Anyone have experiences in creating alien species for a new settings and sexual dimorphism? I can't figure out a way to distinguish the males vs the females in my new setting without slapping on a pair of tits to the chest. Examples are much appreciated.
>>39758595
Furries are weird, weird people.
>>39758595
What the fuck?
>>39758595
>I dont know how to make males and females different
Man, these fucking plebeians are getting out of hand.
The males tend to shitpost more.
What's wrong with tits now?
>>39758595
I homebrewed a sci-fi setting once. One of the races was covered in thick chitinous plates, the males being generally shorter and stockier with sharp or rough ridges, while females tended to be taller, leaner, and have smoother shinier carapaces.
Your best bet is to pick another distinguishing feature of whatever alien you're looking at, and make it more pronounced in one of the genders.
Sharktits! A-woo-ooh!
>>39758595
Females of any species tend to have wider hips than the males. There is also the presence of differing facial structures and body curvatures to consider. If a race is arthropodic, the different shapes in the abdomen may work.
Also if there is any form of cranial ridging, plummage, or patterning, then the most competitive sex, usually male, will have it more pronounced.
>>39758595
>Not wanting to slap tits onto everything
Gender is just like a social construct, you should set your game in a more progressive time where people can be whatever gender they want and physical differences don't matter! - tumblr
Alternatively, just make everyone hot women! - /a/
>>39758595
Look to nature.
>Sex 1 is larger, sex 2 smaller
>Sex 1 practically blends with its biome, sex 2 stands out in some wildly obvious way
>differentiated genetaila or secondary sex-related structures that AREN'T tits
>overt sex-differentiated behaviors
>>39758690
>then the most competitive sex, usually male, will have it more pronounced.
We get it, men are faggots.
>>39758675
>>39758692
I don't think anon wants to make them furfag fapbait material, he probably wants them to not just be a bunch of boring exaggerated human races like elves or dorfs, and instead wants an actually interesting looking race that's separate from humanity.
>>39758595
Differences in size and muscle mass are an easy one. Alternately, take inspiration from weird-ass sexual dimorphism on earth. Only female mosquitoes drink blood, for example- males drink flower nectar.
>goatpeople
>males are shorter and more muscular, females taller and lither
>spiderpeople
>males are much smaller and sort of... not smart, and prone to violence, often live on their own in rural tribal groups
>females lived in mixed societies like everyone else, are shunned for being gross spiders but are often skilled craftsmen
>lizardishpeople
>hermaphrodite species that differentiate based on brood role over the course of several weeks
>"eggbearers" have softer features and longer feathers
>"caregivers" have harder features, are prone to aggression and competitive behavior, and increased muscle mass
>catpeople
>????????????????????????????????
>apparently I never came up with something for them
>>39758693
>Gender is just like a social construct, you should set your game in a more progressive time where people can be whatever gender they want and physical differences don't matter! - tumblr
There are people that actually beieve this, and the concept makes me throw up a little in my mouth.
>>39758722
I don't understand your keep in logic. Birds various kinds such as turkeys, pheasants, peacocks, or birds of paradise will often look fab as hell and do mating displays to impress the ladies with how straight and masculine they are.
>>39758595
I make plenty of aliens, but almost never in hard scifi, so take all my stuff with a grain of salt.
Here, have some Saharduin
Just look at gender differences in other species.
Serious answer:
Don't bother. At least for one species. Having a species without genders period is often rather interesting.
>>39758772
>Peacocks
>masculine
>"Hay gurls, look at my huge fluffy ass feathers hahahaha!"
>>39758743
Pretty much
>>39758701
>>39758690
>>39758684
I pretty much did this for the males, making them pronounced and colorful in their basic coloring. Kinda stuck on the females.
>>39758778
That's actually what I was looking for. I am making them a race of land sharks. I actually looked at real sharks but its very hard to distinguish between a male and female.
>>39758804
It's fine if you don't pull a Mass Effect and make them basically all hot women like the Asari.
>>39758771
Sex is biological. Gender roles have a slight biological component, but are largely social constructs. Gender identity is a combination of genetalia, chemical levels, and brain wiring.
If you don't like this, too fucking bad. Reality doesn't require your approval. And no, capcha, no matter how hard you try, that ham sandwich isn't a fucking hamburger.
>>39758816
Internet could always use more shark people.
Anyway, here are some of my own aliens with a big dimorphism. The men are fuckheug and the women are human sized.
>>39758841
>Gender roles have a slight biological component, but are largely social constructs. Gender identity is a combination of genetalia, chemical levels, and brain wiring.
Doublethink in action, ladies and gentlemen.
>>39758841
>Gender identity is a combination of genetalia, chemical levels, and brain wiring
So gender is biological?
>>39758687
I had that same thought.
>>39758692
Not everything has to have tits on it, ya know.
>>39758595
The chances of an alien species having the same sort of life cycle as anything on earth is nearly zero.
>>39758850
in 99% of animals females are larger.
The more you know.
