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rozzwil · 2 years

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how do you think hrt would work in thedas?

Ok so I’m gonna take this time to ramble on some of my headcanons on medical transition and transgenderism in Thedas in general, thank you for letting me spew all this out 😤👊

Disclaimer before I start that I have only a layman’s understanding of endocrinology so there’s definitely better ways to go about this and (much like Isha’s diabetes) I fully welcome other ideas on this if anyone has them! For anyone new, this is wild speculation based on small hints here and there from canon so even though I’m talking like an authority blease keep in mind this is like, my and @diirthara-ma 's worldstate, not from the mouth of Mx. Weekes lol

Most Human Societies:

I generally like to think of most of Thedas (outside of Tevinter*) as more transphobic than it is homophobic but the transphobia is more comparable to the relatively benign ignorance that a lot of trans people were met with in the early 20th century. No one knows about or understands trans people or medical transition but many trans people conform to social gender roles and are able to function in their community anyway and those that don’t can usually carve out a niche for themselves as an interesting celebrity (a la the early fame of Christine Jorgensen), particularly in cultures like Orlais. Also, unlike in our world, there’s much less mass violence in order to preserve existing gender power structures. I like to think that in some ways, we would see a reversal of our own world’s transmisogyny vs the milder transphobia towards trans men due to the role that women serve in leadership positions within the church (for example, the Nutty Affair codex as an odd little lighthearted scandal rather than her being framed as a devious predator) but because the world building around sexism has been a little all over the place I don’t think this reading can be pushed much farther than this.

That being said, I think most humans, city elves, and surface dwarves would rely on committed individuals pioneering gender affirming care, usually out of personal interest or through exploration of adjacent medical needs (very similar to my view of the production of insulin in Thedas). Circles in particular would be a vector for HRT because of the role of potion making and spirit healing for synthesizing medicine from plants that increase or decrease hormone production in the body. These would be used by both cis and trans people and can be bought from circles in most major cities although I think it would be very difficult to buy regularly as a binary trans person unless you were particularly wealthy.

Similarly, mages inside the circles could have access to HRT if their senior mages were familiar with the process and amiable to supply it to apprentices. However, I would think there would be the risk of arbitrarily withholding HRT with very little recourse if a mage doesn’t have someone in their corner or a rural circle’s interpretation of the chant happens to condemn transition. In practice, I decided Ivan Amell receives testosterone from Uldred since he hit adolescence as a method of gaining his dependence and grooming him into a blood mage while Wynne helps @diirthara-ma’s Niamh Surana access estrogen and t-blockers. (I also headcanon that while not an outspoken ally, Aneirin was trans and Wynne has reflected on the way being denied gender affirming care unnecessarily exacerbated his rebellion towards the circle.)

The other magical alternative would be the use of blood magic which, combined with spirit healing skills, can drastically change a person’s body in ways that go beyond the current capabilities of our real world SRS. Fortunately, preventing a mage from pursuing this route has also paved some of the way for HRT access as a method of monitoring a mage’s transition (and creating dependence on the "kindness and tolerance" of the Circle). Uldred secretly coerces Ivan into pursuing blood magic as the only way to become a “real man” and protect himself from transphobic violence. Once Ivan gains access to blood magic, he’s able to reconstruct his genitals to look and function like a cis man’s and no longer needs HRT although like real world phallo, the skin and tissue would have to be grafted from a different area of his body. I think a less gruesome blood magic SRS is possible but this is Ivan performing self surgery at 21 right after abandoning his moral compass so don’t judge him too harshly.

*Tevinter conforms to real world sexism and secular homophobia enough that I assume transphobia is relatively straightforward and comparable to our transphobia. Like, there would definitely be a lot of access to transition through magic if someone has the money or is a powerful mage (which makes Mae’s lack of tits in the comic very dumb imo) but I think it would obviously be a hostile place for trans people for many sociological reasons.

Dalish Society:

In contrast, I think things would be absolutely poppin for many of the Dalish. Elves originally being spirits without physical sex makes me hope that ancient elves got real weird with it and that this was a concept that has telephoned down through many clans. Gender variance and trans identity (both binary and non binary) would be normalized and even celebrated in many clans.

