Would this be too much (I hope so), or too cliched?

They could be just as intelligent, but for hundreds, nay, thousands of years they've been treated as slaves/beasts of burden, and they're trained to that from birth, so most of them don't even have what it would take to break free or exercise their own free will. Maybe it's the MC's power that finally bursts the bubble.

 

Well, a sapient species that practices stoicism or Buddha-like qualities of tolerance may allow themselves to be used as beasts of burden. If you want to delve into their spiritual/religious aspects, SM, this can warrant some exploration. In fact, in may require it, for the very reason Telcontar pointed out. Without getting too philosophical, if a species believes that all wrongs ultimately build to the higher good, or that suffering brings compassion, or that servitude to mortals conditions the soul for service to the divine, then they'd probably be fine with being yoked. You may want to add that this sort of wisdom comes with maturity and personal enlightenment, and individuals or younglings may not embrace the traditional philosophy.

I'd say it sounds intriguing, and it could be quite good depending on where you go with it. Although...I'm not sure if you'd want to actually have a culmination of the romance. Might be a bit much.

 

Happened to humans a lot.

Yes, in Greece or Rome slaves were sometimes deemed as not intelligent.

I don't read much books with telepathic charcters, so it would be new to me, but that doesn't say anything. My usual approach with possible cliches is to add and modify details. They tend to break sooner or later when you do that.

 

Why not?

I mean, you'd think a telepath would have an easier time with language, rather then the other way around.

Question: How exactly do you define a romantic relationship? Is this a platonic/spiritual love or are we talking physical attraction? If the relationship is platonic, is it different from a very strong friendship?

Also, why is this the closest he can get to love? It's not like mute people can't love other humans. And again, telepathy should probably just makes it easier.

 

Not necessarily. I worked in brain research for some years, our main focus was emotion not speech, but I understood that speech is produced in several steps in the brain. The actual words are about the last step in broca's area. Maybe with a telepath the function of that areal is modified.

 

This was my concern as well. I mean, a lot of people find furrydom legitimately creepy, let alone actual bestiality. It's usually not something you can argue around, either - some ideas just make people uncomfortable on an instinctive level.

Though, on the other hand, everyone likes a deep and personal bond between a human and an animal companion, so long as it doesn't get too weird - the dragon and the dragon rider, the unicorn and the maiden, etc. It's not an uncommon theme.

Just, "romantic" is a bit of a strong word.

 

I'm hopping on the train with making it a 'deep, personal bond' instead of a romantic relationship. Especially if you create a worldview that's totally alien to us, it would be difficult (if not impossible) to sell that deep a level of intimacy. The average reader can understand looking past outward appearances for friendship, respect, or any other number of deep emotional connections, but physical attraction would not sell well. It's awkward enough reading sex scenes in books, I can't imagine making it through any remotely bestiality and continuing reading.

 

A love affair between a human and an insectoid alien was approached in Philip José Farmer "The Lovers". The alien in question perfectly mimics a female human, so it might be an easier sell.

 

My thoughts pretty much correspond with the common theme on this thread, fine up until the point where you suggest they engage in a romantic relationship. Sorry if I've skipped details but these are beast like quadrupedal lizard creatures we are talking about, right? A deep relationship, maybe, but romantic bestiality is bestiality none the less and seems a bit too much to me.

When I was young I remember watching an episode of "Samurai Jack" (no idea how popular it was, if anybody else watched it or not) where he stumbles across an advanced civilisation of humanoid creatures. Their cattle and mounts, which resemble mammoths, are eventually discovered to be telepathic creatures who couldn't communicate with the race which had enslaved them but could with Jack. It is found out that they once had their own civilisation which, I guess, is a similar story to what you are suggesting without the... bestiality.