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<blockquote data-quote="Steampunkette" data-source="post: 8691342" data-attributes="member: 6796468">Horrifying thought:A multioecious society that uses extensive genetic modification to ensure that several other members of the species cannot produce offspring -except- with members of a higher, more socially powerful, caste. There's a lot of potential digging into the human psyche that could be done, there.Like a 4-sex society genetically modified by the most dominant caste to essentially be dioecious, but totally not. The first caste can produce offspring within their own caste and the second caste. Second caste can produce offspring with first and third caste but not their own caste. Third caste can produce offspring with second, third, and fourth caste individuals. Fourth caste can ONLY reproduce with 3rd caste.You'd wind up with a species with a tiny 4th caste minority whose ability to have children is controlled entirely by the caste above them, which is the &quot;Freest Caste&quot; who can produce up, down, or sideways. Then there's the Up and Down Caste that cannot reproduce internally, and the top caste which can elevate others or reproduce internally.You wanna make a sci-fi allegory for eugenics as part of class theory... that's probably as powerful as it gets. The weakest members are essentially sterilized by the society, only allowed to reproduce when someone of a higher caste allows it. Or Forces it.That higher caste considers itself to be the &quot;Free Caste&quot; because they can reproduce with just about everyone... but they can never have offspring in the highest levels of society.Then you get a caste that can climb or descend with each generation, but who will probably mostly descend outside of the rare and random &quot;One in a million&quot; who gets to be with someone in a higher caste.And then the caste that actually holds all the power which largely keeps their power in the family but occasionally dips down for some genetic diversity to avoid too much inbreeding.... that is horrific.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Steampunkette, post: 8691342, member: 6796468"] Horrifying thought: A multioecious society that uses extensive genetic modification to ensure that several other members of the species cannot produce offspring -except- with members of a higher, more socially powerful, caste. There's a lot of potential digging into the human psyche that could be done, there. Like a 4-sex society genetically modified by the most dominant caste to essentially be dioecious, but totally not. The first caste can produce offspring within their own caste and the second caste. Second caste can produce offspring with first and third caste but not their own caste. Third caste can produce offspring with second, third, and fourth caste individuals. Fourth caste can ONLY reproduce with 3rd caste. You'd wind up with a species with a tiny 4th caste minority whose ability to have children is controlled entirely by the caste above them, which is the "Freest Caste" who can produce up, down, or sideways. Then there's the Up and Down Caste that cannot reproduce internally, and the top caste which can elevate others or reproduce internally. You wanna make a sci-fi allegory for eugenics as part of class theory... that's probably as powerful as it gets. The weakest members are essentially sterilized by the society, only allowed to reproduce when someone of a higher caste allows it. Or Forces it. That higher caste considers itself to be the "Free Caste" because they can reproduce with just about everyone... but they can never have offspring in the highest levels of society. Then you get a caste that can climb or descend with each generation, but who will probably mostly descend outside of the rare and random "One in a million" who gets to be with someone in a higher caste. And then the caste that actually holds all the power which largely keeps their power in the family but occasionally dips down for some genetic diversity to avoid too much inbreeding. ... that is horrific. [/QUOTE]

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