Development and Breeding

Staxie Development and Breeding

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This page touches on many aspects, including but not limited to staxie anatomy, aging and development, courtship and social customs, rare breeding occurrences, and more!

Everything here is lore-related, if you're looking for Mechanics, check out our Breeding Guide!

ANATOMY
Staxies are egg-laying creatures that carry their young in pouches. While they are somewhat similar to real-life monotremes, they are amphibious and do not possess mammary glands. Even more oddly, staxies have a crop, an organ found almost exclusively in birds!

Clearly, there are no creatures comparable to staxies that we know of in real life!

Staxies begin producing crop milk a few weeks after the egg is laid. Crop milk is nearly always produced by mothers that have laid the egg while fathers may or may not produce it. Crop milk production in males heavily depends on how often they are exposed to newborn stumps.

Naturally, crop milk is regurgitated directly into the mouth of a hungry stump. There is a bit of discourse surrounding feeding stumps in this manner in public as it's "gross", though this notion is usually only heard from older staxies.

Schnip-schnopp milk is an excellent replacement for crop milk and is pretty easy to access on Staves Rest, thus it is common to see stumps bottle-fed.
Bottle feeding a stump is convenient and/or the only option in cases where staxies don't produce enough crop milk or if their stump is adopted. though crop milk is nutritionally superior and free to boot.

GRAVID STAXIES
A staxie that is with egg is referred to as gravid, and although pregnant is not an "accurate" term, it is often used interchangeably with gravid.

Staxies are gravid for about four months and they start to show about halfway through gestation, both from their swollen tummies and the formation of a pouch (if they didn't already have one).

These pouches are located on the abdomen, sitting anywhere from the sternum to the lower belly. These pouches are naturally warm and damp, perfect for incubating an egg. As previously mentioned, they begin to form in a gravid staxie about two months into gestation.

While a pouch is usually indicative of a currently gravid staxie or a staxie with a stump, some staxies simply have pouches regardless if they've bred before or not.

AGING & LIFECYCLE

EGG
After about four months, a staxie will typically lay a singular egg, though they can lay up to five!

These eggs are large and slightly sticky to the touch. They have a texture similar to a hard-boiled egg after the shell has been peeled off. Their shells are soft and bouncy, though hard to puncture. Eggs are often the same colors as the stump inside, though this isn't always true.

Eggs normally take around 2 months to hatch.

HATCHLING
Stumps hatch with eyes and ears open. They spend most of their time sleeping and eating. Stumps will usually remain in the pouch during the day for the warmth and humidity, plus it allows parents free hands.

6 MONTHS

Stumps at this age are usually out of the pouch and ready to explore. They are still very "baby" at this time. They can walk, but talking is limited to basic words and phrases. Around this time, the mother's pouch will begin to fuse back into the body, though this doesn't always happen.

18 MONTHS - 3 YEARS
Stumps are now walking confidently and communicate relatively well; comparable to four or five year olds.

5 YEARS - 12 YEARS
These are kids. Stumps are forming social bonds, making friends, participating in the Stumphouse school, and just enjoying what childhood has to offer. Most stumps tend to be played around this age, but obviously you can do what you want!

At the latter end of this period, stumps may start to experience growing pains. These are preteens, and they will certainly act like it.

13 YEARS - 17 YEARS

This is when you'll start seeing stumps learning to walk on two legs if they're destined to be bipedal.

This is also the time window where they will lose their tongue-glands and develop their permanent glands elsewhere on the body. The process of growing new glands can take as little as a month or as long as a year.

This time period is very painful and stressful for growing stems. Many stems will be cranky and grumpy-- rightfully so! In this period of losing their tongue glands and gaining permanent glands, staxies are temporarily disconnected from the magic around them; this is usually the source of bad attitude. This disconnect also makes them more susceptible to illness.

17 YEARS - 30 YEARS
Young adulthood! Magic glands have usually formed and set by eighteen years. Staxies may struggle to wield magic with fresh glands, but they may certainly try!

Now that they are physically mature, they are trying to find their place in the world.

