History Main / BizarreAlienSexes

** Grogs have an inversion of the Kzin model, but with much more extreme physical dimorphism. They begin life as doglike animals of limited intelligence. During adolescence, females find a good spot, attach themselves to a rock, and mature into sessile, conical adults that are sapient and powerful telepaths that hunt by compelling other animals into walking into range of their prehensile tongues. Males never reach this stage, and remain permanently as creature the approximate shape, size and smarts of a chihuahua, which the females keep around as something like pets.

* In Literature/TheCulture novel ''Literature/ThePlayerOfGames'', the Azadians have three sexes - male, female and apex, a hermaphroditic gender.

* In ''Literature/IsekaidShoggoth'', the main character is a shoggoth and self-identifies as female, because she was raised and disguises herself as a human woman, but the truth is far more complicated. For brevity, she boasts that she's very, very familiar with tentacle play, and it's off-screen.

** The Puppeteers from the same series ''claim'' to have three sexes for PR reasons. The ugly truth is that the "mother" is actually a different species that is parasitized by the Puppeteers in [[ChestBurster a manner not unlike the larvae of a tarantula hawk]].
** Kzin reproduction is close to standard in that they have what we'd recognize as males and females, but the females are non-sentient and basically animals. Male kzinti were enormously confused at meeting other species, such as humans, where both sexes are sapient. It's actually implied that this was not always the case -- kzin legends refer to their females having been sapient, once, but they tried to rebel against the Fanged God and lost their souls as punishment. The reality is that [[spoiler:after the pre-industrial kzinti destroyed and took the technology of an alien race that landed on their planet, the male kzinti genetically engineered their females to be the way they are now, while at the same time making themselves as strong and vicious as possible to fit with their bronze age ideals of gender roles]]. A few kzinti populations around Known Space that have been isolated from the homeworld for ''very'' long times still have sapient females.
* In ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen'', the Eighteenth Men, our many-millions-of-years descendants, have evolved and/or engineered themselves to have as many as ninety-six different sub-sexes.

-> ''The Captain's tastes were simple, but his methods were complex''\\
''We found him with five partners, each of a different world and sex''\\
''The Shore Police were on the way -- we had no second chance.''\\
''We beamed him up in the nick of time -- in the remnants of his pants!''

** One episode of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' features a race called the Vissians, who as well as having males and females have a third gender called "cogenitors" who are necessary in reproduction but only account for 3% of the population of Vissians. Cogenitors are third class citizens not even given names or an education. They are circulated between couples to assist in reproduction.

* [[https://fanlore.org/wiki/Alpha/Beta/Omega Alpha/Beta/Omega]] is an odd genre of erotica built around a mixture of this trope and FantasticCasteSystem, usually applied either to [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]] (which is where the trope originated, specifically in the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' fandom) or to the setting's version of ''[[OurHumansAreDifferent humans]]''. In keeping with the AlphaAndBetaWolves trope, alphas are sexually dominant, omegas are sexually submissive, and betas (when they appear) are generally in the middle of the hierarchy. Omegas bear children from alphas (and sometimes from betas) and often [[BondCreatures pair bond]] with alphas too. To make matters more confusing, this trope gets combined with real human sexes, so [[MisterSeahorse omega males can get pregnant]] and alpha females can sometimes impregnate omegas. (Meanwhile, betas tend to have anatomy more typical of real humans.) You'll also commonly see canine sexual traits, like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrous_cycle heat]] in omegas and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulbus_glandis knotting]] in alpha males. Many an AlternateUniverseFic inserts existing characters into "the Omegaverse" and assigns them roles in the caste system. Creator/LindsayEllis goes into detail about it [[https://youtu.be/zhWWcWtAUoY here]].

* [[https://fanlore.org/wiki/Alpha/Beta/Omega Alpha/Beta/Omega]] (also known as Omegaverse) is an odd genre of erotica built around a mixture of this trope and FantasticCasteSystem, usually applied either to [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]] (which is where the trope originated, specifically in the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' fandom) or to the setting's version of ''[[OurHumansAreDifferent humans]]''. In keeping with the AlphaAndBetaWolves trope, alphas are sexually dominant, omegas are sexually submissive, and betas (when they appear) are generally in the middle of the hierarchy. Omegas bear children from alphas (and sometimes from betas) and often [[BondCreatures pair bond]] with alphas too. To make matters more confusing, this trope gets combined with real human sexes, so [[MisterSeahorse omega males can get pregnant]] and alpha females can sometimes impregnate omegas. (Meanwhile, betas tend to have anatomy more typical of real humans.) You'll also commonly see canine sexual traits, like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrous_cycle heat]] in omegas and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulbus_glandis knotting]] in alpha males. Many an AlternateUniverseFic inserts existing characters into such a setting and assigns them roles in the caste system. Creator/LindsayEllis goes into detail about it [[https://youtu.be/zhWWcWtAUoY here]].

