I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but it’s timely for other reasons. I have a use for this table right soonish.
When I wrote Polyhedral Pantheons, I wanted to avoid associating any domain with either gender. I came up with a scheme to randomize the gender selection. I could have flipped a coin, but decided to do something more complicated… and I think the book was better because of it.
- Roll a white d8, and a black d8.
- If the white die is higher, the deity is male.
- If the black die is higher, the deity is female.
- If they tie… we do something else.
Of the 72 deities presented in Polyhedral Pantheons, I had 9 non-binary deities. Plus one more that might be borderline: is male when he pays attention, but otherwise ignores gender-based distinctions.
- Shu-Shi Pantheon (22 deities, fantasy medieval Chinese halflings)
- Shouwei, asexual (dedication to duty is such that sexuality became irrelevant).
- Pianju, shape changes so often, no one remembers what they’re ‘supposed’ to be.
- Goblin Pantheon (22 deities, three goblin cultures)
- Mazany (Vorubec), shape changing/disguise… much like Pianju
- Zinicit (Jhesiri), composite manifestation (five aspects, tears them from ‘herself’ and casts them into the world as needed… ‘contents of pants’ highly variable)
- Vydirani (Jhesiri), basically unknown, this deity rarely manifests materially, only as a whisper or a message in the sand.
- Osada (Kouzelnik), switches back and forth depending on what they think would work better at the moment.
- Carodej (Kouzelnik), would identify as male if asked, but really doesn’t care.
- Elemental Tetratheon (28 deities, elementally-themed subpantheons)
- Syvetlos (fire), extremely androgynous, sex indeterminate.
- Staratel (water), sequentially hermaphroditic (manifests as a locathah… I had no idea locathah were so, until I rolled doubles…).
- Putovanja (air), manifests as a dark, smoky cloud. How do you sex a cloud?
As is often the case, I see I an easily fall into a rut when I invent things. I’d like to see if I can build out a richer, more interesting set of non-binary gender types and explanations.
In the list above I see
- Asexual (fixated on other things): Shouwei, Carodej
- Amorphous (non-sexed manifestation): Vydirani, Putovanja
- Lost (better name?): Pianju, Mazany, Osada
- Androgynous: Syvetlos
- Sequential hermaphroditic: Staratel
- Aspected: Zinicit
What other options are viable, especially considering this can go well beyond real biology?