a narn question (beware spoilers)

[Nancy]

ok, this question was influenced by a dream I had last night, where for some screwed up reason (it had nothing to do with the dream), a narn appeared. You must have lots of these narn dreams, Kribu. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif Anyways, I was wondering about a narn's pouch (no, my dream was not a nc-17 dream, it was actually quite frightening, some people, including the narn, were trying to kill me in my back yard). I heard on one of these forums that male narn carry their child for a couple of months in their pouch. But, in the short story "True Seeker"
WARNING SPOILERS, DON'T READ ANY MORE IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE SHORT STORY TRUE SEEKER













we find out G'Kar has a long lost daughter that he didn't know he had. Do narn babies have to be carried by their biological fathers or can they be carried by any narn male? I realise this is probably an impossible question, but anyone have an idea?

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Presumably any Narn male. The Narn female gives birth to the immature Narn (or Narns), then they continue to develop in another Narn's pouch. Evidently in the instance you mention the father was unaware that he had impregnated the female Narn, and she found some other Narn to carry the child in his pouch.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Jomar]

i seem to remember reading that story about G'Kar. Can you tell me which magazine it was carried in?

 

[Nancy]

Official B5 Magazine #24

 

[Loadhan]

Spoilers for "Truth Seeker" below ... that is, if I remember what the story was actually about - beena while since I read.
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I believe G'kar knew he had a daughter (this is the part I'm wrong about) but she was presumed lost and killed during the bombing of Narn by the Centauri in late 2259. One explanation why we don't hear from her in the first two seasons of B5 is G'kar is hardcore politician and Centuari-hater. His softer and more compassionate and romantic side didn't really appear until later. As to why he would have never mentioned her since ... well he didn't mention Na'toth much (if all) during S3 and S4 and he was probably closer to her at the time she was lost.

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END SPOILER SPACE

As to the question of Narn biology, I doubt anyone but JMS knows for sure - and even he might not have put much thought into it. Though, this allows us to speculate like crazy! Heehee. I would agree that any male could carry; presuming nothing genetic is transfered between the male to the infant, the mechanics should be the same to all (like how any lactating women can feed any baby human). Plus such an evolution would promote a less infant death since during the time the mother carried the baby, the father could die or leave or something - meaning there would be no pouch to carry the young. Of course, then we have to speculate (at least when the Narn were more animalistic and other creatures that use the male-pouch techinque in their ecosystem) if most males would refuse to carry the young of another male because it would help promote the survival of genes other than their own. I would note we don't know if Narn fauna would practice such things, though. They are alien and being alien ... is exactly that.

Do Narns normally have more than one baby at a time or do males normally carry more than one (possibly from more than one female)? G'Kar has mentioned pouchmates before. This could mean almost anything though. Two or more Narn that shared the same pouch at the same time, two or more that shared the same pouch but at different times, two or more that shared different pouches but at the aproximate same time.

Yes, I'd love to see a biology text of the B5 races published someday but I'm not holding my breath. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif