Post #2819097

#WordWeavers 12. What role does romantic love play in your story? It has its place, but I make a clear distinction between romance and sex, and there is a lot of both particularly among the biological characters, who form sexual relationships primarily to promote the spread of their genetics. They form romantic relationships to satisfy socialization goals. Dellyn and Callon have both. They are absolutely devoted to one another to the point that Callon searched for Dellyn when he went missing for several million years, and finally decided to wait for him to come back on his own, which he did, though accidentally. Their sexual antics are the stuff of legends, and none of it is safe to relate without a great deal of euphemism. Dellyn is a Gulo and not particularly gentle as a lover, and Callon is completely into that. But Dellyn would kill or die for Callon, too, as he's completely into him. At the other end of the spectrum is Palak who, having neither a sex nor a gender, has an extremely simplified sex life. He does, however, have several "lovers" and a small stable of "mates." He loves them with an intensity one would expect from a dragon, and they come around to understanding that he has obligations he has to honor in addition to loving them. Courtly life doesn't make any aspect of Palak's life simple, really.