Theories of Reproducing

[VaniLLaKiLLah]

My theory is that if the queen dies, before she dies she naturally lays an egg with a new queen so that it can take her place when the old queen is dead. Like its part of the genetic makeup of the queen species. before they die they will birth to a new queen unless the queen is sick and the sickness somehow alters the genetic makeup of her birthing cycle.

I think thats how it works. Before a queen dies the genetic makeup of her birthing process simply makes the queen naturally give birth to a new queen thus keeping reproduction of the species from naturally dieing out from old age.

What if she dies suddenly?
getting shot or something?

.:VaniLLaKiLLah:.

[paramiteabe]

What if she dies suddenly?
getting shot or something?

.:VaniLLaKiLLah:.

Well if that happened then there won't be anymore queen thus no more repruduction plus the species will just live until the very last member of that species dies. Then they would be extinct.

But highly unlikely somebody is going to shoot Sam or any queen because they know she is the source of the slave Labor or the source of the population. Sam is probabaly the most valuable resource to the Magog Cartel.

No Sam no Mudokons no slave labor no employees for Glukkons thus running them out of business and moolah. I am sure Sam is heavely guarded.


Paramiteabe...

[Nate]

We don't know for sure how similar the Odddworld feudal reproductive system is to ants and bees but with insects all the workers are female. To make a queen, a normal baby is fed Royal Jelly (for bees at least, I don't know what its called for ants) which makes them grow big. If they are not fed the jelly their reproductive organs never develop. Thus if Sam died unexpectedly they could just feed the equivalent of Royal Jelly to a baby Mud and create a new queen.

On the other hand male bees (drones) are unique and only serve to impregnate the queen, who then pops out a pile of kids from the one encounter. The interesting thing is that queen and drone ants have wings and actually mate flying in the air. I actually asked Alf once if Sam and Maggie have wings to flit around with but he didn't really give an answer

BTW I'm confused; what do people mean by 'trunk'?

[VaniLLaKiLLah]

trunk=tribe

.:VaniLLaKiLLah:.

(EDIT: is that spam?)

[Esus]

In a queens lifetime, about 1/1000th (at a guess, maybe 1/1mil) of her spawn would be female. These would be princesses, trained to become the queen once she dies. Once she does, one of them becomes the queen and that queens sisters remain as princesses, most likely kept by the Magog Cartel in isolation or a prison like area. The females of the queen reproduction species are obviously larger and probably have much stronger skin and better immune systems so they can survive longer.

[Volsung]

In a queens lifetime, about 1/1000th (at a guess, maybe 1/1mil) of her spawn would be female. These would be princesses, trained to become the queen once she dies. Once she does, one of them becomes the queen and that queens sisters remain as princesses, most likely kept by the Magog Cartel in isolation or a prison like area. The females of the queen reproduction species are obviously larger and probably have much stronger skin and better immune systems so they can survive longer.

Is this a realworld species we know of? It seems as if you're talking about the Mudokons with very exacting knowledge, yet I was under the impression that our information wasn't this specific. I'm just wondering, is this conjecture or fact? And if its fact, why doesn't it seem like Abe's future focus is getting a princess, rather than Sam? (presumably it would be easier to free a princess--lighter security, no shrink watching over her, no giant egg sac filled with mudokon young)

Alf at one point talked about impregnating the queen with Drones, so we know that part is fact. Or at least a conceptual fact. The real wonder begins with the number of queens, and how they come to be queens. We also know that there used to be a number of Mudokon tribes. These probably worked based on kinship or clan lines, so it makes sense that there used to be more than one queen at a time. With that in mind it follows that queen mudokons may be given the jelly, or several queens may be born at once. I'm not sure how ants come to have so many queens (one for each nest) but its likely that mudokons would follow along this line if left alone.

As Esus stated, I'm sure that every now and again there is another mudokon queen born, but what the Magog Cartel do with it is unknown. If I was them, I think I might just kill it and trust that Sam would have another before she died. That's wierd, but I can't see Glukkons going out of their way to double the number of slaves, as each slave must be fed and brought up. Still, there is "currently" a shortage, and its not as if they feed slave muds expensive foods. Also with the shorter time span before maturity, they could start them working around three or four, I guess. It's difficult to say. But if they do keep the new queen, wouldn't they just kill Sam? It's not like them to be smart with resources.