Elder staxies view this as "the most important time in a staxie's life" and see this as a time where staxies should be raising families of their own, however, many young adults are still struggling to take care of themselves and have no time for an egg! Staxies at this age spend a lot of time learning magic and trades.

35 - 50 YEARS
Mid-to-late adulthood is the time you see staxies with a bit more stability. Those who are interested in starting a family will have normally already started to do so -- they may have infant stumps, teen stumps or even adult children and grand-stumps! This is a time when they are learning less new magic and are instead honing their current magic and skills for whatever job(s) they have.

50 - 70 YEARS
Older staxies may start looking towards retirement or spending time with their children and grand-stumps. They start to slow down a bit.
Staxies with free time may even return to magic classes to learn new skills, just for their own enjoyment! Older staxies are just as capable of learning and performing magic as their younger counterparts.

This is also the age where they may join the Elder Counsel!

70+ YEARS
Staxies can live for an incredibly long time -- some accounts say staxies have lived over 200 years! Staxies at this age are almost certainly in the Elder Counsel, though if they participate is up to the individual. They are usually looked up to for wisdom and guidance by the younger staxies.
Staxies can perform magic up until the day they die. Once a staxie's magic begins to wane, it is often assumed that death is near.

Staxies tend to have a healthy relationship with death, while the unknown is unnerving, they look forward to being returned to the sea and the Depths. Thankfully, this means most elder staxies do not spend their days dreading when their time is up, rather they will usually be active in their communities until the end.

RARE BREEDING OCCURANCES
Staxies are a strange combination of magic and rapid evolution. As such, breedings are unpredictable to say the least! There are several documented conditions that a staxie can be born with, and they are as follows:

Albinism

Born with near-white coats regardless of the parents' colors
Hatch with pink tongues
- No magic glands
Suffers the effects of glandless staxies (Read more here!)
Can grow up with a unique Tongue gland
More likely to produce albino eggs

Melanism

Born with near-black coats regardless of the parents' colors
Hatch with pink tongues
- Their dark coats behave as a magic gland.
Can grow up with a unique Tongue gland
More likely to produce melanoid eggs

Albinism and Melanism
Albino and melanoid stumps are born with difficult relationships to magic, and as creatures with an inherent dependence on magic, it makes for an even more difficult infancy. Magic glands allow for staxies to focus and control magic, and both lack magic glands at birth.

For albino stumps, they are completely disconnected from magic during this time. They suffer similar symptoms seen in glandless staxies; fatigue, chronic pain, poor appetite, etc..
For melanoid stumps, their near-black coat behaves as a magic gland, meaning their entire body will spark with uncontrollable magic. As fun as this sounds, it's actually incredibly painful. Melanoid stumps are plagued by burning electric sensations ripping across their entire body unexpectedly. Melanoid stumps born with magic quirks will normally suffer more, though some have been known to "control" their magic quirks to a point where they can stave off fits for a while.

Both albino and melanoid stumps can "grow out" of their conditions if you so choose.
When they grow up, you may pick any of the standard eight magic glands as you would do with any staxie. However, albino and melanoid stumps have the unique ability to develop a permanent tongue magic gland in adulthood, meaning you can pick the Tongue magic gland placement for your adult.
This magic gland placement has no magical boons -- any intermediate magic requires the four basics first.

Simply seeing an egg of these colors often leads to it being given to the Stumphouse or, sadly, left in the woods or tossed into the water outside the Netgate; some staxies do not wish to raise a stump with these conditions. This isn't a huge problem in Staves Rest, thankfully, given the Stumphouse is very easy to access.

Breedings have between a 1.25% to 1.88% chance of being producing an albino or melanoid stump.

Speckled Leucistic

Born with near-white coats regardless of the parents' colors
Always born with Spot Markings

Wild Type

Born with near-black coats regardless of the parents' colors
Always born with Spot Markings

Speckled Leucistic and Wild Type
These two mutations are very similar to albinism and melanism, but they only affect a stump's appearance.

These mutations are harmless as stumps are born with black tongues.

