Hybridization
Shifters are not fertile among themselves across species lines. This means that a Wolf cannot mate with a Cat and give birth to some odd sort of WolfCat offspring. The only slight exception to that is among the Cat population. All Cats are capable of interbreeding, regardless of the coat color or body shape their feline alter takes. However, Cats cannot interbreed with Cougars.
When discussing the possibility of interbreeding with humans, the answer is maybe. Some species are fertile with humans, some are not. For some, the answer isn’t clear.
Wolves most commonly interbreed with humans. This may be due to both the virulence of the lupine virus and the fact that many wolves were once fully human.
With Cats, it depends on which gender is under discussion. Cat females have difficulty maintaining any pregnancy under the best of conditions. Cat females aren’t often choosy about the species of their partners, because of their sexual drive and the temporary relief from estrus that their fleeting pregnancies provide. Human males can impregnate Cats easily, but a successful human male/Cat female pregnancy has never been recorded.
Cat males, perhaps because of their species’ natural difficulties with reproduction, are incredibly potent with human females. Hybrid individuals with a Cat father and a human mother are not unknown, though not as common as the high Cat libido might suggest. Male Cats usually prefer their own species or other shifters as sexual partners.
Bears can be impregnated by humans, and obviously humans by Bears, but in the case of Bears impregnated by humans, it has to be at the perfect time to conceive, just before hibernation. The offspring are probably equally likely to shift or not shift from birth, but hybrid Bears who never shift are incredibly rare. They almost always start shifting sometime in their teens. But Bears born outside of the Den are oddities as it is in most cases.
Cougars are fairly fertile with human partners, but they cannot impregnate a Cat.
Hybridization affects the ability to shift in the offspring. Most do not share the pure shifter ability to change forms in utero, though all exhibit one or more shifter attributes to a minor degree. It is more likely for a child sired by a human with a pure shifter mother to be able to shift from birth.
The placenta of a human mother offers partial immunity, but when the virus is exposed to the human growth hormone during puberty, it's able to overcome that initial partial immunity and takes over, prompting a late shift.
If the mother is pure shifter, then there is no check on the virus so unless the child is one of the rare few who are genetically immune, they will be able to shift in utero. The vast majority of shifter/human offspring do shift eventually.
The normal ratios are as follows:
Any Shifter Male x Human Female= 1/10 (one out of ten) Shifter from birth, 8/10 late Shifter, 1/10 immune Human.
Human Male x Any Shifter Female = 3/20 late Shifter, 16/20 Shifter from birth, 1/20 immune Human.
Born Shifter x Born Shifter births= 100/100 Shifter.
Infected Shifter x Born Shifter= 3/100 late Shifter.
Infected Shifter x Infected Shifter =1/100 immune Human.
Infected Shifter x Infected Shifter =6/100 late Shifter.
Infected Shifter x Shifter= 0.25/100 an immune Human.
Regardless of the species, reproduction is an act with far greater consequences than simply the creation of offspring. Those offspring must be brought up with love, in not only their immediate family but within a supportive society. The difficulties faced by hybrid shifters are a consequence to consider before embarking on a potentially life-changing romantic fling.
Also, these conditions apply only to reproduction. Romantic and/or sexual relationships can occur between members of any species.
**Important Note**
For all shifters, regardless of species or their particular biology and habits, one rule of sexual behavior is unbreakable. No matter the allure of a female in estrus to a male otherwise, there is an instinctive aversion to incestuous coupling.
Any male or female that is family, whether this relationship is genetic, legal or emotional (someone who is so deeply loved that they are mentally considered family) will NOT be sexually attractive no matter what their hormonal state or how high their sex drive is running at the moment.
Please note that certain professional relationships also fall under this taboo. These include relationships such as social worker/client, lawyer/client, foster parent/foster, doctor/patient, therapist/patient, stepsiblings, step parent/step child, and so forth.
If you have any questions about whether a particular coupling might be against this taboo, please ask the Council first.
When discussing the possibility of interbreeding with humans, the answer is maybe. Some species are fertile with humans, some are not. For some, the answer isn’t clear.
Wolves most commonly interbreed with humans. This may be due to both the virulence of the lupine virus and the fact that many wolves were once fully human.
With Cats, it depends on which gender is under discussion. Cat females have difficulty maintaining any pregnancy under the best of conditions. Cat females aren’t often choosy about the species of their partners, because of their sexual drive and the temporary relief from estrus that their fleeting pregnancies provide. Human males can impregnate Cats easily, but a successful human male/Cat female pregnancy has never been recorded.
