 November 15, 2010 - 2:41pm | I'm looking to spark some discussion on the humma much like what has gone on concerning dralasites and vrusk in the Core Four project (to be honest that project would probably have been a better place for this discussion since its participating members have already been involved in the kind of discussion I hope to spark here- however the title of that project pretty much limits its scope). to start you may wish the orgininal thread in the general forums: http://starfrontiers.us/node/4368 In that thread I proposed a change in humma reproduction since only one child produced per individual humma would have the race in decline when the inevitable accident, disease and etc kill a female humma before she could give birth. The change being each humma gets pregnant only once and produces a litter with 1d10 number of off spring being what I pulled off the top of my head. Something I considered and someone else proposed is that they were engineered by parties unknown and left to eventually die out- this leaves an in game mystery: "Who are the hummarin progenitors?" I don't recommend exploring that chain of thought for 2 reasons: 1. it feels like the kind of thing that individual GMs could introduce into their particular campaign if they have a desire and 2. it seems that not that many campaigns have a "Rim" focus so that something that out there will have little appeal to the general SF public. A. In Reguard to Females: First off whether you go with 1 child/ birth or 1 litter/ birth one thing is for sure a humma female would represent something of incredible value to the hummarin society at large. I propose that the society would have, by custom and law, enacted strict rules concerning the protection of female humma. There would also be prohibitions on or at least limitations to female humma travelling abroad. The society would have a natural bent to inculcate a beleif in young females that they have a obligation to their race to fulfill their matriarchal duties. All males would have a near complussive or obsessive drive to protect hummarin females. This is not the same as chivalrous behavior in human males leading them to be gentlmen around females as the humma are uncouth and rude by nature but stems rather as a biological imperitive for the preservation of their species. Common traditional mating practices that evolved in ancient or pre-modern times over wide areas of the Hum in the Fochrik system are varied and rooted in different segments and racial groups of the humma One is arranged mating by village, clan, family elders (elders usually meaning neuters who are impervious to the natural biological drives) and it was often brokered with a "Mating Price" Another practice involved a trial by combat with all suiters paying a "Mating Price" as entry fee and "the last male standing" got to mate providing he was physically able to do so after the combat. Rarely situations would arise where a dominate male would ensure that only he would get to mate on the theory of MIght Makes Right but these instances would typically brief and limited to unique situations outside of normal societal controls. When a dominate male would monopolize all the mating opportunities it would usually end in blood as the norm in ancient times was incessent in fighting among various humma groups- disenfranchised males would quickly band together and attempt to take the dominate male down or even outraged elder's of neighboring communities would declare war and wipe out such a male. As the male population was perpetually outnumbering the female population the in fighting and civil strife was often encouraged as a means to thin out the male population. In Modern times interstellar travel and contact with other races has had an erroding effect on mating practices. Humma who have left the Fochrik system have found, particularly among humans the natural male domination of their society was viewed as backward and repressive. In some locals the local laws actually empowered a humma female to take greater control of her reproduction. These liberated females began to negotiate their own mating and Mating Price and generally spit in eye of any hummarin male that objected with the most famous occurance of this resulting in court case on Pale and a charge of attempted rape against a male humma who had insisted that the arrangement between him and the female's family be honored. Another vector of errosion of traditional mating practices was the wonders of modern medicine. Contraception has opened new horizons for some hummarin females. who are able to negotiate repeated Mating Prices without concieving young. This practice is strictly decried by traditional humma but opportunities to mate being difficult to come by ensure that these females can assemble harem troope of willing males who will on one hand speak against the practice and on the other willingly pay the "Mating Price" thus through modern medicine, prostitution has essentially come to hummarin society though it is not as wide spread as the natural indoctrination of the young toward fulfilling thier maternal obligations to the race are quite strong. Also modern medicine has introduce a chemical reversion treatment that given to a male humma who is not long past his female stage will cause him to revert to the female sex and even prove fertile. The down side of this is that the longer the male has been a male the higher the likelihood of infertility or of birth defects. B. In reguard to male: males have often been encouraged to perform the most dangerous services