>While that's my impression too, I'll just toss out the fact, by way of
>devil's advocacy, that the dragonewts are frequently described as 'neotenic
>dragons', and a neotenic creature is, pretty much by definition, capable of
>breeding...
Not quite correct. They have hatched from eggs laid by neotenic dragons. They need to undergo several metamorphoses to become neotenic dragons.
However, Sandy proposed that they have five sexes, one for each stage (including dragonet), and are thus able to breed. If so, I wonder which stage is capable of laying the egg large enough to hatch a warrior dragonewt.
Which leads me to: what are dragonewt eggs like? Do they have a hard, chalky shell, or are they soft tissue, more like newts' eggs, which can be opened without being broken?
When a 'newt hatches, what happens to/in the egg?
Would it be correct to say that the individual 'newt only is the mobile manifestation of the developing egg, much like a dream dragon?
Peter:
>The Ralian 'newts have no inhuman king so it is difficult to see how
>they might reproduce. I assume it's related to their former human
>ancestry (they were originally reptile hsunchen) and so captive
>humans might be necessary for successful reproduction (even if
>only as an unwilling host).
The Ralian 'newts were immigrants from Saird, 2nd Council mercenaries paid in land. While it is possible that some of the reptile Hsunchen got assimilated, Broken Council suggests that the Ralian reptile Hsunchen stepped in for the 'newts when the Council broke apart.
As for the necessary fifth sex - maybe a true dragon might replace a dragonet in this function?
>Sandy Petersen has stated that the Ralian dragonewts never eat at all, and
>that their bodies constantly wear out due to starvation as a result.
Wasn't that Teleos? IIRC the Ralian 'newts are as hungry as any dragonkind (i.e. sometimes very, most of the time not especially so).
re: Use of zebras instead of horses in Prax:
Please remember that Cavalry Zebras are infertile crossbreeds of war zebras with <gasp> horses. Whoever breeds zebras inevitably will have to keep a herd of horses (preferably mares, so that the war zebra mares can breed more war zebras?) in order to keep the stock coming. And of course a couple of stallions for the horses to breed more breeder horses...
Are war zebra mares ever mated to horse stallions (other than exceptional ones, like captured Grazer Goldeneyes), or is this considered a waste of breeding stock?
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