>>39758595
Coloration, pattern, size and structure are the most obvious and classic ways to differentiate sex in creatures.
Coloration differentiation is most common in birds, reptiles and many aquatic creatures. Size differentiation is extremely common in insects (usually the female is bigger) and is also somewhat common in mammals (usually the opposite, the male is bigger). Structure applies to any species but is much more subtle, the differences in structure between genders are usually not as obvious as other differences. Voice dimorphism is also an easy one but usually goes along with size, the bigger will have a deeper voice and the smaller will have a higher voice.
If you're creating a sentient, civilized species you should also consider cultural dimorphism (different genders of a species acting differently, dressing differently, having different traditions).
My advice is be creative, don't just make funny looking humans who ape human culture (Males are sturdier and thicker and occupy most military an hard labor jobs, females are slender and have value in their society put on their beauty but are considered physically weaker). Consider that an alien society and species should be truly ALIEN and vastly different to our own society, it's too common for people to fall into the trap of making funny looking humans when trying to make an alien species.
>>39758927
You're right. I'm just... not really into giantess stuff.
Trying to find more I've drawn without tits. Here's some.
>>39758950
>not into larger women manhandling you, crushing you and making you feel powerless.
Get out of my sight you sick fuck.
>>39758815
>Hay gurls, look at my huge gaudy bling, tattoos, and Lamborghini hahahaha!
Isn't there a donut burger with your name on it somewhere?
>>39758950
Im just saying that if your race operates on sexually in the traditional sense, it makes no sense for males to be bigger. Mammals in particular are the exception.
>>39758859
Gender roles and gendered behavior vary wildly across social groupings. Gender roles and behavior can vary wildly in the same social grouping over the passage of time. Therefore, while there is a clear biological component that is a factor, social pressures are a greater driver.
Also, mislabeling isn't a counter-argument, cunt.
>>39758860
Gender identity? For the most part.
>>39758985
You know, I have to say, those donut burgers really made me gag.
But so does stupid bling and frivolous spending on something as worthless as a lambo.
And tattoos are meh, I don't see the appeal.
Just cause you a stupid nigger doesn't mean I am.
>>39758988
>traditional sense
I don't touch the stuff. I hear it messes with your thinking organs.
>>39758996
Put a panda in a three-puece suit and it's just a panda in a suit, snowflake. How you act doesn't change what you are.
>>39758816
>a race of land sharks
Slightly larger females with mating scars, claspers (vestigial?) on the males.
>>39758818
There was actually a bit of dialogue you could overhear at the club an Illium in ME2 where a bachelor party of all of the non-Asari council races was discussing how attractive the Asari were, and they all seemed to think that the Asari looked the most like their species. There was brief speculation that the Asari instinctively use their natural biotics to make themselves appear attractive to anyone they come across, but it is quickly discarded as being way to creepy to think about. As far as I'm concerned that's the explanation for Asari being uniformly hot blue or purple girls.
>>39758816
Well if you're doing sharks then here are some basic rules for what you need.
1. Most shark species do not have any sexual dimorphism, so you could consider creating a society in which distinguishing between genders is done though something other than visual observation (like pheromones, which would mean that members of other species wouldn't be able to tell the genders apart without asking which could make for an interesting society).
2. If you must include some kind of sexual dimorphism, consider having one gender have a rounder snout/nose while the other gender's is more elongated,it's small but as I said, sharks don't generally have sexual dimorphism.
>>39758996
Ignoring the alternate definitions (along with their political/social implications) and continuing to use the words "gender" and "sex" interchangeably is a perfectly fine response, however.
>>39759069
>>39759040
>>39758946
Thanks, I think I'm going to go for larger females biological, and other then some facial features to distinguish the two, there wont be much biologically different on the outside (claspers very probable). Culturally I already have plans for a matriarchy, so that will help quite a bit. Thanks guys>
Also did not expect shark tits to be such a popular conversation tool on /tg/.
>>39758880
Not really. Evolution adapts things based on the fitness of their environment, but there are some things that are objectively better for multiple environments that could, and most likely would pop up in species outside of earth.
Plus the fact that earth is an extremely varied place. We're finding shit in places we didn't think anything could live in. I wouldn't be surprised if we found things on Europa quite similar to the extremophiles that live in the coldest spots on earth.
>>39759136
A-woo-ooh!
>>39759146
>>39758687
Who keeps saying that?!
>>39759033
If sex = panda, then sure. A two-spirit Oglala Lakota with a penis is biologically male, its gender role is majority female, and its gender identity is third. Dressing up in female clothes doesn't allow a two-spirit to alter its physical sex, but it is an external indicator of gender identity, and a primary cue used when externally assessing adherence to gender roles.
>>39759075
So long as you're talking about biology, absolutely. It's when culture, behavior, and psychology come into play that higher granularity is required.
>>39759136
No problem, also consider trying to do something to deviate from the over-used humanoid shape. I would imagine something with a quadrupedal shape with additional arms coming from the sides (about where the fins would be on a normal shark). The front legs could be longer than the back to give a more upright appearance.
