Eridian reproduction & child development
Eridians have a reproduction cycle of one egg around every 7 days. If extremely stressed or very severely ill/malnourished, Eridians will stop producing eggs altogether until their health stabilizes. Happened to my good friend Rocky.
Anywho, those eggs remain viable for another ~84 days (two eridian years.) If an Eridian chooses not to lay eggs the materials are reabsorbed by the body's worker cells.
Combined or 'fertilized' eggs (referred to as clutchlings) incubate for around 42 days, or around one Eridian year. This is an evolutionary trait so that eggs:
have enough time to make the little pebbles inside
will be laid and then born into times of abundance, consistent with the seasonal cycle.
Only the parents, their family-you-chose, and doctors are allowed to view the eggs during incubation & hatching.
The eggs will hatch within ~10 hours (or around two Eridian days) of each other, from the first pebble hatched to the last.
Eridian clutch size is typically two to five pebbles. They evolved to always lay at least two eggs at once, because it ensures the babies can protect each other during sleep. Eridians can, however, choose how many eggs they lay and they might choose to have a smaller clutch for all the same reasons humans choose to have smaller families or wait between having children.
Eridians don't really have birth control; if they want to have fun they can just separate the eggs from each other before they start melding together. What you do with them after that depends a lot on the culture; most commonly they are eaten.
Single-child clutches are uncommon, but known of. they are considered a great tragedy, and are almost always the result of fertility issues in modern day eridian society. Pebbles born in single-child clutches are more likely to have health issues, mental health disorders, and difficulty socializing.
6+ sized clutches have two cases.
Some eridians choose to combine eggs with multiple mates at once. this is VERY common. for example, three eridians may decide they all want to have children together. They want a big family, so they will each wait until they all have four eggs. they will then meld two each together, and now there are six babies. Please note that this is the simple example. Polycules are usually not straightforward like this. However, purposefully having more than 3 babies per parent in a singular clutch is illegal in most places. It's considered neglectful/child abuse. Those babies need love and care!! Also a lot of food!!!
The other case occurs when an embryo splits, like in human identical twins. Similar to single-child clutches, they're uncommon but a well known phenomenon. Because Eridians are already born in clutches, the word for identical multiples is something like 'born from the same egg' in terms of meaning.
Eridian twins, like humans, are typically smaller size than average, especially at birth. They're also more prone to health problems than the average Eridian because of the smaller resource pools inside the egg. Larger sets of multiples (ex: triplets) typically require specialized medical care prior to hatching, to ensure they have enough resources to form bodies.
From 0 to 60: Pebbles and their Development
Baby Eridians are VERY small compared to adults. Literally pebble sized, or ~strawberry sized. they come out of the egg able to walk (clumsily) and eat on their own, though they can't hunt yet. They're also born with their carapaces, though a newborn eridian's carapace is only about 0.5 cm thick, compared to a 5-6 cm thick adult's. The carapace's appearance and material is genetic. Multiple kinds of worker cells are involved, so shape, size, structure, and color can all be inherited from both parents.
In the first ~year or so pebbles are considered newborn. They eat Constantly, once every Eridian day (about five hours), and sleep the majority of the time between feedings. They use all that energy to grow very quickly in the span of a year, to about the size of an orange. Eridians also pick up language fairly quickly thanks to their eidetic memories; they will usually speak their first words within a few weeks to months.
At around the end of the first year, the clutch of newborn pebbles will get their family crest carved in. It's almost always a LITTLE scary for the pebbles in question, but it's an important cultural milestone.
For the first ~ten years, eridians are considered 'hatchlings.' after year one, their meal rate slows to ~once every human day, and they're essentially the equivalent of human toddlers. these years are when the majority of gross motor skill development and language acquisition happens. language develops in phases, from the simple words and phrases of a newborn, to 'hatchling grammar' that only uses one gas bladder (and is closest to what humans are able to imitate, vocally. unfortunately), and finally to complex sentences using all five gas bladders towards the end of the hatchling stage.
it's culturally acceptable to watch/assist hatchlings with eating. this is initially because a newborn has almost no energy to clean up after itself, only eat and sleep. afterwards, hatchlings don't always have the *best* fine motor skills when it comes to waste clean up and disposal. they need practice. this is basically the eridian version of changing diapers/potty training culturally, lmao.
During these years pebbles are also taught how to hunt. Around a third of the adult population is full-time hunters, but it's also a VERY common social activity across cultures (like sharing a meal is for humans.)
there's also an evolved parental instinct to teach hunting that's become a Societal Expectation across all eridian cultures, and not doing so is universally seen as *severely* neglectful and abusive.
Struggling to learn how to hunt is one of the major early signs of otherwise invisible disability in eridian children. Hunts can be very physically taxing and often exacerbate an existing physical disability to the point of noticeability for the first time, and it's considered the easiest of the first three mentally complex skills an eridian is expected to learn (the other two being language and waste cleanup.)
By the time they turn ten, an Eridian is around the size of a cantaloupe. give or take. There's LOTS of size variation. all gross motor skills are functional, and the pebble no longer needs constant parental support to survive and thrive.
Once they turn ten, the pebble is no longer considered a hatchling, and is allowed to pick a base for their chosen/'evolving' name if they want one. In most eridian cultures, they will also begin schooling at this age.
Mental, social, and fine motor skill development are all very similar to humans' from this point on; most of the basic skills are obtained during childhood, but there's no *exact* timeline to when those skills are gained, and Eridians continue developing them throughout their lives.
Physically, a pebble will continue to grow in size, gradually growing more slowly over time until they reach adulthood and their full size. A pebble's inner carapace grows to full thickness in layers, similar to rings on a tree, while the outer carapace remains as a protective layer and expands, like bark.
Eridian-to-Human Development Chart
Eridian children start to develop, socially and mentally, more rapidly at around the age of 30. Their years of experience begin to cumulate and they gain understanding more quickly/easily.
This is typically the age when Eridians start developing their own sense of self, identity, and greater purpose in the world, as well as begin to explore what they might want to do in the future. Thirty is also the age when the average Eridian finishes their 'general' schooling and can start choosing what classes they *want* to take.
Grace mainly teaches 30 to 40's! He's often a guest speaker for older pebbles or adults, but his consistent, daily classes are younger.
Eridians are considered adults at the age of ~sixty human years. at this age they stop increasing in size, have a full-thickness carapace, gain an adult's meal and sleep schedule, and are able to reproduce. The exact amount of time depends on the culture, eridian years are short enough that most of the common chosen 'age of majority' years can fit in like. four earth years.
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