User blog comment:Krayfish/Misc. Questions/@comment-796766-20120503194219

The Sauren Life Cycle:

1. Egg for about a year

2. Hatchling for the first 30 years. Hatchlings are born with the ability to eat solids and learn to walk and talk during this time.

3. Wrymling from 31-50. This is the time when youths learn to fly and recieve basic, formal education from age 45-50

4. Wrym from 51-100 (Legal adults can be biological wryms). This is the time equivelant to upper teen years. Wryms become sexually active (ergo the cultural requirement to find a mate at this time) and diverge sexually. Males gain muscle mass and a new set of claws and teeth, along with deepened voices. Females grow more curvy as a result of the reproduction system becoming more biologically demanding, along with increased flexibility (they evolved having to care for the young and search for prey simultaneously).

5. Youngling from 101-199. This is a young adult stage. Younglings have an adventurous mind and typically work as soldiers, explorers, traders, etc, anything that means lots of sights. Since they're mated at this point, they typically work with their mates and move as a couple.

6. Adult from 200-699. After a century or so, a youngling pair will grow tired of adventuring and settle down in a more stable, stationary position and find a home. They will also begin raising a family of their own at this point, typically around the late 300s. By the 500s, they will see drastic biological breakdown from their younger days; Females lose their curves and become stiff, males start loosing muscle mass, and both genders see a loss of sexual potency; Equivalent to menopause or ED.

7. Elder from 700-Death. Elders are the old people of Sauren society. They usually retire to a private location, many are rather wealthy, and a few start careers in politics to sail out thier last years. Elders from all genders see biological breakdown at an accelerated scale. Though Karnasaurs don't suffer from arthritis as we know it, the past few centuries will take their toll on joint functionality. In addition, elders see a lose of muscle strength, eyesight, hearing, mobility, and learning rate. Still, as a race of hunters, elders are much more capable than most human retirees.

During the Sauren primal age, they were actually far down the food chain a good while. They mainly existed in a large valley near Sauris, where it was so thickly vegetated and so protected by mountains, it was a kind of eternal night. Karnasaurs, adapted for such darkness, thrived here, but those who left were easily spotted by predators adapted for light. However, an asteroid that is now Karnas' moon caused a gravitonic event that altered Karnas' tilt, causing night cycles to increase permenantly with decreased day cycles. The Karnasaurs thrived in the new, elongated nights, and became the dominant predator across the continent as a result. How does this pertain to their long maturity cycles? Simple. Hatchlings gained hunting and hiding skills early on to assist the pack as a whole from birth, since the pack needed the help during the day. Albeit, mothers kept close eye on the hatchlings and wrymlings, but every member of the pack was expected to hunt, in a pre-frontal cortex social aspect kind of way.