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Pregnancy and Eorzea


Riven

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This just occurred to me, since I started to roleplay a healer who has had some midwife experience-how do you think pregnancy is handled in the realms?  Like do you think pregnant women are permitted to use the aethercite, or do you think the nobles of Ishgard would frown on breastfeeding and only permit wet-nurses and the like, etc etc.

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Honestly, I doubt lore precisely answers those questions, but they are interesting to speculate nonetheless...

 

I would however really doubt that would be sane to use aetherytes with another soul inside of you. Maybe not that it would be impossible and whatnot, but that sounds like complicating everything in the process tenfold...

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Pregnancy isn't really talked about in the game much, but we can assume that the average person likely isn't making use of the aetherytes due to limited amounts of anima. Between the strain of teleporting and the chance of aether sickness, it would probably be a bad idea in my opinion.

 

But! All living things are composed of aether. So I do think it would be possible, but of some comparable straight as teleporting a group of people.

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The child wouldn't be bal to channel or focus as them other could so expect severe problems if attempted.

 

Oh... oh god. Oh god think of it.

 

THE MOTHER TELEPORTS, BUT THE BABY DOESN'T.

 

IMAGINE A SOFT PLOPPING SOUND IN THE SAND.

 

Edit: Probably not what happens, because that is just horrific.

829.gif

I see. (GOOD GOD MAN WHY WHY DID YOU HAVE TO MENTION THIS NO NO GOD NO!)

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The child wouldn't be bal to channel or focus as them other could so expect severe problems if attempted.

 

Oh... oh god. Oh god think of it.

 

THE MOTHER TELEPORTS, BUT THE BABY DOESN'T.

 

IMAGINE A SOFT PLOPPING SOUND IN THE SAND.

 

Edit: Probably not what happens, because that is just horrific.

 

Thank you, I didn't want to keep my breakfast down in my stomach anyways this morning. :frustrated:

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The child wouldn't be bal to channel or focus as them other could so expect severe problems if attempted.

 

Oh... oh god. Oh god think of it.

 

THE MOTHER TELEPORTS, BUT THE BABY DOESN'T.

 

IMAGINE A SOFT PLOPPING SOUND IN THE SAND.

 

Edit: Probably not what happens, because that is just horrific.

Sweet gods :dazed: :frustrated:

 

GETTING AWAY FROM THAT AS FAST AS POSSIBLE... What about anything else?  My WoW paladin used to be a midwife, and Warcraft had a slightly medieval-ish setting-so would my old research into medieval medical practices and the like still be valid for applying to this toon?

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From chat this morning.

Note: none of this is based on lore!

Babies in Eorzea:

The physical act in Eorzea causes the aether of two beings to combine and make ripples in the global stream which are then sensed by the Primal Stork who forms new life out of digested souls and delivers a baby to the couple the following night.

 

The aetheric ripples are read by the Primal Stork like sheet music, and they determine the gender, physical attributes, and mentality of the child. The parents can vary the ripples in specific patterns by changing speeds, positions, sounds, etc. Be ware, though, for if the mating dance is interrupted you might wind up with half a baby.

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As others have mentioned, there's precious little lore on this that I'm aware of. I seem to recall some reference to wet nurses in an Ishgard quest, but I could just be making that up. :)

 

Beyond that, we know Eorzean technology and medical knowledge is fairly limited (outside of magic, which is largely the province of the rich, the educated, and adventurers), so I'd go with medieval period midwifery.

 

ICly, my character would recommend against a woman with child using teleportation magic, as such spells are based heavily on our understanding of the anima of the caster. What makes teleportation possible is the anima of the caster holding the soul together while the spell routes it through the lifestream to an aetheryte, which serves a beacon (sources: MSQ, 2.4 and 3.0). A baby adds an entirely new level of complexity to this, since there's no way to know if it has sufficient anima to teleport at all or if the mother's could shield it. Since we can't predict what would happen, safety is the better course of action.

 

Personally, I suspect that unless the mother had an incredible anima, teleportation would result in loss of the child in the swirling vortex of the lifestream.

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I don't know. Babies are pretty parasitic, especially early. They attach and feed like any other separate yet internal creature. If a person can show up on the other end of a teleportation spell with all of their fleas and worms and lice and biological entities separate from themselves that cause harm and/or keep them alive like intestinal bacterial colonies, they can probably show up with their baby. So then there's the question of whether teleportation works like a decontamination and every "life" separate from the teleporter is subsequently removed.

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The child wouldn't be bal to channel or focus as them other could so expect severe problems if attempted.

 

Oh... oh god. Oh god think of it.

 

THE MOTHER TELEPORTS, BUT THE BABY DOESN'T.

 

IMAGINE A SOFT PLOPPING SOUND IN THE SAND.

 

Edit: Probably not what happens, because that is just horrific.

 

>> Insert every Star Trek transporter plot <<

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Seriously.. make it up, have fun.