in society and civil strife and out right war was often encouraged to cull the herd so to speak. homosexuality among males was viewed as a viable way to divert some males out of the breeding population while homosexuality among females is viewed as an extreme aberration and dealt with by government sanctioned rape since pregnancy would result in the female becoming male after delivery. When humma encountered pornography with a lesbian bent (from humans primarily) they were vocal in expressing their disgust. In modern times there was a societal push to proffer the hero cult of the tragic male who gave his life fighting the sathar for the good of the species though he never in his life got to mate. Its still a truism that many humma males never have the opportunity to mate as their gender always out numbers the female gender simply because of length of lifespan. Still humma being humma and their natural bent toward being rude, crude and lewd male humma often engage in braggadocious behavior concerning their mating exploits. A male that can brag of several matings is almost insufferable. Naturally enough male humma are intensely competative. C. In reguard to Neuter: Males who live to reached the neuter gender become leaders and power brokers in humma society for two reason: 1 length of life eventually bestowes wisdom 2. the biochemical changes in their bodies cause them to loose some of the typical male hot headedness. Thats not to say that male humma dont become business leaders or enter into government but the basic societal view of neuters is that they naturally have the wisdom and intuition to lead. (I would stipulate that a neuter humma should get a +5% bonus to either INT or LOG upon turning neuter). Chemical reversion for Neuters never had the same results as for males and also required surgery to complete the change. Those neuters that took that change found that they were permanently altered and often viewed with a loss of respect that they had gained through becoming neuters and were no longer considered elders within society. Sucide has been a common occurance among neuters who have undergone this change. D. Concerning birth: under the litter house rule sometime a single child is born to a humma and this child is accorded what humans call a "Golden Child" Status. Hummarin society generally has high expectations of such a child. Conversely a litter of 10 is considered unlucky as high number litters have higher incidence of birth defects. The Humma equivelent of a "Yo Momma Joke" is to call some one the 10th born of a 10th born and it usually results in a brawl. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 November 15, 2010 - 3:55pm | Just posting here what I posted in the other thread for reference. I like that Jedion. But try this adjustment on for size: Instead of having just one child or one of the selections (though r-selection would still be a good adjustment to account for the 1 child concept), Humma only have one "clutch" or den (as of kittens), instead of one child. While this clutch or den would not be eggs, they would be twins or triplets, etc. (Cats usually have 2 to 3 sets of twins, triplets, or quadruplets.) Being war-like, they would possibly have a life like that of lizards, where the strong eat the weak, and what remains is the hardiest of them. This would fit with their ability to eat anything and their ability to survive in the harshest environments. As with lizards, not all the other siblings would be eaten by the oldest. Often there are two or three survivors who vie for power, and while there is only 1 dominant, the others would be strong enough to fend the strongest off, but not strong enough to take power in the group. Thus a very clear alpha would be defined in the group. Once having clutched, the alpha transforms and becomes an elder and a new alpha in the group takes their place and the elders become lazy and patriarchal. Now you tack on what you wrote above, about the favored one and the tenth one and you have a fleshed out Humma sociology. For the record, I'm preferential to the litter concept (Some additional support or dissent on that subject would be appreciated). I like where Jedion is going with this, though the dying race concept doesn't play well for me, though it could make for an interesting long term story goal, of the humma seeking to resolve the problem of their deminishing society. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 November 15, 2010 - 4:09pm | But remember that every one of those males mated at least once, as a female. I'm assuming that they don't lose their memories of their lives before the gender change so there will be some carry over into the male society of the values, needs, etc that exist in the female society. I'm not sure exactly how this would work out but any backstory and culture description has to account for the fact that every one of the males has experieced the effects of the male's behaviors toward the females from the receiving end. They all experienced it and know how they felt at the time and there will be some effect of this on the society. