Warning : Posting such topics is always a bit dangerous. Last week a similar thread was closed by a moderator due to the inappropriate behaviour of some of the paticipants. I sadly did not have the time to contribute to the said thread before it was closed, but the moderator who closed the topic allowed me to post my contribution after a few day as the opening of a new thread. However, there is no doubt that in case new inappropriate behaviour is witnessed, the topic will be closed, and duly closed. Those issues are worth being discussed, though. For those reasons, I ask you to abide the following rules :

1. Be respectful.

2. Discuss the topic "internally", that is, try to strip your mind off its real world conceptions and rather stay focused on a TES-world viewpoint. We're not looking for the way sixualities are being seen in real-world current or historic societies, but rather on what seems coherent within the Tamriellic or Daedric civilizations.

I am interested in the question of sixual mores in Tamriel as well as among Daedra. Indeed, much of the pleasure I find in the TES games lies in the discovery of an alien society and culture. I love to discover details about the way people live in that world. six is a part of their life, pretty much like religions, arts and crafts, clothing, nutritional habits. For that reason, I think that TES game have to feature some treatment of questions revolving around sixual behaviours and the mental representations of genders in the TES world. I also think that such question should receive a rather broad diversity of treatment (but also should not become overwhelmingly present).

The kind of questions I would like to raise here are the following.

How diverseare the sixual behaviours in the TES world? How dependant are they of the various civilizations and how did they evolve across history? How important is the research of pleasure to people of Tamriel and to Daedra? Is there a culture of pleasure? How does sixual behaviour connect to religious beliefs and feelings, or with worship of Gods and Princes? How much did romance, passion, attraction and love impact political life or important moments of History? How does sixual culture connect with possible traditional roles and representations of genders in the TES world? How does the existence of androgynous beings affect those questions? How does love, sixual attraction, sixual pleasure, and bodily aesthetics affect art and litterature in the TES world?

Here are some specific points that I think are worth being raised.

The Tamriellic societies don't seem to have built an anolytic theory of sixuality, nor a typology of sixual behaviours. From my viewpoint, homosixuality seems to be not only a non-issue but also a non-topic in most Tamriellic cultures and among most Tamriellic scholars. As is heterosixuality. Those are qualifiers which were born in our real world and wouldn't fit into Tamriel. I don't think I would like to read a book called "Homosixuality in Tamriel" in any TES game. I would however be delighted to read some book with titles like "The Dibellan Compendium - The Art of Erotism across Nirn" by some Priest of Dibella, or "Worshiping Sanguine", or "Carnal delights in Tamriel" written by a follower of Sanguine. And if such books are to be added, then they should probably feature not only the behaviours involving one male and one female being. We indeed do know that same-gender couples exist in Tamriel. There's the Fighters' Guild master's son and his lover in TES IV and there are those two Nord guys in Dragonborn.

It also exists in Oblivion. I think that Battlespire featured a couple of female Daedric followers of Nocturnal (Deyanira Katrece and Jaciel Mogren) who love each other. sixuality of Daedra could also be very interesting. Battlespire already teaches that sixuality isn't considered as a source of pleasure by Perthans, who rather finds delight in hurting alive beings. Here's another example about how I think it could be interesting to learn about sixual mores in Tamriel or Oblivion. Take the Mazkens and the Aureals. In those cultures, unlike in most Tamriellic ones, the genders aren't equal. Females have the privilege to rule and own a monopoly on both the military and the social hierarchies. In these conditions, and if, unlike the Perthans, they have any interest in sixuality, then maybe they consider sixual intercourse between females as a leisure which is well suited to the intrinsic nobility of their gender. Also, the male homosixuality among Mazken and Aureal could be the only one where the male servants of Sheogorath find respect and love instead of disdain and authority. On the other hand, if some males feel oppressed by females, then they could also see homosixuality as a way to mimic their opressors' behaviour and reject it. Whatever their stance is on six between males, if they even have a stance (or if they even have six at all), it could provide a good background for stories, quest, books, dialogues, and so on.

I'd like to know more about traditional gender roles (if there is any) and sixuality among Dreughs as well. I am very curious to know how their magical abilities to alter bodies and genders, and even to create hermaphrodism, affect that aspect of their life. The sixuality of Dunmers is also an interesting topic in my opinion. The new Temple has a female, a male and an androgynous component, which possibly affects Dunmeri views on six, not to even mention the Dunmeri interpretation of Mephala's sphere.

advltery does not seem to be accepted in Tamriel and seems to be a source of shame. There's a quest in Riften revealing that advltery is not well seen at all, and that Dibellan arts are despised by some people. Maybe it is due to the dominance of Mara in Riften's religious life -- even if it is, it remains a bit strange in my opinion, considering that the Benevolences of Mara are famed for their tolerance. More astonishingly, advltery seems to be a source of shame even in cities that are traditionnally devoted to Dibella, as we can learn, if I remember well, from the Siren's Deception quest.

