Comment on Allerleirauh's last point: I've IM'd Allie, and I believe she feels the step 3, with the skirt, is less "slutty". No hard feelings between us. :) For any who find there way back here, this is a brief counterpoint to her comments. We obviously have very different minds on these issues. I respect her opinions, but these are mine: On the Celtic myths, very briefly, I did a twenty page paper on the view of women in ancient Celtic Ireland for a professor who's favorite area of study was Irish Celtic mythology and folklore. He was reknowned for trashing students who got the facts wrong in any area, but more so in his favorite field. People thought I was crazy to do it, I should have taken a safer subject further from his field of expertise. I aknowledged which areas were more or less certain based on historical sources vs. mythological ones, talked about how some information was "tainted" when the myths were written down but the Christian monks mostly in the 14th to 17 th centuries. I then brought what we did know together with what we might know, to put together a logical guess on how things really might have been. I got an A, which is pretty impossible with him. This was an honors class, eleven students, so we each had a day to discuss orally our papers. He grilled me, and I thought I was going to die, but I satisfied his questions. He had some minor disagreement on some items, but told me I had actually given him a new perspective on some issues he had pondered himself. This was about ten years ago. I was researching these things well before that class, to help round out the foundation of my religious beliefs, which would be considered a modern reconstruction based on the old Celtic beliefs. There is room for interpretation, but please understand I do have a good depth of knowledge on this subject. As to fantasy making sense, you can't judge it based on our modern culture, mores and sensabilities. The AD&D world is inspired by historical settings that didn't co-exist in reality, but it is internally consistant and logical. You can argue how egalitarian matriarchal societies really were historically, but the fictional general AD&D settings is in many ways more egalitarian, at least amoung the "adventuring elite", than current day Earth. You can't judge what would be considered "ridiculous" dress by to today's standards either. Almost everything you might dress your character with would be pretty "ridiculous" if you wore it around town today! :) As to dressing like a "slut", these are my views, as concisely as possible: What is a slut? Well, it isn't just based on promiscuity, it's promiscuity with a conscious or unconcious desire to "defile" or corrupt one's self or others through a "debasing" act of sex. It's action combined with intent. A major point I would like to make is that a woman using her "sexiness" along with here other gifts is not a slut. Patriarchy fears empowered women who are capable and intelligent AND comfortable with thier own sexual natures more than anything. At periods where women start to find greater power in a society, you will find that society counter-reacts by trying to obscure their sexual identity and power. i.e. the 18th century, where women's clothing became very restrictive, and covered everything, and today, where women are being taught that her sexuality is somehow anti-feminist. Of course, the greatest, blatant attack of Patriarchy on the power of women was during the Inquisition. It was a time to rid the Church of all sorts of competitors, but mostly it was to eliminate the position of "wise women" in society, healers, arbitrators and "seductresses". It was mostly women who exerted any power or influence that were burned, many were healers or priestesses of the old religions, but others where just women who had presence, leadership qualities or "worst of all", would use their looks or feminine natures (NOT the act of sex, but just being "sexy"), who were targeted. The only way someone can dress "like a slut" is to wear certain clothing, (not always revealing), to facilitate her own "sluty" actions. It's not just what is worn, but how and why, but remember, dressing to "be sexy" is not slutiness! Dressing to fascilitate a sluty lifestyle is. One of the worst forms of oppression still being visited upon women in today's society, more markedly in American society, is the notion that to be sexy lessens or cheapens the value of a woman. A sexist man who judges women just on "sexiness" is till judging you that way, whether his judgement is "yes, you are sexy", or "no, you aren't". Obscuring your sexuality isn't going to make him value you for your other qualities, your just in his "not sexy" category. Only when people, men and women, learn to value sexuality as just one of many positive qualities that a person can posess, will women be fully enfranchised in society. For me, a woman putting a negative value on another woman's sexiness is just as bad as a sexist man basing all of her value on it! Gwen is not a slut, no matter how she dressed, she would not be. In the fictional RPG universe, her value as a woman warrior and mage is equal to that of a man. That's how most would judge her. If, as part of a mission, she had to play the role of seductress to win entry into the court of the villian, this would not demean her, in her eyes nor the eyes of her companions. Seduction (not harlotry), has always been an important skill used by powerful women in history. And it wasn't always raw looks. Cleopatra was very average looking, but was a master at the art of seduction. Does this lessen her value or accomplishments in any way? Fiontar