I especially think the Dalish would have more diversity of transition options and more effective methods, all of which would be knowledge shared between healers at the Arlathlvhen. Many healers would have found little insights that human mages aren't aware of such as estrogen being more effective to ingest while testosterone should be concentrated into an ointment for the body. There would also be many cultural connections and coming of age rituals specific to trans people within Dalish culture. For example, (much like halla insulin) pregnant halla urine is particularly effective for estrogen production in comparison to other animals and because of this many trans women would dedicate themselves to Ghilan'nain. I don’t think many trans Dalish would see surgical transition as a necessity, because most trans people transition before going through the wrong puberty and society is already so accepting of trans bodies that it wouldn’t be needed to fully integrate into the community, although the use of blood magic in clans that are more lenient towards it wouldn't be out of the question! I imagine some Keepers would be reluctant toward trans clan members transitioning (especially because gender variance, sexual deviancy, and general androgyny would all become derogatory stereotypes of elves by shem society) particularly for clans that are forced to regularly interact with humans, but overall Dalish clans would be one of the most ideal societies to be born into as a trans person in Thedas regardless or identity or transition path.

Isha Lavellan joined the clan as a young kid and began receiving testosterone treatment from his clan’s lead healer/his adoptive mom (who is also a trans woman) as soon as puberty began. He continues to use testosterone cream that Solas creates for him throughout Inquisition. His keeper also helped him pick a male name aligned with Elgar’nan as a child to honor the fatherly guidance they hoped he would provide Isha as a protector and warrior of their clan😌

The Qunari/Vashoth:

I’m still holding out on cementing much gender lore for the Qun because I’m extremely interested in where devs will take this world building. I already wrote an incomprehensible ramble on some of my thoughts and questions here and am not ready to take too bold a stance until the next game comes out.

That being said, I really like the idea that under the Qun, anyone that is considered GNC enough that they would better serve as a different gender as an aqun-athlok would be expected to socially and medically transition through (at minimum) HRT. This would include most trans people and some GNC cis people but would exclude GNC trans people. Because of this, many trans people would thrive under the Qun but there would be some amount of cis people coerced to transition under threat of reeducation and many trans people that would not conform enough to their true gender’s social expectations to be allowed to transition. I would assume this would be way too spicy for the devs to undertake (and given how bad things are for trans people rn, I’m not sure I’d want them to attempt it) but I really like the tension this creates, especially in thinking about the loyalty this would inspire for many trans converts and the incentive others would have to flee the Qun. Another bit of speculation from the hints we’ve gotten indicate that the Qun is particularly medically advanced when it comes to non-magical technology, so I like to think they’ve straight up invented real world synthetic hormones and SRS. This would be an option for aqun-athlok as it would be obvious that many perform their roles more effectively and better conform to social expectations of gender after given gender affirming care.

Alexandar Adaar I headcanon as having discovered himself as trans at a young age and, being a very determined mage and healer as well as an adept botanist, learned how to effectively create HRT potions similar to the ones created in the circles in his teens. I also decided his mercenary group is particularly Gender with Shokrakar being a GNC trans woman who has organically found herself surrounded by other tal vashoth who left the Qun for similar reasons. Because of this, as a young man Alexandar got top surgery and metoidioplasty from the medic of his mercenary group who on the side specializes in gender affirming medical care.

Sorry to end this novel here but…I don’t yet have a fleshed out dwarven character and haven't really invested the time I need to answering this for Orzammarian society😅. I’ve currently been stewing on the idea of both a trans Aeducan and trans Tabris which has inspired me to look more closely at dwarven and city elf society but dwarven tech is particularly mysterious to me and I don’t have much to comment on! I think that dwarves would potentially be one of the most restrictive societies toward trans people due to the gendered caste system and that transition would be extremely controversial, particularly if it could be viewed as a way to play the hierarchy in your favor. Additionally, I also headcannon underground dwarves as relatively homophobic and transphobic compared to other Thedosian societies because of the lack of reproductive capability which would be shunned as dwarven fertility has declined.

Anyway this is what I’ve got as of now for transition headcanons! No flaming no haters, just send me better headcanons if you got em.

#ivan amell #ishavun lavellan #niamh surana #dragon age meta #thedosian society #dragon age #tonias and antonia just did a little hrt in the bathroom...dont worry about it #can someone uhhh tell me how runes work??#master rune of make your cock bigger in my sword hilt rn #i have appointed myself thedosian professional association for transgender health #quick someone come up with a different theory and plunge us all into stupid discourse for 1000 years #also give maeveris tits i will not stand for this #krem can be nonop rep if he must thats beautiful #but mae would be body done like ass shots titties done and face beat contoured #alexandar adaar

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