Reproduction overview

This article describes, in plain language, the process of reproduction in C3 and DS.

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This is the story of two Norns, Fred and Esmerelda, and their offspring, Verne. Fred was approaching the end of his adolescence, and fast heading for Youth. He had a feeling that life was about to get interesting!

As Fred becomes a youth, his reproductive system wakes up. All of his reproductive genes lie dormant in his genome until this point, giving him time to grow up and explore the world before he settles down and becomes a father. But as soon as his internal clock counts down past Youth, several genes switch on inside his Gonad organ and he starts to emit testosterone. An emitter pumps out the testosterone, while a receptor monitors the level of the hormone. Fred is actually infertile at this stage despite being a Youth � he must emit enough testosterone to activate his fertility locus. Whenever this locus is inactive, Fred will emit testosterone; when the level of testosterone is high enough to turn on the locus, emission of testosterone will stop. This careful feedback loop will give Fred a slightly cyclic fertility.

Meanwhile, Fred�s genes are busy trying to prepare him for breeding. Until he is fertile, he is also emitting Libido lowerer � a regulatory hormone � that signals the fact that he is not yet ready to breed. This emitter tracks the state of the fertility locus; as soon as it is activated (that is, Fred becomes fertile) then the emission of Libido lowerer stops.

Fred, unconcerned with the state of his reproductive system, continues to look for apples. Meanwhile, in another part of the ship a small female Norn called Esmerelda is also in her Youth stage�.

Esmerelda is slightly older than Fred and is further down the road to fertility. As she approached her Youth, a larger number of genes inside her became active � she has two Organs that are involved in reproduction instead of just one; a Gonad that contains all of her fertility genes, and a Uterus that deals with the control of her future pregnancies.

As with Fred, the start of Youth means that hormones are suddenly emitted for the first time. She begins to emit the hormone Oestrogen and has a similar emitter and receptor feedback loop to control the level of the hormone in her system. At this point she is not fertile and so is busily emitting oestrogen. However, the level of oestrogen is fast approaching the threshold needed to activate her fertility locus and set in motion the next phase of her maturation.

She also emits Libido lowerer in the same way as Fred while she is still infertile. But any minute now, Esmerelda is going to become fertile�..

Esmerelda paused on her way through the Grendel jungle. She felt�odd. Something was happening�.and where was that smell coming from?

Her levels of oestrogen reach the threshold necessary to activate her fertility locus � she is now fertile! But this is just the first step on the road to having kids. As soon as her fertility locus turned on, she stopped emitting both oestrogen and libido lowerer. Now, an emitter reading from the new state of her fertility locus has begun to emit a new hormone called Arousal potential. This hormone waits in her system to react with another hormone to produce Sex drive as soon as she spots a suitable mate.

For the moment, she is on her own and so is entirely unconcerned with breeding. She goes to sleep instead. Fred has eaten as many apples as he can manage to find, and is now busy exploring the ship. What�s behind this door?

Fred is now also fertile � his level of testosterone has reached a threshold that has turned on his fertility locus. He has stopped emitting testosterone and libido lowerer and the latter has begun to decay out of his system. He walks into the jungle and stops � where is that smell coming from?

Both genders in Creatures 3 have the ability to recognise a member of the opposite sex rather than just �other Norns�. When they do this, a neurone in their brain fires � and this is turn is linked to an emitter. This emitter releases another hormone called Opposite Sex Pheromone, which reacts differently in males and females. In a fertile female, such as Esmerelda, it reacts with any Arousal potential (the hormone that signals her fertility) to produce Sex drive � a chemical drive, like hunger or fear, that she can make decisions and take actions to reduce.

Esmerelda wakes up suddenly and sees another Norn close to her. She recognises it as a male Norn, and in the process the relevant neurone in her brain fires. The emitter notices this and releases Opposite sex pheromone into her system. A reaction takes place and suddenly she is feeling very friendly indeed! What can she do abut this? An instinct in her brain tells her that if her Sex drive is high, then maybe she should push the other Norn, and so she gets up, walks across to Fred and gives him a push.

