RPcorner: How fast does the enkicub grow?

[Garile]

My character has ben pregnant and has recently given birth to a enkidukai cub named Yayelle. The question that rises though when pregnant is how do we RP the length of pregnancy and the growth of enki cubs. I looked some things up, but the question mainly is if they go more towards humans or if we should look more to the cubs of tigers. There is a big difference for example in how long they need to be breastfed. Not to mention that human babies take ages to learn to walk and such compared to tigercubs.

I thought there must have been someone who has roleplayed this before or atleast thought about it. Don't believe there is an official setting decicion yet.

[Narure]

Well walking time would be like humans cos.... they walk like humans. I guess they would become more independant more quickly aswell. It would probably be best to go with the human mattra with breastfeeding and just do it as long as you feel its right. But enkis arent really that different from humans exept they have fur and poky ears. And their pride like attitude which makes them more like lions than tigers i supose.

[Draklar]

That's a pretty tricky question, but I hope I can provide some food for thought.
First of all, I think the time of growth will be somewhere between that of a human being and the feline cubs. At least there are quite a few factors that could lead to such a conclusion.
If we are to look at the concept of adulthood in the human societies, opinions on this matter will vary greatly. In most of the civilised world the state of adulthood is reached around 18th year of one's life. In some African cultures however, it may go all the way down to the 13th year. Similar case is to be found within the historical approach, where in past adulthood was reached much earlier than it is today.
It may be therefore assumed that in more primitive societies, children reached the adulthood much faster. It may be connected with the way of upbringing, where in past and in the less civilised areas, people were forced to live in pretty harsh conditions. They simply didn't have the favour of living in a warm house, carefully looked after by their parents. Ergo, life forced them to grow up rather fast.
In case of Enkidukais, this may have a vital consequence, seeing as the specie itself maintained its primitive aptitudes. Growing up faster may be coded in their genes, as well as triggered by the general way of life.
At the same time this isn't to say their growth will be anywhere near to that of the feline cubs. Enkidukais are much less primitive and their bodies don't develop in a way that would allow them to quickly become self-dependant. As it is in case of apes, they have to rely on such tools as well-developed brain and highly functional thumb-equipped hands. In other words, before they can function on their own, they need to improve their mental capabilities and this may take much longer than the same happening with the basic physical aspects. However, I do think they should learn to walk sooner than human children. After all, Enkidukais surpass them in agility. Same should go for other alike physical functions.

I would say Enkidukai might reach adulthood after about 12-14 years, possibly up to 16, especially if the conditions are highly favourable for the child.

[Mordraugion]

Hi Garile,
One of my chars had Enkidukai children and we rped them reaching teens in 6 months of RL playing.
But I think it is probably down to personal preference at the above rate the first char I created would be long dead of old age by now.

[Garile]

Well I know it's somewhat tricky, but it is pretty important to get somewhat of a concensus on it aswell seeing children isn't something we should avoid, but at the moment I feel many do avoid it just becuase it's so hard to RP it and becuase the opinions are pretty divided on it.

I think enkies should probably go more towards the human progress then towards a tiger/lion cub, but I don't want enkies to become humans with fur and tails if you know what I mean.

At the moment I have roleplayed my pregnancy to be a little shorter then a human pregnancy, although the issue of time is rather diffucult as some play we are going 6 times faster then RL an other play as though time flows the same as RL. [Nice party last week wasn't it? Last week? do you mean yesterday? ]

Thinking of roleplaying my baby about the same adding some cat characteristics like not having her fur yet and such. Breastfeeding is something of a mystery yet though. cats only feed for a few weeks before becoming independant enough on food to switch, but a human baby is fed for well over a year I hear [no personal experience no ] eventhough obviously nowadays a lot of people switch to babymilk from the market.

[Earl_Listbard]

Greetings imperial,


From my understanding (kinda branching off from narure's idea) enkidukai are alot like ylian/humans their personality seems to be the same, so I'd imagin that their personalities as infants would be similar if not exactly alike. In the sense that walking on two feet would prove difficult, sure tigers manage quickly, but tigers have four legs to use to stand up, while bipeds have only two, which when you are new to existance is like walking on stilts!

Learning both enkidukai and basic would be a daunting task for a young enki, so learning how to speak would be a hurdel, as well at first he/she might get the two languages mixed up.

brestfeeding, don't know about that one, as enkidukai may be human like in mind, but certianly not in body, I guess that question can only be awnsered by how much nutrition do enkis require? No doubt they burn calories quickly with all that running and jumping!

[Narure]

Well i would breastfeed for the human time because you have to assume they grow at human speed because they are more humanoid in size and shape.