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 November 15, 2010 - 6:34pm | +1 to TerlObar's comment. We can not think human about this. Humma are not divided sexes but rather staged sexes. They will have attitudes from having lived female first, male second, and then neuter last. There will be a societal belief to this progression of gender. Something to the effect that it is the natural order. Humma would look upon other species that never experience both genders as having missed half (or a third including neuter) of life's experiences. We are the aberration in their minds. They would think of the dralasites as more natural in this respect. They might even envy the drals that they get to go back and forth between gender throughout their life times. I like the litter concept, but think 1d10 is too tied to the dice and not natural. There should be some other number limit other than 10. Something not so base ten. A quick look at the picture in Zeb's leads me to believe they have 8 fingers so maybe it should be 1d8 or 1d16. Or it could be 1d((STR + STA) / 10) so a female with STR 40 and STA 50 would have the potential of 1d9 kitts. Thus the society encourages young prepubescent humma to strive for best health so as to have larger litters. This also explains why humma get the +10 to STR/STA. It is a natural design of their species reproduction. This would also encourage the society to not let females mate too young because they will not yet be at their best STR/STA yet. Thus there is a cultural and biological reason to counter males who press the young into parenthood. -iggy |
November 15, 2010 - 11:14pm | @ Ascent: I ran out of time today but was going to do a quote of your post from the other thread here: I like the idea of 2-4 litter mates surviving as it plays into the ultimate survior image of the humma as for the sensitive side I think that is at odds with the book description of lewd, crude and etc. and sounds a bit too human like though Terl Obar definetly had a point there. I agree 1d10 is a bit two symetrical and I was toying with the idea of the 10 insult being also possible by holding up 10 fingers (sort of like various finger insults possible here on earth) but 8 fingers held up would work in that respect too and also implies a base 8 math system for the humma (not that we'd fuss much with base 8 other than to possibly describe the hours in a day or the months or days in a year in base 8 for the humma home system. I'm just unsure how to randomize the litter number and the number of survivors. though some good thoughts were offered I think I went with 1d10 since the d10 is the whole system- I hesitate to use d8 as it's outside the system. Perhaps 1d5 (1d10/2 round down) would be accept able to describe the survivors of the litter with a statement that the full size of the litter was between x2 and x3 the number of survivors. New thoughts on the Humma physche: their crude arrogant and pushy, this is true but why? Well another cannon statement says, "The fealty they owe their superiors is a very serious matter with them. Humma are usually named after their forebears or the houses they serve. The lineage of a Humma is important to him and a source of pride." Why? I think it might be because after birthing the litter the female may be already undergoing massive hormonal changes that were triggered by the stress of labor and she almost completely abandons her young. This is were the "house" steps in and why the humma has not a devotion to family but to house since the house takes up the responsibility to raise and educate the young. The House is technically family but it more, its a group of associated lineages. When mating is arranged it often occurs within the house but not always. Because the house looks after and cares for the young and the eldars (neuters) arrange education, mating and future employment the humma takes pride in the house and feels deep loyalty to it. It was never nutured by a mother but raised by a village where males and neuters rule and dominate and they quickly learn the art of humma pushy arrogance and rudeness. Also Zebs guide states the society is feudal with a kIng (Highest One), royalty (called High Ones) and so forth. I see hummarin royalty being traditionally from certain Houses- it use to change often during the bad old days of civil strife but has in recnet decades become somewhat calcified in the unifying goal of resisting the sathar. The position of king or royalty are recognized to belong to a certain house but being chosen to sit the seat is chosen by election, combat, lottery or some other method used by the house according to its traditions or preference. Finally the book tells us the names of 3 houses: Glaxchild, Arius and Platget anyone wish to suggest other house names? PS: since the name of the hummarin star system is Fochrik and it sounds similar to the "tooled krick Hide holster" described in the opening fluff of Zebs guide perhaps we like to specify the krick as being from that system? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 16, 2010 - 12:08am | I agree 1d10 is a bit two symetrical and I was toying with the idea of the 10 insult being also possible by holding up 10 fingers (sort of like various finger insults possible here on earth) but 8 fingers held up would work in that respect too and also implies a base 8 math system for the humma (not that we'd fuss much with base 8 other than to possibly describe the hours in a day or the months or days in a year in base 8 for the humma home system. I'm just unsure how to randomize the litter number and the number of survivors. though some good thoughts were offered I think I went with 1d10 since the d10 is the whole system- I hesitate to use d8 as it's outside the system. Perhaps 1d5 (1d10/2 round down) would be accept able to describe the survivors of the litter with a statement that the full size of the litter was between x2 and x3 the number of survivors. When I proposed 1d8, 1d16 or 1d9 I do them with a d10, 1d8 = 1d10 -2, 1d16 = 2d10 -4, and 1d9 = 1d10 -1 just re-roll for results bellow 0. Its just an idea to toy with for randomizing the litter size without resorting to a table. But then any given character only gets to do this "roll" once so a formula or table is an ok mechanic because its not repetitive like combat. I just want to come up with something humma-ish not human-ish or dice-ish. So maybe we do something w00t-ish and make a d100 table of litter size and survival number modified by STR / STA. BTW, what age do you see humma females reaching puberty? When are they ready to mate? This will effect how their culture develops. -iggy |
