Ascended pregnancies

[Sehnea]

Ok folks, here's one for arguments sake.

Can Ascended have children or not? I know Trion specifically states there will be no CROSSBREEDING but where in lore does it say that two eth, two kelari or two elves can have a child post ascension? They allowed marriages in game. They even allowed (no offense) same sex marriages. So Can we not have children? Granted we were not ascended to raise a family but to defend Telara. But Why not? Even our role play add on (Thank you Merisloux) allows us to check ERP. (Not that I really *coughs* um nm)...

SO WHY NOT?

Discussions here please I really want to know people's ideas on this.

[Netherstorm]

A side tangent, if you don't mind: Why are there no children anywhere in Rift? Are there no children or teens or young ones left in all of Telara?! That seems pretty grim indeed..we save the world only to realize that we have no next generation to give it to. Where is this next generation?! Where are the children of Telara? I see dozens of villages, towns, cities, outposts, random houses! But no young ones! I've always found that rather...odd...someone sacrificing them to the God of Harvest for good crops in the fall or something? Must know!
Also....would be cute but rather impractical if we could have our own children! lol

[Maeloda]

A side tangent, if you don't mind: Why are there no children anywhere in Rift? Are there no children or teens or young ones left in all of Telara?! That seems pretty grim indeed..we save the world only to realize that we have no next generation to give it to. Where is this next generation?! Where are the children of Telara? I see dozens of villages, towns, cities, outposts, random houses! But no young ones! I've always found that rather...odd...someone sacrificing them to the God of Harvest for good crops in the fall or something? Must know!
Also....would be cute but rather impractical if we could have our own children! lol

Rift missed the boat with this. I remember us asking them (in person) directly about children NPCs in Rift, and now... 1.5 years later, no word of it. It's a big immersion breaker, day after day.

You wanna 'save Telara'? MAKE SURE THERE ARE CHILDREN TO DO THAT. Otherwise everyone just dies. Grats, Ascended.

[Lighteyes]

the no children NPCs has to do with game ratings. Any time you have a game where anything bad can happen to a kid, near a kid, within earshot of a kid, on the same playfield as a kid your game rating goes up.


For pregnancies... well, we know Ascended have organs (they stole your kidney), so they would have gonads and the drive to use em. The real question is how being dead, and frequently re-dying, affects ones fertility.

Now for female Ascended the odds of staying fertile are quite lower due to the resurrection. While the mother is Ascended, the child is not. When the mother's body is "reset" on rez, there is every indication that previous changes are lost (you do not maintain buffs/debuffs through death) so the "preggers buff" would be lost. The only possible way would be to not die for 9 months. However you still have the same problem as the males...

Male Ascended, like all Ascended, spent time in the soulstream. That is quite literally the "land of the dead". Given the sensitivity of their bits, that exposure to death energy could NOT have done them any favours. It might be possible to counter that with a very controlled dose of life energy... course we all know how that can end up if it goes awry.

If anything, I would see male Ascended/female mortal to be the only likely way an Ascended could reproduce.

[the_real_seebs]

I think this is a Pregnant Ranma Problem.

Random Fanboy: What would happen if Ranma got pregnant as a girl, then changed back to a boy?
Rumiko Takahashi: I don't think about that, and neither should you.

My guess is, the question is moot because you'll never see an ascended make it nine months without dying.

[Myuriel]

This discussion has been brought up before on the forums. People generally fall within two mindsets. I can only speak from the Guardian point of view (having never played Defiant) and what my guild believes from the lore currently offered (or lacking).

- As it is, in all the hundreds of quests in the game, there's never a reference to a pregnant Ascended. You have war, and jealousy, love, and marriage, werewolves and vampires, planar beings, and faeries, but pregnancy or offspring never make it into the mix.

- Ascended were brought back to be the Vigil's warriors, to fight against the Bloodstorm. That is their sole purpose right now, and that would be difficult to accomplish if you were pregnant, or saddled in an abode with six squallering babes and had to spend your days working in Silverwood polishing college silverware to feed your family.

- Ascended die, all the time. It's expected of them to die, and they get brought back by the Vigil's grace to fight the good fight again. This would be an extremely unlikely scenario for a viable pregnancy.

- There are still mortals in the world. It doesn't make logical sense for the Vigil to bring this dead army back to life, instill within them phenomenal super powers, then allow them to breed at will. This would essentially overtake Telara with a new 'master race' of people. According to lore, we are beings of necessity to combat the Bloodstorm's evil, not repopulate Telara with our Ascended offspring.

Beyond lore, my biggest question about this storyline always becomes:

What do people plan to do when the baby is 'born'? Will it magically be an adult and someone will roll up an alt to play it? Will you pretend to hold a screaming baby in the Quill and breastfeed in the middle of Greenscale's den? Will you hire a nanny (ICly, taking someone away from the war effort) to take care of your kid while you're off saving the world, essentially keeping the unseen prop off-screen?

