Re: Kra'Vak, inclinations of (LONG)

	Theres quite a few things we have to consider about the Kravak
before we
can really work out what they are likely to do. I have made some
assumptions the main one being that life on Earth is a preety good guide
to
life in the universe because lets face it, so fact it is the only place
with life.

	1)What are they? 
	Reptiles, insects, crusteans, dinosuara (a few scholars think
that
dinosaurs were distinctively different from reptiles in
physiology)..what?
This will determine how they reproduce, grow and what enviroments they
prefer. I think we can rule out insects as they don't have any form of
lung
which serverely limits their size. If your'e a crab you have other
problems. For staters you have to shed your shell. This is a very
dangerous
time for a crab. They might tend to hide but it might also make an alien
species very aggressive. If some of the specis moulted at one time and
the
rest at another then some of them at least are guarding the vulernable
ones
and make not take kindly to any incursions no matter how threating. Also
if
your'e in an armoured shell in tends to make sex difficult and some
crabs
can only be impregnanted whilst they are shedding. A final thought on
crabs, they might only be able to learn immediately after a moult making
size an indication of intelligence. Now I'm no brain surgeon but if you
only have a small brain you can only learn so much be it because of the
number of neuron you have or how many connections they are able to form,
brain size would put an upper limit on both.

	2)How do they reproduce?
	Eggs or live birth? If your an egg layer where you lay your eggs
is pretty
important. If you stay with the eggs then you want somewhere safe where
you
won't be disturbed. You might decide that you do this on your own or do
it
as part of a "colony". Either case you or your mates are going to be
very
defencive about the nesting site. If you lay eggs but do stay with them
you
may not be so defensive about the nesting site but it is more important
to
you that it's not likely to be disturbed and that it is the right
tempreture for the young to develop. 
	Live young tends not to tie you to one spot as much. Humans are
born
pretty much helpless but our mothers are still mobile to a large extent.
It
might be possible for intelligent species to give birth to young that
are
self mobile in the way that sheep and cattle are, at a very young age.
	If you have multiple births, particularly litters this also
tends to tie
you down as the young are less well developed than those that tend to
have
only a single young.

	3)Number of young and parental care?
	Parental care has been touched on above in regard to egg layers.
But how
are they treated once they hatch? If there are large numbers of young
that
all have good chances of surviving to be adults then you might get a bit
blaise about their indiviual lives. The young could be used as cannon
fodder without too much strain on the consicence. If you have large
numbers
of young but very few are likely to survive you might get very
protective
of them, or if no partental care then you might be very indulgent to
them
allowing them to do or have anything but not taking much care of them.
Those that have small numbers of young tend to be more protective as a
general rule.

	4) Hives and Castes.
	With creatures that are hive type animals, including at least
one mammal,
you find there is only one breeding female and that that is all she
does.
All other animals in the hive are her desendants and work for her
benefit.
Insect hives tend to die with the Queen but with the Naked Mole Rat at
least one female within the soldier caste will bewcome sexually mature
and
take the place of the dead queen.
	Hive animals tend to have specialist castes for jobs within the
hive, ants
and termites being the classic example. In this the castes are
determined
by what the grubs were fed before they pupated and they can't change.
With
bees the workers don't physically change but at certain times in their
lives they do change jobs. With some species you might find that caste
is
determined by size and age, as with Naked Mole Rats. This has
implications
if the caste is determined by size alone because one of the best was to
increase your growth rate is to eat your own kind.

	5)Higher organisation.
	I have noticed that most people tend to favour a clan structure
for the
Kravak. But the question is how do the clans relate to one another? If
the
Kravak are a hive creature then treat clans as indiviual hives and you
still have to figure out how the hives get along. 
	If there is a recognised overlord of all the clans/hives then
you might
face a realatively united race with perhaps one or two clans/hives that
are
looking for a way to overthrow the current system. You might also have
an
overlord who has no real power (I'm thinking Ireland in the Dark Ages)
which could make for very fluid/chaotic situation of alliances etc.
	Another alternative is a system of patronage between clans/hives
where one
clan/hive owes obligations to a higher one say production or young in
return for military aid or protection. You might have no problems
obtaining
troops from a clan in such a system but they might expect an awful lot
in
return.
	One thing that nobody seems to have considered is that what if
the
divisions in Kravak society are religous, that rather than clans one is
facing different sects. This situation might make it impossible to
obtain
support from any Kravak but it may make them susceptible to manipulation
that gets one Kravak fighting another.

	There are probably a million other things to consider as well
but my
belief is that you'll get a better alien, rather than man in rubber
suit,
if you start from the bottom up because some of the implications that
biology makes on society and culture. Anyway there's something to think
about.

	Tony.
	twilko@ozemail.com.au