 

Having RPed pregnancy in the game it's okay as an extra aspect to your character. I took a few real months to progress it but it can be trouble to make it convincing rather than pregnant one day, babies the next and then on day 3 the teenager runs away.

 

As a witch I have also performed pregnancy tests, what sex is my baby tests, cures for morning sickness, and a few other things. So involve others that are happy to join in.

 

A word of warning, don't just play the pregnant lady.. still play your character.

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I don't know. Babies are pretty parasitic, especially early. They attach and feed like any other separate yet internal creature. If a person can show up on the other end of a teleportation spell with all of their fleas and worms and lice and biological entities separate from themselves that cause harm and/or keep them alive like intestinal bacterial colonies, they can probably show up with their baby. So then there's the question of whether teleportation works like a decontamination and every "life" separate from the teleporter is subsequently removed.

 

As far as we know, babies still have souls, even when they are very small. So, unlike lice or fleas, they have the added difficulty that when you travel the lifestream, their soul could be lost along the way, which would almost certainly lead to miscarriage.

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I don't know. Babies are pretty parasitic, especially early. They attach and feed like any other separate yet internal creature. If a person can show up on the other end of a teleportation spell with all of their fleas and worms and lice and biological entities separate from themselves that cause harm and/or keep them alive like intestinal bacterial colonies, they can probably show up with their baby. So then there's the question of whether teleportation works like a decontamination and every "life" separate from the teleporter is subsequently removed.

 

As far as we know, babies still have souls, even when they are very small. So, unlike lice or fleas, they have the added difficulty that when you travel the lifestream, their soul could be lost along the way, which would almost certainly lead to miscarriage.

 

That was my thought, too. You might end up with the soul being lost, even if the physical body hangs on for a time. That said, I don't think we really know enough about ensoulment in XIV for know for certain, so my thought is purely speculative. :) (L'yhta's IC advice would be based on "we don't know, so be safe, not sorry.")

 

"Life" is always a funny thing when talking about magic, too. While we know about (we think :) ) all the little creatures that live in and on us, magic doesn't necessarily care about them. They may come along for the ride by virtue of being "part" of the whole; or perhaps because they're lacking in souls (if they are -- or the caster believes they are) and so are Matter, like clothing, and not Life; or maybe they're part of the Life's Condition and so are a property of the caster, not independent creatures, for the purposes of the spell. tl;dr, I always caution people about applying our scientific principles to the practice of magic, even when we're talking about things like arcanima. :)

 

Now Allagan teleporters might be a different story. They seem to have some sort of aetheric matrix-based transport system (source: Azys Lla MSQ), so I suspect they would consider the mother and child one entity and purge any other contaminants, somewhat like a Star Trek transporter.

 

Unless they viewed the child as a contaminant.

 

And if you've done the side quests up there, would that be a surprise? :dodgy:

 

"Women who are pregnant, or may become pregnant, should not use aetheric transporter technology. Discontinue use immediately if you notice any of the following symptoms..."

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I don't know. Babies are pretty parasitic, especially early. They attach and feed like any other separate yet internal creature. If a person can show up on the other end of a teleportation spell with all of their fleas and worms and lice and biological entities separate from themselves that cause harm and/or keep them alive like intestinal bacterial colonies, they can probably show up with their baby. So then there's the question of whether teleportation works like a decontamination and every "life" separate from the teleporter is subsequently removed.

 

As far as we know, babies still have souls, even when they are very small.  So, unlike lice or fleas, they have the added difficulty that when you travel the lifestream, their soul could be lost along the way, which would almost certainly lead to miscarriage.

*holds up hand* This brings up another question.  What if you have a woman who's been using the teleport and she's in the extremely, extremely early stages of pregnancy?  As in say conception happened the night before...surely she's probably got what? A week's grace or two before problems could develop?  I think there might be instances of new mothers using the lifestream portal and then finding out 'oh, pregnant!'

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*holds up hand* This brings up another question.  What if you have a woman who's been using the teleport and she's in the extremely, extremely early stages of pregnancy?  As in say conception happened the night before...surely she's probably got what? A week's grace or two before problems could develop?  I think there might be instances of new mothers using the lifestream portal and then finding out 'oh, pregnant!'

 

That's one hell of a pregnancy test. :surprise:

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*holds up hand* This brings up another question.  What if you have a woman who's been using the teleport and she's in the extremely, extremely early stages of pregnancy?  As in say conception happened the night before...surely she's probably got what? A week's grace or two before problems could develop?  I think there might be instances of new mothers using the lifestream portal and then finding out 'oh, pregnant!'

 

That's one hell of a pregnancy test. :surprise:

Oh sweet Sophia I totally did not mean it that way! O_____O

Clarifying before this goes somewhere again!  Mother who had conception the previous night uses portal. Nothing happens.  Uses portal again in two days.  Nothing still happens.  Starts to feel unwell, goes to healer, finds out pregnant.  Ergo possibly banned from the portal usage.  See what I'm getting at?

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