The Hearts of Reial: An Exploration of Sex, Romance, and Love Across the Mortal Races

Reina t'Lendt, Scholar of Comparative Anthropology

The Grand Library of Xosh

5E, 199

The study of inter-racial romantic and reproductive customs has long been considered a delicate subject within scholarly circles, often dismissed as too intimate for academic pursuit or too varied for meaningful categorization. Yet, in our increasingly interconnected world, where trade routes bring distant peoples together and mixed settlements are growing more common, understanding these fundamental aspects of cultural identity becomes not merely an academic curiosity but a practical necessity.

Over the past twelve years, I have traveled extensively throughout Reial, from the mountain halls of the dwarven holds to the forest groves where elven communities practice their ancient courtship rites. I have observed goblin hand takings, witnessed orcish frenzies, and sat in halfling family circles where matches are discussed with the same care given to prize crop selections. And, in my time studying the various races, I have learn much that may be of use to the scholars and commoners of Reial alike.

It is worth noting that this study primarily focuses on the dominant cultural patterns within each racial group. Individual variation, regional differences, and the growing influence of intercultural contact mean that no single description can encompass the full range of any people's romantic traditions. Nevertheless, certain core patterns persist across time and geography, forming what I believe is the foundation of each race's approach to love, partnership, and procreation.

Humans

Of all the races inhabiting Reial, humans display the greatest diversity in their approaches to romantic and sexual relationships. This variability appears to stem from their relatively short lifespans, rapid cultural evolution, and remarkable adaptability to different environments and social structures. However, these observations were the clearest foundations I was able to observe across the cultures of Reial.

Development: Humans reach sexual maturity between twelve and sixteen years of age, though mental maturity is generally not recognized until several years later, with most contemporary cultures recognizing adulthood as starting at eighteen. Human development follows a single, continuous progression from childhood through adolescence to full adulthood, lacking the distinct phases observed in elven maturation. Many human cultures mark this transition with coming-of-age ceremonies that formally recognize the individual's readiness for romantic and sexual relationships.

Sex: Human sexuality is characterized by what I will call "restrained abundance": a natural inclination toward multiple partners tempered by social structures that typically enforce more limited expression. The dominant human mating strategy seems to be serial monogamy, maintaining intense sexual relationships with one partner at a time while transitioning between multiple relationships throughout their lifetime. However, of all the races, humans are least bound to this tendency.

Romance: Human romance features intense, dramatic courtship rituals involving poetry, music, and grand gestures, but humans struggle to maintain that passion over their entire lifetime with a single partner. This ebb creates courtship cycles where each new relationship tends to begin with elaborate romantic pursuits that signal to the community a new bond is forming.

Love: Human concepts of love are the most contradictory among all races, as they simultaneously idealize eternal devotion while living in ways that suggest love's temporary nature. They distinguish between passionate love, companionate love, familial love, and various other forms with remarkable sophistication. Perhaps most distinctively, humans possess a capacity for "renewable love," forming new, equally intense emotional bonds repeatedly throughout their lives as previous relationships fade.

Elves

Elven approaches to love, sexuality, and partnership represent perhaps the most spiritually integrated system among all the races of Reial. Their unique biological development, combined with their extraordinary longevity and empathic abilities, has created a culture where romantic bonds transcend mere physical or emotional attraction to become something approaching mystical union.

(Please note that, while I was able to study grove elves, I was not able to directly observe the far more rare sun elves. However, my research has indicated that that subgroup experiences much of the same experiences, though their terminology differs from their more common cousins.)

Development: Grove elves experience three distinct life phases: a childhood state, called lasgalen (green leaves), the transitional mithlgalen (silver leaves), and mature elgalen (gold leaves). During mithlgalen, elves remain androgynous and sexually undifferentiated, a state that can last decades, centuries, or a lifetime if the elf forms no romantic bonds. The transformation to elgalen occurs through nimraïs (the change), where elves develop into their sexually dimorphic adult forms, with each elf's physical type matching what is most comfortable and natural to each individual. These changes happen abruptly, lasting roughly one year per transition.

