Berose and the Fountain of Youth
Written onOver two months ago, Lauren politely asked me to take a look at one of her Norns who was a little different than the rest. Naturally, between my absence and forgetfulness, I needed another reminder! Again, I’d like to apologize to Lauren for the long wait, but fortunately, this has turned into a short case study! The subject this time around is Berose, a second generation female with a Bengal des Neiges and Magma Norn appearance. Her appearance was a pleasant surprise when I first imported her! Can you guess what is so interesting about her?
At over two hours old, Berose was still in the baby life stage! What makes this more interesting is that second generation Norns typically don’t have a lot of mutations, and many of these are usually minor. My initial thought was that the half life of her life chemical had been altered, so that it degraded slower and kept her in each life stage longer. It seemed plausible, but was it actually the answer?
After a quick analysis, which involved singling out the life chemical, I determined that nothing about this had changed. Indeed, if it had changed, it would have been significant: Berose was still a baby after two hours! If one looks long enough and has an idea of what to look for, things usually pop out. And in Gene Compare, I soon stumbled across the guilty gene. Take a look at the following, with Berose’s gene on top and the typical gene underneath.
Receptors
Chemical receptors define parameters for a certain chemical. When these parameters are met, an element in the Creature is affected. These genes can increase drives, define life stages, control fertility, and more.
188 Emb B MutDupCut Organ # = 10, Creature, Circulatory, Floating receptor/emitter 0, chem=Life, thresh=229, nom=119, gain=255, features=Inverted Digital
188 Emb B MutDupCut Organ # = 10, Creature, Somatic, Become a child, chem=Life, thresh=229, nom=119, gain=255, features=Inverted Digital
This is the exact gene which determines when a baby Norn becomes a child. In fact, there are similar genes associated with each life stage. Clearly, Berose has a problem with this gene, where it appears that a mutation caused the tissue and locus to be changed. Effectively, this gene will not function. Had the mutation changed the threshold or other value, Berose would have been able to mature through each life stage, only becoming a child at a slightly different point.
In this screenshot, the text version of the gene can better be understood in the Genetics Kit. I also was baffled as to what the locus of floating recep-emit 0 corresponded with. It took a little time, but I found out that it normally matched up with adipose tissue in gene 154! Adipose tissue is simply long-term fat storage, but it appears that Berose’s body also receives information from her level of life chemical. I have yet to delve very deep into Creatures 3/Docking Station genetics, so even I’m a little stumped as to what effect, if any, this will have on her adipose tissue receptor and emitter. Lauren mentioned that Berose had stopped eating, although it only took a little encouragement for her to stuff her mouth once she was imported! She mostly acted like a baby, concentrating on toys and ignoring the fact that her tummy was grumbling. Still, this mutation begged the question as to whether her poor eating habits could have been brought on by crossed signals internally in her body and brain.
Perhaps one question some may have is: Why won’t Berose move into the next life stages, since her life chemical is falling at a normal rate? At this age, she should be a full fledged adult. The answer lies with the individual genes for each life stage. Her mutated gene switches on at the embryo stage, and should move her forward to the child life stage. However, each successive gene switches on at a particular life stage, and not as an embryo. To become an adolescent, a Norn must first be a child. To become a youth, a Norn must first be an adolescent, and so on. This makes sense, since it might seem odd for a Norn to suddenly grow from a tiny baby into a large adult with nothing in between! The reason why this mutation still seems odd to me is because I’m accustomed to Creatures 1 genetics, where these life stage genes can not mutate. Imagine if the actual chemical was changed… A Norn could progress through the life stages only with a certain chemical! However, that could be an interesting set of genes: Only those who ate a certain something would be able to age and, therefore, reproduce. But that’s just a random tangent! It won’t be the last, though.
I found another gene with a similar issue in Berose, but since it would only switch on in the youth life stage, I omitted it. She will forever be a baby until she passes away, although dying from old age is only possible when a Norn has reached the senile life stage. Berose seems to have found the famed fountain of youth on a genetic level! She was a very happy Norn while I studied her, and absolutely loved playing with the toys around her like a typical baby. Who needs to get old? Berose could forever enjoy being young in mind and body!
I had a wolfing run norn with a similar issue.
Actually mutations in the receptors changing age are more common than mutations in Life’s half-life among slow-aging/unaging norns. Most fast-ager norns seem to develop by first losing the ability to age out of adulthood (or sometimes youth) and then getting born with no Life chemical or somehow losing it easily. Because they can’t age past a certain lifestage, they can survive with no Life chemical, and because they’re stuck in a breeding-capable lifestage, they pass these genes on and flood your world.
Wow… I remember a couple of attempted feral runs/breeding experiments that got ruined by norns that never aged just like Berose. At the time I had no clue why since I had no understanding at all of the genetics behind it. So I’m really glad to see a case study like this one. It gives me an idea of why it happened.
Oddly enough, I currently have a creature that is almost the opposite of Berose. When the creature hatched, he was already at a different life stage, that creature never was a baby. I still don’t know enough genetics to know what exactly is causing that. If you wanted to study that creature as a contrast to Berose, I can send him to you.
Ettina: Thanks for the great explanation and additional information. I’m still used to C1 with its relatively short list of genes. I’ve almost gotten used to certain mutations! That has to be quite annoying to end up with lots of Norns unable to move out of each life stage. I wonder if it was intentional to make these genes mutable, when they were constant in C1? They seem like the type of gene you wouldn’t want nature to mess around with!
Mea: I’d love to do a case study on your interesting creature! I’ve got some other things I’m working on at the moment, but I imagine I could get around to looking at him in detail in the next week or so. I’m hoping I can unravel the mystery… C3/DS genes sure are complicated! I like the challenge, though, and the comments section is usually filled with even more great information from around the community.
i’m so glad that it was such a simple explanation! i think the oldest the ever got to in my world was about 7 hours
Hmm, Norns that can’t age/breed without food…definitely an interesting idea…
You have my Snow Bengal heads installed! It’s good to know someone uses them.
They’re amazing, Silvak! I haven’t made much use of them since there isn’t a CFE conversion for them… Though I imagine it wouldn’t be difficult for me to just use a CFE genome and update the appearance genes! Might be something for me to think of for the future… Thanks for updating them! I really love the added details and the splash of color.
Hmmmm……There isn’t a CFE conversion for them is there…….I might try my hand at that or make a CFE genetic breed for them so they would be a little more unique then being just reskinned.
The community is really going CFE now isn’t it. I almost think we should, as a community, decide to make CFE the new standard.
Go for it, Silvak! Might be a nice CCSF release. Ha ha! In the meantime, I might be using a reskinned CFE gene in my C3/DS world. Not exactly ideal, but at least then I’ll get to show off the Snow Bengal heads!
I think CFE has almost become the unstated standard. Many new breeds are based off of these updates, although non-CFE genes still exist. Some people prefer non-CFE, so I suppose it’s nice to have a mix of both. However, I’ve seen a tremendous improvement in behavior with CFE Norns. Granted, there are some annoying behaviors that come along with them, but nothing can be perfect!