Sex Characteristics:

Turians are sexually dimorphic, meaning that males and females have significant anatomical differences. There are a number of internal anatomical differences between males and females, though these are generally not important unless you're seeking a medical degree (which is outside the scope of this handbook, anyway!) Instead, we'll focus on the most outwardly obvious physical differences.

Unlike humans, the height or weight differences between turian males and females are proportionally small. Males are generally taller and heavier, with a slightly higher muscle mass, but the degree of change is almost unnoticeable to other species. Instead, there are other differences. Male ornamentation is the most obvious form of sexual dimorphism in turians, such as the males' crests, enlarged cowls and prominent keel bones.


Outwardly, the most obvious sex difference is the presence or absence of a crest, sometimes called a "crest of horns."

Common Misunderstanding: the difference between a crest and fringe
The term fringe is widely misused by humans. Males have a crest; females have a fringe. The difference between the two is that a crest refers to the visible "spikes" that protrude from a male's head. A fringe refers to the folds of skin on a female's skull. A male's crest is a turian symbol of masculinity, with longer horns considered more attractive and "manly" than shorter ones. Complimenting a male turian on his "fringe" is not likely to go over well with him!

A male turian's crest only starts growing in once he reaches "puberty", though that term does not quite fit for turians. Turians refer to this stage as the "age of changing" in rough translation. [1] Turian adolescence is marked by the development of the secondary sex characteristics like a crest and prominent leg spurs (for males) and curvier hips and thinner waist (for females).

Like humans, males tend to have a "growth spurt" during this time, along with a deepening voice and weight gain. However, turians reach this stage much earlier on average than humans; the normal age for the start female sexual development is around age six, and for males at around age seven. This transition period lasts about two years. Most turians adolescents have started sexual experimentation by around age ten. [More on sexual development in Sexuality and Mating]


The waist, as one of the turians' most sensitive erogenous zones, is an area of physical attractiveness. While this is true for both sexes, it is especially true regarding females, who have a proportionately longer, slimmer waist. Turian women have lighter plating around the waist as well, exposing more skin. The skin is thinner around the waist than anywhere else on the body, save the throat. The turian womb is situated lower than in human or asari, taking up most of the pelvic region.

Males also have sensitive waists, though theirs is more heavily plated. Like with females, the waist is an area of physical attraction, though male attractiveness is usually judged by scale pattern instead of thinness. The uniform tapering of scales is considered more attractive than patchy scatterings of scales.


There is also a difference between male and female mandibles and jaw structure. A male's mandibles have two prongs dipping past the chin and with a blunt edge at the back of the jaw. Males' teeth are visible, even when the his mouth is shut and mandibles are at rest. In contrast, a female's mandibles end in a single, blunt point at the chin and she will have a long spike curving around the back of the head. A female's teeth are not visible unless she pulls her mandibles away from her jaw and opens her mouth.

This is one feature that humans can use to determine sex in young turians, who don't develop many of the other more obvious sex differentiating characteristics until ages five to nine. A male turian will always have two prongs with visible teeth and a female will always have one prong without her teeth showing, regardless of age.


A female tends to have long, lean features compared to a male's more bulky mass. This is something also seen in humans; the terms for the human male and female skeleton are robustus and gracilus respectively, highlighting the robust character of male skeletons and the graceful tapering and curves of a female's. Turians have a similar distinction, though with different characterizations. [2]


There are also a number of minor differences. The skin around the eyes of adult turian men is usually a solid black or dark charcoal. The skin tends to be slightly lighter for turian women, though it darkens with age. Turian men have a much larger keel bone. A male's cowl, or back hump, is usually larger than a female's and grows a great deal during adolescence. Turian men also have larger, longer, sharper leg spurs while turian women tend to have small, short, rounded spurs.


[1] The word "puberty" comes from a Latin term meaning "age of maturity". However, turians are not sexually mature until later in development, when the body stops growing at around twenty years old. [More on turian sexual development in Sexuality and Mating]

The turian term for adolescence in a rough, phonetic translation is erkahst, as there is no equivalent word in any human language. Turian speech is difficult to transcribe directly because it involves sounds and vocalizations that do not align well with most human languages' letters or phonetics. If a human were to say "erkahst" to a turian, the turian would recognize what the human meant, though it would not sound right to them.

[2] The turian terms of distinction between male and female skeletons translate to pike and javelin, respectively, though turians have their own variants of those weapons (with different names, of course). Both weapons are types of pole-arms, though pikes are long, heavy, and wielded with two hands. Javelins, on the other hand, are light, throwing spears that can be wielded with one arm.

The turian distinction both highlights the turians' militaristic culture and also makes more subtle references to male and female distinctions to those more familiar with military tactics. Javelins are light, easily maneuverable, and fast. Turian women tend to be more flexible (greater percentage of cartilage versus bone) and faster (in reflex and speed) due to their lighter weight and smaller body. Pikes were an infantry weapon, capable of steamrolling opponents with shorter weapons by presenting a unified line of sharp points. Turian men tend to be larger, slower, more aggressive and harder to approach for close combat due to their longer reach, thicker plates and sharp points.


A.N.: Fairly short chapter this time around. Really, the only reason it got its own chapter is because the other chapter was getting long and a bit unwieldy.

I wish we could have seen more female turians in game. As it is, I had to extrapolate things based on very few details. This is mostly a head-canon chapter, so there's a good chance some people won't agree with my ideas. That's okay. This is mostly so I can maintain internal consistency for my own stories. Still, if there's anything in canon that outright contradicts something I've written here, don't hesitate to tell me!

Still working on other things, so have an interim update!