Saturday, October 6, 2007

Physics, Dammit
This just in! Tory has run out of room on her reference book shelf! Oh god, why?! She still has four more books that need to go in there!!
I have a lot of reference material. =_= Mostly dictionaries and HTDM books, but also some books on Japan that Yuki brought, some art books, some D&D guidebooks, and an assortment of books on various things: mythology, equines, general writing--oh, and two Bibles, which I haven't opened in like a year or two.

Sooo, last night I got to thinking about Twelve Kingdoms. I like thinking about Twelve Kingdoms. But there are some big questions in my mind that have not yet been answered. No, not the fate of the black kirin; we'll find out once that book is translated anyway. No, I like to ponder logistics, how things work, so I've been pondering the system of childbirth. In the world of TK, children are born from ranka (eggfruit) from a special tree, in the spot where a couple has tied their ribbon, a wish for a child. Because there is some transfer between TK and Hourai (Japan, etc.) because of shoku (particular storms), their is the possibility of ranka being blown into Hourai, where they become implanted in a mother's womb and the child is born normally as a taika.

SO, all this having been said, here are my questions. Please feel free to make suggestions to further my pondering.
-The big one: If women in the TK don't have to give birth, do they have wombs?
-Following from that: If the men don't have to fertilize any egg, do they produce sperm? If not, how do they ejaculate (because it is known that there certainly is sex)?
-Slightly less awkward: When a taika is born, does the metaphorical "shell" that affects their appearance in Hourai also provide them with reproductive organs?
-If not, wouldn't a taika notice if they didn't? Not getting her period, not going through puberty (for guys), not being able to conceive, and of course, if a doctor ever takes a look inside and finds a big empty space.
-If a woman doesn't have to get pregnant to have a child, how does her body know when to lactate?
-I seem to recall that the metaphorical shell of a taika wears off as they get older. If this is the case, what would happen to a hanjuu (half-beast) with no shell in Hourai? Would they just stay in human form all the time automatically?
-One of the best questions: About this ranka being planted in a mother's womb. Does the mother have to already be pregnant? If so, what happens to the other kid(s)? If not, would this cause apparently immaculate conceptions? Was Jesus a taika?!
-If a female kaikyaku (someone from Hourai blown to TK) gets her period, does anyone in TK find it odd? Would she be able to get pregnant from a native man (see sperm question)?
-Since youma (monsters) are also born from eggruit, do these ever get blown into Hourai? Does this explain Nessie, Bigfoot, etc.?

Umm, those were more awkward than I thought, lol. Oh well. I do like to ponder. And since this is one of the least-explained phenomena in Twelve Kingdoms, there's a lot to wonder about. Maybe there's more to find out in the books. :3
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