Cat males, perhaps because of their species’ natural difficulties with reproduction, are incredibly potent with human females. Hybrid individuals with a Cat father and a human mother are not unknown, though not as common as the high Cat libido might suggest. Male Cats usually prefer their own species or other shifters as sexual partners.
Bears can be impregnated by humans, and obviously humans by Bears, but in the case of Bears impregnated by humans, it has to be at the perfect time to conceive, just before hibernation. The offspring are probably equally likely to shift or not shift from birth, but hybrid Bears who never shift are incredibly rare. They almost always start shifting sometime in their teens. But Bears born outside of the Den are oddities as it is in most cases.
Cougars are fairly fertile with human partners, but they cannot impregnate a Cat.
Hybridization affects the ability to shift in the offspring. Most do not share the pure shifter ability to change forms in utero, though all exhibit one or more shifter attributes to a minor degree. It is more likely for a child sired by a human with a pure shifter mother to be able to shift from birth.
The placenta of a human mother offers partial immunity, but when the virus is exposed to the human growth hormone during puberty, it's able to overcome that initial partial immunity and takes over, prompting a late shift.
If the mother is pure shifter, then there is no check on the virus so unless the child is one of the rare few who are genetically immune, they will be able to shift in utero. The vast majority of shifter/human offspring do shift eventually.
The normal ratios are as follows:
Any Shifter Male x Human Female= 1/10 (one out of ten) Shifter from birth, 8/10 late Shifter, 1/10 immune Human.
Human Male x Any Shifter Female = 3/20 late Shifter, 16/20 Shifter from birth, 1/20 immune Human.
Born Shifter x Born Shifter births= 100/100 Shifter.
Infected Shifter x Born Shifter= 3/100 late Shifter.
Infected Shifter x Infected Shifter =1/100 immune Human.
Infected Shifter x Infected Shifter =6/100 late Shifter.
Infected Shifter x Shifter= 0.25/100 an immune Human.
Regardless of the species, reproduction is an act with far greater consequences than simply the creation of offspring. Those offspring must be brought up with love, in not only their immediate family but within a supportive society. The difficulties faced by hybrid shifters are a consequence to consider before embarking on a potentially life-changing romantic fling.
Also, these conditions apply only to reproduction. Romantic and/or sexual relationships can occur between members of any species.
**Important Note**
For all shifters, regardless of species or their particular biology and habits, one rule of sexual behavior is unbreakable. No matter the allure of a female in estrus to a male otherwise, there is an instinctive aversion to incestuous coupling.
Any male or female that is family, whether this relationship is genetic, legal or emotional (someone who is so deeply loved that they are mentally considered family) will NOT be sexually attractive no matter what their hormonal state or how high their sex drive is running at the moment.
Please note that certain professional relationships also fall under this taboo. These include relationships such as social worker/client, lawyer/client, foster parent/foster, doctor/patient, therapist/patient, stepsiblings, step parent/step child, and so forth.
If you have any questions about whether a particular coupling might be against this taboo, please ask the Council first.
Birth Control
Most shifters don’t practice birth control during sex with their own kind, as off-spring are deeply desired and in some species, difficult to conceive and carry to term.
That situation is entirely different with shifter/human relations. Which form of birth control (BC) is effective depends on the situation. Hormonal BC, such as pills or implants, prevents pregnancy for human females almost as well with shifter partners as it does with human males.
Hormonal BC works by stopping ovulation, so there’s no egg hanging around waiting to be fertilized. After all, if there’s no train on the track, it doesn’t matter how many brawny athletes are milling around on the platform.
There is a slightly elevated risk due to the durability of shifter sperm. Human sperm can survive inside the uterus and fallopian tubes for up to seven days. The sperm of most shifter species can survive 10 to 12 days after ejaculation inside the uterus. If a pill is missed, or sometimes merely taken later than usual, there can be enough viable sperm to allow a pregnancy if the woman ovulates within two weeks of sex with a shifter.
Other forms of continual birth control are less certain. IUDs work by preventing implantation. In other words, the woman gets pregnant, but the fertilized ovum never gets to settle in and become an embryo. This is because the IUD “crowds out” the potential embryo mechanically, and some IUDs also release hormones to discourage fetal development. This is almost as effective for fragile human ovum as birth control pills, but a shifter infant, even at the four cell stage, may be tough enough to shoulder aside the IUD and implant anyway.
Barrier methods of BC work for shifter/human couples about as well as they do (or don’t) work for human/human couplings. One caveat is that most barrier methods are designed with the idea that human sperm is rarely viable in the vagina itself for much longer than 24 hours. (It is normally killed within a few hours by the acidic secretions. Sperm that live for days are those that make it to the more hospitable environment in the cervix and beyond)
Shifter sperm is hardier even in the hostile environment of the vagina, so taking out a sponge or diaphragm at the usual time could permit an unintended pregnancy.
