Who are the Aralia? Part 2

Lifecycle

The initial development of the Aralia from egg into bipedal stage takes approximately six months, at the end of which time, the child stands approximately 3 feet in height, but possesses basically the same proportions as an adult. Over the next year, the child will progress to full height and stature, and it is during this time that he is indoctrinated into the ways of Aralia society and the importance of loyalty to clan and race.

Once the child is fully grown, his education begins immediately, being trained in the trade of his clan, whether this takes the form of an academic course of study, military drills, or even manual labor. Aralia are quick learners, and education generally takes on some aspect of on the job training; children are effectively put to work within a year of their metamorphosis, taking on the menial tasks of society. The young essentially serve as the lowest rung of the work force.

The child serves and learns in this fashion for approximately 8 years, before his body begins to age and weaken, and within a matter of months, returns to the familial pool and enters into a form of coma. It is then that the child enters the first of his hibernations.

Aralia have evolved with a peculiar solution to the problem of longevity. Like many of the salamander species who share much of their genes, they possess a regenerative gift, able to regrow lost limbs or tails, and even some secondary organs. However, in the Aralia, this regenerative gift takes on an additional form. The body, once it reaches a certain level of aging, senses it's impending expiration and triggers a system-wide development of undifferentiated cells, a similar reaction to the blastoma that form around a severed appendage, but on a much wider scale. This process consumes a remarkable amount of energy and nutrients, which ultimately induces a hibernative state in the body. This state lasts approximately two to three weeks, during which point much of the body essentially regrows itself anew, leaving it as youthful as it was after it's first year of newborn life.

The Aralia call this the As-namsu, the first death, and it is considered to mark the child's entrance into adulthood. This state is normally induced merely by age, however, extreme physical trauma or injury can incite this regenerative state early, essentially cutting short the Aralia's childhood. Those unfortunate enough to experience this regeneration early are often stigmatized by the rest of society. Their intellectual growth stunted, these Zal-namsu are considered failures, having not even been able to survive to a natural As-namsu, and are relegated to a life of permanent menial labor and barred from ever ascending any further in their social hierarchy, and even from breeding.

This regeneration process will repeat itself approximately every 8-10 years, overall about 4-6 times over the course of the Aralia's lifetime, though individual examples have displayed shorter or longer lifetimes. The process is extremely complex, and is still not fully understood by Aralia medicine, though some experiments have been successfully completed in forced triggering of the process, and indeed, some rumors persist that in times of labor shortages, Aralia governors have essentially created Zal-namsu by inducing early regenerations in children, in order to provide a larger stable of menial laborers.

By and large however, the upper limit on regenerations seems to be mostly unavoidable, eventual final death being caused by degenerative failure of crucial organs like the brain which remain largely intact during the regeneration process and as such do not benefit from its healing effects, as well as an overall reduction in the kind of stamina and energy reserves required to survive through the hibernation. Some experiments have been made towards trying to extend the overall lifespan, but the procedure is incredibly difficult and has a rather poor success rate.

It is also not an "extra life" in any sense. The regeneration can be triggered by critical injury, but the subject must still survive the ordeal. If the heart has been destroyed or stopped, or too much blood loss has occurred, or the subject suffers brain death, the regenerative process will be unable to trigger as the systems that manage it shut down with the rest of the body. At best it may trigger in the final moments, but it will at most succeed in producing a permanently comatose individual, and is likely to simply fail, running out of the necessary energy as the body expires, leaving only a half-regenerated form.