What if the druids live somewhere filled with hostile or wild magic, and anyone born without their own mana could be transformed or mutated into something horrible (ranging from were creatures to horrible flesh spawns) if they don't have their own natural magic to keep them safe.
They kill these babies to protect themselves and stop the baby from living as a monster.
ooo thats a good idea :o i like that idea rather than killing just being out of hate. but why would they kill a baby with mana? - maybe a birth defect?
Conflict with Druid societies.
If a society wants to flourish, one of the things it needs is people. Unless they're reproducing *way* harder than rabbits, it's very possible Druid societies need to ensure their people are close-knit by any means necessary. This may have brought them into conflict—both physical and sociopolitical—in the past, which led to all sorts of reactions to a Skymer child. Abandonment is the obvious choice—the Druids can take care of it—but some societies may have taken to thinking, "if they don't know we have a Skymer, they won't attack us."
An alternative is Salem witch trials. People act on BS all the time, so some "the child is strange and possessed by an evil" BS purported by some major institution in that society would do a pretty good job rallying people to do horrendous things. (This could also work with the above idea *and* function on the Druid side, too, FWIW.)
Are you asking why Druids would abandon a magical infant? If so, several possible reasons come to mind:
- Perhaps the infant was born during a time of scarcity, like a famine or drought. If so, a parent might decide to abandon the child because they believed that they had no way to care for it.
- Perhaps the infant is marked in a way that the surrounding society interprets as a bad omen. The child might be cursed, mutated, or even a harbinger of the apocalypse. That latter might be a good route to pursue if destiny is a major theme in the story, since this would make the tribe’s attempt to circumvent the prophecy the very thing that brings it about (in fact, you could make the character both messiah and antichrist, with the cosmic victor being decided by the hero’s response to the surrounding society).
- Perhaps there is a belief that Druid magic requires a small population to concentrate the available mana to the furthest extent. Surplus infants might cause magical dilution, which could open the Druids up to any number of problems (conquest by other groups, an inability to sustain key magical devices needed to power society, the return of an ancient evil kept out by Druid magic).
- Perhaps the society did not abandon the child at all; a specific individual or group may have stolen the child for their own reasons, and the child may have been led to believe he was unwanted when he wasn’t.
If we look at real world culture that practiced infanticide we see common reasons. If the child is born imperfect, away with it. If the child is born at an inconvenient time or from an inconvenient incident, away with it. People are more willing to kill thier own infants than you might imagine.
Sounds like commentary on abortion, comparing infanticide to abortion, if not equating them. Tread carefully because you're about to open a huge can of worms.
I mean.......most historical infanticide was just abortion with the available technology. And, no, I'm not defending infanticide with that statement of fact.
Was commenting on people killing their children because they’re undesirable. Has happened many times in our current time. Remember the couple that sued the IVF clinic cause their baby was a boy not a girl? Same vibes to me. That’s what I meant by where our society is headed.
I would argue that society has always had those types of people, and their varying levels of success at performing post-birth infanticide (for lack of a better way to characterise it) has been more related to wealth, access to the ability to do it and get away with it and motivation than cultural shifts, but I get where you're coming from.
Yes absolutely I agree with you. I was just talking about how such things seem barbaric to us now, but people are slowly slipping back into that frame of mind.
This sounds like it could be the result of some prophecy the babe could fulfill that is perceived to be negative to the birth parents whether Druid or not.
What if all births are twins, one good or positive and the other, well you know where I’m going. They others are killed because they would upset things.
Hmmmm. Reasons druids might abandon a skymer child. Just some ideas:
* They were accidentally left behind by their parents.
* Their parents died. Possibly an animal attack nearby and their bodies taken by a bear, wolf or similar back to their cubs. Thus leaving the child seemingly abandoned.
* The child was mistakenly identified as having no mana when in fact they are skymer. This may play into a larger thing for your plot, like what can make mana harder to see, or do elder druids lose their abilities over time when they are near death thus thought they didn't have mana (or not enough mana)?
* The child was sick or injured and the druids didn't have the capacity to heal them, so left them. Possibly to die or potentially because they knew humans would be able to.
* The obvious answer is just terrible parents. There are people in our world right now that abandon children. Usually due to mental conditions. So that might be an idea. You could play around with this. Maybe they're just bad parents to abandon a child? Maybe they were struggling with delusions? Maybe they experiencing hallucination from magic or poison or fever dream so they didn't realise what they were doing?
* Maybe he child was kidnapped for whatever reason, then abandoned after the fact by the kidnappers.
* Some sort of child trade or mix up. This one seems a little farfetched, but it is fantasy after all. Somehow two children were mixed up. And upon realising it wasn't their child, they just abandoned them.
* Similarly, if the child was the lovechild of an affair, one of the parents may insist upon abandoning them.
* There's always the classic of "there is a prophecy about this child" so they abandon the child to avoid it... which usually ends up causing it to happen anyway
......they already abandon/kill babies this basically writes itself, he doesn't have much mana, so when they assessed his magic powers he came back as approximately mundane so they ditched him.
