Mrrlyn out and about doing stuff

[SolCannibal]

Just to play devil's advocate here... since Merlin / Gwen / LOTL are all presumably re-animated HUMAN corpses, who's to say they are rendered infertile? Empowered resurrected humans may still be capable of reproducing with non-powered non-resurrected humans.

Considering they have been modified could go either in favor or against it - the books tend to err on the side of less mix-up, but then True Atlanteans might count as modified humans too and i don't remember how compatible with mainstream humanity they still are or not. Up to the GM preferences all along i guess.

[Axelmania]

There are spells like Giant which can temporarily make people into MDC, doesn't say anything about that causing miscarriage so I figure fertility stays same unless told otherwise.

[dreicunan]

There are spells like Giant which can temporarily make people into MDC, doesn't say anything about that causing miscarriage so I figure fertility stays same unless told otherwise.

That's a complete non sequitur. Turning a living being being MDC, temporarily or otherwise, doesn't give any guidance at all about the fertility of a reanimated corpse, sdc or mdc.

[SolCannibal]

There are spells like Giant which can temporarily make people into MDC, doesn't say anything about that causing miscarriage so I figure fertility stays same unless told otherwise.

That's a complete non sequitur. Turning a living being being MDC, temporarily or otherwise, doesn't give any guidance at all about the fertility of a reanimated corpse, sdc or mdc.

Yes, must agree there's at least a scale problem in trying such a vis-a-vis correlation.

Now speaking of Zazshan's hosts like Mrrlyn, Guinevere and the Lady of the Lake, it might be more precise to say reanimated corpses are source materials, as going by description, they become living beings once more, as in their modified state they breath, eat, sleep and age like most living organisms (though at a much diminished rate). What in itself doesn't speak, in favor or against, fecundity with other hosts or unmodified humans, but does open a room for the possibility of this and other biological processes.

[Axelmania]

There are spells like Giant which can temporarily make people into MDC, doesn't say anything about that causing miscarriage so I figure fertility stays same unless told otherwise.

That's a complete non sequitur. Turning a living being being MDC, temporarily or otherwise, doesn't give any guidance at all about the fertility of a reanimated corpse, sdc or mdc.

Reanimated, or resurrected? Do you think people brought back by priestly resurrection are infertile?

[SolCannibal]

There are spells like Giant which can temporarily make people into MDC, doesn't say anything about that causing miscarriage so I figure fertility stays same unless told otherwise.

That's a complete non sequitur. Turning a living being being MDC, temporarily or otherwise, doesn't give any guidance at all about the fertility of a reanimated corpse, sdc or mdc.

Reanimated, or resurrected? Do you think people brought back by priestly resurrection are infertile?

Most definitely not the case here. Ressurected people are not altered into MDC beings with different rates of hunger, thirst, sleep and aging, nor their souls replaced by an AI's essence fragment. Whole different animal here.

[dreicunan]

There are spells like Giant which can temporarily make people into MDC, doesn't say anything about that causing miscarriage so I figure fertility stays same unless told otherwise.

That's a complete non sequitur. Turning a living being being MDC, temporarily or otherwise, doesn't give any guidance at all about the fertility of a reanimated corpse, sdc or mdc.

Reanimated, or resurrected? Do you think people brought back by priestly resurrection are infertile?

Most definitely not the case here. Ressurected people are not altered into MDC beings with different rates of hunger, thirst, sleep and aging, nor their souls replaced by an AI's essence fragment. Whole different animal here.

Exactly. See also that the term "reanimate" is used in WB 3, or that the corpse is referred to as a "once human body" (p. 89, for example).

[SolCannibal]

There are spells like Giant which can temporarily make people into MDC, doesn't say anything about that causing miscarriage so I figure fertility stays same unless told otherwise.

That's a complete non sequitur. Turning a living being being MDC, temporarily or otherwise, doesn't give any guidance at all about the fertility of a reanimated corpse, sdc or mdc.

Reanimated, or resurrected? Do you think people brought back by priestly resurrection are infertile?

