Cellsor: names, gender and pronouns
Sep. 8th, 2018 03:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
randomlingNaming
Children are officially, legally and by cultural consensus genderless. They are named as babies, but this name is not expected to last until adulthood - except, often, within the immediate family.
At around 13, each person chooses their adult name, gender and pronouns. This is done in a coming-of-age ceremony called a Naming, which is usually facilitated by a trusted adult or group of adults in the person's life (often a parent or parents, but sometimes a teacher, religious leader, or other important adult or group of adults). As befits a coming-of-age ceremony, it's usually expected that the person in question will be as heavily involved in organising the event as possible, though usually with the adults involved covering any expenses (most employers don't hire unnamed people, so it's difficult to make money independently before your Naming; this can cause problems for some, as you'll see later).
At the Naming, the person being Named is officially bestowed with their name, gender and pronouns. This has three parts: the Naming itself (in which the name, gender and pronouns are announced by a trusted adult), the Consent (in which the person Named consents to taking this name, gender and pronoun set) and the Welcoming (in which gathered friends, family and community members welcome the new adult with their pronouns).
Renaming
As an adult, you can hold a Renaming at any time, announcing a different name, gender, pronouns, or any combination of the above. You usually organise and pay for this yourself.
A Renaming is structured very similarly to a Naming, with the same three key elements as a Naming. Unlike a Naming, a Renaming can be a joint ceremony (with one or several other people), since the most common use of Renaming is marriage. Multi-person marriages are possible and legally valid. The second most common use of a Renaming is divorce. Gender transition in adulthood, however, is not uncommon, and nor is the simple taking of a new name or new pronoun set.
At a Renaming, you choose a partner or trusted friend to bestow the new name, gender and/or pronouns upon you; at a marital Renaming, it is traditional (but not universal) for marital partners to bestow their new names upon each other.
Being nameless
In small towns and villages, where everyone knows each other, orphaned or abandoned children are usually taken in and raised by a family friend, community member or local church. However, in larger towns and cities, some children inevitably fall through the cracks. These children grow up wild and unparented on the city streets, stealing and/or doing menial work to survive. Since most of them don't have an adult who cares about them enough to help facilitate a Naming, many of them don't have one.
UnNamed adults are called "nameless" and - in a country where marriage is optional and single parenthood is unexceptional - this is the rough equivalent of being illegitimate. However, since having an adult name and gender is essential to operate in the adult world, most nameless people adopt these things without a Naming. There is very little central record-keeping in Cellsor, and certainly no one keeps central records of Namings, so being nameless is usually a private shame. But for most nameless people, there is a constant fear of being "found out", and they are usually not the only people who have this information (or can work it out).
Nameless people are also officially and by cultural consensus genderless (see below for more information on genders).
For nameless people, it is possible to hold a Naming even well into what we would consider adulthood, since they are officially still children. As such, it is considered appropriate for an authority figure or mentor to bestow the new (or existing!) name, gender and pronouns, rather than having a peer do it as with a Renaming.
Gender identities and pronoun sets
Each gender identity has an associated pronoun set, but it is possible choose a pronoun set that isn't the "default" for your gender identity. It is also possible choose more than one pronoun set. What with the normal change in pronouns at adulthood, the possibility of having more than one pronoun set (and the required pronoun set for a person sometimes changing from day to day), and the option to hold a Renaming at any time, most people are good at switching pronouns.
There are four gender identities:
Genderless
Associated pronoun set: They/them/their
This is usually for children and nameless people, and being genderless is strongly associated with not having grown up yet. As such, most people who identify as neither male nor female in adulthood choose the neutral identity instead; however, there are adults with a genderless identity. They face prejudice in some quarters because of the strong association with childhood.
Neutral
Associated pronoun set: Ze/zir/zir
Most adults who identify as neither male nor female choose this identity. People who identify as a combination of male and female may also choose this identity (however see the information below on gender states).
Female
Associated pronoun set: She/her/her
Male
Associated pronoun set: He/him/his
There are also three gender states:
Singular
You have a single, usually static gender identity.
Bipartite
You have a dual identity, whether static ("I am both neutral and male, all the time") or fluid ("I am sometimes neutral and sometimes male, depending on the day").
Tripartite
You have a three-way identity, static or fluid. Most people with a tripartite choose neutral/female/male, because of the childhood associations with the genderless identity. However, it is possible to choose genderless/neutral/female or similar if you like.
Gender dysphoria and physical transition
There is much less cultural association between physical form and gender identity in Cellsor than there is in our world - the above state of affairs has been the case for several centuries. However, there are not no associations, and some people do still experience gender dysphoria and wish to physically transition.
This is very possible. Most of the transition options are magical; some are alchemical. Since the majority of the magical options are based on divine magic, these are usually freely available - as long as you can get to a temple with a sufficiently high-level cleric. (This will usually require getting to a large enough town; your best bets are Beletan, the capital, or Raveth, the enormous port city.) Since wizards and alchemists are usually not funded by the church, arcane and alchemical solutions are usually more costly, and some can run into the hundreds of gold pieces; arcane solutions are often faster than divine ones, and alchemical solutions, usually being a potion you take once a day for a number of days, are easier to fine-tune.
A typical naming ceremony
(Note: I'm using an example with a tripartite identity here, to demonstrate how multiple pronoun sets work. Elias, below, is being named by a priest.)
I think that's it!
Children are officially, legally and by cultural consensus genderless. They are named as babies, but this name is not expected to last until adulthood - except, often, within the immediate family.
