Fixed that a while ago – thanks!
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Also noticed - Seraccans would have trouble breeding with eachother if they came from different Clans and the more they changed (you count humans as if they were different species within the same family as Abhumans rather than the same thing, so it’s likely an ocelot Abhuman with a gaur Abhuman are just as unlikely) potentially leading to a really low birth rate where
- not many would keep up functioning wombs
- they don’t have children very often
- low fertility rate
- children that are conceived have a high chance of dying before birth
- children that are born are either low fertility (dfab) or azoospermic (dmab)
A child being born is probably a big deal worthy of celebration.
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How do they avoid demographic collapse? Some can have a litter perhaps?
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What happens if a Seracca says YOUR MOTHER WILL BECOME AN ANIMAL BECAUSE I WILL NEVER DO THAT. I can imagine that from a child of a human from other countries. I personally prefer death to lose myself in the change most is as seems is forced and expected to be followed. What if a Seracca doesn’t want to partake in the changes?
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Well, the good news is they live a long time, so you can repeatedly try for children during your long life, or actively forgo other Change I’m favour of fertility. That, and the strong sense of community they have would make it hard for a child to go stray or end up dead once born.
It’s just a cultural thing. You wouldn’t ask an Ainu woman in pre-Japanisation times “what if you don’t want the tattoos”, it happens, it’s your coming of age.
You don’t have to become an animal, you don’t even have to become animalistic (though it’s popular). You just have to Change. And if you’re born of an Abhuman, you’ll have animalistic traits anyway.
So is totally forced so forth immoral. Many tribes had very sinister rites like kill red hair babies could be all culture you want still being fundamentally flawed and wrong FORCED people to change.
Then Harrowing is super cool too as is a cultural heritage and expression of Karagon culture.
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Problem isn’t just fertility it is also timing. Ideally you want a pyramid approaching a cylinder for demographic stability. Particularly, if we are just looking at the clans as self contained societies you could have huge waves in the demography headed toward collapse. Maybe the therugy makes them “forever 25,” which would help.
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Don’t understand why a small bunch of rituals where the person chooses what Change they want to take on and is guided through it expertly is equivalent to randomly picking and shoving living people through a mechanical brain-muncher but okay.
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That seems like a mouthful.
The phrase “material soul” has always struck me as a tad contradictory…
No love for unguligrades?
Eh…I suppose it depends on the species, but polydactyl cats are far from rare in the US’s Northeast and the gene appears to improve their hunting ability overall, especially when they can be used as opposable thumbs. Of course cats are short distance sprinters, not marathon runners. If I were an Abhuman capable of designing my own thumb, and I wasn’t an unguligrade, I’d probably make a recessed opposable thumb that doesn’t take pressure or stick out while travelling. Thumbs are way too useful to throw away.
So you’re going to make it a one size fits all, instead of varying their animal abilities by clan?
Useful trick. Sign me up for it!
Since when does a functional reproductive system require maintenance? If you don’t tinker with your germ line then it should continue on as always regardless of your other modifications. If you do tinker with your germ line, don’t screw up or your children and grandchildren will pay the price…
Speciation can make two populations of what started out as the same species reproductively incompatible over time. Incomplete speciation usually results in infertle male offspring, but female offspring often still retain a varying degree of fertility as @Laguz has pointed out. The single biggest barrier is thought to be a differing number of chromosomes which can cause alignment issues during cell division resulting in a spontaneous miscarriage before the female even realizes she may be pregnant. Just look at the problems a spontaneous mutation that distorts chromosomal alignment like Trisomy 21 (aka Downe’s syndrome) can cause, and that one is survivable.
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It is because I was forced by the nuns of my school to make communion and take wine and bread Because IT IS OUR CULTURE. I am atheist I was atheist and I was FORCED to proclaim my love for a God I don’t believe. Then I was forced into TELL my sins to a perfect random priest.