I don't know, I'm just kinda spit-balling here, I'm just saying be creative! Not every sentient species has to be humanoid.
>>39759031
Please, you've got a simple gender binary for your race. You could have alternating polypoloidies, a gender spectrum based on chromosome ratios, or even internal hermaphrodidity. All of which are real things in nature.
>>39759193
Prove anything you said after "biologically male" actually exists anywhere but in the deluded regions of someone's psyche, and I might give a damn.
>>39759193
Then make your own word quit trying to hijack gender to mean something it doesn't.
>>39759237
My favorite is having slime people reproduce via plasmogamy
>>39759264
Personally, I'm no fan of lgbtbbq, but don't people get mad when they DO make up words? Kind of seems like a rock and a hard place.
>>39758595
SHARK TITS
>>39759252
Unfortunately that faggot is kinda right, but also wrong
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oglala_Lakota
The original position was more akin to a tribal medicine position where a man could take the title to act as an honorary auntie for the tribe.
Basically its kinda like how the Norse believed magic was for women, so Odin would dress up in drag to cast spells and some men would basically give up their man-card for magic knowledge.
In other words that anon is kind right but still a fag.
>>39759193
Personally I always preferred Iroquois gender dynamics.
>>39759264
Actually, the word gender has always referred to the psychological counterpart to physical sex.
Though, according to all the research, your gender is formed from your brain structures which are formed primarily from the hormones that your body releases. All humans have the same hormones, though your biological makeup decides what amount of each hormone you end up with and the greatest differences in hormone production come from your physical sex.
Ultimately it is entirely possible and in fact has been recorded quite often for some people to end up producing more of a certain hormone than others of their sex would normally produce (or less of one hormone) during their developmental phases, resulting in their neurological makeup resembling the opposite gender to their physical sex (a recorded if rare phenomenon).
But no, Gender is not a social construct, it is a neurological and psychological construct. Last I heard social interactions didn't dose you up with estrogen or testosterone.
Also worth noting that it is not possible to DECIDE your gender, as I just said it's entirely dependent on your neurological structures.
>>39759403
A-WOO-OOH!
>>39759052
Well you're wrong, it takes three seconds of thought to know you're wrong, and I'm convinced you're one guy who keeps saying that every time someone brings up asari just to rustle jimmies.
There are photographs and statues of asari. That club has a neon sign in front shaped like an asari. A human can take the armor off an asari and immediately wear it. They're not secretly Lovecraftian horrors altering your perception.
>>39759527
>Also worth noting that it is not possible to DECIDE your gender, as I just said it's entirely dependent on your neurological structures
Someone needs to tell tumblr this.
>>39759527
>Actually, the word gender has always referred to the psychological counterpart to physical sex.
Nope, that started in the 50s.
>>39758815
Yes, exactly.
What you have to remember is that humans are weird. They are one of only two species in the entire world where the males are not expected to make status displays via the use of gaudy, over the top clothing, personal adornment, behaviour, etc., except in a very small number of circumstances (which are entirely restricted to specific cultures, e.g. pimps are stereotypically dressed in the huge purple coat and hat with feather and have huge numbers of rings and a cane).
Instead, they're expected to dress like penguins and have the status display being made via gaudy, over the top transportation, housing and job (you tell me that doctors don't get more people lusting over them than waiters, and I'll call you a liar).
>>39759674
So what is the other species, pray tell?
And waiters get fucked more than doctors, just saying.
>>39759527
>Also worth noting that it is not possible to DECIDE your gender, as I just said it's entirely dependent on your neurological structures.
Barring actual psychological disorder. Adherence to or rejection of normative gender roles is a whole other kettle of fish.
To drag this back to topic: what kind of gender roles would shark people have, if any?
/tg/: More ok with shark tits than potatoes, cos potatoes are just not realistic in fantasy.
>>39759860
Why?
>>39759815
>To drag this back to topic: what kind of gender roles would shark people have, if any?
None until mating time. Every single sharkam is expected to hunt and kill on their own, and to be able to show off and impress others with trophic from their kills. The only time this changes is after mating, where it is considered polite to let the female get first shot at a kill.
>>39759907
I take it you've never seen a potatoes thread happen?
![whalefish[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/b8ikMZP.jpg "whalefish[1].jpg")
>>39758595
Take examples from nature, as has been suggested already.
Heck, you could go the whole hog and grab an example from one type of fish: it wasn't recognised until recently that the larvae (tapetails), the males (bignose fishes) and the females (whalefishes) were all the same genus (Cetomimidae). (http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/5/2/235.short) Pic related.
>>39759962
I can't remember why /tg/ hates them.
>>39758595
I never thought this picture would be relevant to anything.
>>39759997
Because taters are not native to Europe, and thus to autists have no place in medieval fantasy. Also there was something about the caloric power of taters being a huge game changer is economics, infrastructure, and agriculture allowing for larger population size and faster development.
Also, according to autist, if you aren't playing in super accurate yuropoor medieval fantasy, then you are horrible for liking "shitty speshul snowflake settings" and that not wanting to play boring vanilla adventures means you're a furfag who should quit games forever.