November 17, 2010 - 8:43am | @ iggy: I think you're analysis on why we should do a table is spot on, Its only going to be rolled on once in a PC's carreer or a GM will be rolling on it why prepping an adventure thus its not going to slow down game play- in fact if a humma mates she isn't likely to conceive in the next hour so that if the table is not handy you can shelve rolling on that till next game session or when the GM states enough time has elapsed. This of course brings us to the question of pregnancy and its effects on the body. which is probably a rare occurance in a RPG but the idea has now struck me that much like the nice article with the tables on aging and thin vs obese effects on PCs that was in the fan zine a table on pregnancy and its effects, gestation period, etc. might be a possible article as well. After having worked on the d100 table for the "Fist full of Rumors" article I'm sure I don't want to do a d100 table for litter outcomes with the humma no matter how much w00t likes those tables- what I was thinking was a 2-20 table which would give us 19 entries and allow us to weight the table to favor 7-13 with the most common outcomes and 2 & 20 with the rarest of all outcomes. In this way we'd have enough entries on the table to specify large litter with few survivors, large litter with many survivors, small litter with few survivors, small litter with most surviving, number 20 would be a "golden kitten" (only one kitten born) and 2 would be birth deffects requiring medical intervention or euthanasia. This would be fairly comprehensive without being too cumbersome of a table. the other idea is to simply roll on a d10 table that will specify the number of twin/triplets sets in a litter. So lets say a 5 was rolled and that specified 3 sets of twins/triplets (we dont need to determine the total number in the litter because as was suggested earlier siblings eat each other and in 99% of the cases one sibling only eats his twin or triplet siblings thus leaving herself as the only copy of that particular gene set) so if 3 sets are born then only three individual's survive. This will also mean that humma find identical human twins wierd or unfortunate or repugnant. Addendum: could it be that a humma mates several times while she's in heat and each time produces a set of twins or triplets so that the number of twins and triplets depends on the number of matings during her heat? when the litter is born the kittens begin to kill each other off but its usually a dominate set of twins or triplets that survive having killed off all competitors with the occassional odd ball managing to survive. Being the runt of a hummarrin litter pretty much sucks. RE: Age of Puberty: with a lifespan of 210 years, 170 years for the change from male to neuter I cant see that it happens in a short time. I think that it should be nothing more than 40 since thats the length of time a humma remains as a neuter but that is a long time so possibly 20-30 though I'm leaning toward 20ish. RE: Signs of Puberty:They have very nearly no sense of smell or taste so pheremones are not an option for this race (culturally they may even be challenged in the personal hygene department- since the book describes them as having matted hair and since they cant smell themselves) So since smell is out as an indicator of puberty then the humma will have to take their ques from sight and sound- a change in color and a voice change will tell male humma that a female is ripe. Of course they under go yet another change with pregnancy and child birth as well. RE: Voice and language: the books says its an ugly language full of grunts and guttural noises. Prepubescent young could be described as having a mew or a yip and as they reach adulthood it gets more guttural. With the change to male it becomes even more ugly and gravelly and guttural but at the neuter stage it mellows some RE: Visual Ques of Puberty: this could be anything but what did come to mind was baboons and their inflamed rump, for the humma a side effect of female hormones is that the inner thighs near the base of the tail become swollen and turn bright yellow or red (normal coat color is dull brown) The reason this happens is that the female body begins to store fat or hormones or something there in preparation for pregnancy- once she's mated her body begins using that fat and hormone store to grow the litter within her thus she becomes less attractive to males because this sign of puberty diminishes. RE: Marriage: I'm leaning toward no formal concept of marriage or even significant other for this race (thus I referred to mating practices in an earlier post) Their House is everything to them and their familial relationships are lasting through being members of the House regardless of the gender they find themselves in. Thus mating can be ceremonial and significant but it is not a life long partnership as the changes that will occur from mating happen in a relatively short time. I'm