Questions about moderation, age and time for fantasy stories

[AMWild]

I'm writing a story (https://www.literotica.com/series/se/the-slave-queen-of-etherion) and at first I ran up against this site's strict 18+ restriction. I have no problem with that so far. The rules are the rules as far as I'm concerned.

However, before I write chapters which might run up against the rules, I thought that I'd ask for a bit of clarification.

My story is a fantasy, which includes different races/species who age differently. Some, like the elves, are functionally immortal and ageless after about thirty, but they mature slowly. If I was to feature sex with an 18-year-old elf in my stories (technically allowable by Literotica's rules), it would be the equivalent of sex involving a 12-year-old human.

Consider the following examples:

In Oath of Gold by Elizabeth Moon, Kieri Phelan's half-elf sister, the heir to the throne of Lyonya, was a half-elf, pressured by her human nobles when she was in her twenties to get married and have children. She attempted to do so, and died in childbirth... and later, the elves of Lyonya, when it was mentioned that her (also half-elf) brother Kieri was currently in his forties (getting old by human standards), said that "(She) would yet live had she waited until forty (to have children)"... so basically, despite this being "legal" sex by Literotica rules, this girl was pressured into underaged marriage and sex and died as a result.

Or, to use an example from more recent screen culture, consider Grogu from The Mandalorian Star Wars TV series. Grogu is a member of Yoda's Species (and Yoda lived to around nine-hundred years old), is canonically around fifty years old, yet is still a pre-verbal child. "Different species age differently" said the ughnaut Kuill. With Literotica's rules on 18+ only sex, Grogu would technically be fair game for an erotic fan-fiction.

I don't want to go to either of those places above. Just... No. I don't even want to read similar scenarios.

Conversely, consider other species/races. In my story, I have satyrs and fauns (respectively males and females of the same ungulate-legged, scimitar-horned humanoid race), who mature more quickly than humans. At the age of about 14, a satyr/faun would be considered to be an adult by their culture, legally allowed to do anything an adult can do (drink, smoke, fuck, go to war), and would be expected to move out of their parents' home and become independent. Still acting like a dependent minor at the age of 17 and some months? Sheer laziness! Even half-satyrs/fauns (like Xenia from my story) mature faster, and she was technically physically and legally mature at around 16... but not according to Literotica's moderator... so I tweaked things for the sake of not rocking the boat.

However, there are other races that live much more quickly... like fairies or pixies, six-inch-tall (winged in the case of fairies) humanoids (and other races) who, at the age of 18 months (1.5 years old), would be considered physically and legally adult, and who might only live to the age of around 80 months: less than seven years.

Other characters in my story may mature at a similar rate, being socially, emotionally, sexually and legally mature in their society at some age less than 18.

Consider the real-world example of Man's so-called Best Friend, Canis familiaris. The domestic dog. In the words of Oingo Boingo, in their song "No-one lives forever":

You think you got it rough?
What about your darling doggy?
Ten short years,
He's getting old and groggy.

While there have been living 18-year-old dogs, they would be geriatrics. Consider https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aging_in_dogs.

So... featuring fully emotionally, socially and sexually mature members of such short-lived or fast-maturing races/species in a Literotica story is something that I do want to do... but the site rules would appear to forbid it. Technically, by Literotica rules, my fairies and pixies would have to be asexual, since they never live to the age of 18 years. A sentient but otherwise normal dog would have to be a geriatric to be featured.

So... how can I feature humanoid races or species that mature much more quickly than humans, and may or may not even live to the age of 18 years in my Literotica stories?

Then there's another case. Time passes differently in different places. On the worlds that my characters live, time passes 'normally'. However, in the faerie realms (Arcadia and Vaewolt), time can pass more or less quickly. Depending on... circumstances (basically authorial fiat), any amount of time spent in the faerie realms corresponds to any amount of time in the other realms. A year spent in Arcadia may be a day in Triagia, or a month in Vaewolt may be a decade in Etherion... basically whatever the story needs.