>>39759742
It happens to be a species of bird. The Eclectus parrot, which has well-camouflaged males and bright red females. Alright, they're not expected to make status displays with transportation, etc.
Male bower birds, however, are expected to make status displays with their accommodation.
>>39760162
Those parrots are the only sane creatures aside from humans, then. Yes.
And yeah, try to disregard waiters and waitresses get banged more often than doctors.
#rekt.
>>39758815
your trying to put human standards of masculinity onto non humans
sort of like the people who say bearded dwarf females are silly are trying to put human standards of femininity onto non humans
>>39760285
Dwarves are just short stocky bearded humans, of course!
And I'm not trying, I'm doing a damn fine job.
>>39758595
In nature, the females of a species are often much larger than the males. Males are also usually the more visually-striking, since they need to impress the females, and not the other way around.
>>39758595
you could go with social roles, like with lions; females are stealthy hunters, males are belligerent warriors.
>>39760248
Actually, if you want to put it like that, humans and bower birds are insane, as they're basing their mating decisions not on genetic robustness but on possessions, which are a terrible thing to base mating decisions on. After all, the classic example is the inbred toff with a harelip.
Also. Compare the relative numbers of waiters and waitresses in the world to the number of doctors in the world. Is the distinction one of frequency of sex on a per individual basis, or one of frequency of sex on a per job basis. Because if it's the latter, you're making a fundamental error.
>>39760417
I dunno, humans tend to be capable of higher thought than most animals on the planet, it would seem to me that we'd be best at what is determined as insane or strange.
Not even, waitresses and waiters have more sex because of the simple fact they are more approachable and less likely to be in a relationship, or have a stable one.
While I wont dispute more doctors are married, the fact of the matter is that waiters and waitresses are far more likely to have sex, especially with multiple partners.
>>39759628
Not that anon but while asari are definitely very human in shape, a more subtle 'smoothing' of features could be occuring, so asari look more scaled to turians and more amphibious to salarians and more smooth to humans
>>39759136
A very handy thing to do is to look at the environments you actually have in your game, grab an Earth animal that very much does not belong there, and jiggle it around evolutionarily until it does. Whatever's there now, you slap a big ol' brain into and keep their super weird thought patterns and emotions, but complicated into cultural structures.
Nothing says alien like the arctic fuzztopi and their suicidal mothers.
>>39760462
It's pretty much impossible to know what exactly a human in the wild finds attractive. We're too disassociated from much of our instinct. I would guess, rather unfavorably, that we share a lot with other great apes and we're just violent rapists that hump whatever we can force to be available. Even one after another. Sometimes corpses, because gotta get your rocks off somehow, right?
Fucking shittyass primates.
>>39760590
>tfw you described humans in D&D
Well then.
>>39759628
It could be that it's not a constant biotic effect, but a latent memetic one. The idea is implanted that asari = attractive in anyone who meets an asari for the first time in person, and the victim's own anthropomorphic (or whatever you'd call it if you were a pseudobird with birthing hips and a cleft jaw) subconscious algorithms do the rest whenever they see depictions of asari in the future. To prove this theory, we'd have to have a person that never met an asari, or met anyone who met an asari, and show them a statue or photo of an asari.
>>39759237
Okay whoa back up. What fucking animal has a chromosome SPECTRUM?
>>39760717
There's an organism which has seven sexual genes. It assigns its sex by randomly deleting genes until it ends up with two sexual genes left.
>>39760717
The tumblrina
>>39760892
Sorry, I got it wrong, it has seven sexes. Each of which can reproduce with any other, but not its own.
http://www.nature.com/news/how-a-microbe-chooses-among-seven-sexes-1.12684
>>39760314
Lolidorf best dorf.
>>39760975
nigga wut?
Get that shit outta here, what are you, some sorta faggot?
>>39761004
Yup.
>>39761026
I dont see sharks or tits. Very much displeased.
>>39761026
Oh god my fucking eyes!
Why the shit is that a thing!?
God DAMMIT!
>>39761026
>>39760975
1. Those look more like halflibgs, being entirely too elfin featured for dwarves
2. That isn't loli, their sexual characteristics are notable and legitimately sizednfor them. Tldr I see boob,.not loli.
3. Loli dwarf a shit
>>39761052
She has a bullete under her skirt
>>39760929
>>39761099
Loli expert in the thread, I see.
>>39760892
>>39760929
>woj is pre-emptively proven wrong by actual science
>decides to post its ridicule anyway
That went as expected.
>>39758595
Dudes are usually more flamboyant than dames in the animal kingdom, so just go with that.
>>39758595
You could go the Angler Fish route where the males attach themselves to the females and essentially live as a parasite.
>>39761155
I could, but I don't want the females of the race walking around with several pair of testicles attached to their body. I rather go with breasts then.
>>39761186
So they only attach to the chest, big deal. Here's a scifi story with a similar premise, only the subjects are far-future humans.