[Wil]

Sam is the only Mudokon queen, nowadays, but back when Mudokons were a prosperous tribal people, each tribe had its own queen - so there was a Mudanchee queen, a Mudoncho queen, a Mulletokon queen, etc. The queen is indeed fertilised by drones, although how a queen produces the next queen is unknown. The princesses Esus talked about exist in super species on Earth, such as termites, and it amuses me of, later on in the series, Abe having to rescue Mudokon princesses from, oh, let's say a castle. It could be like Tarantino or Wilde; making fun of their own mediums of entertainment respectively.

To add to that, though, the Mudokons we've seen are not technically females, they're assexual, and are neither male nor female. They do, however, have male voices and such, and I'm told Lorne once gave a reason for that, but I can't remember if he did. I'll start getting on to my sources again.

[Nate]

probably because male gamers would relate more to a male-esque Abe whilst female gamers wouldn't care.

I once suggested on the forum that Abe may save Sam from her own misery by euthanasing her and raising another queen who would really just be a puppet ruler with Abe pulling the strings WHOHAHAHAHAAHA

sorry, I'll just make an appointment with my therapist

[Seargentbig]

It does sound like mudokons breed the same way ants do. There's always been some speculation as to whether or not Sam is the only queen or not. She's certainly the only Mud queen we know about. And I think I remember somewhere Lorne was quoted as saying the main species of oddworld were all based on insects. Speaking of which, does it look like Steef are the first mammals we've seen on Oddworld?

EDIT: Intelligent mammals. Meeps at least are probably mammals too.

Wow. I went through all those posts to say this:
Fuzzles look like mamals as well, and must be resonably inteligent.
However, I have gone through the rest of the posts as well and the latest that I can effect is probably this.

The Magog Cartel clearly wants to prolong the lifespan of the Mudokon Queen, as they have her tended to by a whole track of Shrinks (pun intended). How long she lives is a mystery to me, but I'd imagine she'd live longer than most Mudokons.

An average bee drone, when not killed prematurely and just worn out, would like to be about one year old - or five, I can't remember which. An average queen bee has the estimated life span of a human. If the mudokons were scaled up Bees, Sam might live to be about - find me a calculator, I'm not doing maths on the holidays - 20 x 75 (Or thereabouts) is 1 500 years, or 4 (20/5, instead of 20/1) um, 4 x 75 is 300 years. However, keep in mind (As I'm sure most of you have) that this is only if the muds were scaled up bees and that the life span of a shrink is an indicator that either the Magog are expecting more or Sam's life span is very, very large.

[Volsung]

Wow. I went through all those posts to say this:
Fuzzles look like mamals as well, and must be resonably inteligent.
However, I have gone through the rest of the posts as well and the latest that I can effect is probably this.

Right, I'd forgotten about them since they're...blob things with fur. But without a doubt intelligent. I've actually often wondered if they had been created by the Vykkers some time ago and a few had escaped into the wild and reproduced. (I think someone else mentioned this possibility before) What sort of natural evolutionary situation could be set up where it was beneficial to have no appendages, be able to talk, and yet remain carniverous?

However, keep in mind (As I'm sure most of you have) that this is only if the muds were scaled up bees and that the life span of a shrink is an indicator that either the Magog are expecting more or Sam's life span is very, very large.

I'm betting that its a bit of both. A Mudokon queen would have pretty severe longevity, and the Cartel is certainly jumping through hoops to keep her producing. By the way, is it possible that Sam is the only Mudokon queen ever to have been imprisoned? Even though it must have taken several generations to reach the point we're now at, I think Sam could be the only one they've ever had. If there's info otherwise, I'm all ears.

Seargentbig, good call on the bee thing.

[Seargentbig]

Seargentbig, good call on the bee thing.

Cool! I helped a discussion!

[Nate]

AHA!

I was browsing the archives on oddworld.com and came across an alf that I must have missed, cos I don't remember any of it.

anyway, it said:

Q: Hi Alf, I have a question. I read that Sam (the Mudokon Queen) is the mother of all Mudokons. So, who is the father? -VaniLLaKiLLah

Alf: Well, uh, Sam isn't exactly a one Mudokon kinda gal, if you know what I mean ... and by "you know what I mean", I mean, he is really a they, and they are DRONES. Creepy, huh?

[paramiteabe]

So at least we know there are drones. I think the Mudokons are more like ant colonys as oppose to bees but thats me

[Nate]

But what is significantly different between ant and bee colonies?