I'm considering having a character appear, whose parents went to Vaewolt from Etherion to live together three or four years previously, whose adult child shows up and claims to be in their twenties. Going by years lived in Vaewolt, this is true, but going by the time since their parents left Etherion, it has been less than five years.

How would that scenario go with Literotica's moderation rules?

[Discussions promoting and/or accusations involving under-18-year-old sexuality prohibited per our forum guidelines.]

 

[Bamagan]

The short answer is, you're over-thinking it. Make it clear any characters involved in the sex are adults, without referring to their calendar age, and you'll probably be okay with regard to the site rules. If the species only lives to 7 and is an adult at 6 months or whatever, it shouldn't matter to the story if they're 1, 2, 3, etc. If your story requires going that far into the weeds of differential development between species, you are probably in the wrong place anyway.

 

[AMWild]

The short answer is, you're over-thinking it. Make it clear any characters involved in the sex are adults, without referring to their calendar age, and you'll probably be okay with regard to the site rules. If the species only lives to 7 and is an adult at 6 months or whatever, it shouldn't matter to the story if they're 1, 2, 3, etc. If your story requires going that far into the weeds of differential development between species, you are probably in the wrong place anyway.

The thing is, I'm considering a character who will mature from an infant to an adult in a year and a half, basically because of magic. I'd rather not have to resubmit if I can help it, given the moderation delay here.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

The thing is, I'm considering a character who will mature from an infant to an adult in a year and a half, basically because of magic. I'd rather not have to resubmit if I can help it, given the moderation delay here.

Only the mods can answer that question definitively.
You can always try messaging and asking.

 

[NotWise]

Consider not even mentioning age.

 

[Bamagan]

The thing is, I'm considering a character who will mature from an infant to an adult in a year and a half, basically because of magic. I'd rather not have to resubmit if I can help it, given the moderation delay here.

I'm skeptical that would fly, so it might not be worth submitting it. The devil is in the details, though, so it's not impossible. But whether or not a work is actually pedophilic, if it seems likely to appeal to pedophiles, the site is likely to err on the side of caution and have nothing to do with it, assuming they catch it.

 

[AMWild]

I'm skeptical that would fly, so it might not be worth submitting it. The devil is in the details, though, so it's not impossible. But whether or not a work is actually pedophilic, if it seems likely to appeal to pedophiles, the site is likely to err on the side of caution and have nothing to do with it, assuming they catch it.

I definitely don't intend for it to be even remotely pedophilic... probably more on the, "He's certainly mature enough, but I'm not even sure that sex with someone that big, strong and... different would be safe," level of things.

 

[barefootgirl69]

Only the mods can answer that question definitively.
You can always try messaging and asking.

The forum moderators do not moderate the story side.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I have read multiple fantasy stories that start with a disclaimer along the lines of; All creatures engaged in sexual acts implied or explicit are of that species age of majority.

 

[Bamagan]

I definitely don't intend for it to be even remotely pedophilic... probably more on the, "He's certainly mature enough, but I'm not even sure that sex with someone that big, strong and... different would be safe," level of things.

I meant something more along the lines of, if the adult characters who knew the age-advanced baby as a baby wind up having sex with the adult version, and you have them thinking or talking about how recently they changed that person's diapers or something, you would probably get flagged (and it'd be a fair cop, arguably). Any such comparisons dwelling on the mystical maturation are potentially fraught, particularly if they are in the context of sex acts. I would expect you could write the story without any such issues, as the idea itself isn't new, so it's entirely possible that it would be fine. But it might require extra scrutiny for the editor to be sure that's the case, and take longer than usual to be evaluated for publication.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Simple answer, if you are publishing on Lit stay a million-miles away from getting cute with ages. That applies equally to thousand year olds who behave like they're five as it does to five year olds who have reached emotional and sexual maturity. Even if it does get through, it'd just take one person to hit the report button and have the story or chapter pulled. The benefit to your world-building is unlikely to be such that it balances out the headache of constantly dancing on the line.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

The forum moderators do not moderate the story side.

