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 Lord Blackscale wrote:
Yes, and we have so many real world examples of what happens when you tell someone they can't have sex. People are going to do it no matter what.

Pretty much true among normal humans. To the point where British Law doesn't bother prosecuting underage teens who experiment - and just gives free protection and advice.

I suspect that the majority of the SoB would be pretty good about it, but there'll be the odd few who break the rule.

 Talizvar wrote:
Due to food supplements being heavily laced with Anaphrodisiacs (to suppress sex drive) this question is moot in the Emperor's military. Focus on the task at hand is required, chemical sterilization is typical to prevent a population explosion during long interstellar trips.

It has been largely suspected after a marine has had his black carapace installed he has no exterior organs to speak of... it is widely regarded that an army of eunuchs are a formidable (and angry!) fighting force.

One can only speculate for the sisters of battle the modifications needed to interface effectively with their power suits without a black carapace. With their penchant for flame and flagellant behavior, one would think that areas of "irrelevance" would also be similarly... purged.

All the above methods ensure a "pure" means of bonding to your squad-mates in the common pursuit of obliterating the Emperor's enemies.

As the sisters still have breasts I would say that the idea of removing non-essential body parts is false.

 Lord Blackscale wrote:

 Talizvar wrote:
Due to food supplements being heavily laced with Anaphrodisiacs (to suppress sex drive) this question is moot in the Emperor's military. Focus on the task at hand is required, chemical sterilization is typical to prevent a population explosion during long interstellar trips.

It has been largely suspected after a marine has had his black carapace installed he has no exterior organs to speak of... it is widely regarded that an army of eunuchs are a formidable (and angry!) fighting force.

One can only speculate for the sisters of battle the modifications needed to interface effectively with their power suits without a black carapace. With their penchant for flame and flagellant behavior, one would think that areas of "irrelevance" would also be similarly... purged.

All the above methods ensure a "pure" means of bonding to your squad-mates in the common pursuit of obliterating the Emperor's enemies.

As the sisters still have breasts I would say that the idea of removing non-essential body parts is false.

Could be ornamental breastplates.

Holy humanity and whatnot.

I'm almost surprised that GW didn't design SM codpieces with more flair.

 Lord Blackscale wrote:
As the sisters still have breasts I would say that the idea of removing non-essential body parts is false.

That would change the "human form" too far from the Emperor's intent, the nose could be made more efficient as well but deviates too far from the holy form of the Emperor's chosen.
Many of these "suggestions" had been forwarded by the Mechanicus but they lack the spiritual awareness to decide where humanity ends and the machine begins.
As to the question of "plug suits" they are similar to the holy Astartes suit but certain functionality is lost due to the inefficiency of interface due to their "illogical" need to preserve the human form.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Power_Armour#Adepta_Sororitas_Power_Armour

Seems like they are all there to me. But lets not dwell on this any longer.

Unlike the Astartes, the Sororitas don't receive, or require, surgery to use their PA. Of course, they don't get quite the same suite of benefits, nor wear it like a second skin, but that's the trade-off.

But wouldn't the Emperor's Children's capability of falling to their basest, and sometimes blatantly sexual, desires indicate that there has to be some level of sexuality inherent in Space Marines? I mean, an army of eunuchs doesn't exactly seem like something Slaanesh would have taken interest in.

Not to mention the fluff regarding some Salamanders retiring to have a normal life and start families. I think the lack of Space Marines engaging in sexuality is a function of their lifestyle and psychology, rather than a physical lack of ability to act on it.

I have years of "fluff" information (WD back into the 90's) and admit not much has been said either way on this matter.

I think by way of marketing to customers there would be a little less admiration of being a marine if they are not... whole.

The way the Imperium is described however, it would make perfect sense to remove any inconvenient bits on the hunk of meat you just spent a ton of resources on or at least remove some of the non-subscribed urges and hormones that do not directly contribute to a warrior of the Emperor.

To stay true to the original topic I am sure any kind of orientation would be acceptable if they can physically perform. Now if you were a mutant however, that is a whole lot of other prejudice they are willing to indulge in.

I believe however any form of "urges" leading to acts would be conditioned out / removed / chemically or surgically managed, policing all that messiness is too costly: just nip it off at the source!

Amberly Vail in a Ciaphas Cain book comments that Sisters of Battle are technically allowed to have relationships, but they rarely have the personal time for them.