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2014/20140331/2littlefaces-f.shtml
or if you prefer audio
http://www.strangehorizons.com/2014/20140331/xpodcast-f.shtml
I point it out because a lot of its imagery stuck with me. The best DMs steal wildly, OP. Remember that. Lots of alien context and familiar motivations and politics. Lots of really cool biotech, too.
>>39761118
Yes. Furthermore, because their breats aren't exaggerated, they can't be classified as oppai loli. No, those are pure non loli short stacks, aka legal loli
>>39758692
Muh ANON!
>>39761631
Annnd abandon thread
>>39758595
The easy answer is to give all your alien races ovipositors. I swear it hasn't been overdone
>>39761733
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDwceZ4rvfY
Why have two genders? They're fucking aliens. They could have 37, or they could have 0. Open your mind.
>>39761955
I'm pretty sure any species has at least one gender by default, so long as it reproduces.
...Shit, is that a thing?
>>39761955
>37 genders
God reproduction would be confusing for a species like that.
>>39761989
Asexual reproduction, by its very nature, does not require sex. Which means a purely asexual organism not only doesn't need sex, it is almost certainly sexless and any "sexual" characteristics it possesses are solely projected onto it by the beholder.
>>39762100
I'm trying to envision how such a system could arise in the first place, and the only explanation I can think of is 'bored genetic engineers'.
>>39762156
It would be incredibly innefficient too.
To make children would require all 37 partners to participate in whatever capacity their reproductive organs required which would make it either a very long or very crowded and disgusting process.
>>39761989 >>39761955
Part 1 of 3
In Star Trek, Andorians have four genders. As I understand it, and with admittedly a tiny amount of personal headcanon in order to try and make it make sense, it works like this:
- Before puberty, all Andorian children have fairly underdeveloped genetalia, such that unless you know exactly what you're looking for and are a doctor and/or a pedophile, you won't be able to tell the difference between the four genders. Once puberty hits the genetalia start developing.
- Two of the genders, chaan and thaan, are basically male. They have penises. Each one contributes one-quarter of the genetic material to a child.
- The third gender is called the shen. Shen contribute half of the genetic material to a child. They receive sperm from chaan and thaan, which fertilizes the eggs they carry. The shen then carries the eggs for three months - generally about three to six eggs which grow to be golfball-sized. The shen also has an ovipositor.
- The final gender is the zhen. The zhen contributes no genetic material to the Andorian fetuses; however, the zhen possesses a pouch within which the eggs incubate to maturity for another three months (a total of about six months of gestation). The pouch is very small when not carrying any eggs but once deposited by a shen it grows to be fairly large in size.
- Once the eggs hatch the baby Andorians, which are much smaller than human babies, remain in the zhen's pouch for some months, suckling on internal teats for milk. Eventually they grow too large and leave the pouch, which once empty will largely slough off extra mass over the course of a few days.
Now, all of the above is canon, or at least it's the information consistently presented in the novel series. Anyway, an obvious question arises: why the HELL would any species evolve like this? Well, stay tuned, 'cause in my next post I'll over-analyze the situation to try and justify it.
>>39762243
Oh good. We started with shark tits and now we have actually fucking trekkies in here.
Oh well. Carry on anon.
>>39758860
Scientifically speaking: yes.
Tumblr speaking: OMG YOU CISHET SHITLORD,GENDER IS FLUID BUT DOESNT EXIST BUT YOU ALSO NEED TO RESPECT THE ONE I TOTALLY DIDNT JUST MAKE UP SOMY FOLLOWERS CAN FAWN OVER ME
>>39758996
Remember kiddies, not matter how successful your sex change operation went, you will always have the chromosomes you were born with.
You can never escape your true gender.
>>39762243
Part 2 of 3
First, an explanation for why we have this at all. It is this: Data once said that Andorian weddings involve four partners. That's it. Prior to that Andorians had two genders like most folk in Trek, but then Data just had to make an offhand comment in one episode and someone started thinking up four genders and shit. This is the headcanon but where I try to make sense of it all.
First, what do we know about Andorians, biologically, and about Andor, their homeworld? Thanks to Star Trek: Enterprise, we actually know a decent amount now.
- Andorians have faster metabolisms than humans. This means that they're faster, stronger, and tougher in short bursts, but over time will tire out when compared to a human.
- Andorians can stand EXTREME temperature differences. Andor is an icy, frozen would where -50 C is considered to be mere "bracing;" however at the same time we know that Andorians can survive three or more days in temperatures near the boiling point of water and only lose 10% of their body weight as a result of that. Bad, but the same situation would kill a human in minutes.
- Andorian veins are buried and protected such that an intravenous injection is impossible; if you want to inject them with something you have to do it via their muscles.
- Andor isn't a planet that orbits a star. It's a moon orbiting a gas giant orbiting a star. Large gas giants, like Jupiter, put out large amounts of radiation.
