Population explosion

[Warrl]

Consider Lyn'knoll.

An isolated village of human and keidran living more-or-less in harmony for long enough to become myth.

Which means there have been a lot of horny teenagers living there over the years. Of both species.

Surely they figured out very early on that cross-species sex doesn't produce babies. And however strict the humans' sexual morality may have been to start with, I have no doubt that by now the act is accepted as a normal part of growing up.

But... now it can produce babies.

I bet over half the females old enough to be fertile but (by the usual standards of that village for their species) too young to be married, are pregnant.

[Trace-Legacy]

I'm just suprised that there hasn't been a basitin/human couple yet in the story.

[TinyVoices]

This theory works supposing everybody is having a continuous, mass orgy in Lyn'knoll.

[MuonNeutrino]

This theory works supposing everybody is having a continuous, mass orgy in Lyn'knoll.

And what, precisely, about the combination of teenage (and keidran equivalent) hormones and keidran social mores suggest that that is an implausible idea?

More seriously, I would expect that everyone here has had the experience of those hormones. (I don't think we have anyone here quite *that* young, do we?) We remember what that was like. We also know that, whatever societies throughout history may have liked to believe, humans are not necessarily inherently prudish or chaste. Mainstream human society in Twokinds, from what little of it we've seen, seems to scan along the general lines of real-world western human historical societies, and so if it follows the stereotypes perhaps it may be thought to be more prudish than our modern society. But I definitely agree that Lyn'knoll is unlikely to have the same culture - it almost *can't*, given its origin and mixed population. It seems completely implausible to imagine that in what is implied to be a completely merged society, human culture has survived intact and not been influenced by the other half of the population. And in that case, given what we know about *keidran* attitudes, I would be completely unsurprised to find that sexual mores had shifted in the direction of more openness and permissiveness.

So, given those hormones, what do teenagers (and the keidran equivalent) do when you put them in a society that (hypothetically) regards sex as a natural part of life? Well, we know that from a lot of our own modern societies. They screw. A lot. Even when they're technically not 'supposed' to. And in a world where contraception is not a thing, and cross-species relationships until recently were infertile but now suddenly are *not*, I think Warrl's hypothesis about a bunch of unexpected pregnancies isn't too far fetched. It doesn't take the entire population having a continuous mass orgy to bring that about - just a normal proportion of teenagers, being teenagers, combined with the knowledge that cross-species relationships are (supposed to be) infertile.

This is especially accentuated by the biology of the two races and the timing of events. Neutral changed the rules about 4-5 weeks before the current comic time. Any human females who have become pregnant since then probably don't know it yet. And while the timing of feline keidran estrus is not tied to the calendar, we know that the canines are likely going through their fertile periods about now. The timing is pretty good for a fair number of pregnancies to happen before anyone realizes anything has changed. I would not imagine a full half of the relevant female population becoming pregnant, but you never know.

Of course, this entire thing assumes that Neutral changed the rules for everyone, everywhere, rather than just making a special exception for Trace and Flora. That seems possible, and it would make sense with Neutral's stated goal of ensuring that 'keidran blood survives' (one child does not a species make), but as far as I know we have no confirmation of that one way or the other.

[aitaituo]

This theory works supposing everybody is having a continuous, mass orgy in Lyn'knoll.

Not really. It's not unusual for a young couple to be hanky pankying 15 times a week or more. Throw in keidran estrus and you got a recipe for an industrial sized batch of unexpected pregnancies.

[Chris]

Not really. It's not unusual for a young couple to be hanky pankying 15 times a week or more. Throw in keidran estrus and you got a recipe for an industrial sized batch of unexpected pregnancies.

Though when it comes to keidran, they're only fertile the week after estrus. As Eric explains, keidran use sex to get to know each other, and its after the cycle has ended that couples will produce children.

Still, though, I would expect a place like Lyn'knoll to have more interspecies couples due to the fact that it's three sentient species living together in relative peace. Even outside of Lyn'knoll, such couples do occur -- Trace and Flora, Keith and Laura, Keith and Natani, Eric and Kathrin, Mary and Euchre (she does still seem to care about him, even if she can't stand what he did), and heck, even 's making an effort with Raine. If things like that happen in the outside world where racial tensions are high, I can't really imagine what it would be like in Lyn'knoll where things are calmer.

[Kaz]

How can we even be so sure that Neutral only opened that cross-species child door for ONLY Trace and Flora?

That may simply be an isolated case... It is after all (??) the only one Neutral knows about directly.

In that matter, are the demigods even all-knowing? (That's a different thread though.)

[tony1695]

How can we even be so sure that Neutral only opened that cross-species child door for ONLY Trace and Flora?

That may simply be an isolated case... It is after all (??) the only one Neutral knows about directly.

In that matter, are the demigods even all-knowing? (That's a different thread though.)

Actually, I think it's more a case of the only relationship that has actual world-shaking consequences. After all, the former leader of a xenophobic militant organisation fathering a child with a politically important member of the tiger tribes? Holy [censored] [censored] it's like if Hitler suddenly decided to marry an African tribal chieftain's daughter.

[Him]

Can all keidran and humans mate now though? I thought it was only Trace and Flora. I need to reread the comic again.

[MuonNeutrino]

Can all keidran and humans mate now though? I thought it was only Trace and Flora. I need to reread the comic again.

As far as I know, it hasn't been definitively stated either way, hence all the speculation. I could see it being either, though personally I think that allowing crossbreeding for all couples makes more sense with Neutral's stated goal of allowing 'keidran blood to survive'.

[Bellhead]

Can all keidran and humans mate now though? I thought it was only Trace and Flora. I need to reread the comic again.

As far as I know, it hasn't been definitively stated either way, hence all the speculation. I could see it being either, though personally I think that allowing crossbreeding for all couples makes more sense with Neutral's stated goal of allowing 'keidran blood to survive'.

Agreed. Also, with the "a species that I have not allowed for a very long time", I doubt this is an isolated case. It may be the only one that matters, though.

[ajwilli1]

[PURGE]

[Ace5762]

I'm still kind of skeptical that Lyn'Knoll actually exists as the stories say. Seems like the perfect opportunity to pull the rug out from under people for our heroes to arrive there and find it's a ghost of an old mining town, barely populated and with all racial prejudices unfortunately intact. An allegory for the fact that there's nowhere you can run away from the world and expect things to be different. You have to try and change the world for the better.

[Kaz]

I'm still kind of skeptical that Lyn'Knoll actually exists as the stories say. Seems like the perfect opportunity to pull the rug out from under people for our heroes to arrive there and find it's a ghost of an old mining town, barely populated and with all racial prejudices unfortunately intact. An allegory for the fact that there's nowhere you can run away from the world and expect things to be different. You have to try and change the world for the better.

Shush. Don't give Tom ideas.

[Chris]

I'm still kind of skeptical that Lyn'Knoll actually exists as the stories say. Seems like the perfect opportunity to pull the rug out from under people for our heroes to arrive there and find it's a ghost of an old mining town, barely populated and with all racial prejudices unfortunately intact. An allegory for the fact that there's nowhere you can run away from the world and expect things to be different. You have to try and change the world for the better.

Both Lady Nora and Raine have been there, and they were wealthy enough to pay for Nora's silence. The Templar are (semi-)actively searching for it too, so it's likely it does exist, at least right now. Not to say it'll be a perfect utopia, but I imagine it is better off than the rest of the continent for these mixed-race groups.