Where do Babies Come From?

Species of the Galaxy/Ethereals/ethereals.md

@@ -10,7 +10,26 @@ The Ethereals are a humanoid species hailing from the planet of Sprout- a densel
 
 Ethereals themselves are a biological oddity, with an internal organ structure and life cycle that puzzles even the most decorated xenobiologists. Their skin is translucent, revealing both their blood- a complex, bioluminescent solution similar to battery compositions known colloquially as Liquid Electricity- and their internal organs, which are crystalline in structure. How exactly these crystals function is unknown. Analysis of the chemical makeup of Ethereals reveal that they are not carbon-based, but silicon-based, which has lead some to theorise that the internal working of an Ethereal is much like a flesh-and-blood machine.
 
-When first discovered by TerraGov's explorers, the Ethereals were in an Medieval age, similar to our own Middle Ages- an era of knights and chivalry, with feudal nobility ruling over petty fiefdoms and few (if any) strong, unified nations. TerraGov initially made the decision to observe the populace of the planet- however, an event would occur that would force them into contact with the natives: the Day of Fire. A TerraGov resupply vessel would suffer a malfunction in its thrusters while coming to dock at the observation post, resulting in them becoming jammed on. This pushed it (and the observation post) into the gravity well of Sprout itself, resulting in the entirety of the station crashing down nearby to a city on the surface. Survivors who were fortunate enough to jettison would now find themselves stranded on the planet, which had, until moments beforehand, been entirely unaware of the existance of aliens. The resulting fire from the crash burned around 20,000 square kilometers of jungle (an area roughly equivalent to modern-day El Salvador) before a monsoon was able to extinguish it, and this left TerraGov with a crisis to resolve. This resulted in the decision to uplift the people of Sprout, in what became known as the Great Enlightenment. Until this point, direct intervention with "primitives" was strictly forbidden by TerraGov.
+### Ethereal Reproduction
+
+Ethereals, as with most of Sprout's living organisms, are entirely sexless creatures- an oddity on the galactic stage, and instead reproduce by a form of inadvertent clonal budding.  
+One of the most notable features of an Ethereal is their quasi-immortality- any catastrophic damage dealt to an Ethereal's body triggers a kind of pupation where crystalline structures surround the body, which rapidly regenerates itself to a more youthful state. This amazing process is not perfect and tends to introduce imperfections which build up over time, such that Ethereals are not _actually_ immortal and eventually reach a state where regeneration is no longer possible, however that is not the only side effect.
+
+Once an Ethereal "hatches" from their crystal then they will leave its shattered remnants behind to naturally break down. These crystalline fragments are gradually eroded by the environment (or consumed by Sprout's fauna) but many of them will remain in the soil still primed with their progenitor's DNA, a reconstructive drive, and a small store of organic energy. Over the course of multiple regenerations by multiple Ethereals, these fragments accumulate and are naturally attracted to each other until they condense into a "seed crystal" that erupts from the earth and "regenerates" an entirely new Ethereal composed of composited genetic material from anyone who happens to have "died" in the surrounding area.
+
+As Ethereal science was still something in its infancy when first contact was made, this process was not really widely understood by the Ethereals themselves who had many and various explanations as to where new Ethereals came from, ranging from divine providence to reincarnation (the latter being surprisingly closer to the truth than sceptical aliens might have expected).
+
+Ethereals have no childhood stage; they are born fully mature from their crystals and "newborn" Ethereals even typically have vague and fragmented recollections of their many "parents"' memories, at least enough to lead them to a nearby settlement and allow them to converse mostly-intelligibly with whoever lives there.
+This method of "accidental" reproduction essentially leaves Ethereals with no established family structure at all, it is impossible for a child to know their parent or vice versa, but very rarely Ethereals _do_ experience siblings. A "seed crystal" which grows to unusual size or is prevented somehow from emerging from the ground will occasionally produce multiple Ethereals after it emerges, either all at once or sequentially after "hatching" the first. These Ethereals in turn may look radically different, or be essentially clones of each other. 
+This rare event is treated very differently by varying cultural groups on Sprout (or was, prior to their Great Enlightenment) but these groups of individuals are generally assumed to have some form of dramatic and fated destiny; for either good or ill.
+
+So far this process has never been witnessed outside of the planet Sprout. Human researchers posted on the planet have posited the theory that it is possible that the entire surrounding micro and macro level ecosystem is required to create the right conditions for Ethereal formation, and some are beginning to suspect that the increasing centralisation of the planet, only in its infancy, is already beginning to change the rate at which new Ethereals emerge from the ground.
+What this means for their future as inhabitants of an industrialised galaxy is not yet clear.
+
+## History
+
+When first discovered by TerraGov's explorers, the Ethereals were in an Medieval age, similar to our own Middle Ages- an era of knights and chivalry, with feudal nobility ruling over petty fiefdoms and few (if any) strong, unified nations. While Ethereal nations trended towards autocracy, lack of children also means lack of any forms of hereditary inheritance; a fact which lead to regular civil wars and kept any individual nation from reliably outliving the death of its leader. 
+TerraGov initially made the decision to observe the populace of the planet- however, an event would occur that would force them into contact with the natives: the Day of Fire. A TerraGov resupply vessel would suffer a malfunction in its thrusters while coming to dock at the observation post, resulting in them becoming jammed on. This pushed it (and the observation post) into the gravity well of Sprout itself, resulting in the entirety of the station crashing down nearby to a city on the surface. Survivors who were fortunate enough to jettison would now find themselves stranded on the planet, which had, until moments beforehand, been entirely unaware of the existance of aliens. The resulting fire from the crash burned around 20,000 square kilometers of jungle (an area roughly equivalent to modern-day El Salvador) before a monsoon was able to extinguish it, and this left TerraGov with a crisis to resolve. This resulted in the decision to uplift the people of Sprout, in what became known as the Great Enlightenment. Until this point, direct intervention with "primitives" was strictly forbidden by TerraGov.
 
