Well, sure, but *mythically* and *magically* they are women. I have a little trouble, in fact, with the idea that they can't have children -- it locks them out of any of the Allmother subcults, and that could, I imagine, prevent them from the usual Ernaldan progression (can you be a crone without being a mother?). I figure there is a heroquest that takes care of this, myself.
>So while they may be able (socially and religiously) to marry men, their
>options for mates are going to be comparitively limited. And I expect that
>the notoriously open-minded and tolerant Heortling society[*] is going to
>wonder just a little bit about the guy who decides to marry a Nandan instead
>of, say, a Bevaran...
Why? The Nandani is a woman. A man marrying a Vingan (who is magically male, at least in large part) is weirder. At least with a Nandani, the clan knows where it stands with gender roles, and it lets the clan do something "decent" with men attracted to people with male genitals (I don't think the Heortlings aqe particularly open minded when it comes to homosexuality -- they have fairly rigid social classifications, after all. They incorporate a lot of exceptions, but Heortling society is not "anything goes;" it's "there is always another way."). So, anyway, Nandani are legitimate objects of male affection.
Assuming that Glorantha and Earth have roughly similar rates of homosexuality, where do the rest of the man-loving men go? Since there a) aren't that many Nandani and b) many homosexual men* are attracted to men who are, well, entirely men. Humakt, for one -- I can easily see male/male relations being sanctioned as they are non-fertile.
Peter Larsen
*I avoid the term "gay" because it's awfully 20th century for our purposes.
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