Titanist attitudes towards sexuality

Attitudes towards sexuality within the Titanist countries have vary both from region to region and from time period to period historically, but are generally characterized by being strict towards unorthodox forms of sexuality, being very heteronormative, but still somewhat permissive of promiscuity. Titanist philosophy applies the principle of "with great power comes great responsibility" to sexuality (or, at least to female beauty) and pressures sexually attractive women to give something in return for the fairer treatment their beauty earns them: whether it is giving sexual favours to men who did her favours, or getting married to a man and giving birth to daughters just as beautiful as herself.

Chastity vs lust
In the Church of Titanius, recreational sex is viewed naturally - being overly lustful is viewed as a bad habit, even possibly a sin, while being chaste is seen as a virtue, as long as it does not interfere in one's reproduction. A "middle ground" is seen as the best, when one is prolific enough to reproduce, but still capable of holding himself/herself back and resist unnecessary temptations.

Sexual orientation
In the Kingdom of Froturn, Kingdom of Etrand, Earldom of Etrancoast and Principality of Artaburro, where the Titanist religion is dominant, attitudes towards sexuality can be best defined as a hierarchy, in which heterosexuality is seen as the purest - vaginal sex is considered the "cleanest" form of sex (since it serves to reproduce), oral sex is seen as acceptable but "not so clean", while anal sex is considered "borderline sodomy" (heavily discouraged, but not criminalized).

According to religious doctrine, homosexuality is a sin - before the invention of the sodobane, it used to warrant execution by burning on a stake, although in actual practice, female lesbians were more often impregnated via rape, forcibly married or forced to become nuns rather than being executed. Male homosexuals were usually executed, or forced into becoming monks if they begged for mercy. After the invention of sodobane, people would receive punishment only if they refused to drink sodobane they are prescribed to.

Even then, there is still a significant double standard regarding homosexuality in the religion: while official religious law states that people convicted of engaging in homosexual activity must drink sodobane, or else they suffer capital punishment, in actual practice, male homosexuals have it somewhat easier - they are tolerated as long as they stay at a low profile rather than flaunting it (low profile meaning being essentially closeted, not allowed to even kiss in public), while for bisexual males who are already married to a woman and have children, it is completely okay to have male lovers and be open and public about it: in fact, when a noble plans to commit adultery, he is encouraged to take male lovers instead of female lovers, as such relationships do not produce bastards. Pederasty was widely practiced in Etrand's nobility before the reign of King Cairbré I of Etrand who finally outlawed the practice de facto (de jure, it was always illegal, but its ban was never enforced before Cairbré came into power). It is said that King Bryant I of Etrand had multiple - mostly underage - male lovers, but all evidence would be censored out of existence by his conservative and religious successor Cairbré.

This unofficial tolerance of male bisexuality is rather recent phenomenon, most likely a byproduct of increased interaction and exchange of ideas between Naturalist and Titanist theologians.

Attitudes towards bisexual females - who are already married to a man and have children - depend on the social position of the female in question. Unless their husbands consent to it - or they are influential enough to "bypass the law" -, they may be convicted of sodomy and burned on a stake, like lesbians.

Incest and polygamy are seen as sins. Brothers and sisters, fathers and daughters or mothers and sons engaging in sexual activities are seen as forms of sodomy, which are punished by burning on stake. Marriage is only permitted between one man and one woman. Adultery is considered a sin, but does not warrant any form of punishment, other than being shamed by the Church.

Pornography
Generally, depictions of sexuality are judged by their "cleanlienss" - pieces of art depicting softcore or vaginal sex are permitted to be put on public display so long as they look "cartoony and censored enough", while all other forms of art depicting sexuality are abhorred, and may not be put on public display. Laws also forbid the display of overtly sexual imagery in buildings of worship or religious books.

Prostitution
The Titanist religion does not condemn prostitution, at least not in the way that would be expected from other religions - early Titanist philosophers simultaneously de-stigmatized and condemned prostitution in a roundabout way: they condemned wage labour by comparing it to prostitution (considering the two one and the same, with both involving somene selling their body for coins), and concluded - either prostitution is a perfectly legitimate profession, or all forms of wage labour must be stigmatized the same way as prostitution has been traditionally. In the end, the Titanist church adopted a hybrid approach of sorts, where prostitution was declared as a legitimate profession, but put forth a list of "common sense regulations" (such as married women being forbidden from selling their bodies, prostitutes having to quit their profession to marry) and made the selling of one's body a "minor sin" (one that they have to confess and make minor penance for) - which in effect was the church's attempt to tax prostitutes.

Prostitution in its typical form is near-nonexistent in rural areas in Titanist countries, with its closest equivalent being the existence of courtesans, who are paid by and very often sheltered and fed by wealth landowning magnates. Prostitution in its strictest sense only exists in the urban landscape, in cities, where it is in practiced in two forms: legally and illegally. Legal prostitutes are supposed to have a license, keep records of their clients and pay a tax after each of them - however, this policy is difficult to enforce, leading to lots of falsification, embezzlement and window-dressing. Initially, the Froturnish government even tried to force prostitutes to disclose the names of their clients, but this privacy-invadnig policy was highly unpopular and led people to illegal brothels instead - completely unregulated, untaxed, operating without licenses, at the mercy of officials, many of whom were bribed into looking the other way. In big cities like Yanus and Grandfolk, the parts of the city that house "respectable people" - the Inner City - contain only fully legal brothels, while the Shanty Quarters are full of illegal brothels, such as the Purple Brother Brothel. While legal brothels have licensed professionals operating with guarantees of keeping all of the money (save for the price of borrowing a room in the brothel), the illegal brothels are ran by ruthless pimps and other criminals who extort much of the money out of their employees, employ trafficked and kidnapped women, and generally provide for substandard hygiene.