Non-humans are not encumbered by the same restrictions that human society imposes. Many of them, such as the fun-worshiping Zirien, live their intimate lives freely in a very open, public manner. But most non-human people at least put sex in the category of private activities along with things like sleeping. Others, such as the Nikta, are even more secretive and repressed than Humans. Generally speaking, though, the idea that there is something sordid or immoral about sex, that people would be better off not even thinking about it, is mercifully absent from the philosophies of Azirian non-humans.
Sex has many roles in Azirian society beyond the basic needs of reproduction. Many Azirians even prefer to mate with members of an entirely different species. This practice is especially common among the adventurous Zirien and Mizarians, but every species of Azirian people has a few individuals who prefer it over sexual activity with their own kind. Even a few among the Thrinn (who condemn inter-species mating as unnatural and perverted) secretly arrange to meet with friends of a different species in private to experience this extraordinary pleasure.
Chiptakiet Chipsik Zeriik
The Mizarian triek chiptakiet is a traditional ritual for the purpose of starting friendships or alliances with other tribes of Mizarians, or (as in this case) with visitors from other worlds. Not all chiptakiet rituals are sexual, but one of the most popular variations of the ritual is the chiptakiet chipsik, an explicitly sexual ritual accompanied by special music and dancing. If successful, the ritual mating creates a bond of friendship that lasts for life, the closest thing in Mizarian society to a marriage. The male in this picture is a Vizuri, a Merakian red squirrel, and the female is a Kassani elf.
Fairy Sex - Kimi & Lerin
The Sharnirazvan wood-fairy is an endangered species. Kimi, a female of the brush-tailed race, is the last of her kind. Until she met Lerin, a male of the short-tailed race, she had never seen another wood-fairy in her life. Only time will tell if the wood-fairy habitat on Sharnirazva will survive the devastation wrought by the Nikta colonization. But the survival of the species depends on the few chance meetings and matings that happen more rarely every year. The population of wood-fairies is small and scattered over many isolated patches of trees that once comprised a great forest wilderness. Each individual mating is critical to the future of the species.
Mice
For the people of the Azirian universe, sex doesn't always have a serious purpose. As these Mizarian mice-people demonstrate, sex can be purely for fun.
Balance
What looks like a difficult and gymnastic sexual position is somewhat easier for the small, agile Eki mice-people. But it surely must take quite a bit of practice!
Mouse and Elf
Mizarian mice have adopted many of the customs of the adventurous Zirien, including the habit of mating with members of other species. The female in this picture is a Mizarian mouse of the Chakta race, and the male winged elf is a Miri.
Fox and Mouse
Mizarian mice will even mate with non-anthropomorphic partners such as wild Vulpeculan foxes! This is actually an ancient Zirien ritual, designed to help overcome the fear of wild predators. Mice-people still have an inherent fear of foxes, inherited from their wild mouse ancestors. Like selkies, the Vulpeculan wild foxes are really a kind of fairy that can take on the appearance of a fox; there are no true foxes anywhere in the Vulpeculan system.
How Werewolves Make More Werewolves
A guide to Azirian sex lives would be incomplete without a glance at the dark side. Not all inter-species sex is as safe as it might seem. This male Thu werewolf is in the process of transmitting the lycanthropy virus to his unsuspecting female elf partner. The lycanthropy virus, which has no known cure, eventually infects every cell in the body, transforming its victim into a shape-shifter. This is how werewolves reproduce themselves, by taking over the bodies of other people and making werewolves of them. Beware!
More pictures of couples mating:
Sketches:
