Good points all, and I'm positive that we are far more in agreement than we are in disagreement. However since the list is slow right now and I just finished a day of audits and are far too brain fried to get anything more productive done, let me rebut. (by the way, I think this gets more lucid as I go on, so if you don't have much time just skip the first couple of paragraphs).
Yes, laughter is important. There are different ways to generate laughter, and some people are good at one, or another, or none. An Eurmali can just as well be a miserable, brooding, petty loner as a clown. An Uroxi can be a stereotypical roistering, blustering, "storm-bully" who will deal with any chaos that impinges on his beer drinking and bench breaking, or can be a terrifying force of nature crushing everything that might get in the way of his holy quest. A Mahomi (is that the proper term for a Mahom worshipper?) might be stereotypically "hot" as in "hot lips Hoolihan," or could represent the soothing heat that draws people to the hearth. In short there are multiple ways to play followers of any cult. Actually, let me say that more strongly: there are multiple very valid ways of playing followers of any cult. Some of them may produce more laughter than others, but it should never be the duty of players of heroes of certain cults to play the jester.
To look at it another way, Yinkini have three affinities, one of which is sensuality. They also have three cult virtues: curious, hedonistic, loyal. Looking at either one, you could say that pleasures of the flesh are about a third of the focus of the typical yinkini. Giving some margin of error, it should be played as somewhere between a quarter and half of the focus. Within that broad focus you have a variety of pleasures, such as sleeping, being comfortable, good food, being pampered, and of course sex. So of course you can't play a yinkini without reference to sex. It is an important and vital part of what the hero is. But there are different ways of playing it, approaching it, and different levels of emphasis. You can be James Bond, or you can be Austin Powers. Both get the girl, both have getting the girl as an important part of the character, but both do it very differently.
And yet another way of looking at it. Yinkin is the god of Alynx, who are somewhat but not entirely like the terran cats that many of are familiar with. Alynxes have all sorts of different personalities. All of them are comfort and pleasure loving, but some will happily go out in the rain to go hunting, some will walk all night in the middle of dark season to visit a female in heart, some will beg for fresh milk and learn to drink it out of mid air if some is squirted their way, some will accept the rough affection of children in order to lounge in front of the fire, some will enjoy playing with and for humans even when it generates much laughter. And some won't. And those alynx who were born in human shape will vary just as much.
In short I'm sure Borin is a perfectly wonderful Yinkin, I just don't think that all perfectly wonderful Yinkini will be like Borin. Being celibate probably isn't one of those ways, but I'm sure there are fascinating ways to explore being an Alynx while being retiring and shy, because of course there are also shy and retiring cats (and hence presumably alynx).
--Bryan
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