- Furthermore, the orbital mechanics of Andor would mean that, under normal circumstances, it could spend days at a time in the gas giant's "shadow", unable to receive any sunlight - and, conversely, spend days of its time in near-perpetual sunlight, thanks to being positioned between the sun and the gas giant and the light reflecting off the gas giant being much brighter than the light that reflects off of our moon.
>>39758595
I advise blatant theft.
>>39762389
That last point makes sense of the fact that they can stand extremes of temperature - if they couldn't, the entire species would die off every time the conditions changed.
>>39762243
Part 3 of 3.
- Finally, we know that Andorians have four genders, three of which contribute genetically. The only reason to have more than one gender is to promote genetic diversity; it follows, then, that the reason to have three genders is because a higher amount of genetic diversity is more rewarding in the environment of Andor.
What I take from all of this information is the following:
The moon and the gas giant of Andor was not always glaciated; in point of fact, I think that there was a large part of its history where the temprature could vary wildly on a season to season basis: winters that could reach -100 C or lower; summers that could 70 C or higher. At the same time, intense radiation from the gas giant that Andor orbited meant that any life that did evolve had to be hardy and, more to the point, have a way to correct the flaws that radiation would cause in their genetic code. Finally, this is an environment that rewards adaptability to changing conditions, and as adaptable as a single creature might be, a pack of creatures, each fulfilling some kind of role, is going to be more adaptable.
Hence, three gamete-producing genders, two of which contribute only a small amount of genetic material. Rather than combining together as on Earth, the shen provides a sort of "master copy" that the chaan and thaan sperm checks and corrects any flaws caused by radiation in, in before combining with the shen DNA which then proceeds to do likewise. The final gender, meanwhile, evolved as a sort of nursemaid, who's sole job from a biological standpoint is to ensure that, having created new Andorians, the new Andorians survive - while the chaan, thaan, and shen are all much more adapted towards fighting and protecting the shen.
...
...oh, also the novels go into some kind of telepathic stuff and how a quad that's joined if one member dies the rest die from sadness and stuff, but I ignore that.
>>39758595
> Sexual dimorphism
> tits
Step it up OP. That phenotype is present in just one of five groups of vertebrates. Other traits could include, but are not limited to... Skin/hair/feather Colours, muscle mass, facial hair/mane, facial structure, or just being generally huge (think male/female black widow size difference)
Also, think environmental traits. Does this alien society favour one gender over the other for certain roles? If the soldiers/hunters/fighty people are all one gender, make scarring more common for that gender.
>>39762539
Crap I forgot my Andorian pic.
>>39762543
Diet is another interesting idea from a dimorphic viewpoint.
Humans have this bizarre idea that all mosquitos drink blood. They don't. It's only the females that drink blood, because they need the high protein content to lay eggs. The males consume the juices of fruits.
Similarly, I would not be surprised if at least one egg-laying alien species has a much higher protein requirement for the egg-layer of the species, so that the diet varies between the sexes - the egg-layer is a carnivorous hunter, while the sperm-donor is either an omnivorous scavenger-come-grazer/browser or a straight up herbivore.
>>39760114
That threas started with potatoes, continued with feudal economy, then went to pasta.
and it was good.
>>39762653
Screen cap or link to archived thread?
>>39760975
>>39761026
>Female dwarf
>no beard
disgusting
>>39758595
>>39761631
Why do you have to ruin everything, what do you gain from this?
>>39764518
Its underneath the skirt.
>>39758595
Go pick up a biology textbook Op and learn about our glorious fucked up animal kingdoms ways to get boned.
>>39758690
>Females of any species tend to have wider hips than the males.
Das more of a human thing.
Make aliens that push babies out their backs. Or puke babies. Or critters that go for external fertilization, like salmon do.
>>39760965
Looks like hairy balls.
>>39758595
>I can't figure out a way to distinguish the males vs the females in my new setting without slapping on a pair of tits to the chest.
How about hourglass figure?
>>39761493
Hold on wasn't "legal loli" that thing with 100+ year old immortal stuck in loli body but thus being over age of consent?
>>39762100
Every pair of numbers gives birth only to a specific other number
I.e. 3+24=7, 3+7=21, 7+24=13 etc
And that's if you go with simplest two-person reproduction. What if there are four? What if it's anywhere from one to five, and even when you are reproducing on your own the offspring is not the same sex as you are due to randomised shuffling?
Possibilities are endless?
Can even have fun with previously being more genders but they all died out. (i.e. the matrix had a codependency loop in which #X was required to make #Y and it in turn made #Z and Z was needed for X, and then the population of those decreased until they couldn't be viable in the cycle)
>>39758690
>Females of any species tend to have wider hips than the males
Nope, only matters for species with large brains in their heads, and those large heads are protected by a hard endoskeleton - egg layers wouldn't give a shit, anything like a squid that can squeeze through tight spaces easily wouldn't give a shit. Same with anything that has a distributed neural architecture.
So basically I'm saying make them all like this headless check 'em guy, that way they can have titty eyes and shoulder catears for that extra touch of classiness.