Fred at this moment is fertile and most of his Libido lowerer has left his system. However, although he can �smell� Esmerelda and so has Opposite sex pheromone in his system, being a male means he does not produce Arousal potential himself, and so he currently has no Sex drive. Despite this, he is interested in this new Norn as she approaches him. What�s this? She just tickled him!

A stimulus inside Fred reacts to being tickled by a pretty female Norn and injects a dose of Arousal potential into his system. Immediately this reacts with the Opposite sex pheromone already there and produces Sex drive. Now both Norns are ready to breed. Esmerelda is also now ready to become pregnant � her level of Sex drive has risen high enough to be picked up by a receptor and turn on another locus, making her receptive. This means that any mating attempt has a good chance of producing a baby Norn!

Fred feels like showing off, and so he starts to dance towards Esmerelda. She is standing there tapping her foot as well, and instinct tells them what to do. This time both of them are �feeling friendly� and instead of a tickle there is a kiss-pop � indicating a proper mating.

Immediately after this, another stimulus is sent to both of our courting Norns. The effect of this is to reduce their sex drive a bit � Norns can become a bit obsessed with each other � and inject a small amount of libido lowerer into their systems. This reacts with both sex drive and arousal potential to reduce them both, so that there is a small pause between matings to allow other pressing drives to be attended to. The stimulus also makes the Norns slightly tired; often they will sit down to have a rest or even a sleep after mating.

Inside Fred the libido lowerer has reduced the level of sex drive by a bit, but not enough. He is still �friendly� and continues to dance around Esmerelda. However, she doesn�t notice him at all � she has fallen sleep again. Eventually he gets fed up with trying to wake her up and stomps off to find some more food.

Esmerelda�s insides are in a riot of activity. She was fertile and receptive when she and Fred kiss-popped, and is now pregnant. Her pregnancy locus is activated, and so both her fertility and receptive loci are now turned off. A emitter tracking the activity of her pregnancy locus now begins to pump out the pregnancy hormone, progesterone. Another emitter tracking the same locus begins to emit a drive chemical � Comfort (or Home sickness). Because she is now classed as infertile again, she also begins to release oestrogen and libido lowerer back into her system.

As she sleeps, many things happen inside her. The libido lowerer she is releasing reacts with the last traces of Arousal potential and sex drive in her system, removing them utterly so that she no longer feels like kiss-popping. The progesterone she is emitting reacts with the oestrogen , keeping it at an extremely low level so that she cannot become fertile again just yet. Progesterone is emitted at a slightly faster rate than oestrogen, so it begins to build up in her system and the use of special sprites is triggered that make her belly look fatter to show her condition. The Comfort drive inside her also builds up while she sleeps�.

Suddenly she wakes up, feeling restless. She can feel the new weight of her egg developing inside her and an ancient instinct prompts her to return to the place she calls home to lay her egg in safety. She waddles towards the door.

On arriving back at her home, a stimulus reduces her restless feeling and she � now huge � can settle down with some food. As she is eating, her levels of progesterone continue to rise. Eventually a receptor picks up this activity and triggers an involuntary action, which queues up in her brain with all of the other actions she has decided to perform. She�ll carry it out when she isn�t concentrating on something else � like food!

Eventually, licking her lips, Esmerelda sets off to find something to do. She stops, looks intent and then crouches down. After a few seconds, she stands up again, beaming with pride � with her new egg next to her! A stimulus is triggered by the laying of her egg and injects her with a bit of pain and tiredness � just like any other mother who has just given birth.

As she wanders off to find a lift to play in, chemicals inside her are extremely busy adjusting to her new condition. As soon as she had laid her egg, her pregnancy locus was switched off. Now all three of her loci are inactive, and she has to start her fertility cycle from scratch again. One emitter pumps out oestrogen, another pumps out libido lowerer. A receptor sits there watching the level of oestrogen carefully, waiting to turn her fertility locus on again � and then to go looking for Fred!

As she waddles off into the distance, her egg is left behind. Strange noises come from it and it rocks gently on its base. Suddenly a cracking noise is heard � and out pops a baby Norn. It�s a little boy called Verne�..

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