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Old 10-22-2015, 10:05 AM   #41
The Colonel
 
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Default Re: A dwarf by any other name...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Randyman View Post
Dwarves are the males, elven females are the females, elven "males" are the neuters. :)
...and on the topic of gender amongst dwarves, we have a variety of solutions. As far as I am aware the versions so far attempted are:
  1. Dwarves do not possess gender - they are elementals, machines or something similar.
  2. Dwarves have human-like gender dimorphism - dwarven women look like more "feminine" dwarven men.
  3. Dwarves have virtually no gender dimorphism - dwarven men and women are virtually impossible to tell apart (for humans ... whether it is any easier for dwarves is another issue)
  4. Dwarves have radical gender dimorphism - dwarven women are so unlike dwarven men that they are not obviously the same species.

There are also subsets of the above such as a (from the human POV) skewed gender ratio so that dwarven females are rarely seen because they are rarely born and/or dwarves being eusocial mammals so that the ones normally encountered are non-reproducing drones and actual males and females are never seen outside the dwarf-holds.
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