Could A Morpher Breed True?

[Trevor Hightly]

So, we came upon this question in chat.

Before I ask, let me establish the premise that this question draws from.

In the morphing lore, the two following quotes are given:

1. "If he turns into a snake, his bite will be moderately poisonous. If he Morphs into a feline, he can see with almost no light."

2. "He inherits even special abilities from the creatures he copies."

These two quotes are trying to get across the idea that a master morpher can so perfectly mimic a being that he can almost become said being. Also, from what I understand, a master moprher's djed has essentially forgotten what it used to be, meaning he is no longer inherently of whatever shape/race he used to be apart of.

So, the question is, could a master morph into say, an Akalak, and sire an Akalak child? Since the morpher wouldn't have two souls, I assume the child would also have only one soul, but would it be an Akalak physically?

Or is Mizahar's understanding of reproduction too limited for a Morpher to ever completely get a form down so perfectly as to be able to be changed to such an extent as to breed true as whatever race that he is taking the form of?

If the above is the case, would a morpher always be at least somewhat human/whatever-race-they-are in their core makeup, because they can never truly understand other beings down to the smallest level?

My instinct is to say no to this entire question, but it's tickling my curiosity.

Chat suggested this be posted here, as no one could come up with a definite answer.

Thanks in advance.

[Gossamer]

I would answer this genetic type question with a genetic type answer.

First... in genetics there are two concepts.

Phenotype and Genotype.

A phenotype (from Greek phainein, meaning 'to show', and typos, meaning 'type') is the composite of an organism's observable characteristics or traits, such as its morphology, development, biochemical or physiological properties, behavior, and products of behavior (such as a bird's nest).

Genotype definition, the genetic makeup of an organism or group of organisms with reference to a single trait, set of traits, or an entire complex of traits.

So you have a whole host of GENES. But in your biology you express aka show only a certain set... the ones that are dominant or prominent. So while you might look a certain way (blond hair blue eyes for example) you might carry the genes for a whole host of other things.

In my mind, what Morphers do is FAKE a Phenotype very very well through djed manipulation. Do they change what they are completely? No. They are still race X, age X, size X, with intelligence X deep inside.. aka their genotype.

So my answer to your question is that if they are sexually reproducing, even morphed, they are still passing on their genotypical set of characteristics, not their faked phenotype.

Thus a human posing as an Akalak would sire a human child.

[Evarista]

So if I turn into a fly and breed with another fly, the offspring will be half human and half fly? How does that work?

[Karyk]

It doesn't. From what Gossamer stated, your genetics don't change. So even if you morph completely into a fly, you're still a human. Humans cannot breed with flies. So a human morphed into a fly that attempts to breed with a real fly would get no offspring. But you might get an awkward lore or two.

[Evarista]

That doesn't make any sense. Reproductive organs can be created though morphing just like any other body part and shouldn't behave any differently from the real thing. This seems like an utterly arbitrary restriction. If I turn into a fly, my genome will be that of a fly. There are no human genetics in a fly. Mizaharan cosmology places human intelligence and personality into the soul, so I will still retain those traits, but my body will be that of a fly, just like any other fly, and should be able to do all the same things.

Edit: In the case of the akalak, they have two souls which a morpher cannot replicate, so a human morpher may not create akalak offspring for that reason. The restriction is based on metaphysics that that can't be manipulated though morphing (souls) so any race that differs from humans in such an aspect can't be bred by a human morpher. But any entity that only differs from humans in body should be able to.

[Yisanareysin]

I think the idea is that your genes still stay the same. A human morphed into a fly still has the human genome, just in a fly shape.

[Evarista]

I think the idea is that your genes still stay the same. A human morphed into a fly still has the human genome, just in a fly shape.

I'm trying to say that you would not be able to have the shape of a fly without altering your genetics to those of a fly. Genetics are the very thing that makes humans and flies different.

[Yisanareysin]

Why not? This is a fantasy magic we're talking about here. Besides, if that was the case, morphers would be limited to animals that actually exist, genome configurations that are possible in nature. But that's not the case. A morpher could make themselves humanoid with the beak of a bird, the mane of a lion, and the claws of a bear. Obviously this isn't something that has a feasible genome configuration, but a morpher can do it.

It might make it easier to think of morphing as a purely physical change. They're still fundamentally a human, but they just look like a fly because of magic.