all for having a culture of males that pay little attention to who mated who in an almost homophobic manner- perhaps a humma takes a new name upon becoming male so that latter on if another male is discussing having mated this particular humma everyone can pretend their talking about someone else as the humma in question goes by a different name now. In reality the custom of the name change if viewed by humma as just part of the rite of becoming male but the underlying societal imperitive deals with alleviating confussion over males discussing having had sex with each other though it had only occured when one was still female. This could also be linked to why they are naturally rude, crude and lewd as the hummarin male tries to outdo all other males in an effort to shake of any insecurities associated with having once had sex with another male. NOTE: obviously we're straying into a discussion of homosexuality here and no dont that could be a mine field but I think we should discuss the "elephant in the room" and not try to ignore it. The Point of this discussion is not to make any statements concerning its morality in the real world but just to hash out the implications of the reproductive system of this race. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 18, 2010 - 1:11am | I so want to spend a ton of time discussing this. It's a hot week at work and we've been putting in extra extra hours. I probably wont get to write much tomorrow, so here goes. Forgive me if this rambles or contradicts it's self, but I gotta get these ideas out of my head before they are lost. Much of what has been posted has got a fire going in my imagination and I want to build on it. So let me turn on a humma mindset and just bash this out. Humma don't understand gender like the humans, vrusk, and yazirians. A normal being goes through stages and that's that. To be stuck in one stage (male or female) is just ludacris and stupid to a humma and he will tell you so in no uncertain terms. Humma don't even have words that properly translate to male or female because "you are just you" and the stage you are in does not change who you are. Humma think of it more like, "I've reached fertility", and "I've become virile", and "I am old". Sex because of love is not on the menu for a humma. Procreation is what you do to be better than the next humma. If you win the privilege to mate with as a fertile humma then that is points for you and not the next grunt. Having a litter is a right of passage for the humma. Everyone does it and it revolves around status. Fertile humma have spent years positioning themselves to attract the "right" virile humma. there is great status to be gained by getting the best most prestigious, most popular, most honored, etc to compete for the mating privilege. There are great social points to be gained. The same is true for the virile humma seeking to mate. They are seeking to gain mating privilege with the best placed fertile humma in society. This is not about love, it is about status. Competitions must be won and prices paid. When the a fertile humma finally goes into heat the competition time is up. Those who have gained enough status and see this particular humma as a good choice to gain more status fight it out in a public event. The fertile humma is the prize. This is where houses and families come in. Houses have great sway in the whole status evaluation of mating candidates. Think back room deals and honor bound allegiances and other feudal responsibilities and obligations. After the deciding fight the winner ritually fights the fertile humma. The fight ends with a brief mating. Then the two part ways and may never see each other again. In rare cases the fertile humma may actually fight back to defeat the winner and possibly runners-up until the desired candidate is reached and then a ritual fight is performed ending with a mating. This is the closest that the humma get to love in a mating relationship. But sometimes fighting back is due to honor, status, and obligations too. A pregnant humma traditionally spends the months of pregnancy shoring up and finalizing negotiations about the care of the offspring. At birth the young are placed with different families and houses to meet obligations and win favors. The humma transitions to the virile stage soon after the birth and may never see the young again. There is little emotional attachment. Humma value their offspring for their accomplishments and status that they bring. An accomplished or famous offspring may bring status and help win future mating contest rights if the humma actually cares for pursuing status through mating. Historically young humma had poor chances of survival before the modern feudal system of houses and obligations. The young were expected to fend for their own and follow the family as best they could. Think of a historical family here as more of a pack or herd. In the modern system a family is less tied by genealogy than the historical family and more of a cooperative unit that grew up together. Kinda like orphan gangs that society has put controls on for the better of society. All young taken into a house born about the same time become a family and are overseen by elders who see to their "proper" education. Houses grew out of the ancient herd or packs. Some houses are more concerned with proper blood than others. Proper blood houses tend to be the older houses and tend to take whole litters together as families rather than mixing the young. Typically proper blood houses are proper blood because they have the status and position that allows them to afford the luxury of siblings in families. This is a luxury because the siblings are expected to fight it out and deaths do occur. In more contemporary houses the families are picked and assembled so as to best grow the house with successful members. It is much like trying to pick a better sports team. Now I think there were some other ideas I had but I can't recall them at the moment. Oh! I don't seen humma even understanding the concept of homosexuality. There is no status in it and if I keep in the humma mindset there is no gender so it can't be an issue. You are humma. You are either fertile, virile, or old. But you are always still you. -iggy |
