temple prostitution

[Kichwas]

Price depends on the economics of the city. More then likey there would be the cheaper prestess and the expensive high preistess.

This makes it sound like a whore house.

It's not a commercial endevour or even -directly- sexual endevour.

It's a religious experience. Prices would probably be related to devotion to the faith, clients would be screened such that non devoted would be excluded (In D&D, there's no such thing as a non believer). Given the D&D magic system, thes services would probably be intertwined with assorted clerical spells. Such as temple healing and Geas.

Temple Prostitution was also common in the Roman empire, and women who got pregnant from it where said to have undergone immaculate conception; their babies were the children of the gods. In some communities it was the norm for a lay-woman (commoner, non clergy) to serve in the temple for a time before she married.

 

[Kichwas]

Re: yes

All this is manipulated too. Consider this. About the late 1870s it was decided that males, at birth, who had a penis length of less than 1 inch, were not considered viable males. The penis was removed. This activity was not widespread until the 1950s when it became a dominant activity in birthing stations around the US. It is still practised today. The children, considered sexual anamolies, are then labelled as females.

I'd like to see some documentation or other evidence on this. It seems highly unlikely unless there is some actual evidence of a vagina as well. I'm well aware of cases of 'fixing' hermaphrodites to one gender or the other, but not of anything like this.

If this were common, we'd have a widespread problem of girls who never get periods or develop breasts in adolesence. Something I've never head of. I live in San Francisco; which is a mecca for Hermaphrodites, and I've never heard that community raise any mention of the above quoted practice among the various other practices they do raise alarm over.

 

[Alzrius]

(In D&D, there's no such thing as a non believer).

This is hijacking the thread a bit, but the above quote is quite wrong.

Firstly, there are those who do not believe the gods are true gods as such. Planescape has examples of this, with the Athar (a planar faction) championing the idea that the "gods" are in fact not true gods at all, but just powerful beings. The Believers of the Source (aka the Godsmen, another planar faction) believe that eventually a person's destiny is to realize themselves into higher and higher states of existence, and that godhood is just one state on the ladder.

And most insidiously, the concept of unbelief, not just in the gods, but in anything after death, is the ultimate plan/goal of Ahriman, the vile creature detailed in depth never seen before or since in the 2E product Guide to Hell.

 

[Shalewind]

This is hijacking the thread a bit, but the above quote is quite wrong.

I wouldn't say dead wrong... When Gods with superhero powers can walk the world in avatar form and clerics whom pray CAN perform magic... Sure. Belief is A LOT eaiser.

Yes, there are some of those that by a higher INT and WIS and philosophy can try and reach for something beyond the standard model... But this is hardly typical. And this discussion is about Temple Prostitution and it can be assumed and just about everybody in the D&D world BELIEVES in the Gods. Now they may not like them, or pray to them. But it's a fair certainty that they are there... In most settings, not all.

Back on topic: I don't think you are going to be able to find the current world viewpoint to express this with. These people didn't think the same as we did and half our information is probably wrong. But all the same, if you are putting it into the game, you can run it as a solely religious experience, a total bussiness, or some mix therin.

 

[Alzrius]

I wouldn't say dead wrong...

Neither would I, I just said "quite" wrong. And the only reason I added the "quite" was because Arcady said:

(In D&D, there's no such thing as a non believer).

The tenor of that statement is as an absolute; that there are no people in any D&D universe/plane that don't believe in the gods. This isn't true however, so I added the "quite" to lend emphasis to my rebuttal. There are D&D characters who don't believe in the gods...they aren't many, and they aren't famous, but they're there.

 

[Shalewind]

The tenor of that statement is as an absolute; that there are no people in any D&D universe/plane that don't believe in the gods. This isn't true however, so I added the "quite" to lend emphasis to my rebuttal. There are D&D characters who don't believe in the gods...they aren't many, and they aren't famous, but they're there.

I agree and I conceed your point.

 

[Inzae]

Aracdy

Arcady

I posted a link in a follow-on thread but I shall do so again here.

check out Students for Genital Integrity

http://www.studentsforgenitalintegrity.org/intersex.html

The Intersex Society of North America

isna.org

recent news

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_intersex_020419.html

http://www.missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=2498

excellent article

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m2379/4_40/63787449/p1/article.jhtml?term=hermaphroditism

statistics

http://www.isna.org/faq/frequency.html

key word intersex, transgender onthe internet and the information will fall into your lap like rain from the sky (unless it a clear day, and unless its a clear day rain)

Hope this helps.

your best bet though is to go to the library or a hospital and start asking around.

Davis

 

[Inzae]

one other

here is another good article

http://www.aap.org/policy/re9958.html

davis

 

[Inzae]

and one more

here you go

http://ibis-birthdefects.org/start/hermaphr.htm

the rest, my friend, is up to you but this should give a very give basic understanding and a wealth of information from which to prcoeed.

davis

 

[buzz]

Honestly, I think you're missing my point, but since it seems we've reached the point of the thread where people are whipping out stuff like "I'm a classics major!" I'm just going to go ahead and bow out.

I'm just trying to offer another perspective. That's all.

As much as I hate to rankle my fellow users, the above comment is just petty.

You admit that morality from culture to culture is relative, but then deny anybody the right to conform to the morality of their culture.

WTF?!?!? How are the PC's in your campaign supposed to react????

While I concede that morality is a construct, any two individuals who intend to establish a relationship must agree on a protocol of values or they may as well be communicating in different languages.

So if those who spent their formative years growing up in the Judeo-Christian world decide that it's easier (and just as valid) to define their heroes and villains by the morality that is ingrained into their subconscious, why should you 'bristle'?

Just because you're 'enlightened' enough to have embraced another morality (whereby, like all moralities, you arbitrarily allocate 'horns' to villains of your own choosing) doesn't mean that anbody else's villains are more or less valid than your own.

D&D is about 'good guys' fighting 'bad guys'. Nobody is the sole arbiter of who wears those hats.

Not even you.