Excellent suggestions. For game purposes, we may want to have eggs being used, as imprinting on home waters is a newtling characteristic. With my own background in bio, I'm kicking myself I didn't do what you did. Thanks for pointing me to good sites!
Yes, bachelors stay in that stage for about 30 years, so lots of time to become quite powerful.
Alison
Tim Ellis <tim_at_...> wrote:
>From memory the "typically encountered" Newtlings are "bachelor
groups" who travel away from the breeding pool in what might be termed
their "Adolescence" before returning to breed. I also seem to recall
that this can be a quite extended adolescence...
A quick look around couple of Websites* aimed at people keeping (rw) Newts and Salamanders as pets suggest that newts leave the water as an immature animal known as an Eft, before returning to an aquatic existence as a breeding newt. They also suggest that it is nearly impossible to tell the sex of an eft, but as a mature newt the female tends to be larger. All of this tends to agree with what I recall of Newtlings... Also if Sexually mature Newtlings return to a "full time" aquatic existence then it may explain why we know so little of them...
It also appears that unlike Frogs & Toads, most newts tend to be "internal fertilisers" and in some cases the eggs are "hatched" internally with live young born directly into the water. I'd propose this for Newtlings as it allows for parents raising their young and thus the passing on of knowledge and culture between generations - Although if the eggs are laid and hatch externally then it may be sufficent for your newtling hero to bring back Eggs to hatch in the new pond rather than breeding adults.
Gestation and the period between hatching and metamorphosis in real world newts varies by species - the one article suggested that eggs might take 1-3 weeks to hatch and the young spend 2-3 months in "tadpole" stage before metamorposis. Since newtlings are considerably larger then I guess the time taken would be longer - though the general principle should be maintained - a short time in the egg, offset by the longer period developing from hatchling to "batchelor newtling" phase.
Other suggestions:- Since it is practically impossible to distinguish between sexes in the immature stages I'd suggest that newting society is egalitarian - leaders will have asserted themselves before their sex becomes an issue.
*<http://www.caudata.org/cc/> and <http://www.livingunderworld.org/ caudata/> for instance
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