highly recommend thinking about how social structures would vary in fictional worlds <3

(note: i’ll be treating dos2 as its own standalone world, i’m Very Aware that it’s part of a series but cultural attitudes can change and shift with time. also i Don’t Care <3 /hj. also i’ll be talking about fictional bigotry in this post if you like fun escapist fiction where there’s no bigotry ever this definitely is not the post for you.)

i can tell this is going to be long and maybe ramble on at times. but here is a brief overview of sexuality and trans people in rivellon <3 (not going into gender roles here since they vary between cultures i’ll get to them.):

as a game mechanic all the companions are romanceable regardless of gender, so in the game Divinity: Original Sin 2 they are all mechanically bisexual. lore-wise if we take this into account attraction to multiple genders seems to be the default setting here. love is love i see no difference <3

(funnily enough the red prince and fane are the two companions that can be most obviously seen as canonically bi: they both have romantic relationships with women, and male pcs can romance (one of) them <3. i just thought i should mention it since i think that’s cool <3)

the extent of trans representation in dos2 is. geraldine next to the alice’s house in driftwood. <3. anyways. there’s a pressure to be stealth or closeted and while nonbinary people aren’t unheard of it isn’t like. the Norm.

i’ll go into the specific cultures of dos2, including gender roles under the cut (i’ll also list my inspirations for specific aspects of the cultures :3c)

(DISCLAIMER: if i cite a real world culture or philosophy as inspiration i’m not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing with them, and i won’t be trying to represent them accurately. more often than not i’ll be using them as jumping points. the goal of this is not representation or even education; the goal is to make a fake world that hopefully feels real and makes sense. and also think about my blorbos <3)

starting off with the ancient empire: the two (2) main political factions (the house of war and the house of law) immediately made me think of the wen (文, meaning cultural attainment) and wu (武, meaning martial prowess) dyad in chinese masculinity that kam louie talks about in his book Chinese Masculinities in a Globalising World. (this is my thought process all the time. Sorry)

i'm adding an extra thing to make a triad: spirituality. anyways while this aspect appears to Some extent in the other houses, it isn't That big of a deal? (i thiiink the red prince mentions that he performs religious rituals with a "languid indulgence", so while as crown prince of the house of war he Has to perform these rituals, he doesn't hold them in very high regard. obviously he is just one (1) individual in a whole ass empire but in dos2 he's very much emblematic of the cultural attitudes of the empire (more specifically the house of war) so like. Yeah i'm jumping to that conclusion <3) the dreamers on the other hand have more of an obligation to fulfil the spiritual aspect because it's their Role™️ in lizard society

the house of war focuses more on the wu aspect while more emphasis will be put on wen in the house of law, but balance of all three values are admired in both houses (obviously they won't use these terms in rivellon but i'm using it as a shorthand here <3)

in terms of lizard femininity i'm using (the empire's perception of) zorl-stissa as the Ideal Female Lizard archetype: elegant, pragmatic, *farquaad voice* And So On And So Forth. a culture full of #girlbosses <3 /j (i haven't played dos2 in A While and i can't find any videos of interactions with zorl-stissa as a lizard pc that isn't the red prince. sorry if it's inaccurate or whatevs <3) one element that you might notice is conspicuously missing is the feminine equivalent of a wu aspect. Girl Power (or lack thereof) :)

the ancient empire from what i gather is very fixated on Perfection and/or performing a specific Role in society so naturally. that applies to their gender roles (and their family structures to some extent i'll elaborate on the next paragraph <3) too. gender roles are generally pretty strict :I. any divergence from this status quo is generally frowned upon but at the same time i feel like being an Upstanding Citizen doesn't matter as much as Appearing as such. So. trans people are either stealth or closeted. if you're nonbinary you're either exiled or closeted. there will be exceptions since the empire fancies itself to be a "meritocracy" but i heart to make sweeping generalisations <3 /j. speaking of roles to fulfil.

what a flawless segue into talking about sexuality and family structures here <3. child bearing and child rearing play a big role in the empire in terms of being an Upstanding citizen of the Ancient Empire (what an oxymoron amirite <3) (basing this a liiitle bit on the red prince's main quest: much of the driving force for him is (later on) fulfilling the prophecy by becoming the Father of Dragons with sadha, emphasis on Father (and Dragons but mostly Father <3). this is a bit of a stretch maybe but you're already this far in so i've trapped you with the sunk cost fallacy <3) so while same sex relationships aren't discouraged per se. they don't exactly fit in with the empire's Ideals™️. lavender marriages and general infidelity would be really common i think. love loses very, very, very badly in the empire <3 (this is basically canonical so dhfgjkdhfg /hj)

