#workdbuilding

I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm doing it.

Norve:

The Norves have five genders- child genderless, man, woman, holy genderless, and mixed man+woman. (Pronouns for these are, respectively: ey/em, he/him, she/her, ze/hir, and they/them.) Each one has their own role (except mixed, which takes on a combination of men's and women's roles). Gender norms are becoming less rigid but transgressing them is still notable, especially for holy people; Daanah is trans because she is expected to be holy-genderless as a Divine Scribe and instead insists upon being a woman. Upon coming of age, people generally gravitate towards (and are expected to choose) the adult gender most aligned with traits they already exhibit or at least desire to exhibit. They have three terms for types of marriage and related desires: solo-partnering (monogamy), which is the norm, and multi-partnering and non-partnering, which- at least in Daanah's village- are generally fairly accepted but non-normative. A marriage is a declaration of loyalty, a physical and financial merging of households, and a legal guarantee of financial rights and recognition of parents' relationship to children regardless of biological relation. A marriage of one man and one woman is seen as the most balanced and complete; mixed people can fulfill either role in a relationship and holy people are expected to partner with a mixed person or with no one in order to maintain the female-male balance in the relationship.

Senki: