Thakok-An is a rapist that happens to be homosexual. He’s also a tragic figure. He is transgressive of the social order of Kalidnay, and he has fallen in love with the heterosexual Kalid-Ma, who happens to mercy bed the female templars that fall in love with him.
One of the themes of Ravenloft is pathos. A homosexual Thakok-An has more pathos than a heterosexual pairing. Years ago I wrote about my thoughts on this right here on the arena .
I am sure everyone here is aware of what happened with the correction of the lore with Kalidnay as it appeared in Ravenloft products. The Ravenloft products had Kalid-Ma as a female rather than a male, and her high templar was Thakok-An, a male. Later the genders were switched around because according to Dark Sun lore Kalid-Ma is a male (oops!).
Something didn’t quite strike me as right about Thakok-An’s forbidden love for her Sorcerer-King. I would think it would be totally normal for a subordinate woman to love, in the romantic sense, her king, especially when he is an alpha male like Kalid-Ma.
So why should Thakok-An be female? Why not be a male, and make his homosexual love for Kalid-Ma be both forbidden and unwanted.
This isn’t controversy for the sake of controversy, or for sexual diversity even when it doesn’t make sense (I’m talking Paizo here, now with around 1000+ LGBTPQ+ NPC’s to date). This kind of scenario has real pathos.
So what did Thakok-An do? Thakok-An knew that Kalid-Ma would not welcome a confession of love by Thakok-An, and in fact Kalid-Ma’s own laws are homophobic. So when Kalid-Ma was performing his ritual (and having lowered any immunities and wards), Thakok-An attempted a spell to compel Kalid-Ma’s affection. The result of that is well known - Kalid-Ma’s ritual went awry, parts of Kalidnay were destroyed, and Kalidnay was drawn into the mists.
You are probably right about this being “weirdly inclusive”. Thakok-An isn’t meant to be a role model for anyone.
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