I hold that love is universal but it experienced differently at different consciousness levels. Lemme ‘splain.
There’s divine love, where the sophont in question recognizes their own and others’ core anima, (the soul) and treats all others with a detached but potent love.
Then there’s mental love, where the sophont recognizes Mind and the Mind Realization in themselves and in others and loves on a mental format.
Then there’s causal love, possibly known as Tough Love where wisdom, memory and experience chime in and tell a sophont who to love and how according to the society they are born or hatched.
Then there’s emotional love that heartfelt love that is full of emotional passions both positive and negative where a sophont can allow this level to override logic of Mind, override social conditioning causal, and run carefree.
Then there’s ahem physical love, with or without procreation, where the above levels of love express on a format that can be detected by the senses.
In my Traveller universe, all sophonts, all beasts, all plants, and all minerals hold the above levels of love to lessening extent if they yet lack certain consciousness levels. A plant loves light and feeds it into photosynthesis. An animal loves its offspring but by instinct rather than through the Mind Realization and so doesn’t fathom why it loves. Two sophonts can break with traditions and fall in mortal condition love against the wishes of their families, Pack, community, culture, society. Emotional love. Two or more sophonts can express physical love without any of the above levels, just because they consent to such expression.
The Vargr are no different in the mortal condition when it comes to love and the experience of each of the above levels. If we decide that just because they’re aliens, still mortal, still fallible, that they do not love or love differently, then we set up a racist partition that sounds like…
“Well, they’re from <insert Other continent>, and they love differently than we do.”
This is the causal love level talking and it is biased to what society or culture raised the speaker.
As can be read, this is a touchy topic as it covers metaphysical aspects of any given sophont. If I’m the Referee at a table, then this is how I’ll adjudicate love, sophont species notwithstanding.