Sex: Sex is viewed as a deeply spiritual bonding experience among elves, who have little understanding of the separation between love, affection, and physical intimacy. For elves, every sexual encounter is passionate and rooted in genuine emotional connection. In fact, physical intimacy without an emotional bond is functionally unheard of among the elves. Additionally, due to their emphatic connections, elves feel the sexual desire of their bondmates. As such, an emotionally healthy elven polycule is often a highly sexual one.

Romance: Elven romance is complicated relative to other races due to their natural empathic abilities, which allow bonded elves to sense and feel their partners' emotions directly. This creates a level of emotional intimacy and certainty unknown to other races, as elves know with absolute certainty how their mates feel about them. Traditional courtship rituals become less about uncertainty and discovery, and more about the gradual deepening of an already-confirmed emotional connection. Likewise, elven romance is more about cohesion and comfort than emotional displays of affection.

Love: Elven love structures center around the aranán (heart-bearer), a dominant partner who transitions from mithlgalen to elgalen almost immediately upon reaching mental and emotional maturity. Then, when an aranán bonds with a mithlgalen who reciprocates their feelings, that mithlgalen undergoes nimraïs, transforming into elgalen and bonding as that aranán's mirán (heart-given). Once established, these bonds typically endure for the entirety of their centuries-long lives, with each mirán in a household also forming deep emotional connections with their aranán's other mirán, creating complex webs of interconnected love and loyalty.

Dwarves

Dwarven approaches to relationships stand in stark contrast to the passionate bonds of elves or the romantic volatility of humans. Born of stone and shaped by duty, dwarven culture emphasizes pragmatic partnership, clan loyalty, and the gradual cultivation of deep affection over time. The harshness of their homeworld and their staunch cultural values create a system where love grows from commitment rather than commitment growing from love.

Development: Dwarves are not bor through biological reproduction but crafted from living stone by a group of individuals, typically a clan, working in careful collaboration. The process requires intense focus, skill, and emotional investment, as the creators shape the stone form while providing their essence to animate it. When executed with sufficient care and mastery, the stone awakens as a fully formed dwarf, though mental and emotional maturity is typically not recognized until the individual reaches thirty years of age.

Sex: Due to sex being a vestigial function of their biology, sex serves purely recreational purposes for dwarves. Most dwarves enjoy physical intimacy and actively seek it out for the pleasure and comfort it provides, but they do not require it for survival or emotional well-being. As a natural consequence, many dwarves report that sexual activity becomes a low priority as they age, gradually giving way to other forms of companionship and satisfaction.

Romance: Dwarven marriages are typically arranged for clan and political considerations, with the needs of the clan taking clear precedence over individual desires. Since dwarves experience neither intense romantic longings nor overwhelming sexual drives, infidelity and betrayal of partners are virtually unknown in their society. Romance is viewed as something to be cultivated and developed over time within an established partnership, or partnerships, rather than the foundation upon which relationships are built.

Love: Dwarves are capable of profound and enduring love, but they conceptualize it as something that grows gradually through shared experience and mutual commitment. Their love deepens over decades and centuries of partnership, yet it never supersedes their fundamental duty to clan and community. Even when high-status dwarves maintain multiple spouses as a means of securing valuable inter-clan alliances, this stability is found through their entire familial structure.

Gnomes

Gnomish relationships represent perhaps the most monogamous and devoted partnerships among all the races of Reial. Sharing origins with their dwarven cousins but formed from humbler dirt rather than noble stone, their unique lifecycle and vestigial sexuality create relationships based purely on emotional and intellectual connection.

Development:

Gnomes create offspring through the careful shaping of living dirt. Unlike dwarven stone-crafting, which often involves multiple creators, gnomish child formation is an intimate act requiring absolute trust and synchronization between exactly two partners. The resulting gnome child emerges fully formed but requires decades to develop mentally, with adulthood typically being recognized around thirty years of age.

Sex: Gnomish sexual organs are entirely vestigial, rendering physical intimacy impossible and unnecessary for their species. This complete absence of sexual drive eliminates many of the complications that affect other races' relationships, allowing gnomish partnerships to develop along purely emotional and intellectual lines. Without the distraction of physical desire, gnomes form bonds based on shared curiosity, complementary skills, and deep emotional compatibility.

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Romance: Gnomish romance centers entirel around intellectual and emotional compatibility, expressed through collaborative invention, shared discoveries, and the gradual building of a life partnership. Courtship involves demonstrating one's worthiness as a life companion, often through joint projects that showcase both partners' abilities to work in harmony.