 The uplifting was not gentle, nor was it well received (at first). The Ethereals were ripped from their feudal institutions into the plasma age in less than 50 years. The decision sent waves across humanity, and the galactic scene- diplomatic protests from the Lizards (who viewed the act as an aggressive expansion by humanity into another species' territory) and the Moths (who viewed the act as an immoral interference with the natural development of another species) would create problems for the project, but once it was started, it was irreversible.
 
@@ -21,6 +40,7 @@ And so, the Ethereals would find themselves thrust onto the galactic stage.
 * Sprout is located in a particularly isolated region of space, with the most direct route to Human space being via a nebula- too dangerous for most vessels. For this reason, the planet takes a long time to reach from the rest of inhabited space, and particular commitment is needed to visit.
 * TerraGov advises remaining in and around major settlements while visiting Sprout, as the local flora and fauna are considered quite dangerous. Even in the larger cities, the possibility of a wild Volthound running rampant through the streets is (unfortunately) high. A secondary (and unspoken) reason for remaining in large settlements is the inherent risk of being kidnapped (or worse!) by reactionary militias.
 * If you've been a member of the TGMC in the past 50 years, particularly as a peacekeeper, you've probably been deployed to Sprout to assist in the pacification efforts.
+* Since Nanotrasen scientists shed additional light on where new Ethereals actually come from, some reactionary groups of Ethereals have begun attempting to create "Super Ethereals" by forcing their most successful warriors to successively regenerate in carefully cultivated spaces, without particular success.
 
 ### Sprout: From the Ashes
 Sprout would undergo radical changes alongside the Ethereals during the Great Enlightenment. Major scale land recovery was undertaken, and the feudal society of old was replaced with an interim government set up by TerraGov to handle planetary administration until such a time as the Ethereals were capable of taking over for themselves. Power was seized from the autocrats and monarchs of old in doing so.

Species of the Galaxy/Family and Children.md

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+# Family and Children
+
+Within Earth's animal kingdom there are about as many ways to have and raise children as there are individual species of animal. As it is on Earth, so it is amongst the stars and in the modern era humanity have been presented with something new; *thinking* animals with their own biology, morals, and approaches to family life with whom they can argue. Every species has their own approach to forming a family, and naturally each thinks they also know best.
+
+## Humanity
+
+Human family structures under both TerraGov and the SSC in 2563 are largely based around the contemporary North American concept of the "Nuclear Family". While the precise structure varies widely based on individual circumstances it's still largely typical for children to be raised by an average of two parents who directly contributed to the birth of the child, with an average of one and a half directly related siblings.  
+
+Children (be they "naturally" born or produced by a tube) spend roughly eighteen years being raised by their parents until they reach a point of legal independence and leave the family home to form their own families, usually undergoing many years of public or private schooling in the meanwhile.  
+Cloning technology and genetic modification allow people who would otherwise find it difficult to produce children access to the opportunity (provided that they can pay for the service) but raising direct clones of yourself is considered socially unusual and generally the domain of rich eccentrics, and the rapid aging technology used to produce adult duplicates of living or deceased humans is generally out of the reach of an average citizen (and since the Felinid incident, also out of the reach of almost everyone else).  
+
+Larger (and smaller) family units are certainly not unheard of, both due to the fact that divorce and absentee parenthood certainly haven't vanished in the future and that commited relationships involving more than two people are more widely accepted than they were 5 centuries before, but these highly capitalised societies still encourage the atomising of larger or multigenerational family units which might have otherwise been more common in other cultures into smaller groups, each of which can be sold their own house and amenities.  
+
+## Felinids
+In almost all respects except cultural, Felinids *are* humans. Their designation as a "species" is a legal construct rather than a biological one, as their genetic modifications do not in truth move them far enough from their ancestors to be regarded as a separate animal.  
+Felinids then grow largely speaking in identical ways to how humans do; giving birth to similar numbers of children after a similar length of pregnancy, meeting similar developmental milestones at similar times, aging at a similar rate, and dying at similar ages.  
+
+As not even a single generation has passed since Felinids emerged onto the galactic stage and they largely live entirely in mixed enclaves with other Humans rather than having any territory of their own they simply have not had time to diverge significantly from the wider Human culture to any significant degree, however there are a few important things to note.  
+
+While Felinids are entirely reproductively compatible with the rest of humanity they are an oppressed minority within Human space and so tend to be insular and stick together. Mixed relationships are inevitably actually quite common, but are often viewed with suspicion or distate by *both* Humans and Felinids for different reasons.  
+
+The children of mixed parents predominantly present Felinid genetics quite strongly but more rarely can result in children who have either the iconic ears or tail but not *both*, or every so often a child which is indistinguishable from a "baseline" Human but who still carries latent Felinid genetics.  
+The idea that someone could *appear* to be totally human but produce "surprise" children with their grandparents' ears and a tail is often drawn upon in modern soap operas and entertainments as a source of cheap drama, despite the fact that actual cases of this have been few and far between.