Hello!

Welcome to this thread.

Here we are.

Yup.


Alright, so homosexuality in Rokugan is a surprisingly simple issue to address. Absent of puritanical values, pretty much nobody cares what two consenting adults do in the privacy of their own home (so long as it's not, you know, maho).

That being said, what happens in public is a very, very big deal. Samurai are supposed to be paragons of honor and virtue, and they're supposed to serve their lords.

For most samurai (excluding some weird quasi-monk situations like the Togashi and Henshin or the unique circumstances of the Suzume), one of their primary duties to your Clan is producing children that can serve the Clan in the future... ideally, a whole lot of children, as it helps the Clan to grow.

So long as you produce children, most of the people in the Empire don't really care what you do with your love life (which is a completely different thing from your married life). Homosexuality just doesn't really matter so long as the "produced some heirs" situation is addressed, and a romance between two men or two women is just as worthy of appreciation as one between a man and woman.

Even affairs really aren't that big of a deal (geisha and courtesans are a completely honorable thing), but because samurai are still people and people get jealous, it can still lead to awkward and dangerous situations, so fidelity is encouraged if only for the sake of Rokugan's #1 rule: "DO NOT MAKE A SCENE."

Also, most family lines sort of enjoy not having bastards running around, so there's that, too.



Now, all that being said, in Rokugan, it's not considered proper for anyone to really name the subject of their love. You get a bit of leeway if you're already married to that person, but even then, it's much more acceptable to write a poem about an undefined person that you love than to actually name a specific person, because at that point, the political traps snap open and anyone can push you into one without too much trouble (for just about any reason whatsoever).


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We're all adults here, and generally speaking, we're fairly accepting of peoples' adult life choices. So with regards to OOC Chat, let's just keep stuff cool, neh?

So far in our games, everyone's been addressing a sometimes complicated issue in a very positive way, so that's been good to see. Way to go.

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Credulous at best
Your desire to believe in
Angels in the hearts of men