Half-Undead and Pregnancy

[Emerald]

In the last issue of Dragon there is an article on the half-undead and it states that most half-undead are caused by a pregnant female being turned into an undead and that they are very rare.

I was wondering though, in a medieval times, I would assume the odds of a female over the age of 15 being pregnant as being pretty good, so you would think that it would not be THAT rare to find half-undead.

So, does anyone have a guess what are the odds that a random woman over the age of 15 in the middle ages would be pregnant? Should this affect the rarily of half-undead?

 

[Piratecat]

According to some sources I've read, medieval women were pregnant a good proportion of the time as a result of high child mortality rates and no effective birth control.

Two things to remember, though; default D&D is not medieval, and it's really the prevalence of undead that would affect the number of half-undead.

 

[Anabstercorian]

Besides, even if a creature is born half-undead, the odds of it surviving to maturity are small. Undead aren't nice to kids.

 

[Elf Witch]

In the last issue of Dragon there is an article on the half-undead and it states that most half-undead are caused by a pregnant female being turned into an undead and that they are very rare.

I was wondering though, in a medieval times, I would assume the odds of a female over the age of 15 being pregnant as being pretty good, so you would think that it would not be THAT rare to find half-undead.

So, does anyone have a guess what are the odds that a random woman over the age of 15 in the middle ages would be pregnant? Should this affect the rarily of half-undead?

What Piratecat said was true DnD has several items that prevent pregnancy. I have a hard time with this whole concept wouldn't the undead mother eat her child when it was born?

 

[Piratecat]

I think it's implied in the article that some half undead are the result of... experimentation. Anyways, I can see intelligent undead either raising or passing off the kid, and since half-undead detect as undead it's possible that a few slip through.

But yup, it would be quite rare.

 

[Oni]

ok, what exactly does being half undead entail?

 

[Alzrius]

In the last issue of Dragon there is an article on the half-undead and it states that most half-undead are caused by a pregnant female being turned into an undead and that they are very rare.

I was wondering though, in a medieval times, I would assume the odds of a female over the age of 15 being pregnant as being pretty good, so you would think that it would not be THAT rare to find half-undead.

So, does anyone have a guess what are the odds that a random woman over the age of 15 in the middle ages would be pregnant? Should this affect the rarily of half-undead?

In a word, no.

The article doesn't explicitly say so, but I was under the impression that a pregnant mother becoming undead does not always equate a half-undead child. It's quite possible (and, in my mind, likely) that a pregnant mother who becomes undead just loses the child. The few who actually birth a half-undead creature are aberrations.

 

[Aaron L]

I am boggled by the idea of half undead. How can you be half undead? I read the article and thought myself in circles trying to figure it out.

 

[Hypersmurf]

The few who actually birth a half-undead creature are aberrations.

No, no. When they become undead, it supercedes their previous type. They're not aberrations any more

-Hyp.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Half undead. Like Blade. It's an odd sort of idea. I guess you and I are 100% alive, a ghoul is 100% undead. Half undead are 50/50. Still doesn't make much sense, though.

And I think the majority of your "typical D&D world" functions very similarly to medieval european times. Sure, you got your local cleric/adept/bard to do some curing and reduce infant mortality, but you also got dozens of ways to die that medieval peseants only thought they had to deal with. In my mind it would be vital to have your fertile female segment of the population producing children as quickly as possible. Overpopulation just isn't a problem in such a setting, and there are always lots of benefits to children, especially in a rural setting. I don't know how rare pregnant women being turned into undead would be, but it would be at least a few since, well, to put it bluntly, when the undead overrun a town and the villagers flee, the more pregnant you are the slower you run.

The thing is, even if 90% of the fertile female population is pregnant at any given time, that's generally not the "traditional" point of D&D. Emerald here works as a doula, and so these questions are always in the forfront of her mind. The traditional male D&D demographic just doesn't want to think about pregancy and birth and all that women-stuff when they're playing. They want to give the barmaid a friendly slap on the behind and give 'er a little wink, but they don't want her to be seven months pregnant from the last adventuring group that wandered through the village.

edited 'cause I always gotta do it.