Love: Gnomes practice monogamy, pair-bonding with a single partner for their entire existence and never remarrying if that partner dies. Their love is characterized by deep devotion, intellectual partnership, and gradual intensification over their extended lifespans. As gnomes slowly return to the dirt from which they were formed in their aging process, surviving partners often choose to accelerate their own dissolution to rejoin their beloved in the earth, creating a love that literally transcends death itself.

Halflings

Halflings are known for their celebration of freedom, enjoyment, and personal choice. While many choose to travel or live communally for a time, especially when raising children, lasting partnerships or lifelong family units are never assumed. For halflings, no relationship is a permanent obligation unless both parties continually choose it. This creates a society where individuals are free to define their own bonds without stigma, ownership, or expectation.

Development: Halflings mature at a pace similar to humans, reaching sexual maturity in their late teens and being recognized as adults around twenty years of age. Adulthood marks the beginning of true independence, and most halflings embrace this time as an era of exploration, travel, and experimentation before deciding whether to form any lasting partnerships.

Sex: To halflings, sexuality is a joyful appetite much like music, food, or dancing. It's merely something to be savored. Physical intimacy is common, natural, and open for halflings, and it is not inherently tied to romance or commitment. While mutual respect and consent are paramount, jealousy and possessiveness are considered alien traits, and no stigma surrounds casual encounters. Halflings generally view sex as a way to celebrate life and connection rather than as a tool of exclusivity or ownership.

Romance: Romantic bonds among halflings tend to be spontaneous and fluid. Courtship, when it happens, is more about shared adventures and experiences than proving one's suitability as a provider. Passion and infatuation are welcomed but understood as transient states rather than lifelong commitments. A couple may stay together for a season or a decade, or they may part ways after a single evening, but they always leave trusting that their affections do not need permanence to be meaningful.

Love: Halflings understand love as a living, evolving experience rather than a single, binding contract. It is as likely to be found in a traveling companion or a close friend as in a co-parent. Deep affection is celebrated, but it does not require ownership or exclusivity; many halflings maintain multiple long-term bonds over their lifetimes, each unique. Where children are involved, the focus is on ensuring they are cared for without an emphasis on a rigid family model. The halfling view of love prioritizes freedom and mutual joy over permanence or obligation.

Orcs

Orc society is patriarchal and is founded on strength, dominance, and the primal right to claim what one can hold. Love as a social contract does not exist among orcs, and strict pair bonding is rare to nonexistent. Instead, mating is driven by action, competition, and public challenge. Desire is pursued openly, contests are expected, and only the strong can secure and maintain the mates they desire.

Development: Orcs reach full physical maturity by their mid- to late-teens. Once recognized as adults, they become full participants in the tribal hierarchy: competing for status, territory, and mates. Children are raised communally by the tribe, and parentage is regarded as a mark of prestige rather than an obligation of partnership.

Sex: An orc who desires a mate must demonstrate their worth through feats of strength, martial contests, or dominance displays. Rival claims are settled through ritualized combat or dangerous tests overseen by the tribe's elders or chieftain. A successful "claim" grants a period of exclusive mating rights but does not imply lifelong ownership; such rights can be defended, lost, or relinquished over time.

Romance: Orcs do not separate desire from competition. Both males and females experience heightened fertility cycles, intensifying the contests for mates during rut and heat seasons. During these times, the tribe's hierarchy may shift dramatically as challengers rise and established claimants are overthrown. These periods are celebrated with communal feasts, war games, and rites of blood and fire, reinforcing the tribal ethos of strength and survival.

Love: Among orcs, what outsiders might call "love" is, to the orc, more an intense recognition of power, vitality, and shared struggle than an enduring personal bond. An orc may feel deep admiration or attraction to a strong mate or rival, but such feelings never override the expectation of competition or claiming. Likewise, their deepest loyalty is to their own strength and to the tribe as a whole, not to any individual partner.

Goblins

Goblin society is intensely matriarchal, rooted in their origins as soldiers bred by the Dark Lord. Female goblins are naturally stronger, larger, and more dominant than males, and they hold nearly all positions of power within their tribes. Male goblins grow up competing among themselves for strength and status, knowing that only the most capable will be chosen to sire children. This creates a culture defined by relentless competition, strict hierarchies, and an instinctive reverence for female authority.