Of course, the Ciaphas Cain books are of dubious canonicity to any other work, I think (considering that you never see anything from the Ciaphas Cain books turn up anywhere else, whatsoever, as far as I know)

The Cain books are written, almost assuredly, as examples of in-universe propaganda, probably by some hack, Under-hive publicist who's looking to make a quick Throne on some penny dreadfuls read by others bordering on heresy.

 kveldulf wrote:
Uh, I think it would be weird/alarming for someone to tell me how some of the guys in his force are gay. /shrug

Why?

 Buttery Commissar wrote:

 kveldulf wrote:
Uh, I think it would be weird/alarming for someone to tell me how some of the guys in his force are gay. /shrug

Why?

I don't mean to alarm you, but I really have to warn you... I'm hetero. Disturbing, I know, but I just thought it might be your business.

 Selym wrote:
I don't mean to alarm you, but I really have to warn you... I'm hetero. Disturbing, I know, but I just thought it might be your business.

You're a cube. Cubes don't have genitals.

But no, seriously... Why would that be alarming?

Unnecessary, I'll concede to. It's not very relevant and about as pertinent to deployment as what colour hand soap they use.

 Selym wrote:

 Buttery Commissar wrote:

 kveldulf wrote:
Uh, I think it would be weird/alarming for someone to tell me how some of the guys in his force are gay. /shrug

Why?

I don't mean to alarm you, but I really have to warn you... I'm hetero. Disturbing, I know, but I just thought it might be your business.

Lol

And I need to know the sexual orientation of someomes toy soldiers because? If some guy plopped down his force and made the assertion his dudes are homo, I would find it quite an enigma and question his sanity.

Is it so bad that I think people's unnatural sexual preferences should be reserved for situations that are relevant?

What I'm saying is probably more an aside. I don't mind bringing up conjecture, but when I smell modern day social justice, it wrankles my feathers. I'd argue the opposite almost for the sake of it.....

I think it would be more consistent with the imperiums harsh view of survival if they treated homosexuality as heretical. (40k not the 'secular' 30k). Need as many bodies as possible for the front lines.... and the social institution of family to reinforce the imperial dogma on top of it. Perpetuating a culture is more effecient when everyone's straight.

 Talizvar wrote:
Due to food supplements being heavily laced with Anaphrodisiacs (to suppress sex drive) this question is moot in the Emperor's military. Focus on the task at hand is required, chemical sterilization is typical to prevent a population explosion during long interstellar trips.

Pure fanon though. This has never been stated in any fluff.

Selym wrote:Could be ornamental breastplates.

Holy humanity and whatnot.

I'm almost surprised that GW didn't design SM codpieces with more flair.

Have you never painted a Scout?!

Actually I'm pretty sure Space Marines are not asexual at all, in one of the old codexes it even says the typical chapter alots a 30 minute free time period for the marine to relax, mediate, pursue an art, etc. Basic R&R and I could see certain worlds where that time would be spent with a family or even a fling in the hay with a lady of the night.

Granted though 30 minutes isn't a lot of time, and when the next 23 and half hours are training or trying to not killed by the 90 billion things out there that want you dead....probably not an everyday occurrence.

As far as homosexuality goes for a marine well...they got 30 minutes.

IIRC its 15 mins per day for reflection and some Chapters don't even do that as its "wasted" time.

That being said some Chapters - Blood Angels have time for art, some like the Salamanders crafts - usually smithing and being branded.

The Templars spend their 30 minutes being yelled at by the Chaplain for not crusading hard enough in the previous 23.5 hours.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
Actually I'm pretty sure Space Marines are not asexual at all, in one of the old codexes it even says the typical chapter alots a 30 minute free time period for the marine to relax, mediate, pursue an art, etc. Basic R&R and I could see certain worlds where that time would be spent with a family or even a fling in the hay with a lady of the night.

I strongly doubt this, because they are astartes. It's like bedding a rhinoceros.

I don't see how it is going to end well.

Astartes have perfect control over their own bodies, so it shouldn't end badly.

I'd have to assume that it's like today: Who gives a &$^% ?

 Furyou Miko wrote:

 Talizvar wrote:
Due to food supplements being heavily laced with Anaphrodisiacs (to suppress sex drive) this question is moot in the Emperor's military. Focus on the task at hand is required, chemical sterilization is typical to prevent a population explosion during long interstellar trips.