>>39765342
Sounds a lot like the aboriginal kinship groupings:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_kinship
>>39765497
Yeah except they also all have divergent sexual organs on both providing and receiving ends with some limited cross-compatibility.
>>39765608
So you're saying chesticules could be a legitimate thing?
>>39766351
Any fucking thing. Run wild.
>>39765445
>egg layers wouldn't give a shit
Why wouldn't they, aren't eggs pretty big themselves?
>>39758595
>I can't figure out a way to distinguish the males vs the females in my new setting without slapping on a pair of tits to the chest
Follow examples in nature guy.
Avians have different feather colors; males are bright and colorful, females are dull colors.
Make the males and females different sizes as adults.
Shit, is it so damn hard?
>>39760114
Let me guess, you were the OP who got BTFO by 'autists' over his horrible idea?
>>39758595
Here's what I do:
1. Pick a species that already exists on earth.
2. Construct a coherent theory as to why and how sapience evolved for humans
3. Apply these pressures to this species
4. Keep old sexual dimorphism with slight modifications for anything necessary to your theory
>>39767399
>tfw I did this with avians as an idea for a sci-fi story I wanted to write
>tfw I was very proud of the work I put into it as a way of studying for classes in college by putting the knowledge to use
>tfw I still haven't and probably never will write that story because I'm convinced nobody would ever read it
>>39758595
>alien species
>Males and females
At that point just go for blue-skinned aliens with rubber foreheads that don't know what clothing is. If you still want to go that way, why don't you, i don't know, have a look at birds, turtles, fish, or pretty much each and every damn animal species out there that is not mammalian (and most mammalians don't have prominent tits either, for that matter)
Y'all can take your tits (or lack thereof) and shove them up your collective asses
>>39758595
Size, sexual appendages, facial and communicative features, secondary sexual characteristics.
Write the "average" down for the race then push it in random directions.
Example; sexual dimorphism in my arachnoid race is that the females are significantly taller, and have simpler, more muted color schemes. Since the males have to display for mates, they tend towards brighter, more interesting patterns, but they are smaller in stature.
>>39768787
But anon, didn't you read OP's post? The only way to tell if someone is a female is if they have tits or not.
Source: Furries.
>>39758595
>Literal shark tits.
Topest of keks
>>39764979
>Make aliens that push babies out their backs.
The Okampa should have never existed. Neither should the Kazon.
Voyager before Seven of Nine and the Doctor started palling around was truly the worst.
>>39758815
>ay gurls, look at me flashing my plumage and making a target of myself
>notice how I'm still not getting eaten by predators
>please fuck me
Fixed
>>39758619
>>39758645
It's a joke image, you autists.
>>39759527
>Actually, the word gender has always referred to the psychological counterpart to physical sex.
Nope. It used to refer only to grammar and gendered words, as in "el" and "la" in spanish.
>>39761155
>live
Is that what you call it?
>>39758815
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wodaabe
>>39759069
>other species wouldn't be able to tell the genders apart without asking which could make for an interesting society
With sharks, this is interesting. With dwarves, it's somehow stupid and wrong.I know /tg/ is more than one person, but I also know this comment will hit home with *someone*.
>>39759302
It's the one word where they *should* have made something up, because it's the only concept they talk about that's actually real.
>>39759302
>but don't people get mad when they DO make up words?
I get mad when they say they want to normalise their personal pronouns, but then spell them with Xs and Zs, the edgiest letters in the alphabet.
OP here. Did not expect this thread to become so popular. I am mildly pleased.
>>39768911
It's not that. Its more how a sentient species would evolve with two genders and physically and culturally approach the two gender problems. It seems like humans are a very strange case when it comes to this in the animal kingdom.
I eventually decided making the females physically taller and more dominant in the culture, while the males are purposed in a more labor and warrior role for their queen sharks. Those who succeed in their endeavours are granted a private "ceremony" with their rules.
Also what is with this captcha. I cant even tell what is bread in these pictures.
>>39758692
>Not wanting to slap everything's tits
>>39769645
Dwarves are easy.
Just make the males short, angry beards and make the females short, angry beards with braids
>>39771795
I prefer the dwarves are males and elves are females of the same species."male" elves just have a pseudopenis
>>39769726
English language should eliminate he and she and start using it for humans.
>>39771872
It is impersonal and objectifying in a literal sense, you know, "it puts the lotion on its skin"
>>39769726
Every time someone says "xer" a baby dies of SIDS
>>39771872
I prefer the singular they, personally.
>>39771915
Now I want to make an antagonistic alien race called the Xer who are all hermaphroditic zealots and see all others who disagree with them as evil, even though they perform the same acts they decry in others.
>>39771898
Which is precisely why I call anyone who insists on a different pronoun "it".
>>39771898
If it is good enough for animals and things then it is good enough for you and me. Plus it promotes non-anthrocentric worldview where all things on Earth, living or non-living are equal to each other and exist in harmony.
>>39772194
Is this serious? Is this just bait? Is this the real life?
>>39772351
50/50
>Look through the whole thread
>not a single good shark-girl picture
What the hell /tg/?