Development: Female goblins mature slightly earlier than males, reaching physical adulthood in their mid-teens. Males often spend their youth apart from the females, training, fighting, and competing to rise in rank. Only after they have proven themselves in strength and cunning may they approach a female as a potential mate. Children are raised communally by the tribe but under the direction of the matriarchs, reinforcing the female-centered structure from an early age.

Sex: Goblin mating is not casual or communal. It is the culmination of ritualized combat and natural selection. When a male believes himself strong enough, he may challenge a female to single combat. If the female loses, she may take his hand, marking him as her chosen mate and acknowledging his worth to sire her children. The "taking of the hand" is considered one of the highest honors a male can achieve. Female goblins occasionally have relations with one another, which is seen as socially meaningless and carries no stigma. On the contrary, they rarely, if ever, take male lovers.

Romance: Romantic displays among goblins revolve around strength, dominance, and status rather than affection or courtship. Males signal their readiness for mating through feats of arms, trophies, or public victories; females display their dominance through command, victory in battle, and social authority. While admiration and attraction exist, they are inseparable from respect for strength and combat prowess. However, once a female goblin takes a male's hand, her affection for, and devotion to, that male are both intense and grasping. To the claimed gobliness, her hand holder is a prized possession to be shown off and prized.

Love: What goblins consider "love" is what other races would describe as an intense drive to unite strength with strength to produce stronger offspring. Despite that, deep affection often develops between a female and her chosen mate. Female goblins value their chosen males as living trophies of their own dominance and discernment, while males see the bond as both honor and survival.

Cultural Factors

These observations reflect my twelve years of study among the seven dominant races, living within predominantly culturally homogenous communities that maintained traditional practices. My analyses are intended to be neither comprehensive nor prescriptive. They simply document the patterns and behaviors I witnessed during my fieldwork. Since the end of the Fourth Era, the increasing interconnectedness between the races has created significant shifts in customs and social norms. Today's world presents a complex mishmash of traditional practices alongside adapted and hybrid cultural expressions.

That being said, it remains necessar to understand these underlying proclivities, particularly when engaging in cross-cultural interactions where such knowledge can prevent misunderstandings and foster better relationships. Judgment and stigma have no place in a world that houses numerous sentient races, many of which were not included in this study. These descriptions serve as cultural guideposts based on observed tendencies, not absolute truths, and should be approached with both respect and an understanding that individual variation always exists within any community.

Alex Clark, American Human Fighter of the Shield 36

The Iron Sentinel, Hero of the Pit

Attributes

Strength: 44+5

Resilience: 56+5

Agility: 31+5

Power: 21

Will: 43

Equipment

[Myrshale Armor]

[Impregnability III]

[Myrshale Helm]

[Hawk Eyes]

[Knight's Shield]

[Blade Seeker I]

Skills

[Iron Skin]

[Intercept]

[Provoke]

[Second Wind]

[Shield Throw]

Talents

[Adaptable]

[Grit]

[Paragon]

[Rampart]

[Touched by the Dark Lord]

[Unbreakable]

[United We Stand]

Quests

[The Alchemist of Galden]

Tasks

American (1

★)

: [Lead the Free]

Fighter (8

★):

[A Good Fight]

Guardian (1

★) [Protect the Weak]

Human (0

★)

: [Jack of All Trades]

Shield (11

★)

: [In Enduring, Grow Strong]

Na-Tristan, Groveborn Human Acolyte of the Tower 16

Never-Miss Tris

Attributes

Strength: 19

Resilience: 20

Agility: 25

Power: 28

Will: 26

Skills

[Barrier]

[Bless]

[Healing Light]

[Holy Light]

Spells

1st Circle

[Cure Poison]

[Protection from Disease]

2nd Circle

[Cure Disease]

Talents

[Adaptable]

[Fey Senses]

[Light Touched]

[Sense Life]

[Wind's Whisper]

Tasks

Acolyte (6★): [A Light in the Dark]

Elf (1★): [Timeless Connection]

Groveborn (1★): [Nature's Whisper]

Human (1★): [Jack of All Trades]

Tower (3★): [Bring Light to the Land]

Quests

[The Alchemist of Galden]

Vral Tu'Vigh, ??

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