It is theorized that staxies naturally looked like this thousands of years ago. White coats helped staxies blend in with their surroundings in the shallows while dark coats hid them in deeper water. Once staxies didn't have to worry about being hunted by predators anymore, that's when there started being diversity in their colors.

Breedings have between a 2.50% to 3.75% chance of producing a speckled leucistic or wild type stump.

Dwarfism

About 50% of the mass of a standard staxie
More likely to produce dwarf eggs

Gigantism

About 150% of the mass of a standard staxie
More likely to produce giant eggs

Dwarfism and Gigantism
As the names suggest, these mutations result in staxies that greatly deviate from the size of a standard staxie. The differences in size are not necessarily only in height, but rather mass!

Giant staxies are taller than their standard counterparts, yes, but they are also bulkier and built thicker with larger extremities.

Likewise, dwarf staxies are short but also very light and twiggy.

Breedings have between a 1.25% to 1.88% chance of producing a stump with dwarfism or gigantism.

Twins, Triplets and Clutches

Gravid staxies laying more than one egg is rare but not unheard of by any means!

Twins may hatch from two separate eggs or may rarely hatch from the same egg! True identical twins will hatch from the same egg. Triplets will normally hatch from three separate eggs.

Clutches are anywhere from four to six eggs laid at the same time. This is extremely rare and very taxing for the mother. These eggs are normally smaller than your average egg, though not small enough to qualify as having dwarfism.
Stumps born from clutches will always be either roots or clumps. Something to do with the toll a large group of eggs takes on the body-- it's not understood why it happens, just that it DOES happen.

Roots are born with one set of limbs, either front arms or back legs only and are more common than clumps.
Roots may grow out of their condition by growing their missing set of limbs back when they grow up. Meaning, you may give your adult root all four limbs either on their adult approval or whenever you feel like it!

Clumps are much more rare and are born with an extra pair of limbs!

Likewise, clumps may also grow out of their condition by losing their extra set of arms after they reach adulthood.
A metamorphed clump can have eight limbs!

Breedings have between a 3.0% to 9.0% chance of producing twins,

a 1.5% to 4.5% chance of producing triplets,
and a 0.5% to 3.0% chance of producing a clutch.

Chimerism

Split down the middle with two different color palettes dominating either half
Always born with heterochromia

Stumps born with chimerism looks like they were split down the middle perfectly!

Each half is usually one of the parents' colors.

Breedings have between a 0.63% to 0.94% chance of producing a stump with Chimerism.

Polycephaly

Born with two heads

This mutation is extremely rare and results in a staxie having two heads. The rarity of this condition means it is not well understood. Typically, both heads have separate thoughts and identities, and thus have different names.

Polycephalic staxies mechanically function as one. Magic gland location, biological sex, breedings, magic, and unlocking upgrades are done by the body rather than by the individual head.

However, they are given separate names in the masterlist if you choose to name each head separately!

Breedings have between a 0.63% to 0.94% chance of producing a stump with Polycephaly.

Green Fluorescent Protein

All or part of the staxie glows green in the dark

This mutation is named for the protein responsible for their condition, often abbreviated to GFP.
No one is quite sure where this trait came from, but it happens from time to time!

All or part of these staxies glow green in the dark.

Breedings have between a 2.5% to 3.75% chance of producing a stump with a GFP mutation.

Heterochromia and Iris Rings
While both of these upgrades can be inherited if a stumps' parents have them, they can also happen spontaneously!

Breedings have between a 1.25% to 1.88% chance of producing a stump with Heterochromia or Iris Rings.
(These odds are for parents WITHOUT these upgrades.)

Scars, Lost Limbs and Blindness
Stumps may hatch with injuries obtained congenitally.

Scars are the most common; a nick somewhere on the body. Sometimes it's from the hatching process, sometimes pre-hatching. Regardless, the scar sometimes fades, sometimes doesn't.

Missing limbs are less common but still reported, a limb that never fully developed. It happens from time to time, from a missing finger to a missing leg.

One eye or both, a missing eye or just a blind one, blindness is rarely reported in a freshly hatched stump.
Stumps have accelerated healing abilities and can sometimes heal all of the aforementioned injuries, including regaining their eyesight after being blinded!