Pure fanon though. This has never been stated in any fluff.

Of course it is pure fanon... presented as such in the classic "forge the narrative" style, how else do we fill in the gaps of what GW chooses not to write about. I could get into all kinds of details just like how homosexuality is addressed in 40k: it is not.
So like with anything, look at the picture they paint and fill in the gaps of how you think it would go.

'I do not think the sisters are encourage to stare at anything but saintly statues.'

That's a very good point, I'm going to go with that.

I'm sure there's some banned pornography that circulates through the cells of some Orders...

"Studly Stormbolters" and "Hot, Burning Heretics". "Melta Monthly" and "The Faith, the Fury, the Passion".

 Psienesis wrote:
I'm sure there's some banned pornography that circulates through the cells of some Orders...

"Studly Stormbolters" and "Hot, Burning Heretics". "Melta Monthly" and "The Faith, the Fury, the Passion".

Celestine: The Real Story
A Biography

 kveldulf wrote:
I think it would be more consistent with the imperiums harsh view of survival if they treated homosexuality as heretical. (40k not the 'secular' 30k). Need as many bodies as possible for the front lines.... and the social institution of family to reinforce the imperial dogma on top of it. Perpetuating a culture is more effecient when everyone's straight.

That'd be a lovely thought to comfort those who won't like the idea of gays, if it hadn't been mentioned earlier in the thread, and indeed in many fluff sources that some worlds are chronically over-populated.

In other worlds the Imperium happily grow their own soldiers, or collect only on those that have survived trials. I think looking for consistency or an over all "ruling" on something like birthrate or sexuality is nigh impossible.

I can see some world having a child limit due to resource problems, and others having arranged marriages/pairing to ensure population increase.
We just can't hold 40K to contemporary viewpoints.

And as an aside, if announcing anything about my army other than "this has recently been in some kind of biological waste, try and guess which" causes an opponent to turn up their nose, good. I don't want to spend three or four hours invested in a game with someone with no sense of humour.

Even planets that have birth-rate requirements may not ban homosexuality, people might just have multiple spouses. A gay man might have his "breeding wife" and then his "first husband" on such a world, for example.

That's the fun of the Imperium. If you can imagine it? There's probably a planet in the Imperium that does it.

I am convinced the process of becoming a space marine eliminates and "humanity" as they say they made weapons with the cold hearts of angels. The process basically eliminates anything not geared for a lifetime of prayer and war. These transhumans typically look down on humans and their lives, the Iron 10th being a prime example of a legion that even then abhors the flesh in any manner. The Emperors Children when freed of all constraints and pushed to excess as followers of slaanesh could only express it through gratuitous violence. as for the sisters and guard, they are merely human and subject to all humanity's range. The Astartes are something different altogether. I would think asexual to a degree that is almost sterile to the extreme end of viewing it even in others as absolute weakness (minotaurs, carcharadons, executioners, and blood angels)

I think a lot of it would depend on the planet of course. But for the most part I honestly think the Imperium would probably find it unacceptable. I'd think a lot of parts of the Imperium are in a constant state of war. Resources are always required. To pursue your own pleasures while you could be procreating for the Emperor... There's no time to fondle each other when there's an Imperium to run. Of course it still happens but I would think it's generally frowned upon if not outright forbidden.

 damattybear wrote:
I think a lot of it would depend on the planet of course. But for the most part I honestly think the Imperium would probably find it unacceptable. I'd think a lot of parts of the Imperium are in a constant state of war. Resources are always required. To pursue your own pleasures while you could be procreating for the Emperor... There's no time to fondle each other when there's an Imperium to run. Of course it still happens but I would think it's generally frowned upon if not outright forbidden.

Gay uh.. "little soldiers" don't swim in circles, fella.
In well organised parades, maybe.

But if we're talking about birthrates being such an issue, it's more than likely ways in which genetic material are collected and implemented way more efficiently than partnering up. I'm sucking the romance out, because if it's that fething crucial (ha), they're not going to leave it to chance in those instances.

I'm not pushing for this to be a thing, I'm well of the opinon that it varies from planet to planet.
Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is.
There will be worlds where homosexuality gets you shot. There will be worlds where not knowing the correct lyrics to Ode to Yarrick gets you shot. There will be worlds where nobody bats an eyelid at anything.