I'm aware of that. Laurel is solely responsible for that. The point being no one here in the AH can give you the answer.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Some rules on lit are extremely lenient and flexible. The underage rule is not one of them. I doubt that you would get any sort of straight answer from the Admin. She would just quote the rule and leave you in the same darkness if she answered you at all. The only thing to really do to is to either just never mention any ages at all and make your characters appear unquestionably adult, or to just fuck the rules of fae and make them age the same as humans do.

If you character appears adolescent or childlike in any way, it won't pass. Even if it slips through, all it will take is one complaint and you will be zapped with little to no investigation. If your character is mathematically 1 minute younger than 18 years it will not pass. Dog years do not matter. Again, even if it slips through.

If you publish and then get taken down, Laurel will not care about your work or your story. Her attitude will literally be, "it's all right, all you have to do is completely rewrite the whole fucking thing, see? no problem! : D "

You could always just try another site.

 

[Areala-chan]

The easiest way to avoid rubbing up against the rules on character ages is to avoid rubbing up against them.

You may have the most incredible reasons for why a character is functionally an adult but only X years old in reality. Cut it. Drop them. Leave it in your head-cannon and nowhere else. Don't make it part of the plot. Don't make it part of their characterization. Don't make a critical sexual event of your story hinge on whether or not one of the participants is old/developed/mature enough to handle sex with someone else.

Just don't.

Seriously.

"All characters depicted in sexual acts are over the age of 18." Put that in your introductory paragraph. Put that in the notes for Laurel to read when you submit the story. Wedge it into your prefrontal cortex, with an icepick if necessary, and remember it every single time you open your word processor.

There are a million ways to be cute and coy around the 18+ rule, but if the concept of a character being too young/immature/underdeveloped for sex is the lynchpin upon which the drama of your story hinges, save yourself time and energy and look elsewhere.

You're viewing a site rule as an obstacle to be dodged, when you should be viewing it the way you do a traffic signal. Under 18 is a red light. It means, "Do not go." It does not mean you start looking for ways to turn your story into an ambulance or a fire truck with its siren blaring and lights flashing so you can blow by everyone else. It doesn't mean you dig through the traffic laws in search of exceptions. "Ah, but if I'm part of a funeral procession, then I could--"

Stop. It isn't important to your story.

You may think it's critical. You may have the most imaginative and fantastical reasons why this one time, just this one time, the rules should be overlooked, and you have worked out the angles like a lawyer so you can plead a special exception for your client, the story, because it's important for your readers to know this.

But it isn't.

Don't do it. Your characters are all consenting adults. They're all over 18. Don't mention specific ages.

It isn't as important to your story as you think it is. Not if you want to post it here, at any rate.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I'm reminded of a discussion I had with my SO about why my orcs and lizardmen won't be hitting full adulthood at 10. He was thinking in DND terms where they tend to have a max life span of 20-30, whereas I was thinking in realism. Neither one is smaller than humans, and I don't want their old age to be lower than humans, so it doesn't make sense for them to grow faster. And even if they were smaller (Like gnomes are) it just doesn't make sense that they could learn everything they need to be adults in ten short years. So no, my orcs and lizard men are not mature by ten, they're mature sometimes around 20. Nor are my gnomes mature that young, even though they're much smaller than humans and so could theoretically grow faster and in a way they do, but they don't enter puberty until they're in their twenties because there is so much for them to learn before they can be an adult. So a small long lived gnome is likely to hit their full growth by the time they're ten, but isn't likely to even start dating until they're in their late twenties, with their parents not allowing them to go any further until they're at least 30.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Considering the themes you are writing and those specific issues, I believe publishing on AO3 will be a far simpler experience for you.
As others have stated, while plenty of authors managed to successfully circumvent some of Literotica's rules, the administration seems to be much stricter about the application of the underage rule. I guess that's because underage content could be much more problematic from a legal standpoint.

 

[TiberiusPrime]

As long as all of your characters have been alive for 18 years, you're good. Regardless of whatever fantasy you're creating. However, Bamagan nailed it correctly: You're overthinking it.

 

[crookedletter]

I think the more your writing focuses on the relative age of characters, the more scrutiny you might invite on whether or not you’re running afoul of the rules. As others have suggested, just don’t introduce those questions in the story: the characters are adults, no problem.