November 18, 2010 - 6:56am | Iggy you're magnificent. I love the non concept of gender you put forward- you are just humma fertile, virile or old; add to that the status of young for prepubescent and I think that is covered. I like where you're going with the Houses but I think we should present 2 models: Humma that take pride in their House and Humma that take pride in their lineage. The Lineage Humma are less likely to have sibling then the House Humma due to the more traditional forms of litter raising. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 November 27, 2010 - 7:45pm | I read this post. No comment. You guys are amazing. +1 |
 November 28, 2010 - 10:44am | I have to agree with iggy, Humma ultimately don't see themselves as male or female, but as Humma, fertile, virile, or old, as all three phases being just a part of life. The Humma would doubtlessly be surprised, to say the least, that the Ifshnits and the Core Four would place so much emphasis on gender and supposed roles expected of each gender. Their religion, I think, would be monotheistic, with a god encompassing all three aspects of the Humma lifecycle, fertile "earth mother" one moment, virile "inseminator" the next, and elderly sage the moment after that. (And, probably a Holy Avenger in all three phases....) Touching upon another point already mentioned by iggy and jedi, there probably would be no couples—or possibly even a concept of love—amongst the Humma, not unless the Humma life-cycle is reworked so that Humma can transition between fertile and virile phases as needed, as opposed to one set point in their lives. If, however, the Humma are fertile only at one point in their lives, virile the next, and elderly in their final years, it may well be that the Humma will take a more pragmatic view towards relationships and reproduction, mainly, that it's a simple biological function, a racial duty to be discharged, with no emotional investment, especially if a Humma in fertile phase can only bring a single child, or even a single litter(which, as discussed in chat, does make more sense) of children to term, which would almost certainly require Humma in the virile phase of their lives to impregnate as many fertile-phase Humma as possible. Moreover, there may be a mechanism for Humma to mate outside their clan, providing a constant infusion of fresh genetic material into that particular clan. When clan fought clan, this was probably as simple as slave taking for purposes of breeding stock, or peace negoiations requiring one of the formerly contending clans to give a certain number of fertile Humma over to the virile Humma of the other contending clan, with the offspring being designated as members of one or the other clans which fought(one can easily make a case for this being either the winning or the losing clan in the engagement). With the clans united, these arrangements are replaced with more formalized rituals, possibly involving symbolic combat, possibly limited actual combat. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
November 28, 2010 - 10:06pm | I've used iggy's magnificent post almost whole sale in the document for the sexuality and reproduction page. he just made it sound so much better then I could have. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 28, 2010 - 10:13pm | Maybe anciently when clans were small wars were for bodies to mate with. I like that the fertile humma were the winning side, taking the virile. I think that in modern times the clans are so big that interclan mating is not necessary. More of a nicety to keep clan relations up. Humma history should include many extinct clans that were absorbed by the remaining clans of today. -iggy |
November 28, 2010 - 10:26pm | I've used iggy's magnificent post almost whole sale in the document for the sexuality and reproduction page. he just made it sound so much better then I could have. Thank you very much for the complement. -iggy |
December 3, 2010 - 12:14pm | Just to make sure were're all on the same page: I'm planning to write the female humma as coming into sexual maturity and or heat at the age of 20ish. Until that time she is very much a non adventuring character except in the most extreme and unusual cases. During the first 20 years she's growing, learning and preparing to become part of humma society at large but lives a fairly sheltered life within her house or lineage. All other humma would find the idea of a female risking the perpetuation of the species by going out and doing dangerous stuff as very upsetting and or bizarre. That seems to be the natural societal implications of this reproductive arrangement. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 3, 2010 - 2:19pm | Sounds about right. Go for it. " 'Beware the Beast, Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport, for lust, for greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." |
