I know that mating and marriage are different things for moonshadow elves, but I was curious what exactly “mates” denotes. Does it have any biological implications, like how some animals mate for life and won’t take another even if their mate dies, or is it just a term to specify a stronger commitment than “lovers”?
It's not really that complicated lmao. Moonshadow elves had a real close genetic bottleneck centuries ago that caused them to put a strong emphasis on the difference between romantic, marital, and sexual relationships. I could give a whole paper about the history of the terminology and how it's changed, but the current day version they use is pretty blunt. "Mates" is just a term they use for long-term sexual/"mating" partners. Elves don't really have the same taboos about acknowledging sex in a public setting as humans do, because honestly with the horns and certain positions, the scratches often make it . . . pretty obvious. Unlike how humans have a vast and highly individual interpretation of terms like "boyfriend/girlfriend", "partner", "lover," what they mean and where the terms overlap or don't, the Moonshadow elves are an isolated and ritualized enough group that they pretty much agree on the word. "Partners" would be the word for a nonsexual relationship, or potentially "lovers" if they wanted to make it clear it was romantic and nonsexual, though it's often not really something they need to specify in words. They wouldn't really use the word "partner" for a sexual relationship unless it's in the context of a marriage, which would have its own visual identifier (horn cuffs) of what it means. Nonsexual marriages also just wouldn't really need to explain the difference, so it no longer matters at that point.