tRENOC LIFECYCLE

The Trenoc lifecycle is the most complex out of the current federation races, with great divergence between the sexes, and in the female form a series of metamorphoses that lead to a final intelligent form that form the citizens of Trenoc society.

There are three main stages in the Trenoc lifecycle, these are roughly categorized as infant, breeder, and protector, though Trenoc society has developed a complicated social system around these main stages. When we consider the Trenoc as an intelligent race we really only consider the females, as the great dimorphism between the sexes mean that the male develops intelligence.

The Trenoc are born in small litters, to a breeder stage female. The litters are small, usually less than five infants, there is also a curious genetic bias to producing females, with only one or so males per litter. It is thought that there is a survival bias to produce females as this sex looks after the infant and breeder stages, and therefore aid the survival of female rich families. There is no gross genetic difference between males and females, there is no sex chromosome that humans have, the determination of sex seems to be a purely by genetic switch, which in the male set off, and develops along male development.

The infant stage are unintelligent, and treated more as herd animals than offspring, there is no real mother-infant bond, though the family all provides communal care of the young. There is also no distinct dimorphism between the sexes at this stage, which is changes quite considerably in transition to breeder stages. The transition from infant to breeder stage happens automatically at about fifteen years of age, though this time can be brought forwards by the administration of protector lactations to the infants after five years of age, which encourages an early transition. The transition between infant to breeder happens very quickly within a matter of months, in the male no great changes to the physical form happens, though they increase in weight, and display sexual characteristics. The female the changes are much more pronounced the final breeder body plan is greatly different from the infant stage and the process of transition takes a little longer, the better part of a year, this transition time is the toughest transition any Trenoc has to take.

The males remain unintelligent in their breeder form, and will not undergo a process that will bear them to intelligence, their lifespan is also considerably less than the female, and will typically die after twenty years in the breeder stage. The females however develop intelligence, though at the breeder stage they are still at the level of young human children, but they learn rapidly. Although Trenoc society has a formal education for the young protector caste, these breeders rapidly learn literacy and numeracy almost automatically from their civilizaed surroundings, and formal teaching of this is unnecessary.

The female breeders are the only childbearing stage of the Trenoc lifecycle, once they transform into the final protector stage they become infertile. A breeder can have up to five or six litters, but in this modern age only one litter is usually born, and not all female breeders go on to mate and have litters. Mating occurs between adult breeder male and breeder female, the male usually being chosen by the female breeders parent. Like the male breeder the lifespan of a female breeder is short, a little more than ten years, though in today’s society all female breeders are brought into the protector stage by receiving the lactations of a protector, this final metamorphosis is much traumatic than the female’s first, and generally makes the existing body structure tougher and stronger.

The protector stage makes up the citizens of Trenoc society, and despite the complicated lifecycle before this stage is reached by females, it is this caste that make up the dominant fraction of the population. Unlike the limited life span of the breeder stages, the transformation to the breeder stage confers a great deal of longevity, with no greatly apparent signs of senescence. Though there bodies demonstrate a great deal of biological resistance to time, no protector has lived longer than two hundred and fifty years. An average life span is just short of two hundred years, even advances in medicine have not greatly changed this, unlike their effects in human society. The onset of death in the protector is usually very sudden, though modern biological tests can predict its coming within a month or two. There is very little that can be done to slow its course, and it is gathered that the process is quite without pain, most Trenoc live as normal right up to their last day, the modern tests have just provided a warning to put things in order before they pass on. The Trenoc have held no great fascination in extending their lifespan, they seem far happier than humans in accepting their mortality.