Breedings have between a 5.0% to 18.8% chance of producing a stump with a scar,
a 2.5% to 10.5% chance of producing a stump missing a limb,
and a 1.5% to 4.5% chance of producing a blind stump.

MAGIC QUIRKS
Stumps born from magicians will normally hatch with the ability to wield magic of their own! Albeit, this magic is difficult to control for a stump with baby tongue glands.

Staxies are more likely to pass their magic down to their stumps if they know higher levels of magic, if both parents know magic, and/or if a staxie knows the magic that their glands offer a boon to!

Magic odds vary INCREDIBLY. This information isn't incredibly helpful but I'm putting it here for clarity's sake:
Breedings have between a 0.0% to 100.0% chance of producing a stump with ANY type of magic quirk.

COURTSHIP
Staxies usually begin looking for a companion in their teens, though relationships at that age tend to not last forever. Staxies are sexually mature once their magic glands have set in, though it is uncommon for staxies to have eggs before they are eighteen.

Staxies may be magical creatures, but they are simple at heart; staxies will show their interest in another staxie most often by giving them a gift. Gifts range from pretty seashells to expensive doodads from the store, but the best gift is food-- the quickest way to a staxie's heart is through the stomach.

Bamblebrights are drupes that are harvested in August. They are similar to coconuts, having a hard, fibrous shell and a sweet, juicy inside. They require a lot of water, care and attention to grow big and strong -- it is for this reason that they are the most commonly gifted item for a staxie eager to win the heart of another.

Nothing is more romantic to a staxie than being given a bamblebright grown from your suitor's own two hands.

Bamblebright season lines up with the Autumnal Equinox, which causes a peak in magic tides. All of these events coinciding lead to August being the most common time of year for staxies to court and mate.

This timing is also perfect for eggs to be laid mid-winter and hatch early spring. Farming comes to a halt in the winter, thus gravid staxies can spend time inside and relax-- less stress!

Stumps hatching in the spring is ideal as farming picks up again to help feed all the new mouths.

Myre Courtship
Myre courtship is very simple. There is not much to be found at the bottom of the sea and food is almost always on the scarce-side. Myres breed whenever resources are plentiful. There is little in the ways of courtship; any myres that are very familiar with one another and aren't related will typically breed when these times of surplus.

Same-Sex Breeding
The magic surges during August allows for staxies of the same sex to produce an egg!

When two staxies of the same sex breed with intent to produce an egg during this time period, one of the parents becomes gravid.
For the sake of keeping things safe for work, what this means and how the egg is laid is up to the individual user.
Staxies are creatures of quick evolution and magic, after all!

STAXIE UNION
The ritual of joining two staxies is simple and quiet, usually only involving the staxies looking to be wed and a witness, which surprisingly tends to be a local bamblebright farmer! As staxie union is an intimate and private affair, it is uncommon for anyone else to attend the union ceremony.

The farmer gives the couple or group a bamblebright seed that has been sprouted by magic. They will carve their names and a surname of their choice into the hard shell of the bamblebright, then the bamblebright seed will be planted by the staxies-- that's it.

The bamblebright tree that will eventually sprout from this seed will bear the names that were originally carved into the seed on its trunk. How this happens is largely unknown.

If staxies want to either end their relationship or, on the other hand, add a new member to their polycule, they must locate the original tree and either scratch their names out or carve a new name in respectively. Finding the tree is... its own challenge as the trees naturally wander.

SURNAMES

As you may or may not have noticed, some staxies have last names, but not all of them do!
Last names, surnames, family names, etc. are usually reserved for staxies that can track their lineage. Stumps that hatch in the Stumphouse normally have no idea who their parents are and thus do not have a family name.

When two (or more) staxies are united, if none have a last name, it is customary to pick a family name. If one or more parties have a last name, however, they may keep their family name and bestow it upon their partner(s), or the family will pick a new surname altogether! Staxies having stumps and raising them alone will often also pick a family name to pass down to their children.