More Eunuchs

From: Bryan Thexton <bethexton_at_...>
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2001 21:51:47 -0000


Just some more thoughts of no great importance on this wince-full subject.

On earth, the process of making someone into a eunuch was physical.

In Gloranta, one would imagine that it could equally well be magical.

I can't imagine it being a popular theistic ability, but you never know what some obscure cult might do. I mean, there may be several cults that encourage this, but somehow I see them do it the nonmagical  way *shudder*

I could imagine, in a general sense, a society where shamans are essentially eunuchs, because they used their sexuality to form their fetch. I don't think that would fit into any know Gloranthan cultures, however.

Sorcery is much more possible! I could see some unpleasant order having a spell to inflict it, and also the possibility of a VERY small order that undergo it as part of an initiation right.

With mystics--little though we really know about them--I'm sure it could happen too. I can almost imagine "denying sexuality" being a learned skill of some school, so that you gradually become, by effort of will, essentially a eunuch. I suppose some other school could also have the ability as a mystic strike, but I can't quite imagine why.

One interesting side effect of the magical approach is that you wouldn't be confined to males. You could presumably de-sex a female in much the same way. You couldn't totally eliminate the equipment, but you could eliminate fertility, sex drive, and a large portion of secondary sexual characteristics, one would presume. Somehow I think one of the things most people would find more disturbing than dealing with a powerful eunuch is dealing with a powerful eunuch, and not being able to tell what gender he or she was originally. We attach so much of identity to gender, and in Glorantha possibly they do so even more.

--Bryan

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