, as they all have the same types of organs. They are a mammal species (in a sense, I went with some form of "spicy human" for the ease of digestion of the characters, as Vanity nebself is one of the main four characters in the game), so they gestate a child in the womb for some time and give birth. However, this is something all He'Eleans can do. All He'Eleans can also impregnate another. This is, however, not a focus of the game or story. Just an interesting fact. (I make sure I come up with every possible detail for a species when I make it, even if the detail is entirely useless. I am just strange that way.) Because of this, and because there are no distinguishing characteristics to create a binary/trinary/etc., pronouns are used for status.

 

The pronoun hierarchy is as follows:
High royalty - Neb/nebs

Low royalty - Lun/luns

Commoner - Sol/sols

Prisoner - Voi/vois

Exiled - Nov/novs

 

I am open to questions.


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Kayzee

Hehe, I was thinking myself about how a race that use pronouns based of social standings would work... I could see them insisting to use pronouns to distinguish between standings even in English, but I think it might be more likely for there to be some sloppy way of converting social pronouns to gendered pronouns, maybe something like:

 

High royalty - She (analogy to queen bees, always capitalized)

Low royalty - He (always capitalized)

Commoner - They

Prisoner/Exiled - It

 

Yes this would no doubt cause all sorts of confusion and complaining, so I can see how they might prefer to just use their own pronouns, but humans are lazy and will probably use a lazy hack like that rather then use new words if they can help it. Heck that might be a fun plot point really. XD

 

Come on you can offer more messy details then that! If all He'Eleans can impregnate each other and they are basically humanoid... Do they have all the parts? ❤️

 

 

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Verdiløs Games
56 minutes ago, Kayzee said:

Hehe, I was thinking myself about how a race that use pronouns based of social standings would work... I could see them insisting to use pronouns to distinguish between standings even in English, but I think it might be more likely for there to be some sloppy way of converting social pronouns to gendered pronouns, maybe something like:

 

High royalty - She (analogy to queen bees, always capitalized)

Low royalty - He (always capitalized)

Commoner - They

Prisoner/Exiled - It

 

Yes this would no doubt cause all sorts of confusion and complaining, so I can see how they might prefer to just use their own pronouns, but humans are lazy and will probably use a lazy hack like that rather then use new words if they can help it. Heck that might be a fun plot point really. XD

 

Come on you can offer more messy details then that! If all He'Eleans can impregnate each other and they are basically humanoid... Do they have all the parts? ❤️

 

 

I might go with that, actually! It is a very good idea, Kayzee.

 

As for the messy details, I will put it in a spoiler. IF YOU ARE UNDERAGE, OR SIMPLY DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE MESSY DETAILS, DO NOT READ THE SPOILER.

Spoiler

Yes, they all have all the parts. However, there are mating rituals, so to say, to distinguish things. For instance, if they were to procreate for the sake of having a child, they would act differently beforehand than they would if they were procreating for the sake of recreation. They have pheromones the average adult He'Elean can purchase. These pheromones have a wide range of effects depending on which one is purchased, ranging from an increased libido, different sensations, heightened sensitivity, etc., but one in particular actually disables the hormone that makes the user fertile, allowing for more ease of casual intercourse. There is another pheromone they can purchase that sends that hormone into hyper-drive, guaranteeing someone will get pregnant, if that is what they desire.

 

If you have any further questions, don't be afraid to ask! However, I would prefer to discuss anything else in a DM and not one of the blog posts.

Like I said, I work maybe a little too much on my species.

 

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Kayzee

Of course, I bet you could make just using new pronouns work fine if you really tried, but I imagine it would get sort of old and troublesome to remember.

 

Hehe, that's enough questions for me. :3 As much as I am curious about anatomical details, it really shouldn't be important. Although if you don't go into those details chances some fan will, so be careful of that. XD

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