Some people are okay with this type of roleplay, and others find it asks to much to suspend disbelief to this degree. The awesome thing about roleplay in large games like this, is you can generally find people who play to your style. If you want to roleplay pregnant, I'm sure there are people who could argue from the other point of view and welcome the scenario.

I urge you to research the conversations in the other threads on this, as there were some good arguments for and against. For my guild, our stance is that we don't allow Pregnancy scenarios because we feel it doesn't fit with the provided lore. If ever this is clarified by questline or Lore Dev comments, we will reconsider it.

[Maeloda]

the no children NPCs has to do with game ratings. Any time you have a game where anything bad can happen to a kid, near a kid, within earshot of a kid, on the same playfield as a kid your game rating goes up.


For pregnancies... well, we know Ascended have organs (they stole your kidney), so they would have gonads and the drive to use em. The real question is how being dead, and frequently re-dying, affects ones fertility.

Now for female Ascended the odds of staying fertile are quite lower due to the resurrection. While the mother is Ascended, the child is not. When the mother's body is "reset" on rez, there is every indication that previous changes are lost (you do not maintain buffs/debuffs through death) so the "preggers buff" would be lost. The only possible way would be to not die for 9 months. However you still have the same problem as the males...

Male Ascended, like all Ascended, spent time in the soulstream. That is quite literally the "land of the dead". Given the sensitivity of their bits, that exposure to death energy could NOT have done them any favours. It might be possible to counter that with a very controlled dose of life energy... course we all know how that can end up if it goes awry.

If anything, I would see male Ascended/female mortal to be the only likely way an Ascended could reproduce.

Then why does WoW get to have children NPCs?

Just put them in a relatively safe place (let's say only Whitefall in IPP, and Three Springs in Moonshade, and the middle of Sanctum and Argent Glade etc), and IF any danger comes, don't make them aggro the enemy, but rather run away from the danger and 'stealth despawn' until the danger has passed.

Boom.


Oh and I don't think Ascended can have children, or if they can, it would have to be by a special process. I think they can be sexually active, but they cannot impregnate.

[aux]

Let's see

Nope.

[Feine]

Last time this was discussed, in this thread, the conclusions were:

1) Official lore is inconclusive on the question of whether or not Ascended can have children.

2) If Ascended could have children, the children would not themselves be Ascended (because being Ascended is to do with your soul(s) and not with your genetics).

For pregnancies... well, we know Ascended have organs (they stole your kidney), so they would have gonads and the drive to use em. The real question is how being dead, and frequently re-dying, affects ones fertility.

Now for female Ascended the odds of staying fertile are quite lower due to the resurrection. While the mother is Ascended, the child is not. When the mother's body is "reset" on rez, there is every indication that previous changes are lost (you do not maintain buffs/debuffs through death) so the "preggers buff" would be lost. The only possible way would be to not die for 9 months. However you still have the same problem as the males...

Male Ascended, like all Ascended, spent time in the soulstream. That is quite literally the "land of the dead". Given the sensitivity of their bits, that exposure to death energy could NOT have done them any favours. It might be possible to counter that with a very controlled dose of life energy... course we all know how that can end up if it goes awry.

But, it was your soul that spent time in the soulstream and not your body. Your body was created anew when you were resurrected (at least as a Defiant; the process for Guardians is more vague), and is generally said to be physically perfect. Given that, I don't personally see why Ascended shouldn't be fertile.

But the "not dying for 9 (or however long for your race) months" is likely to be the biggest obstacle, given an Ascended's typical line of work.

[Annalea]

I've always gone under the assumption that Ascended cannot, by default, have children for reasons quoted above!

However, in a world where magic can bring back the dead... I don't see why there wouldn't be a spell that could bring back the... uh... vitality to certain bits and pieces.

[Hotter]

The only thing good that will come out of ascended pregnancies is Jerry.

Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!

Jerry: Let's take a look at Sybil. She lives with her boyfriend and his brother. She just had a baby. What the boyfriend doesn't know is...

Jerry: Dante, say hello to your little brother...

[Xenoheart]

Got a better question...what if my female charactor was pregnant (and perhaps didn't know it?) when she died and was ascended?

My guess...the ascended fetus will stay a fetus forever...or in jars in meridian...

[Merridwyn]

I don't want my toon to get saggy breasts and stretchmarks. If we could get pregnant, I'd like the option of contraception please.

Also - the preggers buff. Hahahaha. Love it. The "up-the-duff buff". Fantastic.

[Pixel Monkey]

Philip J. Fry went back in time and did the nasty ...now hes his own great great great grandfather

[Kadeth]

I would love to see pregnancies IF and only IF we get player housing. Then make it say 2-3 days the female is pregnant and, she gets the pregnancy buff, making her impossible to attack, and disabling all combat abilities as well. She can craft, gather, fish, even mine but cannot kill anything nor can she be killed while pregnant.

Perfect for the players that want to play as a family, the child would eventually grow up to be a non combatant NPC (grew up and got a job). If this is done, there also needs to be adoption or fostering of children for same sex couples in which one of the pair would endure the same 2-3 day no combat buff/restriction upon adopting a child.