While monogamy seems to be the rule in Cyrodiil and nowadays Skyrim (but Shor had three wives didn't he?), it seems that historically, and at least for political reasons, bigamy was tolerated in 2nd era Hammerfell (according to a leaked text from TESO). And Neloth practised a (quite monogamic) form of polygamy.

It is also interesting that there are two goddesses of love, Mara and Dibella. I think Mara is the Goddess of love in the long run. Love with engagement (either marital love or parental love). While Dibella's lovely sphere is twofold and is about pleasures conveyed by the senses (beauty, aesthetics, six, erotism) and about fertility (she shares with Druagaa the attributive flowers which are a symbol of fertility as it is a promise of seed or fruit and thus of new life ; she's also a patron for artists and artistic creation can be seen as a metaphorical way to give life -- or not so metaphorical, considering the Dibellan Brush of Truepaint). It is something interesting, in my opinion, that parental love and fertility don't seem to belong to the same deity's realm. I am wondering, for example, whether a Maran couple, the two members of which belong to the same six, could ask a Dibellan priest belonging to the other six to have six with them so that they could become parents.

Also of interest is the question of whether six has an impact on magic, and could be used in rituals.

Well, that's all which comes to my mind right now, so let's discuss. What are your opinions about those topics? Do you have any commentary pertining those issues?

Are there any sources outside of the obvious connections to Dibella and Mara that love and six play any specific role in magic in any way? I have seen this before as a tool in rituals so it would certainly make sense especially with how magic encompasses nearly all things in this universe.

As for the sixuality of Tamriel as a whole, or even just each province, I've never really thought about it. I mean in Morrowind you have the interactions with the member of House Hlaalu (the fellow who wrote the Lusty Argonian Maid) that push towards him being either homosixual, if your a male character, or simply bisixual. There isn't really anything beyond this that I recall however. IF this sort of thing were not a common thing or was looked down own there surely would have been comments regarding the man and I assume someone like him wouldn't be able to hold any sort of position of power, though maybe there were comments against him that I may not be remembering.

Then in Oblivion and Skyrim I think sixuality isn't touched upon too much besides the areas in Skyrim that you mentioned. To me it really is a shame that while the game tackles mature concepts and has such deep and rich world building that it doesn't expand on this topic not only through lore from books but also in game as well.

I suppose that because it seems that the majority of people you meet praise or believe in the eight that they would all agree with the teachings, beliefs of dibella, making everyone very open to six I'd assume. At least that's what I would think until you look at the case of Riften as you mentioned.

Too tired for a full response right now, but a minor off-topic on your last point:

All three female Divines and their counterparts, perhaps not coincidentally, represent an aspect of fertility. Dibella and Mara you've already covered (although I'd point out that Mara is in fact recognized as a fertility goddess in most Tamriellic cultures, according to Varieties of Faith), but I'd add Kynareth as well- as goddess of the sky and rain, she sustains Nirn and all the life on it, and to the Nords she is literally viewed as the Mother of Men.

My suspicion is that Mara, Dibella, and Kyne are the Nords' fractured interpretations of Nir, the original, primordial fertility goddess of the Anuad. Bonus points if somebody can connect this back to the enantiomorph.

Some Khajiit seem to be okay with polygamy or polyamory as well. I don't know if this applies to Khajiit society as a whole, though.
"3. "Fusozay Var Var": "Enjoy Life"

Life is short. If you have not made love recently, please, put down this book, and take care of that with all haste. Find a wanton lass or a frisky lad, or several, in whatever combination your wise loins direct, and do not under any circumstances play hard to get. Our struggle against the colossal forces of oppression can wait.

Good. Welcome back.

We Renrijra Krin live and fight together, and know that Leyawiin and the Empire will not give way very soon, likely not in our lifetimes. In the time we have, we do not want our closest comrades to be dour, dull, colorless, sober, and virginal. If we did, we would have joined the Emperor's Blades.

Do not begrudge us our lewd jokes, our bawdy, drunken nights, our moonsugar. They are the pleasures that Leyawiin denies us, and so we take our good humor very seriously."
- http://uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Ahzirr_Traajijazeri

Though it may just be a back-handed comment, this passage may also indicate that the Blades tend to abstain. At least, more-so than the Khajiit.


There's also the book of jokes in Daggerfall, where one of the jokes is about two Khajiit making love in front of one's mother. So it does seem that the mannish races tend to be a bit more private with such behavior, and rag on the Khajiit for being more public.