[Draklar]

Enkidukais and humans might have some things in common, but their psychology features certainly aren't among those things.

For Ylians:

Abilities and fields of interest
Ylians are a practical and disciplined race with fighters, sorcerers, merchants and politicians. They tend to learn a little of everything without choosing a preferred profession.

Psychology
The Ylians were the first men who saw the Blue Sun. They were proud of this peculiarity and, in the early days of the civilization, they invented the name Ylians to distinguish them from the other humans that arrived later. In spite of this, they are the most inclined to mix with other races, and to have friendly relations with anyone. Thanks to this ability they often cover political roles.

Whereas Enkidukais:

Abilities and fields of interest
They possess extraordinary acute senses, and excellent reflexes. Given the hard training and the constant competition of survival, all the Enkidukai are good warriors and valuable companions in battle. They are stronger and more resistant to harm or disease than one would guess by their slim constitution, and they have a deep determination and strong will.

 Psychology
The Enkidukai race maintains its wild nature. They live in packs controlled by the male who is strongest and most skilful in combat. Each pack has a typical and easily recognizable look, mostly because of their habit in cutting or coloring fur in ritual or traditional ways. Enkidukai are always suspicious of strangers at the beginning, but once you gain their trust, they become faithful companions.

The difference becomes even more visible when comparing Ojevada and Hydlaa. Architecture is the reflection of builder's sense of aesthetics and functionality. Seeing as the two cities are completely different, it's fairly safe to assume the two races differ greatly in such aspects as culture, tastes or way of life.

@Garile: As far as breastfeeding goes, I think you should take it rather loosely. Babies are fed exclusively with mother's milk for half a year or so and later their diet receives more variety. So as far as the matter at hand goes, I think you should role-play breastfeeding as long as you feel like it and gradually replace it with "normal" food when you get bored or something. Keep in mind having fun should be the priority here ;)

[bilbous]

Actually I have seen no evidence to suggest that non-kran reproductive processes follow anything  earth-like. There are no children that I have seen and no talk of the growing processes. It is possible that all gestation occurs outside the body and when life begins a fully formed adult takes its first breath. This is, of course, rather unlikely, but it does fit the one size fits all character models.

[Narure]

Well I'm pretty certain enkis are mamals.

[bilbous]

This is a fantasy world, what you see may not be what you get. my suggestion was kind of out of orbit, I'll give you that.

[Zan]

Personally I'd go for something in between large felines and humans ... of course the actual in-game timeframe probably doesn't really matter all that much. At the moment we have no way of checking what year or even what month it is so in-game time is screwy at best.

[Garile]

Screwy at best indeed.

Well thanks for all the feedback. It helped me crystalize my thoughts on the RP a lot and to bilbous. You might not have children gamemechanicwise, but RPwise there are a lot of them and now there is one more

[Under the moon]

I have thought of this before, and thought of it from all angles. The conclusion I have come to is that all the races (besides Kran and perhaps the Lemur) must have very closely related gestation and maturing rates. That means they could very greatly, as some humans grow and mature at differant rates.

Reason one: A Fenki can have a Ylian baby, or any other race's child for that matter. This means the gestation would have to be within a few weeks of each other either way, or the babies would not survive well. If a 'human' baby was born to a Fenki in six months, as RPed, the baby would be very bad off. Sure, you -could- claim the mother's carrying time would change depending on type of race being carried, but I don't really see that as a realistic option.

Reason two: The races were not chosen at random to come through the Portals. Vodul hand picked the races he wanted to become a part of the world. Since he was doing so as a favor to his underlings (the other gods) he would not have picked races that had completely diferent features in all areas. Being able to have cross race children is a major example of this. Growing up faster is actually a bigger issue than looking different, in my mind.

Reason three. The Enki are not cats any more than Ylian are human. The may -look- like cats in some features, but are far from. There is no reason to assume they would have any more cat-like behavior or physical growth relation to Earth cats than the Diaboli would. In truth, from what I understand of the Enki, they act almost nothing like Earth cats (small or large) and more like human tribes (such as American Indians), or in the animal kingdom, wolves. They are even called 'packs', not 'prides'. So, don't judge a book by its cover, or a race by its skin.

The best bet is to hold your RP as close to 'human' as you can, with little race tweaks to make it interesting.

As to gamemechanics-wise, I have asked Talad before if there are to be child characters/models in the game, and he has told me there are no plans for it. Sad.

*edit: RP options if you wish to play the child as more mature:

A time twist portal or some such to a plane where time travels faster. It worked in Angel.

A potion of fast growing up +16.