Re: Conreligion

Sheets, Jeff wrote:
>         Another point; if the weather is generally nice, and the food
> plentiful, and the people are skilled in agriculture, their population
> tends to increase fairly quickly.  How has the Tokana population stayed
> down?
Birth control?  ;-)  Actually, that's quite accurate in regards to the
Faithful Ones.  They are a very fertile people, and even in their
primitive condition, they would grow at an enormous rate, about 5 or 6
percent per annum.  Long ago, they discovered a plant that reduces
fertility.  One of the tasks of the Matriarchs is to ensure that all the
Females eat this plant, and to decide how much they should eat, thus
determining the population.  For instance, when a new island is
colonized, or some disaster has reduced their numbers, the plant is
eaten sparingly, thus allowing the population to grow.  They can even
calculate just how much of the plant should be eaten to obtain a given
number of children to an amazing degree of accuracy.  If the population
is above the ideal point, then the Matriarchs will order large amounts
of the plant to be eaten, keeping the birth rate below the death rate.
The population of each island, therefore, hovers around an ideal level
which is high enough for good cultural interaction, but small enough
that there will be enough food and water to go around without
shortages.  Some islands are as small as a dozen or so, while others
have several thousand people.  Since the Males are seperate from the
Females, and are nomadic, going from island to island, there is no
danger of inbreeding in the small islands.

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sufficient reason for the invention of free will." - "Lord Leto II"
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