#dreams?

What if your gender was defined by the arrangement of planets? Like an astrology chart.

What if it was defined by a ritual and based on elements in nature?

What if it's something you obtained through trials and how you solve them? You don't obtain a gender until a certain age.

Heck, arcanists are so biologically different that even the sexes could be defined differently too. No reproductive organs, both, half-and-half, some kind of Rebis situation (Reverse has references to Basil Valentine and his alchemy).

But here's the thing, do arcanists need reproductive organs or can they magic up a baby?? It sounds silly, but if that's the case what even is the purpose of having said organs if form follows function? It wouldn't matter what your born with and they wouldn't even have categories based on what humans percieve as sex. Maybe the idea of sexes used to be based on something else entirely, like the arcanum that gets passed or the mixing or arcane skills. These are biological things that humans wouldn't understand, the same way arcnanists don't understand humans obsession with what's going under their pants. Even their "reproductive organs" as defined by humanity could be totally different. To an ancient arcanist, were these things even related to sex?

What if they were all comfortable with their varying body types, but some magic stuff was taboo and not be done in public. It'd be an entirely different system of values! But then humans came and started calling them freaks and deviants for existing, especially the ones with different bodies than what they're comfortable with.

History is written by the side that wins and humanity won. They made the rules and arcanists were forced to live under those rules, to feel shame for being who they are, all in the name of humanity's order and comfort.

It's been so long that those golden years are forgotten, but arcanists bodies are still different. Places like the Foundation reinforce these values and over-emphasize forms of gender that don't fit the malleable Arcanists in their care.