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': The Ad Astra Per Aspera canon has the Taronyu, an alien species with six sexes; each can reproduce with any of the other five.

* The canon of the Wiki/SCPFoundation Ad Astra has the Tayonu, which has six sexes; each can be reproduced with any of the other five

* Yivo from the WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} movie ''The Beast With A Billion Backs'' is a planet-sized tentacled entity. According to Fry, the creature prefers to be call "shklee" or "shkler", as opposed to "he" or "her".

* In ''TabletopGame/MyriadSong'' Elvers have four sexes, male, female, midwife and neuter. Elvers are all born neuter and change to one of the breeding sexes at twenty based on the gender composition of the surrounding community, individuals isolated from others of their species may be neuter for life. Midwife carries fertilized eggs in a pouch and provides hormones.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Tyranids don't have defined genders and, due to the way all of their weapons work, would technically qualify as either female or hermaphrodites (their weapons produce and gestates eggs, then launch the resulting creature at the enemy in the most horrifying way possible). Anything larger than a bullet would be created via the Norn Queens aboard the Hive Fleets, to which no one knows how the process is suppose to go. Genestealers are even weirder, as they can impregnate host species with their own genetic material, but the host itself still needs to reproduce naturally to pass on said genes effectively giving the child ''three'' parents.
* In ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' the Europans have 5 genders in total, male (25%), female (25%), neuter (25%) and two unclassified genders (25%). Because the Europans are incredibly secretive, no-one is exactly certain how their reproduction even works and even the classifications Earthlings have given the known genders could turn out to be wildly wrong.

* The insectoid Shirren in ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'' have male and female members in addition to a third sex called "hosts"; males and females contribute eggs and sperm for reproduction, while the host carries the eggs until the offspring are born in addition to contributing some of their own genes into the trio's young.
** Then there's the Monkey-like Maraquoi, who have ''seven'' sexes: Three "Fathers", a Mother, two "Hosts"(see the Shirren above, but for two different stages in the baby's growth), and what is essentially a "Supervisor" who somehow facilitates everything and somehow gets their DNA in the mix. Maraquoi tend to lean towards pacifism, given how easy it would be for a war to screw over their reproductive cycle.
* In ''[[TabletopGame/WorldTreeRPG World Tree]]'', the cricketlike Herethroy have three sexes: females, males and co-lovers. The female and male contribute genetic material to the offspring, while the co-lover carries and lays the egg. There are also the rare "both-females", who are capable of playing either the female or the co-lover role in reproduction, though not at the same time. Herethroy marry in triads, but because of uneven gender ratios some genders (co-lovers and males) are allowed or expected to belong to more than one triad at once.

* In ''Literature/TheLongWayToASmallAngryPlanet'', the aeluon have four sexes: male, female, shon (who switch between male and female) and those who are neither.

* The Goa'uld in ''Series/StargateSG1'' are a two-sex race that doesn't match up with Earth norms. The majority of Goa'uld appear to be biologically male but tend take the gender identity of their host, with a very small minority being biologically female "queens" that produce larvae. While queens can reproduce asexually, fertilization by a male passes his genetic memory to the offspring; for this reason, what few queens exist are kept as trophy wives by powerful system lords.

* In Leslie Fish's classic FilkSong "Music/BannedFromArgo", the captain ([[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries James T. Kirk]]) was found "with five partners, each of a different world and sex".

** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'':
** One episode features a race called the Vissians, who as well as having males and females have a third gender called "cogenitors" who are necessary in reproduction but only account for 3% of the population of Vissians. Cogenitors are third class citizens not even given names or an education. They are circulated between couples to assist in reproduction.

