Not sure if anyone will see this, but I figured I'd try asking anyway. What's the difference(s) between a herd and a harem?

Most of the ways I've seen it described they don't seem to be all that different from one another, but I could be wrong, so here I am asking.

7648926
The biggest difference I can think of is that a herd in MLP cases is basically just a large extended family consisted of one stallion that is married to multiple mares, or in other words it is a very big family.
A harem on the other hand, is mostly related to a Royal (male most of the time) having a sexual relationship with multiple wives, concubines, and female servants. In other words, you don't have to be married, or just in a relationship, in order to be part of a harem. It's mostly just sexual pleasure directed towards the intended Royal with the sole purpose of satifying them, rather than something emotional.

It most definitely will depend at least somewhat on the writer, but IGTIT a "herd" is more or less a family, self-organised for the love between and socioeconomic benefit of its members (although there are plenty of stories with dysfunctional or even abusive herds where one or more members are better off leaving), whereas a "harem" is organised for the benefit of some outside entity, like a Zebra prince in a zebradom story.
In addition, a herd is most commonly mixed-gender or, at most, there will be both mixed-gender herds and single-gender herds*; whereas a harem will almost always be single-gender, either containing only mares or containing both mares and stallions who (voluntarily or otherwise) present as feminine if not outright mares.
A harem-equivalent with only stallions will most likely be called a "harras", the actual word for a herd of stallions kept for breeding purposes, or be called a "reverse-harem".
* In real-life horses, IIRC, herds are much more likely to be single-gender, with herds of mares accepting a small number of stallions for breeding purposes but kicking them out once they're done with them for the year. However, I rarely see that in MLP fanfiction; I think the only time I recall seeing it is as Celestia's recollection of prehistoric pony society in "Luna Visits a Stud Farm" (NSFW).

7648948
Aagh! Ninjaed!

7648951

7648950
Huh, I didn't know that about real horses but it does make sense. But personally I haven't read a lot of stories that mention an abusive herd or harem so I figured for me it was rare to see. BTW if a world full of anthros existed like basically Zootopia would the term harem be used or herd in that type of scenario for a harem/herd of mixed species together?

7648971
I think you are right regarding abusive herds (I can only think of one story with one at the moment, and it was unpublished because the author is writing a remake), and I suspect it is because they are families. Unfortunately, very few people want to acknowledge the existence of domestic abuse when writing fanfiction, not that I can blame them in the current intellectual climate. Like many other kinds of real-world horror with political implications, few people want to read about an abusive family, and many of those that don't are willing to go to great lengths to make sure that no-one can, to "protect" them from being "made to feel uncomfortable".
Abusive harem stories are considerably more common, IME, presumably because it's easier to fetishise since harems are more intellectually distant for the sort of people with the most opportunity to write fanfiction.

7648948 So does that mean that if you have a "herd" consisting of 1 stallion and 3-5 mares (which might normally be considered a harem), but all the characters have some sort of emotional relationship and actually rely on each other at times that they'd be a herd? Or would that still be considered a harem?

7649568
That's exactly what a herd is, it is a family were everyone is responsible and love eachother, 1 stallion/husband + 2 or more mares/wives.

A harem does not need any of that, it's all about pleasuring the harem king/queen in anyway that they desire. A harem can consist of wives (or husbands if it's a queen), but also concubines and servants. The Royal decides everything, being a harem member can be seen as sort of a job in way, rather than an actuel relationship.

7649636 Okay, I guess the story I'm working on already had more of a herd than a harem mechanic going on. That's cool I guess.

7648992
Well I might introduce a couple instances of such an abusive type of family in one or two projects. Just for the story not some political motivation. That shits too messy.

7649636
As for your description on Herds and Harem I think I'm going to leave it as two similar interpretations for some of my stories just for fun.

7650293
I know it's at least a bit off-topic, but:
Very few people actually write about these things for political purposes. They just write these things because they make interesting stories and then other people politicise it by accusing them of (in this case) "anti-family propaganda". And sufficiently ardent culture warriors can and have politicised a childen's book about Rosa Parks or the fact that the earth orbits the sun.
Actually, considering their attacks on "Heather Has Two Mommies", they might condemn the concept of herds in general. Not harems, though: Some of the most godly Biblical kings had harems of concubines and quite a few "moral values" men *coughNewtGingrichcough* feel entitled to imitate them by taking mistresses.

7650357
Uh, ok then.

7650392
Sorry for going off-topic in such an expansive way. Although now that I think about it I remember a story in which herds were banned but harems were considered acceptable, Twilight's Misadventures by fusion fool the 3rd. Unfortunately, it's a clopfic with only a little worldbuilding, so fusion never explained why harems were exempted from the ban on herds, how exactly one was supposed to know the difference between an illegal herd and a legal harem, or what measures the government took to keep supposed harems from secretly being herds (although it is implied that whatever they were, they were ineffective). Those might be interesting ideas for a story.

7650591
Huh, interesting.