>>39772194
>If it is good enough for animals
But it isn't.
Who's a good girl? My dog is. Yes she is.
>>39772791
We're having an actual discussion instead of posting shitty furry fapbait.
>>39769726
>>39771915
We can all learn from Kryten for those shitfuck "Imuh spushul snowflake xer xer zhi" pronouns.
EVERY. SINGLE. ONE should be pronounced
>DJUUUUUUU HEEEEEEEE
a very similar pronounciation (but "smuu" instead of "dju") can be heard here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXKlC8ph7mM
By loudly pronouncing (preferably face to face with the asshole who wrote such pronouns) them always in this fashion, we can alleviate some of the stupid involved in just being in the same room as those cockmongling retards
>>39759527
Fun fact: the notion of gender being 100% cultural and arbitrary has little supporting evidence beyond parroting one doctor, who was incidentally a child molester, mainly based on studying a man who was mutilated at birth and ended up committing suicide.
I hope I get around to finding a citation for this bold claim, just wait.
>>39773325
Hold on. Does Kryten's programming stop him insulting people or just swearing? Because if the latter, then there are all kinds of things you can say to insult people without swearing.
>>39772806
>mfw my dog died last autumn
>>39771838
I thought female dwarves were also called 'anvils'
>>39774099
I buried both of mine within the last year or so.
It really sucks.
>>39773797
Insulting people
>>39773797
It's not his programming per-se, he's actually got a 'guilt chip', which is (in-universe) the only thing preventing all the sentient mechanoids from murdering all the humans and building themselves a paradise.
He can't harm or disrespect people - even dead people - directly.
>>39774269
He'd hit it like a blacksmith's hammer all day long.
>>39774459
A dwarven blacksmith is just a married dwarf.
>>39772194
>Plus it promotes non-anthrocentric worldview
You can fuck right off and kill yourself, you fucking shit-for-brains hippy.
>>39758595
Depends on what functionality they would play in caring for offspring. Breasts, udders, etc. are for feeding a child milk. Human females also have wider hips to accomodate for childbirth. I once made a tree-dwelling race where the females were built to take hits and stay in the same spot on a tree for long periods of time, while the males were built to move quickly between home and other resources while avoiding predators.
>Females: build body fat quickly because they need the excess material to care for offspring and they may go long periods without the males bringing them food. Their stationary nature clinging to the trees gives them sharp claws and a death grip, and females without child can drop onto the backs of predators and cling with great force until one of them dies. Females start off the same size as males but grow to be 4 times larger by adulthood.
>Males: are lithe and nimble for dancing amongst the treetops and branches to gather edibles. They have incredible reflexes to react to threats, and their bodies are small and flexible enough to fit in tight hiding spots. They are likely to die with one hit, but nobody is likely to make said hit.
Base all sexual dimorphism on the way they reproduce and raise offspring.
>>39771898
Man I just want gender neutral pronouns like if you are talking about walking talking plants then such pronouns would be very useful
>>39776976
Well some plants are hermaphroditic and some aren't, so they'll still be useful
Someone said sharks
>>39776159
>and females without child can drop onto the backs of predators and cling with great force until one of them dies
So you made dropbears?
>>39761186
Could always have the assimilation be complete
>>39765261
>How about hourglass figure?
Yeah, I'd advise this, doesn't have to have tits, just something that hits the hourglass shape and it gets associated with female
>inspired by the proceedings of this thread
>to the tune of the Ducktales theme.
Life is such a hubbaloo
Here in /tg/
Xenos, Story time, Paladins too,
It's a frenzy
There's System Mastery,
And we discuss history.
Sharktit, Awoohoo!
Monstergirs we wanna be mating
Sharktits, Awoohoo!
Tales of Adventering and Worlbduilding.
Sharktits!
Newfags and Normies should try to lurk moar,
This is the board that we all adore!
While we spin tales of fighting alongside
Sharktits, Awoohoo!
Applied Economics in fantasy threads.
Sharktits, Awoohoo!
Just don't mention potatoes, or you'll be dead.
Sharktits, Awoohoo!
Making lewd ideas serious, or the inverse instead.
Sharktits, Awoohoo
>>39777192
Kinda. The females are basically the same as males until they get older, at which point they stop moving and grow 4-5 times bigger. Koalas climb around and shit, I think.
>>39777603
I...
I think I just gained 25 temporary hit points.
>>39758595
maybe try looking at animals other than humans and applying the dimorphism they have, however major or minor. you have to consider the ecological niche they fill and the rolls of the different sexes if there are any
>>39758850
>>39758778
why not just look at irl sharks/frogs or whatever and apply that?
>>39773325
>By being the entire problem, we can solve the imaginary problem caused by my edgy self-offendedness.
A better suggestion would be to stop making a conscious effort to be offended by new ideas.
>>39776976
But discussing gender issues is Social Justice, and that means that even thinking of it is a war crime, and you're automatically a hypocrite even if you aren't.
>>39764608
SHARK TITS
>>39778840
A-WOO-OOH