I felt traumaticed and wrong and nasty to have to proclaim stuff totally against my nature because is what Expected.
I could put myself in place someone that is forced to believe something that is against their soul and that become into a new thing that person HATES because that’s your culture.
f#$ck Social pressure and culture. Nobody has any right to force you be X creature
Yeah, there are Abhuman unguligrades. Take my word as TV Tropes’ “word of Saint Paul”.
It however can unbalance them, especially when young. The idea that polydactyl cats can hunt or climb better is a common “myth”; they’re no better than normal cats.
Of course it’s by Clan, this is just easier to say than specify which group is which. Most will have cross-over skills anyway.
Again, I have… absolutely no idea what this has to do with a ritual you consent to and orchestrate if and when you want ranging from full on shapeshifting to tattoos (though I think it makes you considered a child if you never go through with something).
It doesn’t, however the Change of the shape and use of them takes time to complete if you’re changing the rest of you, which takes energy and getting used to.
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Do you consent to? What I read is YOU HAVE TO CHANGE that is a real difference if I really as Seracca negates to participate. Then has a certain amount of morality. That sadly our own reality doesn’t have
Then… shit, I’ve lost my notes. I think that makes you an eternal child, culturally, if I remember rightly.
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No problem I would certainly be a forever child. To have to change lol. And one always can exile if the children stuff is a pain.I will like see a Eternal child that has decided not be part in the change. Could be a interesting philosophy discussion
I’m not aware of any actual scientific studies on the subject, are you? Speaking purely anecdotally, they certainly seem better at grabbing things, including feather toys, and it seems to be sensible to extrapolate from there to catching prey. Although I will grant that there is variability in how the added toe(s) are expressed, which can have a serious effect on the utility of the extra digit(s), ie. all extra cat toes are not equal.
There’s no scientific evidence one way or the other, but it is known that it makes young cats unbalanced and may be a trait of genetic abnormalities that cause problems later down the line, so…
It’s my understanding that those fears of genetic issues were largely overblown. Maine Coon breeders have stopped attempting to breed the trait out and are now preserving it instead. As for young cats, having thumbs sticking out of the sides of your forepaws can require extra coordination, but they still pick it up. Kittens spend a lot of time practicing either way.
It’s often indistinguishable from feline hypoplasia without tests.
Think of it: why did cats evolve with five toes on fore and four on hind? Because in nature you take only what you need: an extra to climb, no more. Working with extra toes - and in nature you cannot choose how a genetic mutation affects you - takes time and conscious effort to move them out the way or work with them.
A cat with polydactyly must adapt, and often adapt slower, to the teaching of its non-polydactyl dam, and while this is fine in domestication when every moment counts in the wild, it’s a difference enough. There’s a reason we don’t see many polydactyly big cats and it’s because when you’re that big an extra toe for surface area doesn’t matter. It doesn’t give them an extra boost due to their weight; if anything, it makes them somewhat slower as cubs, which is a threat.
Abhumans stay human-sized, this isn’t going to benefit them, and their toes won’t be fully prehensile ever due to the shape of their digitigrade legs and paws. It’s a moot point. They won’t gain enough from it for it to be worthwhile as a Change.
Wouldn’t they adapt quicker in the wild?
When in danger or high-risk circumstances wouldn’t one try to adapt faster even forcing it just to survive?
You can adapt badly though, because animals are kind of stupid like that: see, a hyena eating its own intestines because it doesn’t quite understand where the “pain” is coming from. An animal with a disability or quirk often just… brute forces through it when young.
In danger and high risk situations, when you are already a defenceless baby creature, you don’t adapt. Your mother, who protects you, adapts, because you’re useless. This is the most important part of anything’s life because it’s the time in which it’s most likely to die.
EDIT: it wouldn’t even matter! Because the only Abhumans getting polydactyl thumbs would be grown warriors, who wouldn’t want the thumbs for speed. People who want thumbs can stay humanoid.
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