Do animals reproduce sexually in Lusternia?

Daraius

I need to know if Lusternian animals are assumed to make babies in the traditional way, or if some obscure piece of lore describes it otherwise. Asking for a friend...

Kalnid

There've been some scientific works on the matter, look at Portius's stuff on pidgeons, but they all focused more on the net effect of breeding for characteristics instead of the mechanism used. I'm gonna agree with Xenthos here concerning a fundamentally difference between shard entities and shardless ones, although that might have more effects on the results of reproduction such as mutation and genetic recombination, perhaps only occurring in the latter. Inheritence is definitely observable, especially with humans interbreeding with everyone, and so some knowledge on that front exists, but the low-level mechanism might still be uncertain.

On the other hand:
There have also been plenty of work utilizing microscopes and several concerning cells, one concerning taint cells and one concerning lucidian photosynthesis, so cells are a known entity. It's entirely possible that eggs and sperm are in turn well-documented, but keep in mind that a lot of medical technology is basically unnecessary given the accessability of healing magic and potions.

Basically, I haven't seen anything that directly supports or contradicts the earth form of reproduction, and odds are if you write something on it it'll be accepted.

Side question: Does domestication exist, or were cattle and chicken created as they are now?

Ssaliss

A "friend", huh? :P

Either way, I think they do. Otherwise the Miakoda Preservation quest wouldn't make much sense, would it?

Xenthos

There is a part where you can throw two rabbits into a hutch and (supposedly) they make baby rabbits.

Then you can get penguins drunk to get them to run off together.

I'd say the answer is yes.

Daraius

Ooh, I forgot a crucial part of my question. Assuming the above - that sexual reproduction is occurring behind closed doors in Miakoda, rabbit hutches, and penguin night clubs across Lusternia - do Lusternian scientists have any concept of genetic material?

And to clarify... hopefully so I don't seem like a total weirdo asking about this... I wrote a short story that involves preserved genetic material from animals, but I don't know if it's kosher to refer to it as eggs and sperm, or if it should be like "divine spark juice" or something.

The following quote appears to answer my initial question as well.

Chik Roundmuffin exclaims, "If a chicken lays an unfertilized egg, then we take it to market. But only if its unfertilized!"

Thanks for the help.

Xenthos

I've never heard anything about genetic material in Lusternia.

However, keep in mind that all members of a race are essentially related (we all come from the same God), so I'm not sure genetics as such even exists in Lusternia in the way we know it (some version of it obviously has to as each member of the race does differ from one another, but it may not actually be our version of "genes" that governs that).

Edit: But players and player-races are completely different to animals in that sense (splintered versions of Divine vs. created animals, which may very well be completely gene-based).  Hmm.

Also, please typo Chik's exclamation.  Thank you.

Tridemon

Kalnid said:

There've been some scientific works on the matter, look at Portius's stuff on pidgeons, but they all focused more on the net effect of breeding for characteristics instead of the mechanism used. I'm gonna agree with Xenthos here concerning a fundamentally difference between shard entities and shardless ones, although that might have more effects on the results of reproduction such as mutation and genetic recombination, perhaps only occurring in the latter. Inheritence is definitely observable, especially with humans interbreeding with everyone, and so some knowledge on that front exists, but the low-level mechanism might still be uncertain.

On the other hand:
There have also been plenty of work utilizing microscopes and several concerning cells, one concerning taint cells and one concerning lucidian photosynthesis, so cells are a known entity. It's entirely possible that eggs and sperm are in turn well-documented, but keep in mind that a lot of medical technology is basically unnecessary given the accessability of healing magic and potions.

Basically, I haven't seen anything that directly supports or contradicts the earth form of reproduction, and odds are if you write something on it it'll be accepted.

Side question: Does domestication exist, or were cattle and chicken created as they are now?

Wait, does this mean as a lucidian, Tridemon is actually better suited to empathize with the trees than Elfen are?

Daraius

Not necessarily. First reason being that photosynthesis isn't exclusive to plant life, and second being that trees in Lusternia probably don't use photosynthesis to grow anyway. They're full of spirits and other mojo, right?  :P

Konton

It's possible that for the spintered races forms of geneteics are still possible. If we look at the furrikin race when they were splintered from Bollikin they were as varied as they are now. So that would mean that the splintering causes highly randomized formations of genetic structure, possibly some type of built in mechinisim to prevent genetic stagnation or simply luck from copying Bollikin's method. Now this brings me back to a question I've always had about the faelings, concerning their own ability to breed.

Everiine

Why shouldn't trees use photosynthesis to grow? That is how plants get their food. Animals, which are also full of spirit mojo, still need to eat, and they do it in the "normal" way, so why wouldn't plants?