December 4, 2010 - 9:22pm | 20ish sounds good. And in Humma thought going exploring and adventuring when still female is very irresponsible. I don't like saying the Humma female goes into heat. I prefer that they Humma female becomes fertile and then conceives at the first mating. I don't see a race that bares one litter as having a very limited conception window. -iggy |
December 5, 2010 - 3:50pm | This question is slighty off topic but I didn't want to start a new thread as I anticipate a quick answer. We settled on Kitten as the term for humma young and I was just fixing the document page to change young to kitten. As I moved on to the page on society I noticed that a statement from Zebs that I kept In concerning humma taking the name of thier lineage or house : Glaxchild it somehow seems that the use of "child" is not appropriate neither is son Any ideas on how to indicate 'sonship' in an alien name in this situation? At worse we could go with Joe of Glax I guess listing the lineage after an "of". Or we could make up suffix to add to names that indicates this. I'm hoping though that someone has a good idea. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 5, 2010 - 4:34pm | I'd take Glaxchild as a human translation of a Humma name. Or we could just say that the suffix child doesn't mean child in Humma. I still prefer kitten the most of all the used so far. But after looking through lists of baby animal names on the net I could go for cub. These however are human names. I can imagine the Humma calling their young kickers. Full of energy and kicking everything in sight! -iggy |
December 5, 2010 - 4:41pm | I don't like saying the Humma female goes into heat. I prefer that they Humma female becomes fertile and then conceives at the first mating. I don't see a race that bares one litter as having a very limited conception window. I noticed that I contradicted myself or changed my point of view. My initial post did say that the Humma goes into heat forcing it to choose a mate. Maybe this is a biological safety mechanism. If the Humma has not mated before it reaches the age it is to become virile then the conflicting body chemistrys at work cause heat to happen. Most Humma that delay their mating decision until heat would be considered indecisive and foolish because the state of mind when in heat is not the best for judgment. -iggy |
December 5, 2010 - 5:28pm | I don't like saying the Humma female goes into heat. I prefer that they Humma female becomes fertile and then conceives at the first mating. I don't see a race that bares one litter as having a very limited conception window. I noticed that I contradicted myself or changed my point of view. My initial post did say that the Humma goes into heat forcing it to choose a mate. Maybe this is a biological safety mechanism. If the Humma has not mated before it reaches the age it is to become virile then the conflicting body chemistrys at work cause heat to happen. Most Humma that delay their mating decision until heat would be considered indecisive and foolish because the state of mind when in heat is not the best for judgment. again iggy rocks! I've got a bit of fiction in the germination stage involving a fertile humma who is long overdue for mating. I like kitten or pup as the original material said they had head or faces with both feline and K9 features. We could leave Glaxchild be as a Pan Gal translation (in my writing I pretend that the language I'm writing in [english] is actually Pan Gal and will say something like "saber" is a poor translation of zamira in Pan Gal) The only thing is that mostly people dont actually translate their name Carlos is Carlos in English and spanish though this could be just a human custom. Its certain that the vrusk tranlaste their name. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
February 26, 2011 - 6:38am | just stubled across this page on the net with details on Humma reproduction http://majestic-worlds.com/fnn/holidays/winds-of-change-128.html I like the name of the Festival Though it overlooks the detail of would all female humma come into heat at the same time or least ignores the obvious question of would they? Still there is probably some material there that can be co-opted I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 12, 2012 - 5:24am | New idea on why only one pregnancy: When the sathar occupied the humma system long before the Rim and the Frontier made contact, the sathar being sathar began bio-genic experiements on the humma- one early result was a modified virus that had existed all along in the native envrionment. Prior to this the humma had had a robust period as females producing many litters of kittens before hormonal changes triggered the change to male. But the virus which now infects 99.99% of the population triggers this change after only one pregnancy. Don't ask me to explain all the medical details as I only watched a documentary on the holo vid. This sathar engineered virus has endangered the humma's existance as a species and is part of the cuase for their virulent hatred of the sathar. Almost all humma houses take great steps to prevent kitten mortality and thus prop up their population. Medical science has produce drug therapies that help a humma remain female after the first litter but a side effect is a high occurance of birth defects. The MSO has sent a research team to the Rim and established a major research institute on Hum to find a cure for the problem- progress is slow but the scientist are hopeful. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
