Warforged and Gender

[pawsplay]

So I was looking at Races of Eberron today. It mentions that most warforged adopt a human gender. Later, it describes under character creation that choosing a gender is mandatory... and permanent.

Why? ... and why?

Is there some backstory I'm missing, or is this just a case of unnecessary anthropomorphism?

 

[blargney the second]

To figure out how they go to the bathroom. This R seriess bizness.

 

[WanderingMonster]

Do Warforged females have breasts?
Do they get chainmail bikini waxes?

 

[Brown Jenkin]

Just what we need. Warboobs!!

 

[Brown Jenkin]

So for some choices we have:

or my preference

 

[Merkuri]

It was probably done to make them easier to identify with. I don't recall any specific reason why a warforged would have to pick a gender and stick with it aside from wanting to seem more human.

Though on the other side of that, I recall that same book mentioning how some changelings enjoy changing genders, and when they get pregnant they are basically forced to stick with a female (pregnant) form until they give birth, and some changelings find this extremely restrictive, as if they had been forced to wear the same set of clothing for nine months. I always found that part fascinating.

It seems odd that they'd go out of their way to describe changelings changing genders frequently but then force a naturally asexual being like a warforged to pick a gender and stick with it. If I were DMing an Eberron game I would not go out of my way to enforce anything about warforged genders.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I'd justify it in game by saying that House Cannith would consider adopting a gender an essential aspect of socialization, and build it in. It would be to the warforged's benefit, but more importantly it would make them more marketable. Warforged make some people uneasy ... if those people can at least recognize in it a gender, the unease is likely to be less. Remember, up until Thronehold, warforged were a product, not a people.

IRL, "cute" robots in fiction and reality all have genders ... the ones that are genderless are pretty much all villains. I'd never really thought about this before, but it's kinda interesting ... my proto-warforged villain in Xen'drik is genderless.

(This fits pretty well with the info on changelings, as changelings that rapidly and easily adopt and shed forms (most of them) aren't socialized very well in the larger sense.)

 

[Thunderfoot]

<SNIP>
IRL, "cute" robots in fiction and reality all have genders ... the ones that are genderless are pretty much all villains. I'd never really thought about this before, but it's kinda interesting ... my proto-warforged villain in Xen'drik is genderless.

I disagree - R2D2 is most definitely genderless, at least in body form. As a matter of fact, most of the Star Wars droids are sexless, even C3PO has a female male counterpart that he runs into in Cloud City that was only different by color, not body style.

As for why, because artist like to draw boobies in fantasy, the only reason I can think of that warforged and dragonborn/lizard races would have mammary glands, especially since lizards and warforged don't breast feed.
(Wait didn't we have this thread about dragonborn about 2 months ago?)

 

[WayneLigon]

As for why, because artist like to draw boobies in fantasy, the only reason I can think of that warforged and dragonborn/lizard races would have mammary glands, especially since lizards and warforged don't breast feed.

Or in the case of the warforged, because House Cannith designed a batch that way for any number of reasons. It's apparent that the latest models were going towards a more humanoid design, as oppossed to the oldest models; some might also be simply of a more advanced design as well. Some have a more slender body type, some a different sizes, etc.

As far as the requirement, it's probably just something left over from a previous draft or, well, poor editing; I wouldn't pay it any mind. Warforged develop personalities and genders as part of their attempts to fit in with humans (for the ones that want to) but it's pretty obvious that they don't have to.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

I disagree - R2D2 is most definitely genderless, at least in body form. As a matter of fact, most of the Star Wars droids are sexless, even C3PO has a female male counterpart that he runs into in Cloud City that was only different by color, not body style.

It's not body style we're talking about ... it's personality. R2-D2 and C-3PO are definitely male personality. Characters refers to them are "he."

By contrast, consider the probe droid, or IG-88, or any number of other villainous droids in the movies ... all genderless, as far as we know. (I'm not familiar with the novels and such.)

Warforged don't have different body types for gender, just different personalities and -- usually -- voices.