Condoms, old-fashioned and perhaps uncomfortable as they are, probably work best for any variation of interspecies sex. Shifter/shifter couples may see more failures due to their more rambunctious coitus, but otherwise a wet suit’s a wet suit, no matter who you are.
For female shifters, it's barrier all the way if they're with another shifter. Their bodies would chew up hormonal birth control as soon as it hit the blood stream. If they are with a human, then spermicides are a possibility.
Spermicides would be useless to guard against impregnation by a shifter male, as shifters are impervious to most poisons at the cellular level. Silver solutions would certainly be spermicidal, but they would also have ferocious toxic effects on the shifter contributing the sperm!
**Important Note**
For all shifters, regardless of species or their particular biology and habits, one rule of sexual behavior is unbreakable. No matter the allure of a female in estrus to a male otherwise, there is an instinctive aversion to incestuous coupling.
Any male or female that is family, whether this relationship is genetic, legal or emotional (someone who is so deeply loved that they are mentally considered family) will NOT be sexually attractive no matter what their hormonal state or how high their sex drive is running at the moment.
Please note that certain professional relationships also fall under this taboo. These include relationships such as social worker/client, lawyer/client, foster parent/foster, doctor/patient, therapist/patient, stepsiblings, step parent/step child, and so forth.
If you have any questions about whether a particular coupling might be against this taboo, please ask the Council first.
That situation is entirely different with shifter/human relations. Which form of birth control (BC) is effective depends on the situation. Hormonal BC, such as pills or implants, prevents pregnancy for human females almost as well with shifter partners as it does with human males.
Hormonal BC works by stopping ovulation, so there’s no egg hanging around waiting to be fertilized. After all, if there’s no train on the track, it doesn’t matter how many brawny athletes are milling around on the platform.
There is a slightly elevated risk due to the durability of shifter sperm. Human sperm can survive inside the uterus and fallopian tubes for up to seven days. The sperm of most shifter species can survive 10 to 12 days after ejaculation inside the uterus. If a pill is missed, or sometimes merely taken later than usual, there can be enough viable sperm to allow a pregnancy if the woman ovulates within two weeks of sex with a shifter.
Other forms of continual birth control are less certain. IUDs work by preventing implantation. In other words, the woman gets pregnant, but the fertilized ovum never gets to settle in and become an embryo. This is because the IUD “crowds out” the potential embryo mechanically, and some IUDs also release hormones to discourage fetal development. This is almost as effective for fragile human ovum as birth control pills, but a shifter infant, even at the four cell stage, may be tough enough to shoulder aside the IUD and implant anyway.
Barrier methods of BC work for shifter/human couples about as well as they do (or don’t) work for human/human couplings. One caveat is that most barrier methods are designed with the idea that human sperm is rarely viable in the vagina itself for much longer than 24 hours. (It is normally killed within a few hours by the acidic secretions. Sperm that live for days are those that make it to the more hospitable environment in the cervix and beyond)
Shifter sperm is hardier even in the hostile environment of the vagina, so taking out a sponge or diaphragm at the usual time could permit an unintended pregnancy.
Condoms, old-fashioned and perhaps uncomfortable as they are, probably work best for any variation of interspecies sex. Shifter/shifter couples may see more failures due to their more rambunctious coitus, but otherwise a wet suit’s a wet suit, no matter who you are.
For female shifters, it's barrier all the way if they're with another shifter. Their bodies would chew up hormonal birth control as soon as it hit the blood stream. If they are with a human, then spermicides are a possibility.
Spermicides would be useless to guard against impregnation by a shifter male, as shifters are impervious to most poisons at the cellular level. Silver solutions would certainly be spermicidal, but they would also have ferocious toxic effects on the shifter contributing the sperm!
**Important Note**
For all shifters, regardless of species or their particular biology and habits, one rule of sexual behavior is unbreakable. No matter the allure of a female in estrus to a male otherwise, there is an instinctive aversion to incestuous coupling.
Any male or female that is family, whether this relationship is genetic, legal or emotional (someone who is so deeply loved that they are mentally considered family) will NOT be sexually attractive no matter what their hormonal state or how high their sex drive is running at the moment.
Please note that certain professional relationships also fall under this taboo. These include relationships such as social worker/client, lawyer/client, foster parent/foster, doctor/patient, therapist/patient, stepsiblings, step parent/step child, and so forth.
If you have any questions about whether a particular coupling might be against this taboo, please ask the Council first.