I can imagine the moderation of these rules as they pertain to fantasy being on the subjective side. There was another thread not long ago that flagged a story where the female character was explicitly stated to be of age, but by all descriptions/behaviors/etc. she was very obviously and intentionally portrayed as a child. I don’t know what became of that story, but that to me breaks the spirit of the underage rule if not the letter. Similarly with a fantasy story that might introduce a race of people who are identical to humans apart from life span maybe and the time it takes to reach sexual maturity. I would think — and hope — if that device was used to circumvent the age rule, portraying a child that just happens to be 18, it wouldn’t pass muster.

 

[ronde]

I'm writing a story (https://www.literotica.com/series/se/the-slave-queen-of-etherion) and at first I ran up against this site's strict 18+ restriction. I have no problem with that so far. The rules are the rules as far as I'm concerned.

However, before I write chapters which might run up against the rules, I thought that I'd ask for a bit of clarification.

My story is a fantasy, which includes different races/species who age differently. Some, like the elves, are functionally immortal and ageless after about thirty, but they mature slowly. If I was to feature sex with an 18-year-old elf in my stories (technically allowable by Literotica's rules), it would be the equivalent of sex involving a 12-year-old human.

I understand your logic, but my question is why is this use of differences in time to maturity important to the story unless it's to attract readers who enjoy reading stories about underage sex? To me and I would imagine to several other this seems like just another method of circumventing the site rules. If an elf of 18 is the equivalent of a human of 12, are you saying that elf has the sexual maturity of a human of 12, or are you implying that a 12 year old human is just as sexually mature as an 18 year old elf? Either way sounds way too much like pedophilia to me. You might get away with it if you don't mention ages or stage of development, but I'd find some other way to differentiate your characters unless that's truly the impression you're looking to convey.

If that's the case, follow my personal rule for situations like this. If you have to ask the question, don't do it.

You also need to understand that Literotica is accessible in most of the developed world, and in some countries, the site owner is personally both criminally and civilly liable for publishing content that violates the laws of that particular country.

 

[lovecraft68]

Considering the themes you are writing and those specific issues, I believe publishing on AO3 will be a far simpler experience for you.
As others have stated, while plenty of authors managed to successfully circumvent some of Literotica's rules, the administration seems to be much stricter about the application of the underage rule. I guess that's because underage content could be much more problematic from a legal standpoint.

To be clear, legality has never had anything to do with the underage rule because it's not illegal or perennial underaged sex obsessed King and Martin would be in jail.

This is a site rule, which they want people to follow, but it's not a law.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

To be clear, legality has never had anything to do with the underage rule because it's not illegal or perennial underaged sex obsessed King and Martin would be in jail.

This is a site rule, which they want people to follow, but it's not a law.

You could be right, but it makes sense that they would want to avoid any potential liability, and underage sexual content is probably the trickiest one in that sense.
We see that the site is quite lax about many other rules, so this explanation seemed reasonable to me. But it could also be that Laurel cares about this specific rule more than she cares about other stuff, who knows?

 

[Voboy]

As long as all of your characters have been alive for 18 years, you're good. Regardless of whatever fantasy you're creating. However, Bamagan nailed it correctly: You're overthinking it.

Untrue. Your characters cannot be clearly portrayed as childlike or juvenile, no matter how long they've been alive.

OP, PM Laurel. She's the only one who can answer this. If she doesn't reply? There's your answer.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Just remember, Laurel cares more about complaints than about your story. If you publish 12 chapters and then 6 months later someone whines to the admin, "That pixie-harpy thing in chapter 7 isn't 18!" that chapter will be GONE and you will have a bitch of a time getting it put back in, almost certainly involving you re-writing the pixie-harpy thing out.

 

[AMWild]

Well, fortunately I haven't even started writing this stuff yet, so it's still easy enough for the character to get lost in the faerie realms where time passes differently and come back a few years later at the age of thirty... or something like that.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

In one of my works in progress, I have a character who is said to be a college freshman. No mention of his age.

Then I was extra careful, so he doesn't get into a sexual situation for a year after that.

--Annie