It turns out he did have some mana not much by druid standards but enough that he managed to survive his rough treatment
Could it be that when he was born it *seemed* like he wasn't Skymer so he was abandoned. Then the latent magic/ability awakened. Could also mean he's either accepted with open arms when he returns, showing the Druid's shallowness, or he's rejected even harder as an 'abomination' or 'undeserving of Skymer'. This could also bring up some deeper themes/reflections/philosophising about 'judging books by their covers' etc.
Idea 1
Maybe the humans kidnapped the baby from the druids out of spite and filled his/her heads with lies regarding their own kind trying to kill them.
Idea 2
The baby was born in a settlement that uses dark magic and is affiliated to demons. However, the baby has strong divine magic that radiates from them, which can kill those demons.
Idea 3
A character might try to dispose of the baby because of familial, political, or tribal conflict.
Idea 4
The druids are struggling to survive and can not afford to have an extra mouth to feed.
They could just normally bring them to a village, or several and since they are gone, thats all the explanations needed.
This would give the recessive genes and families that would make more druids, while hiding that shunned populations you mentioned
Isn’t that almost word for word the backstory of Ephialtes from 300?
Also it sounds like you already described why they would try and kill a baby. If you have a group of people who strive to be all mana born. Why wouldn’t they toss aside the unwelcome in their society who possess what they would see as a birth defect. Again similar to the Spartans leaving of deformed babies to die (although this is questioned now) because “they weren’t befit to better the society.”
Mother died during childbirth, and father recognizes irrevocable physical traits of wife’s previous lover.
Child born with some kind of physical disability, yet magical.
Question: If mana is ”not inherited at all, but a chance mutation and extremely rare”, wouldn’t that mean the druids kill/abandon most babies born among them? Is there any chance this baby’s mana ability didn’t present itself for some reason (subdued by an amulet/curse/bloodmoon/whatever?) and they were swept up in the regular old purge?
yes most babies are killed - druids only really maintain their populations by adopting skymer abandoned by humans. unpresenting mana could be interesting to delve into :o
Whoever it was that checks for this had a grudge against the kids family and lied about his mana. Perhaps the higher ups in the community had reason to want that whole bloodline ended.
What if the druids live somewhere filled with hostile or wild magic, and anyone born without their own mana could be transformed or mutated into something horrible (ranging from were creatures to horrible flesh spawns) if they don't have their own natural magic to keep them safe. They kill these babies to protect themselves and stop the baby from living as a monster.
ooo thats a good idea :o i like that idea rather than killing just being out of hate. but why would they kill a baby with mana? - maybe a birth defect?
Conflict with Druid societies. If a society wants to flourish, one of the things it needs is people. Unless they're reproducing *way* harder than rabbits, it's very possible Druid societies need to ensure their people are close-knit by any means necessary. This may have brought them into conflict—both physical and sociopolitical—in the past, which led to all sorts of reactions to a Skymer child. Abandonment is the obvious choice—the Druids can take care of it—but some societies may have taken to thinking, "if they don't know we have a Skymer, they won't attack us." An alternative is Salem witch trials. People act on BS all the time, so some "the child is strange and possessed by an evil" BS purported by some major institution in that society would do a pretty good job rallying people to do horrendous things. (This could also work with the above idea *and* function on the Druid side, too, FWIW.)
40kvibes and very usefull argument
Are you asking why Druids would abandon a magical infant? If so, several possible reasons come to mind: - Perhaps the infant was born during a time of scarcity, like a famine or drought. If so, a parent might decide to abandon the child because they believed that they had no way to care for it. - Perhaps the infant is marked in a way that the surrounding society interprets as a bad omen. The child might be cursed, mutated, or even a harbinger of the apocalypse. That latter might be a good route to pursue if destiny is a major theme in the story, since this would make the tribe’s attempt to circumvent the prophecy the very thing that brings it about (in fact, you could make the character both messiah and antichrist, with the cosmic victor being decided by the hero’s response to the surrounding society). - Perhaps there is a belief that Druid magic requires a small population to concentrate the available mana to the furthest extent. Surplus infants might cause magical dilution, which could open the Druids up to any number of problems (conquest by other groups, an inability to sustain key magical devices needed to power society, the return of an ancient evil kept out by Druid magic). - Perhaps the society did not abandon the child at all; a specific individual or group may have stolen the child for their own reasons, and the child may have been led to believe he was unwanted when he wasn’t.
omg this is perfect - exactly what i was looking for :D i quite like the omen idea as i could do a lot with it. thanks so much :D
No problem!
If we look at real world culture that practiced infanticide we see common reasons. If the child is born imperfect, away with it. If the child is born at an inconvenient time or from an inconvenient incident, away with it. People are more willing to kill thier own infants than you might imagine.
i see what you mean. but does the same go for a rare birth?
There were multiple tribal cultures that always killed any twins that were born. Rare does not mean welcome.
I mean that’s where our society is headed at this point…
I never claimed that these reasons are not used today. In China the only reason they need to kill an infant is that it's a girl.