(the house of shadows isn't included here because culture-wise it's basically a non-entity <3)

okay that was extremely long. that's the worst (or best, depending on your point of view) of it the rest of these are going to be shorter i prommy <3

moving on the the elves: i think one of the elves in the caverns on fort joy mentions that elves are functionally immortal? i can't really remember the exact wording but bearing children doesn't seem like a Huge Concern for them so they generally have a more shrug emoji attitude towards sexuality (side note: i also headcanon that elves have higher rates of adoptions, especially interracial adoptions, this is mostly based on ifan's backstory <3)

one thing that i've noticed is that a lot of scions are female (there's like. one (1) male scion that's undead which you can fight at the tree in the graveyard if you do spirit vision but i feel like a lot of players miss it because. no one has the time to do spirit vision Every Goddamn Time you visit a new location y'know <3) and i'm choosing to interpret this as a deliberate choice on the writers' part <3 (i'm being very generous here.) so female elves have a duty to the mother tree and male elves have a duty to protect them.

transgenderism wise they wouldn't mind if you transitioned socially but. if you decide to pursue physical transition they would be like. Why Would You Change Your Body That The Mother Tree Gave To You. Hm? (this would obviously depend on the individual's views on the mother tree but i'm making sweeping generalisations here. <3) (this is drawing a bit from confucianism, more specifically the bit on filial piety where part of being pious means that the child must be grateful for the body given by their parents and not harm or damage the body)

human culture in dos2 is. kind of bland. Sorry. they seem to be the dominant culture in rivellon (at least the bits that we see, which are mostly human populated regions with some dwarven and elven diaspora, with the few lizards we see being foreigners) So like. yeah just look at the general overview up there <3. similar thing with gender roles human culture in dos2 is basically just generic medieval european culture. like every other fantasy setting. moving on.

dwarven culture is. very lacking in terms of substance but i feel like i should make an effort to distinguish them from humans. so. i'm labelling dwarves as a collectivist culture (see: every single dwarf is extremely friendly towards beast and dwarven pcs. i assume. i've never played as a dwarf i'm basically basing this on vibes alone <3)

while other cultures have more of a don't ask don't tell / live and let live / whatever attitude towards queer people, dwarves actively embrace and accept queer people in their culture <3 they get to be cool. as a treat <3 (i Know there can be bigotry and discrimination in collectivist cultures. Trust Me. *grabbing you by the shoulders* I Know. let me have this alright <3)

dwarven gender roles i feel are less clear cut than other races. they're just vibing i think. they get to be cool as a treat <3

doing eternals as a very small bonus here because why not <3 i think they generally have a more fluid approach to gender and sexuality <3 if you watch philosophy tube it's like earth 0 in her social constructs video <3 also while i'm recommending videos!! verilybitchie's video on bisexuality in video games is very cool and mentions dos2 like. once (1) <3

keep in mind that these are my personal takes on them! i am obviously subject to biases and blind spots in my worldview and so on and so forth also i am simply just a Little Guy <3 don't take these as gospel or whatever and feel free to tell me these suck ass (nicely) <3

oh man this took. too long to type up. whatever it's been a Week <3 (edit: it has been more than a week.) i've thought about this a normal amount xoxo also make no mistake queer representation in dos2 is. Lacking. if you rp as a straight character you Won't really encounter any queer content unless you're literally in arx which is. pretty late game. even then it's extremely minor. anyways dwarves really get the short end of the stick when it comes to lore in fantasy settings (generally) like. their traits will be: a) scottish accent b) manly c) drinks beer. humans too they're like. the Default culture since. we're humans <3 but as a consequence they don't really get fleshed out and it's like. hashtag girl why are you even here :I and the default culture will always be like. british. Society. might as well do headcanons for the companions: lohse is a trans woman sebille is gnc af <3 ifan is a bi man who says don't mind if i do#fane is a cis* man** * sex is male by rivellonian standards ** went along with it when everyone in rivellon assumed he was a man. beast is. Beast. ru'en is irresistible to men the red prince is a man <3 they're all mechanically bi but i also think they're all bi sebille and the red prince have a preference for women and ifan has a preference for men and also lizards <3 the lizard part is canon by the way <3