Sexuality

The most important thing which a Dynast can do for her family is produce children and continue the gift of the Dragon’s Blood. As such, marriage and sex are vitally important. The public, however, has no desire to know such things; indeed, discussing one’s sex life is viewed as rude, braggadocious, and arrogant.

Public discussion of relationships focuses instead on marriage and sometimes on romance.

The Dynasty does not conceive of heterosexuality or homosexuality as exclusive preferences. The idea that a person could be strictly attracted to one sex is a strange novelty or foreign habit to them. Most Dynasts carry on affairs with both sexes and do not bat an eye at it. Those who do publicly prefer only a single sex are viewed similarly to those who only take to a single hair color – an oddity or a quirk. It is expected that a typical Dynast will take an array of lovers from both sexes across the course of their life.

The Three Rooms

The Three Rooms is an old poetic metaphor which describes relationships and sexuality within the Dynasty. Many young Dynasts learn about the Three Rooms through studying the classics, and then gradually learn to expand the metaphor beyond relationships and into sexuality.

The Three Rooms metaphor divides a Dynast’s romantic and sexual relationships into three separate rooms. These rooms are viewed as entirely distinct from one another; what happens in one room ought not to affect the others.

A typical Dynast is married, and keeps an array of (mostly same-sex) lovers on the side. Such an arrangement is viewed as entirely faithful – her time with her lovers is not disloyal, because it is a different kind of love than the marriage. It is fully accepted, as long as such things remain out of sight and do not produce illicit children.

The Jade Room

The Jade Room, also sometimes called the Parlor, is the public sphere of relationships and sexuality. For most Dynasts, their marriage resides in the Jade Room. Children and family are products of the Jade Room. In public, you go to parties with your spouse and mingle with others; this space, where love is seen, is the Jade Room.

Jade Room relationships are prototypically heterosexual, because they exist for the purpose of producing heirs. Homosexual relationships certainly exist, but not with the same frequency. Relationships in the Jade Room are expected to be cordial, but are also thought of as dispassionate and formal – they are not affairs of the heart, but instead, affairs of the House. Sex in the Jade Room is rarely for love’s sake, and more often for spousal harmony and for heirs.

The Flower Room

The Flower Room, sometimes called the Garden, is the private sphere of relationships and sexuality. For most Dynasts, the Flower Room is where their relationships to their lovers and romance most lie. The Flower Room is where the Dynasty retreats from the public eye to indulge their passions and find the deep connections their marriages often lack.

The Flower Room is protoypically homosexual, and almost always features partners from different social classes. It is the sphere of romance, where kisses are soft, the sheets are silken, and candlelight dinners are accompanied by stirring instrumentals. Relationships in the Flower Room are not expected to be lifetime commitments like marriage, and many Dynasts take an array of lovers behind closed doors.

Dynasts are not only expected and accepted to have an array of Flower Room dalliances, but are often subtly encouraged to do so, as a way to find the satisfaction and passion which the cold affairs of marriage often lack. Because Flower Room relationships are between people of different statuses – old and young, Dynast and patrician, Dynast and foreigner – they are not viewed as a threat to the marriage. Flower Room relationships are usually homosexual, and thus unlikely to produce children; heterosexual dalliances are less frequent but still common, and take advantage of the Realm’s array of contraceptive techniques to ensure that children are not conceived.

The Stone Room

The Stone Room, sometimes called the Cellar, is the scandalous sphere of relationships, used to describe those relationships which transcend the division between public and private. Although the Stone Room is often controversial when in adulthood, it is more commonly used to describe the youthful deviations or barely unacceptable circumstances the Dynasty often finds themselves in.

The prototypical Stone Room relationship is between secondary school mates, often pledged to be married but indulging in one another. Such a relationship intersects the public sphere, because it is between Dynasts of equal status, but also the private sphere, because it is passionate and temporary. As such, it dwells in the Stone Room. These relationships are tolerated, but those involved are expected to grow past them.

Another relationship which is accepted as long as it ends is a relationship between Dynasts in the legion; although often they are married, the nights are long and Dynasts are horny, and so such pairs or even larger arrangements naturally emerge. Once the legion returns home, it is expected that these Stone Room relationships will end, and will not return unless they are shipped out again.

Real controversy emerges when the Stone Room is not an excusable moment of passion but a persistent affair. Cheating really only exists when Stone Room relationships are exposed in parallel to marriages, without the extenuating circumstances that make such relationships tolerable.