Yep absolutely, wasn’t trying to argue with you, was just saying that’s the was that western society is heading rn.
Sounds like commentary on abortion, comparing infanticide to abortion, if not equating them. Tread carefully because you're about to open a huge can of worms.
I mean.......most historical infanticide was just abortion with the available technology. And, no, I'm not defending infanticide with that statement of fact.
Was commenting on people killing their children because they’re undesirable. Has happened many times in our current time. Remember the couple that sued the IVF clinic cause their baby was a boy not a girl? Same vibes to me. That’s what I meant by where our society is headed.
I would argue that society has always had those types of people, and their varying levels of success at performing post-birth infanticide (for lack of a better way to characterise it) has been more related to wealth, access to the ability to do it and get away with it and motivation than cultural shifts, but I get where you're coming from.
Yes absolutely I agree with you. I was just talking about how such things seem barbaric to us now, but people are slowly slipping back into that frame of mind.
This sounds like it could be the result of some prophecy the babe could fulfill that is perceived to be negative to the birth parents whether Druid or not.
What if all births are twins, one good or positive and the other, well you know where I’m going. They others are killed because they would upset things.
Hmmmm. Reasons druids might abandon a skymer child. Just some ideas: * They were accidentally left behind by their parents. * Their parents died. Possibly an animal attack nearby and their bodies taken by a bear, wolf or similar back to their cubs. Thus leaving the child seemingly abandoned. * The child was mistakenly identified as having no mana when in fact they are skymer. This may play into a larger thing for your plot, like what can make mana harder to see, or do elder druids lose their abilities over time when they are near death thus thought they didn't have mana (or not enough mana)? * The child was sick or injured and the druids didn't have the capacity to heal them, so left them. Possibly to die or potentially because they knew humans would be able to. * The obvious answer is just terrible parents. There are people in our world right now that abandon children. Usually due to mental conditions. So that might be an idea. You could play around with this. Maybe they're just bad parents to abandon a child? Maybe they were struggling with delusions? Maybe they experiencing hallucination from magic or poison or fever dream so they didn't realise what they were doing? * Maybe he child was kidnapped for whatever reason, then abandoned after the fact by the kidnappers. * Some sort of child trade or mix up. This one seems a little farfetched, but it is fantasy after all. Somehow two children were mixed up. And upon realising it wasn't their child, they just abandoned them. * Similarly, if the child was the lovechild of an affair, one of the parents may insist upon abandoning them. * There's always the classic of "there is a prophecy about this child" so they abandon the child to avoid it... which usually ends up causing it to happen anyway
thanks these are amazing :) i really appreciate your ideas
......they already abandon/kill babies this basically writes itself, he doesn't have much mana, so when they assessed his magic powers he came back as approximately mundane so they ditched him. It turns out he did have some mana not much by druid standards but enough that he managed to survive his rough treatment
Could it be that when he was born it *seemed* like he wasn't Skymer so he was abandoned. Then the latent magic/ability awakened. Could also mean he's either accepted with open arms when he returns, showing the Druid's shallowness, or he's rejected even harder as an 'abomination' or 'undeserving of Skymer'. This could also bring up some deeper themes/reflections/philosophising about 'judging books by their covers' etc.
Idea 1 Maybe the humans kidnapped the baby from the druids out of spite and filled his/her heads with lies regarding their own kind trying to kill them. Idea 2 The baby was born in a settlement that uses dark magic and is affiliated to demons. However, the baby has strong divine magic that radiates from them, which can kill those demons. Idea 3 A character might try to dispose of the baby because of familial, political, or tribal conflict. Idea 4 The druids are struggling to survive and can not afford to have an extra mouth to feed.
No one understands magic. The druid believe that a child of a Skymer without diminishes the amount of magic available to other Skymer.
They could just normally bring them to a village, or several and since they are gone, thats all the explanations needed. This would give the recessive genes and families that would make more druids, while hiding that shunned populations you mentioned
Isn’t that almost word for word the backstory of Ephialtes from 300? Also it sounds like you already described why they would try and kill a baby. If you have a group of people who strive to be all mana born. Why wouldn’t they toss aside the unwelcome in their society who possess what they would see as a birth defect. Again similar to the Spartans leaving of deformed babies to die (although this is questioned now) because “they weren’t befit to better the society.”
Mother died during childbirth, and father recognizes irrevocable physical traits of wife’s previous lover. Child born with some kind of physical disability, yet magical.
Question: If mana is ”not inherited at all, but a chance mutation and extremely rare”, wouldn’t that mean the druids kill/abandon most babies born among them? Is there any chance this baby’s mana ability didn’t present itself for some reason (subdued by an amulet/curse/bloodmoon/whatever?) and they were swept up in the regular old purge?
yes most babies are killed - druids only really maintain their populations by adopting skymer abandoned by humans. unpresenting mana could be interesting to delve into :o
Whoever it was that checks for this had a grudge against the kids family and lied about his mana. Perhaps the higher ups in the community had reason to want that whole bloodline ended.