* [[https://fanlore.org/wiki/Alpha/Beta/Omega Alpha/Beta/Omega]] is an odd genre of erotica built around a mixture of this trope and FantasticCasteSystem, usually applied either to [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolves]] (which is where the trope originated, specifically in the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' fandom) or to the setting's version of ''[[OurHumansAreDifferent humans]]''. In keeping with the AlphaAndBetaWolves trope, alphas are sexually dominant, omegas are sexually submissive, and betas (when they appear) are generally in the middle of the hierarchy. Omegas bear children from alphas (and sometimes from betas) and often [[BondCreatures pair bond]] with alphas too. To make matters more confusing, this trope gets combined with real human sexes, so [[MisterSeahorse omega males can get pregnant]] and alpha females can sometimes impregnate omegas. (Meanwhile, betas tend to have anatomy more typical of real humans.) You'll also commonly see canine sexual traits, like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estrous_cycle heat]] in omegas and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulbus_glandis knotting]] in alpha males. Many an AlternateUniverseFic inserts existing characters into such a setting and assigns them roles in the caste system. Creator/LindsayEllis goes into detail about it [[https://youtu.be/zhWWcWtAUoY here]].

* Ursula Le Guin's ''Literature/TheLeftHandOfDarkness'' takes place on a planet (called "Winter") where people have no permanent sex. They are sexless and asexual most of the time, but from puberty on they turn into a male or a female once a month to reproduce. The same person can be male or female on different occasions, so basically everybody on the planet is both a male and a female and neither.

** Then there's the Monkey-like Maraquoi, who have ''seven'' genders: Three "Fathers", a Mother, two "Hosts"(see the Shirren above, but for two different stages in the baby's growth), and what is essentially a "Supervisor" who somehow facilitates everything and somehow gets their DNA in the mix. Maraquoi tend to lean towards pacifism, given how easy it would be for a war to screw over their reproductive cycle.

** ''Literature/TheHanSoloTrilogy'': Hutts, like slugs (their closest real-world equivalent, which is also used as an insult for them), are all [[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Slug#Reproduction hermaphrodites]], with both male and female sex organs. After reproducing they identify as female, but apparently can go back to identifying as male later (as Durga's parent Aruk and Jabba's parent Zorba do).

* ''Literature/BlackFleetCrisis'': Yevetha have a fairly rare neuter sex along with male and female.

* ''WesternAnimation/HomeAdventuresWithTipAndOh'' In one episode, Oh explains that Boov have 7 genders: [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs boy, girl, boygirl, girlboy, boyboy, boyboygirl and boyboyboyboy]].

* In ''[[VideoGame/StarFlight Starflight 2]]'', the Ng'Kher'Arla is an alien race where the entire species transforms into a specific sex, each with a distinct personality (Arla being friendly, Kher being paranoid, and Ng being hostile and xenophobic), depending on the time of month. On the last day of the month individuals change into a random sex and a species-wide mating orgy ensues.

* In some anglerfish species, the male anglerfish only exists to [[FusionDance fuse himself to a female's body]] and degenerate into a pair of testicles. This can occur an indefinite number of times, so [[{{Hermaphrodite}} a female anglerfish can gain an indefinite number of ballsacks]]. [[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/angler As illustrated by]] Webcomic/TheOatmeal.

* In ''Literature/{{Tunnels}}'', female [[{{Ultraterrestrials}} Styx]] (which serve as infiltrators in the Styx's host society) usually look like beautiful females of their host species but grow giant insect legs and ovipositors during [[BizarreAlienReproduction the Phase]]. Meanwhile, male Styx are split into a warrior caste, a civilian caste, and Armagi. The first two castes resemble their host species and ''don't'' change during the Phase, though warriors are hatched as larvae from parasitic eggs implanted in members of the host species during the Phase, while civilians are conceived through the host species's normal method of reproduction. If the Phase isn't going well, instead of pupating into their host species's form, warrior larvae will grow into shapeshifting gelatinous StarfishAliens called Armagi.

* In ''Literature/{{Tunnels}}'', female Styx (which serve as infiltrators in the Styx's host society) usually look like beautiful females of their host species but grow giant insect legs and ovipositors during [[BizarreAlienReproduction the Phase]]. Meanwhile, male Styx are split into a civilian caste, a warrior caste, and Armagi. While the first two castes resemble their host species and ''don't'' change during the Phase, Armagi are shapeshifting gelatinous StarfishAliens that (like the warrior caste) are produced during the Phase.