At around 13, each person chooses their adult name, gender and pronouns. This is done in a coming-of-age ceremony called a Naming, which is usually facilitated by a trusted adult or group of adults in the person's life (often a parent or parents, but sometimes a teacher, religious leader, or other important adult or group of adults). As befits a coming-of-age ceremony, it's usually expected that the person in question will be as heavily involved in organising the event as possible, though usually with the adults involved covering any expenses (most employers don't hire unnamed people, so it's difficult to make money independently before your Naming; this can cause problems for some, as you'll see later).
At the Naming, the person being Named is officially bestowed with their name, gender and pronouns. This has three parts: the Naming itself (in which the name, gender and pronouns are announced by a trusted adult), the Consent (in which the person Named consents to taking this name, gender and pronoun set) and the Welcoming (in which gathered friends, family and community members welcome the new adult with their pronouns).
Renaming
As an adult, you can hold a Renaming at any time, announcing a different name, gender, pronouns, or any combination of the above. You usually organise and pay for this yourself.
A Renaming is structured very similarly to a Naming, with the same three key elements as a Naming. Unlike a Naming, a Renaming can be a joint ceremony (with one or several other people), since the most common use of Renaming is marriage. Multi-person marriages are possible and legally valid. The second most common use of a Renaming is divorce. Gender transition in adulthood, however, is not uncommon, and nor is the simple taking of a new name or new pronoun set.
At a Renaming, you choose a partner or trusted friend to bestow the new name, gender and/or pronouns upon you; at a marital Renaming, it is traditional (but not universal) for marital partners to bestow their new names upon each other.
Being nameless
In small towns and villages, where everyone knows each other, orphaned or abandoned children are usually taken in and raised by a family friend, community member or local church. However, in larger towns and cities, some children inevitably fall through the cracks. These children grow up wild and unparented on the city streets, stealing and/or doing menial work to survive. Since most of them don't have an adult who cares about them enough to help facilitate a Naming, many of them don't have one.
UnNamed adults are called "nameless" and - in a country where marriage is optional and single parenthood is unexceptional - this is the rough equivalent of being illegitimate. However, since having an adult name and gender is essential to operate in the adult world, most nameless people adopt these things without a Naming. There is very little central record-keeping in Cellsor, and certainly no one keeps central records of Namings, so being nameless is usually a private shame. But for most nameless people, there is a constant fear of being "found out", and they are usually not the only people who have this information (or can work it out).
Nameless people are also officially and by cultural consensus genderless (see below for more information on genders).
For nameless people, it is possible to hold a Naming even well into what we would consider adulthood, since they are officially still children. As such, it is considered appropriate for an authority figure or mentor to bestow the new (or existing!) name, gender and pronouns, rather than having a peer do it as with a Renaming.
Gender identities and pronoun sets
Each gender identity has an associated pronoun set, but it is possible choose a pronoun set that isn't the "default" for your gender identity. It is also possible choose more than one pronoun set. What with the normal change in pronouns at adulthood, the possibility of having more than one pronoun set (and the required pronoun set for a person sometimes changing from day to day), and the option to hold a Renaming at any time, most people are good at switching pronouns.
There are four gender identities:
Genderless
Associated pronoun set: They/them/their
This is usually for children and nameless people, and being genderless is strongly associated with not having grown up yet. As such, most people who identify as neither male nor female in adulthood choose the neutral identity instead; however, there are adults with a genderless identity. They face prejudice in some quarters because of the strong association with childhood.
Neutral
Associated pronoun set: Ze/zir/zir
Most adults who identify as neither male nor female choose this identity. People who identify as a combination of male and female may also choose this identity (however see the information below on gender states).
Female
Associated pronoun set: She/her/her
Male
Associated pronoun set: He/him/his
There are also three gender states:
Singular
You have a single, usually static gender identity.
Bipartite
You have a dual identity, whether static ("I am both neutral and male, all the time") or fluid ("I am sometimes neutral and sometimes male, depending on the day").
Tripartite
You have a three-way identity, static or fluid. Most people with a tripartite choose neutral/female/male, because of the childhood associations with the genderless identity. However, it is possible to choose genderless/neutral/female or similar if you like.
Gender dysphoria and physical transition
There is much less cultural association between physical form and gender identity in Cellsor than there is in our world - the above state of affairs has been the case for several centuries. However, there are not no associations, and some people do still experience gender dysphoria and wish to physically transition.
This is very possible. Most of the transition options are magical; some are alchemical. Since the majority of the magical options are based on divine magic, these are usually freely available - as long as you can get to a temple with a sufficiently high-level cleric. (This will usually require getting to a large enough town; your best bets are Beletan, the capital, or Raveth, the enormous port city.) Since wizards and alchemists are usually not funded by the church, arcane and alchemical solutions are usually more costly, and some can run into the hundreds of gold pieces; arcane solutions are often faster than divine ones, and alchemical solutions, usually being a potion you take once a day for a number of days, are easier to fine-tune.
A typical naming ceremony
(Note: I'm using an example with a tripartite identity here, to demonstrate how multiple pronoun sets work. Elias, below, is being named by a priest.)
Priest: Friends, we are assembled to witness a Naming. [probably insert sermon here; he is a priest after all]
[Elias comes forward]
Priest: I name you: Elias Cuttle! You are tripartite: Neutral, woman and man. You are ze, and she, and he. Do you consent to this Naming?
Elias: I consent. I am Elias Cuttle. I am tripartite: Neutral, woman and man. I am ze, and she, and he.
Priest: We welcome Elias Cuttle!
Assembled crowd: We welcome zir!
Priest: We welcome Elias Cuttle!
Assembled crowd: We welcome her!
Priest: We welcome Elias Cuttle!
Assembled crowd: We welcome him!
I think that's it!