Most definitely not the case here. Ressurected people are not altered into MDC beings with different rates of hunger, thirst, sleep and aging, nor their souls replaced by an AI's essence fragment. Whole different animal here.

Exactly. See also that the term "reanimate" is used in WB 3, or that the corpse is referred to as a "once human body" (p. 89, for example).

Yes, i agree the gist of the idea seems to be that the body has been transformed into something that while maybe looking so externally, is not the same anymore. That said, the reanimation is not simply raising that corpse as a "fresh" possessed undead: they breath, eat, drink, require sleep and age with time, though all at a diminished rates in relation to a human being. It's a new lifeform delivered by the infusion of a dead body with the transformative eletric consciousness of the Zlyphan essence fragment, something like a sort of supernatural Frankenstein's monster without the patchwork anatomy, so to speak.

[Axelmania]

We're definitely talking about more than just reanimated corpses. These aren't vampires or zombies, page 84 says "possess the physical shell of the recently deceased and bring the corpses back to life"

Once you bring a corpse back to life, it's not a corpse anymore.

It does also say "reanimated the body of a man named Merlin" so the confusion is understandable. In this sense, resurrection is a form of reanimation, it's like "reanimation plus" because you both reanimate it AND bring the body back to life.

Most definitely not the case here. Ressurected people are not altered into MDC beings with different rates of hunger, thirst, sleep and aging, nor their souls replaced by an AI's essence fragment. Whole different animal here.

Which of these criteria are you assuming creates infertility?

Psi-Stalkers, for example, also have different rates of hunger/thirst and can turn MDC as of RUE. Atlanteans have reduced aging rates. Sea Titans both turn MDC and have different rates of aging. Pact of Union Witches have AI essence fragments inhabiting them. None of these are explicitly infertile.

the term "reanimate" is used in WB 3, or that the corpse is referred to as a "once human body" (p. 89, for example).

"once human" also appears on 86 for Mrrlyn and 90 for Guinevere...

but interestingly, if we read the Natural Abilities for the Supreme Nexus Knights on page 93...

The human body does require the same nourishment as a normal human does, but at a reduced level, about half normal.

There is no "once" in this case, so the implication is that they are still human at least in the case of the lesser essences, albeit not "normal" humans (much like Psi-Stalkers are not normal humans).

So I guess one possibility is that Guinevere (as a major essence) cannot get pregnant because MAJOR essences are no longer human, but Supreme Nexus Knights can get pregnant because MINOR essences keep the bodies human.

So one possibility, if Zazshan wanted Guinevere to get pregnant, would be to voluntarily withdraw his major essence from the body and input a lesser/weaker essence into it, equivalent to a Supreme Nexus Knight.

It seems like the big 3 all have the same attributes except for PB and Spd, despite page 86 saying that only mental attributes are 25% lower than the AI and implying you would reroll all the physical. Perhaps and oversight? I would have expected to see some variation in PS/PE/PP for these 3 NPCs...

SNKs are 50% lower so using a lesser essence would lower Gwen's IQ/ME/MA in the least. SNKs are still higher IQ than Arthuu so I doubt he would notice, and if anyone did, you could try and chock it up to "hormones" from the pregnancy, or being "dumb in love" with Arthuu. I'm not really sure why SNKs have a fixed attribute pool, as the implication seems to be that you would roll physical attributes separately for each one. Perhaps it is possible for Zlyyphans to create fragments in "batches" which have the same stats?

SNKs actually have slightly better Spd than Gwen. For some reason they are all PB 9 like Merlin... if I was to inherit any attribute at all from the original host I would think it would be that one... since it is 3D6 just like humans normally are. My "out" here will be to assume that PB 9 refers to the faceplate of the demon armor

I can see why, while trying to take control of the nation and court, Zazshan would want to use a major essence for Gwen, but once Z has secured her position and she won't have to face many challenges directly, I think using a lesser fragment would work just fine. You could instead use a major essence to inhabit a bodyguard for her or nanny for her and Arthuu's children. All spells 1-15 at 5th level are still plenty to keep up her cover of being a 2nd level LLW.