Somewhat related to reproduction and lightly touched on in this topic was the reproduction rate. Something very important to look at.
Given their nature as thing made of rock, the stereotype would indicate that they may live extremely long lives. Thought diverges in two directions here:
1) That they were, and always will be, magically created
2) That they are created with the ability to reproduce in some way.
The first option means that (given their lack of powerful magical ability) they are probably created mostly as servants, workers, etc by wizards of other races. This would make them closer to \'golems\' or animate objects rather than actual life forms (and again, looking at stereotypes) more likely to be ageless (ie - they live until killed, destroyed, starvet, etc). The fact that they eat does not diminish the odds of this path, since even inanimate things (cars, for instance) need some sort of fuel to survive. Of course, I don\'t think that this is the way that people are leaning towards as far as the canon law.
The second method is the one everyone\'s been talking about. If they reproduce the stereotype again leads to believe that they do die after time (several hundred years, maybe? Possibly as low as forty, since they would be \'born\' fully developed).
The main thing to look at here is lifespan. If they have a low reproduction rate and short lifespans, they would go extinct. A high reproduction rate and a long lifespan, they would flood the country unless their death rate (through falls, war, etc) was extremely high.
If each individual Kran can reproduce every five years and live for even 50, that\'s 8-10 over the course of their life.
Compare this. Humans (with weaker bodies and only minor medical access through magic) probably live 40-50, with each pair producing one child every 15 months or so. Or, four children over five years. Combine with a 15-year maturation period before being able to reproduce, need for a second to reproduce. I did the math (ignoring inbreeding, assuming that numbers matched perfectly for male/female couples). It got pretty complicated on the human side of the chart, but I think I got everything right. Starting with two population each, at the end of fifty years of reproduction with no early deaths or miscarraiges on either side, there would be over 1,000 Kran and only 130 humans.
Math: (time measured in five year increments, for the first fifty years of any set)
Kran - (Pop. x 2)
Human - Three empty spaces (maturation period)
((Pop. / 2) * 4) + Pop.
This assumes that, basically, every woman has a child almost every year from age 15 to 50, with no miscarraiges (resulting in 35 children). If you go with natural death/miscarraige statistics, the population difference might be closer to 100 or even 75 to 1,000.
The point of this is that without a maturation period or need for a partner, Kran possess the potential for explosive growth even with a 1 per five years. Of course this doesn\'t rule those numbers out; maybe they practice controlled growth to limit strain on resources, or simply have no drive to reproduce (somewhat of a possibility). One interesting story line for the game would be a sort of witch-hunt / pogrom against Kran out of fear that they could quickly overpower any other kingdom.
Alternately, they need an extremely high mortality rate. In the bit about them on the Settings page, it says they\'re somewhat susceptible to cracking, breaking, etc - is it possible that accidental falls limit their number significantly, that a lack of parental instincts greatly reduce the actual number of new Kran, or so forth.
Hmm... I like Kran. A lot, now that I think of it.
