The Character Romance thread (Official)

I wish we could do that somehow

"I'm into gents/ladies/either/neither/nobody."

Short, sweet and to the point, no complicated terminology needed.

In all seriousness though I kind of like how at least in the Dragon Age series they don't use specific terms for sexualities. A simple "I'm into X" is enough for me. That said, I don't see why the Mass Effect universe does that. Everyone in it talks like people from the 21st century anyway (which is BS if you consider how quickly the American accent and language changed from the start of the 20th century to the end) so why not use terms that players would be familiar? Were terms like straight, gay, lesbians, trans done away with due to some wave of political correctness in humanity's past? Are they the equivalent of the N-word now?

Yeah, it's understandable that Dragon Age wouldn't have terms we're familiar with in regards to sexuality. The world is explicitly not ours, and supposedly it's not a big deal throughout most of Thedas (though I would honestly have expect that if it's important enough in Tevinter for there to be a distinction, there probably SHOULD have been a specific term for someone's sexuality, given how Dorian resorts to this purple prose-y 'I prefer the company of men' statement, indicating a lack of language for a distinction... I'm a bit of stickler for language as world-building). But in Mass Effect, the terminology would exist, this is a future version of our world. Not using them is a glaring omission.

There actually might be some terms in Tevene, and also Orlesian, that are used. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were. Look at the Romans. They had names for eeeeeverying. But if Dorian said whatever phrase to your character, the response would be, "Huh?" because your character isn't Tevinter. Then he would just have to explain it anyway. The same applies to Krem and Maevaris, but Krem's conversations just aren't structured that way.

To me, that's the issue with having a new term made for whatever fantasy setting. It works in a novel, but not in a conversation such as the one with Halward. For example, in an investigative dialogue you learn some terms in Tevene, like altus and soporati, but that is a casual conversation where you're questioning about Tevinter, so it just flows better.

If we do go into Tevinter, I think it would be fun to learn some more Tevene along the way. There is fun codex entry titled Common Curses, which is written as an explainer to a dwarf newly arrived on the surface. If we go to Tevinter, and they do cities justice (as opposed to Val Royeaux in DAI), we might, I don't know... wander into a brothel and peruse a "menu" with some terms on it.

But given their penchant for ripping straight from Latin (as with amatus), they would have to do some retooling, since there wasn't just a general term for gay men.

Thumbs up for that Saren mention, that is some fine taste in turians right there

I consider 170 years a very long time.

I definitely think that's way overboard an estimate, especially when you factor in alien life. 

But this is all academic, the slang has ceased to be in-universe no matter how much we debate.

When he was like "This human...must be...eliminated" I was like holy shit dude okay, but first...take me

First Evfra, now Saren...

People have some strange taste for alien romances >_>

I'd be VERY into mental sex with Harbinger but he nohomos me.

That's better, Saren was pretty darn good looking. Not as good looking as Drack of course but I won't say no to some one on one training with him.