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Dunno Medieval Europe, but studies of still-extant pre-modern societies (!Kung bushmen, various other African, Indonesian, and Amazonian peoples), find that the women of childbearing age are more-or-less constantly pregnant or nursing. .
Monogamous high-latitude agricultural societies like medieval europe are likely to be different from polygamous tropical hunter gatherer groups, though.
My understanding is that depending on the era and social class, it was not uncommon for women to marry late, around mid '20s. They would normally have their first child shortly after - often very shortly - and if they survived, would continue having children at brief intervals up to around 38. But with land scarce many women never married, and women very very rarely had children while unmarried (if an unmarried girl had a child it might be officially her mother's child, and she the sister).
BTW I remember reading somewhere that nomadic societies women would have a child every 3-4 years, compared to 1-2 years in agricultural societies, since a woman could only carry 1 child and older children needed to be able to walk.
I think to myself, hmm, I don't remember contributing to a thread called Half-Undead and Pregnancy. And what the hell would I contribute to a thread like that anyway?
So I click to find out.
Oh! 2003! Wow ... I'm not sure I even remember anything from that year. What did I have to say back then?
Hmm. A post about zombies looking for boobs. It seems time doesn't change everything.
Hah... sometimes old threads a good to dig up. I wasn't around EN World to see this one the first time but I enjoyed reading the revived version.
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Strangely I think I'd be okay with having a PC die by a bear exploding out of his head. --Awayfarer, after having his PC put a furry ball from a Bag of Tricks into his mouth.
Interesting note, the Dragon article that's being referred to in the OP was written by Trent Troop, who later went on to produce many spectacular 3.5E supplements for his third-party company Octavirate Games.
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This is beyond thread necromancy. This is thread archaeology. Any minute now, a giant boulder is going to come rolling through the forums.
This comment deserved reputation. And recieved it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by S'mon
Monogamous high-latitude agricultural societies like medieval europe are likely to be different from polygamous tropical hunter gatherer groups, though.
My understanding is that depending on the era and social class, it was not uncommon for women to marry late, around mid '20s.
It probably depends on marriage customs, when a person is considered to have come of age, sexual norms, family structures, the social status of women, and other factors.
Anyway, this is a template that definitely seems "out there", and something I wouldn't use. Being spawned into most types of undead should result in the death of the fetus because the mother is no longer alive. I'd see this happening only in a few cases where a woman gets turned into a vampire or something. Being the result of necrophilia is just whacked to me, since there are a few mentions in fluff here and there that undead can't produce offspring by being undead (this was stated to be the case with the githyanki lich queen in 2e's A Guide to the Astral Plane, that she had no heir, and now cannot produce one).
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Does a half-undead heart beat? Or only the left ventriculos? Maybe he has some rotting limbs but not the whole body...
Think of it less biologically. Maybe he was dead, or dying - and his heart was replaced by a corpse's heart, and then with magic "Juiced" so it now lives. Maybe he's a ghost trapped in a living body, OR a living soul trapped in a dead body (or just mind and conscience, for that matter).
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