As you know, Asari breeding with other asari appears to be looked down at in the ME universe and the result could lead to Ardat Yakshi. Even Harbinger mentions that Asari's weakness is to rely on other species for reproduction.
So before Asari ever met other races they had to breed with themselves, that was their evolution. Yet how is it that it seems that their own evolution goes against them when results of Ardat Yakshi seem counter productive?
How did Asari evolve to go against breeding with themselves?
Débuté par
Dmasterman
, déc. 18 2011 01:42
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#2
Posté 18 décembre 2011 - 02:04
didymos1120
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What do you mean "how"? Deleterious traits persist in populations all the time, for all sorts of reasons (fixation by drift, advantageous in certain environments, etc.). This is kind of like asking "Why are some people born sterile? Isn't that counterproductive?" And yet, it happens all the time anyway.
#3
Posté 18 décembre 2011 - 07:52
Mr Zoat
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Asari are thr elder spacefaring race with many colonies, meaning that their population is probably in the hundreds of billions. In all of that there are three Ardat Yakshi.
Given what Erinya says on Illium it seems likely that Ardat Yakshi only happen when their mothers don't take appropriate precautions.
Given what Erinya says on Illium it seems likely that Ardat Yakshi only happen when their mothers don't take appropriate precautions.
#4
Posté 18 décembre 2011 - 10:18
fainmaca
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Mr Zoat wrote...
Asari are thr elder spacefaring race with many colonies, meaning that their population is probably in the hundreds of billions. In all of that there are three Ardat Yakshi.
Gonna have to correct you there. There are a lot more than three A-Ys. Go to the Citadel, Zakera Ward middle level and walk in and out of the food store a couple of times. Eventually the Turian there talks about asari honey marinade, which is made in an ardat-yakshi monastery by 'sad, blue women'. So there are entire convents of these things secreted away from mainstream Asari society.
If I recall correctly, doesn't Samara herself mention the possibility of other A-Ys being out there for her to hunt down after the Collector Mission?
#5
Posté 18 décembre 2011 - 11:20
Get Magna Carter
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to go to the original question the Asari have a belief that their children adopt the best chharacteristics of their "fathers".
When they encountered other species the notion of improving the Asari by gathering the best qualities of the other species spread rapidly round. (Maybe there was a fear of in-breeding and Ardat Yakshi, maybe not).
The notion of having fathers from other species became the norm and those who chose to breed with fellow Asari became considered selfish, foolish, etc ... and the act became regarded as being like incest and a taboo developing against it.
They still can breed among themselves if they choose and most of the resulting pureblood children (like Liara) are not Adat Yakshi but generally get looked down on by other Asari.
When they encountered other species the notion of improving the Asari by gathering the best qualities of the other species spread rapidly round. (Maybe there was a fear of in-breeding and Ardat Yakshi, maybe not).
The notion of having fathers from other species became the norm and those who chose to breed with fellow Asari became considered selfish, foolish, etc ... and the act became regarded as being like incest and a taboo developing against it.
They still can breed among themselves if they choose and most of the resulting pureblood children (like Liara) are not Adat Yakshi but generally get looked down on by other Asari.
#6
Posté 18 décembre 2011 - 08:12
Mr Zoat
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fainmaca wrote...
Gonna have to correct you there. There are a lot more than three A-Ys. Go to
the Citadel, Zakera Ward middle level and walk in and out of the food
store a couple of times. Eventually the Turian there talks about asari honey
marinade, which is made in an ardat-yakshi monastery by 'sad, blue women'. So
there are entire convents of these things secreted away from mainstream Asari
society.
If I recall correctly, doesn't Samara herself mention the possibility of other
A-Ys being out there for her to hunt down after the Collector Mission?
How many does it actually take to run an automated factory? The monastery
would still be a monastery with three inhabitants. Back before mating with other Asari became the taboo it is now there would have been more. Now, just two sisters rattling around in a place build for many more. Samara says that her daughters are it and that is the only number given in the game.
She says that there might be some living away from Asari space, but that would
include all of their main worlds and even the more populous worlds outside
their territory, such as Illium.
Modifié par Mr Zoat, 18 décembre 2011 - 08:13 .
#7
Posté 19 décembre 2011 - 01:35
SpockLives
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Samara says there are three Ardat Yakshi in existance today (meaning the time of ME2). I'm gonna trust her and not some Turian talking about rumors.
On Topic: Asari did not "evolve" to mate with other species, their society decided that mating with other species was preferable. Their mating choices are a cultural issue (although there are biological downsides to purebloods, as mentioned before).
On Topic: Asari did not "evolve" to mate with other species, their society decided that mating with other species was preferable. Their mating choices are a cultural issue (although there are biological downsides to purebloods, as mentioned before).
#8
Posté 19 décembre 2011 - 02:44
Raven4030
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Dmasterman wrote...
As you know, Asari breeding with other asari appears to be looked down at in the ME universe and the result could lead to Ardat Yakshi. Even Harbinger mentions that Asari's weakness is to rely on other species for reproduction.
So before Asari ever met other races they had to breed with themselves, that was their evolution. Yet how is it that it seems that their own evolution goes against them when results of Ardat Yakshi seem counter productive?
You're confusing biological evolution and cultural evolution. It boils down to the Asari race as a whole misunderstanding both evolution and their own biology (save for the few who actually study it).
AY is just a birth defect. It is probable that there are many more birth defects that become more common with inter-species pairings but are never talked about because, well, who wants their video games filled with discussions of deformed babies?
What you should really be asking is how they ended up being capable (as a species) of reproducing with literally every other species in the galaxy. I mean, even if we allow for an Asari to show up who can reproduce with anything there is no reason why nature would select in favor of that (unless the ability included genetic markers that provided immunity to some plague or some other calamity).
