Reproduction for an infertile race

[Seraphim]

I am working on a project and in this story there is a race that is unable to reproduce with certainty. Most children are still-born if conception even occurred. So to ensure survival, the race kidnaps human newborns and transforms the human babies. the race is human in many characteristic, so I am not too worried about the legitimacy of the transformation. I am using this both as a source of conflict between races, and within the protagonist identity. I was wondering if this concept had a precedent in mythology. I know that fairies would kidnap children and use them as slaves or sacrificial tributes, and in others would use them as reproductive partners, but not quite transform the children.

 

[Ireth]

This is basically how the Fae are in a lot of stories. They're not totally infertile, but miscarriages are common and kidnapping is a prevalent way of making up for it. On the flipside, the Fae are immortal; what's your race's lifespan like? How do they ensure their survival as a whole? How long have they been around?

 

[Caged Maiden]

Still-born is not related to fertility, so I'd encourage you to delve deeper into fertility as a subject and decide WHY this happens to them and if you feel it's warranted and offer readers some sort of explanation if that's a major focus of your story. Perhaps there's a problem with their genetics. Perhaps there's a problem with the physiology of the females of your race (in some cultures infant mortality is high because girls are often malnourished and don't grow to their full potential, therefore making birth a traumatic and physically challenging prospect). Since you didn't ask a question, I'm not sure what you're looking for as far as feedback, but I think the element of kidnapping and transforming man children is one that makes for a lot of inherent drama in a tale, but I'd imagine it's one of those subjects that could potentially rub readers the wrong way.

 

[Ban]

I would look into the mythology of creatures similar to fairies who also reportedly did this like Kobolds, Trolls, kabouters and nymphs. Besides that i can recommend the changeling page on wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling#Germany . White wolf's "Changeling" game series might be a good place for ideas as well.

 

[Caged Maiden]

You know, I loved White Wolf, and one of the reasons is that their foundations were based off real mythology, and I think it lent a lot of credence to the games. As an avid player in the 90s, and now as a writer of a fair amount of werewolves, it's hard for me to invent real differences between my own shape-shifters and White Wolf's variety, because I think they were masterfully crafted. I agree whole-heartedly. Check out the Changeling books, because the fairy lore in White Wolf's books was pretty thorough.

 

[Ban]

And it's hard to compete with them because they basically have every werewolf, vampire and other monster archetype in their world. You have bonegnawers who roam the cities like feral dogs. You have get of fenris, the over-aggressive werewolves. Glasswalkers, children of Gaia, Red Talons, Wendigo, Silent striders, Stargazers, etc... With that competition there is not much new to bring to the table. The same can be said for the changelings. Although in my opinion to a lesser degree.

 

[Caged Maiden]

I played a corax at a LARP for something like four years, and I'm not sure why i decided to make a character in my novel a raven shape-shifter, but I made her COMPLETELY different to my LARP character, because though I really enjoyed the character I created to play, I didn't want to rely on the same old stuff I used to create 15-20 years ago. It is super hard to avoid the Garou stereotypes, but I find a way to. Unfortunately, things like the veil, the Umbra... I mean they'd be SO COOL to write about, but those elements are wholly White Wolf. Some of the smaller details, like magical regeneration are hopefully generic enough that I can use them. Oh, and battle scars...oh man was that a had one to not use. I don't write vampires, luckily, or I'd have a really difficult time not relying on clan identifiers to differentiate different types of vampires and their respective traits. I think one great thing White Wolf did regarding magic I liked, was to have different levels of the same skill, like Celerity and Potence. I mean, that's sort of how I do my mages, by differentiating them by "tiers", but it's basically the same as how disciplines were broken down.

Speaking of Corax (since it applies to the original post), the way were-ravens create the next generation of magically aware ravens or mortals, isn't through birth (like the werewolves do), but in magically creating a spirit egg and when it hatches, the bird or human child that was targeted sort of "awakes" and has magical powers after that. If you were looking for some ways to use magic to turn a human child into something else, you might consider something similar...like a child would be targeted and then the people responsible for targeting it may have to guard the spirit egg (or whatever better thing you come up with), until the time is right for them to harvest the child at an appropriate age from its parents. Then, once they've kidnapped it, they have a child that's ready to complete its transformation.

 

[Seraphim]

I did some more research and the Corax means of reproduction seems to be what I was looking for as a bit of backbone. I was thinking of using auras as the basis for all magic, so I think I could have the process work by linking the personal aura of the desired unborn child and the "spirit egg."

 

[Caged Maiden]

Glad out banter about White Wolf has been of some benefit! I tried not to derail the conversation with my musing about old role-playing games.

 

[arboriad]

Hi Seraphim, I'm assuming that your scenario is fantasy instead of sci-fi?

Have they tried using magic to improve fertility? Perhaps another aspect to their abduction of children is a way to keep control over the human populations, or a re-enactment of an old ritual.

Also, another consideration; with this change, does the changeling retain any of their original personality/human nature? Or is the 'spirit egg' you spoke to implanted and it gradually posesses the body? If so, could any body work? Could the egg be transferred?

Sorry if these are off-topic at all.

 

[Seraphim]

My thoughts are that each "spirit egg" has one unique child selected by the parents. It is more of a possession process in this case, but sense the subjects are children their personalities wouldn't be affected to much, for they lack a developed personality (I am arguing here that human personality is more affected by nurture rather nature).

You bring up an excellent point I haven't thought about, which is whether they can magically increase their fertility, but I don't plan on them being able. They are the minority in the world, partially because they require unconventional reproduction, and because they are new players on the world stage, their race was only brought into existence recently.